Francis Tumblety: Quack Doctor And Jack the Ripper Suspect
Francis Tumblety
Born in Ireland around 1833 died of heart disease on the 28th of May 1903 in St Louis Missouri, U.S.A.
Francis Tumblety was a suspect mentioned in a letter written in 1913 by John Littlechild.
In 1883, Littlechild became the first commander of the Special Irish Branch of the Metropolitan Police. In 1888, it was renamed the Special Branch, and it would have had no direct involvement in the Jack the Ripper investigation.
In 1913, George Robert Simms, a journalist, wrote to Littlechild, and in his reply, Littlechild wrote that an American quack named Dr Tumblety was a likely suspect.
Francis Tumblety was born in Ireland in 1833, but his family moved to Rochester, New York when he was just a few years old.
He seems to have been an enterprising lad leaving home when he was 17.
He sold books along the Erie Canal, then worked as hospital cleaner before setting himself up in business selling various cures; “Tumblety’s Pimple Destroyer” and “Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills” being just two of them.
In 1865, he was arrested and suspected of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln but was released without charge.
In 1881 whilst in New Orleans, he was arrested for pickpocketing.
He had little time for women and displayed a particular dislike of prostitutes. And at a dinner party that he held for men only he showed off jars containing a collection of uteruses he kept in his study.
Francis Tumblety had a colourful life. His appearance in London in 1888 has been enough for some researchers to suggest him as a suspect.
He was arrested on November 7, 1888, on the grounds of gross indecency. On November 20, he jumped bail and went first to France and then to the USA.
The New York City Police said, “There is no proof of his complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he is under bond in London is not extraditable”.
The New York City Police were correct there was no proof of involvement.
Presumably, those who, like Detective Chief Inspector Littlechild, see Francis Tumblety as a contender base their suspicions on his undoubted misogyny and criminal record, including his arrest for “gross indecency”.
Tumblety died of heart disease in 1903 and was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, New York.
It would appear that police officers at the time of the murders were in as much disagreement about who Jack the Ripper was as present-day researchers.
Melville Macnaghten, who became Assistant Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police in June 1889, the year after the murders, favoured Montague John Druitt, a 32-year-old barrister. Although Macnaghten believed he was a 42-year-old doctor. So not a totally reliable source.
Assistant Chief Constable Sir Robert Anderson, in his memoirs written in 1910, favoured Kosminsky.
Detective Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline went for George Chapman.
Detective Chief Inspector Littlechild said he thought Francis Tumblety was the most likely candidate.
And that was before the game of Hunt the Ripper really took off.
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