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So who was this Dr T or Francis J
Tumblety? He was an Irish American who had lived in Rochester NY,
his first job was working at a small drug store run by a Dr.
Lispenard said to
have 'carried on a medical business of a disreputable kind' at the
rear of the Reynolds Arcade. He then
started working at a hospital in Rochester NY that dealt with
abortions. He worked as a cleaner/porter He was also known to peddle pornographic
literature on the Erie Canal boats that passed through the city.
It is reported
he married young and found his young wife to be a prostitute, the
marriage was annulled, this may be just a story to cover his
homosexual lifestyle and the reason why he hated the fairer sex. Around 1850
Francis left Rochester for Detroit, where he starts a practice as an
Indian herb doctor. He then moves to Montreal
late August 1857
Francis Tumblety was
arrested on September 23, 1857 for attempting to abort the pregnancy
of a local prostitute named Philomene Dumas. It was alleged that he
sold her a bottle of pills and liquid for the purpose, but after
some legal haggling Tumblety was released on 1st October. A verdict of
‘no true bill’ was reached on the 24th and no trial was ever
undertaken.
Tumblety returned to Rochester
about 1860 as a fully qualified Doctor allegedly and by all
account quite wealthy. He had earned his fortune as a quack selling
medical remedies. He settled down in Rochester NY and had started his collection of
uteruses that he kept in large glass jars. Francis Tumblety was a
known homosexual and preferred the company of men. It is reported that the
mere mention of a woman could send him into a violent fit of rage,
but he liked to collect uteruses.
Tumblety then moves
to Saint Johns, Nova Scotia In
September of 1860, he again found trouble when a patient of his
named James Portmore died while taking medicine prescribed by
Tumblety. In his typical brazen fashion, Tumblety showed up at the
coroner’s inquest and questioned Portmore’s widow himself as to the
cause of death. The ruse didn’t work, a verdict of 'manslaughter' is
returned. He flees, crossing the border, to the town of Calais,
Maine, and from there on to Boston. Tumblety was a master of
disguise, he was even know to colour his face brown.
At this point his
method changes, he now wears a gaudy military style outfit (which he
designed himself) and rides a white horse, leading two greyhounds,
with a mounted valet. He is constantly moving, working for short
periods of time in New York, Jersey City, Pittsburgh, San Francisco,
and a variety of other cities. Most he leaves under a cloud of
deceit.
With the outbreak
of the Civil War, Tumblety moves to Washington DC and claims to be
an army surgeon on General McClellan's staff, and friends with
President Lincoln, General Grant, and every other well known
political figures. While in Washington, he gives an all male dinner
party (he calls it a symposium), lecturing his guests on the evils
of women, and proudly displays his extensive collection of
preserved female body parts.
Colonel Dunham found it strange that no females had been invited.
Dr. Tumblety's
next move is to St. Louis, where he is arrested for wearing a
military uniform with medals he did not deserve. Tumblety claims
that this is harassment, persecution from his medical competitors.
He moves to Carondelet, Missouri and is briefly jailed on the same
charge.
He moves back to
St. Louis and is arrested again, this time in connection with the
Lincoln assassination. He was travelling using the name J. H.
Blackburn. This was a bad choice for an alias, Dr. L.P. Blackburn
was wanted for an alleged plot to infect the North with blankets
carrying yellow fever. Another rumour soon followed that he had
employed one of the assassination conspirators. He was cleared in
both cases. Tumblety writes and publishes The Kidnapping of Dr.
Tumblety, a pamphlet intended to clear his name. The book is a
series of paranoid ramblings and fraudulent testimonials.
In June of 1888
he returns to Liverpool and arranges lodgings in a respectable part
of the City, he then travels by train to London and takes lodgings at 22 Batty Street in the
East End of London which were not in keeping with his status. This
is just prior to the start of the ripper murders.
He is thought to have had strong
Fenian sympathies, and
may have been involved in their political activities at this time.
It is recorded that officers from Scotland Yard were closely following him, as he was
also a known to be in London area at the time that
Scotland Yard was blown up in 1884. Unknown to Tumblety his landlady
had given a blood soaked shirt to the police that had been found in
his room. The police feel that this is not enough evidence to arrest
him on charges of being the ripper, but I believe he becomes their number one
suspect.
Shortly before the murder of Mary Kelly
9th November 1888, Tumblety was arrested on the 7th November on
charges of gross indecency. Tumblety was charged and given police
bail until the next magistrates sitting on 16th November. On the
12th November Tumblety was further charged with force against four
men between 27th July and 2nd November. These eight charges
that were laid at Marlborough Street police station were
euphemisms for homosexual activities. He was further charged with
the the Whitechapel murders. Now he would have been kept behind bars
until his next hearing due on the 20th November at The Old Baily,
Tumblety pleaded not guilty on all charges, the trial was postponed
until December 10th to gather further evidence. He was given bail
which had obtained at a very high price. On 24th November he skipped
his bail and fled to Boulogne, France from there took the steamer La
Bretagne to Ellis Island New York City under the alias ‘Frank
Townsend’.
Embarrassed at losing its prime suspect,
Scotland Yard is said to have covered up Tumblety’s existence. There was no
mention of his name in the British press of this time. The New York
World reported: LONDON, 1st Dec. The last seen of Dr. Tumblety was at Havre, and it is taken for
granted that he has sailed for New York. It will be remembered that
the doctor, who is known in this country for his eccentricities, was
arrested some time ago in London on suspicion of being concerned in
the perpetration of the Whitechapel murders. The police, being
unable to procure the necessary evidence against him in connection
therewith, decided to hold him for trial for another offence against
a statute which was passed shortly after the publication in the Pall
Mall Gazette
New York City’s Chief
Inspector Byrnes soon discovered Tumblety was lodging at 79 East
Tenth Street at the home of Mrs McNamara, and he had him under
surveillance for some days. Byrnes could not arrest
Tumblety because, in his own words, 'there is no proof of his
complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he
had skipped bail was not extraditable.
The situation was
tense: all of New York City knew of Tumblety’s whereabouts, thanks
to the many newspaper articles covering Byrnes’s surveillance, but
there was no legal means of detaining the man. Fear and suspicion
rose until, on the 5th of December, Tumblety disappeared from his
lodgings once again, eluding the New York police who were watching
him so closely. Interest gradually waned as the years dragged on,
and Tumblety next appears in Rochester in 1893 a year after the
ripper case is closed, where he lived with
his sister along with his collection of preserved uteruses.
Some years later all information
and the arrest warrant on
Francis Tumblety seemed to go missing from Scotland Yard. Today New Scotland Yard have no
files on the murders, nor details of the inquiry. The documents have
been transferred over to the Public Record Office at Ruskin Avenue,
Kew. But not many records are held regarding Francis J Tumblety.
When Francis Tumblety died May 28th 1903 aged 73 he was buried at
Rochester Monroe County
New York cemetery. Amongst his personal belonging was a collection of
preserved uteruses in glass jars. The most enticing point is that an
inventory of personal belongings was taking on his death, as
well as some extremely expensive jewellery , $1000 in bonds and over
$430 in cash, he also had two cheap imitation brass rings to the value
of $2-3,
A serial killer's trophy?
The property of Annie Chapman who was found shortly before 6.00 am
on 8th September in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street. Her throat
had been savagely cut, her body terribly mutilated and certain
organs removed from her abdomen and both her rings were missing!
One fact there were
no more JTR murders after Francis Tumblety jumped bail and fled England on the 24th November, if
one counts only the six alleged JTR murders. One fact that seems to be
missing is prostitutes of this period would have a high chance of getting
pregnant, Mary Kelly was three months pregnant when she
was so brutally killed and mutilated. Had she sought the services of
Dr
Francis J Tumblety the quack doctor? Lastly was Tumblety left or
right handed?
Carrie Brown,
(nick-named "Old Shakespeare" because of her habit of reciting
sonnets by William Shakespeare while drunk), was murdered 24th April
1891. She was reportedly strangled and then her body was mutilated,
with parts removed, the same MO of the Whitechapel killer, but this
was in Manhattan New York!
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