Melville Macnaghten
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Sir Melville Leslie Macnaghten CBE, CB (June 16, 1853-May 12, 1921) was Assistant Commissioner (Crime) of the London Metropolitan Force from 1903-1913.
He is known for a major report in 1894 on the Jack the Ripper case, naming three possible Jack the Ripper suspects.
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[edit] Early career
The youngest of fifteen children of Elliot Macnaghten, the last Chairman of the British East India Company, Macnaghten was educated at Eton. After leaving school in 1872, he went to India to look after his father's estates in Bengal and remained there until 1888, albeit with occasional visits back home. In 1881 he was assaulted by Indian land rioters and as a result, became friends with James Monro who was District Judge and Inspector-General in the Bombay Presidency at the time.
In October 3, 1878 he married the former Dora Emily Sanderson, the daughter of a Canon from Chichester; they eventually had two sons and two daughters.
[edit] Career in the Criminal Investigation Department
Upon his return to England, Macnaghten was offered the post of Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police by Monro, who by that time had become the first Assistant Commissioner (Crime); however this appointment was opposed by Charles Warren, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, allegedly due to the beating he took by "the Hindoos" back in Bengal; but the real reason seemed to be that Warren and Monro did not get along well from the beginning. Warren's rejection of MacNaghten widened the rift between the two men, resulting to Monro's resignation and his transfer to Special Branch by the Home Secretary, Henry Matthews.
However, due to the continuous disagreements with Home Secretary Matthews, Commissioner Warren chose to resign on November 9, 1888. Monro was brought in to succeed him as Commissioner. With this turn of events, Macnaghten was brought in with the position of Assistant Chief Constable in June 1889; he was later promoted to Chief Constable in 1890.
[edit] MacNaghten's report on Jack the Ripper
Even though he was not directly involved with the investigation of the Ripper killings, like most members of the Metropolitan Police, Macnaghten took an active interest in the case. As Chief Constable he had access to police records on the case; as a result of his own investigation he wrote a confidential report dated February 23, 1894; however, the report was not publicly available until 1959 and the complete report was not available or viewing and reproduction until 2002. This report proved influential for Ripper research, for it established the canonical victims of the serial killer at five, as well as naming three possible suspects.
Although some information about the suspect he believed most likely to have been the murderer had been available before the turn of the century, the name of the suspect was not made public until 1959. Macnaghten's most likely suspect was Montague John Druitt, a barrister turned teacher who allegedly committed suicide in sometime in December 1888. Unfortunately, Macnaghten, in writing from memory, committed many factual errors in his report regarding Druitt. Despite the errors, his allegation seemed to be plausible at first glance, but there is no evidence of contemporary police suspicion against him at the time of the murders; indeed, recent research could find no concrete evidence that Druitt was indeed the Ripper.
The second of Macnaghten's three suspects was Aaron Kosminski, a Polish Jew who lived in Whitechapel and was committed to an insane asylum in 1891. While not on the top of the list as Druitt, he was certainly suspected by Sir Robert Anderson, the man who succeeded Monro as Assistant Commissioner, with apparent confirmation by Chief Inspector Donald Swanson, Anderson's desk officer. As with Druitt, there is no concrete evidence to support this allegation, and it is suggested that naming Kosminski as a suspect seemed to greater reflect anti-semitism than a genuine connection to the case.
The third suspect in Macnaghten's report was a man named Michael Ostrog, a Russian-born thief and con man who affected several aliases and disguises and was detained in asylums in several occasions. Again there is little to support this suspicion against Ostrog: records indicated that he was imprisoned in France during the murders; the fact that Ostrog was arrested and imprisoned before the report was written raises the question of why Ostrog was included at all as a viable suspect.
[edit] Later career, including as Assistant Commissioner
In 1900 Macnaghten served in the Belper Committee to inquire about "the working of the method of Identification of Criminals by Measurement and Fingerprints". As the committee recommended the use of fingerprints as a means of identification over bertillonage, largely due to the testimony of Edward Henry on their respective merits.
When Henry was appointed Commissioner in 1903, succeeding Edward Bradford, Macnaghten became Assistant Commissioner (Crime) and became involved in many of the most famous cases in the history of the Metropolitan Police, including the Hawley Harvey Crippen case and the Farrow double murder case, which resulted in the conviction and hanging of the Albert and Alfred Stratton largely on the basis on fingerprint evidence.
For his services to the British Crown, in 1907 he was invested with the rank of Commander of the British Empire (CBE).
[edit] Retirement and later life
However, in 1911 Macnaghten was experiencing the first signs of ill-health; even a trip to Australia the following year failed to improve matters. He was forced to retire from his job in 1913.
In 1914 he published his memoirs Days of my Years. He also made a translation of Horace's Ars Poetica into English verse, an effort to which he devoted the last ten years of his life.
In 1918 he was invested as Companion of the Order of the Bath; he was also a Knight Commander of the White Military Order of Spain and a Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog.
Sir Melville Macnaghten died on May 12, 1921 at Queen Anne's Mansions, Westminster.
| Police appointments | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edward Henry |
Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Metropolitan Police 1903–1913 |
Succeeded by Sir Basil Thomson |
