Red Jim and the Lady

[lynn cates]

Hello All. The following article is from "The Sydney Mail" of 30 December, 1893.

1. Interesting that one of Sir Ed's spies did not know another. Very prudent.

2. Anyone know who the beautiful and mysterious lady was who went from London to Paris and was shadowed by Red Jim?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

oops!

Hello All. Oops! Forgot to credit the source. This was donated by Simon Wood.

Cheers.
LC

[Observer]

Without a shadow of any doubt it's Marie Jeanette Kelly! Most definately. I'm 100 per cent certain in fact, it's her, it's got to be. Stands to reason, the woman involved is a woman!

[mklhawley]

Hi Lynn,

Didn't I read somewhere that Red Jim was married to a French countess?

Mike

[lynn cates]

more please

Hello Mike. Thanks.

New one on me.

Tell me more.

Cheers.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi Lynn,

Chris Phillips – Casebook, 16th October 2010—

"[Red Jim] McDermott was interviewed by the New York Herald in August 1889, during a week's stay in London. Two months later the same newspaper reported that he had just returned from a trip to Sweden. He gave an account of a lavish lifestyle, which shared some details with the reports of his meeting with Samuel McLean the previous year. He claimed to have married a French countess whom he had met on his voyage to Liverpool in July-August 1883, and to have taken her name, being known as the "Count de Neonlier." He claimed to own a chateau and an estate of 56 acres and 200 tenants in France, unprofitable "owing to the ravages of the phylloxera" (a species of louse that devastated French vineyards in the late 19th century). In one article he said his wife had brought him this estate, but according to another he had inherited his French property from an aunt. His other claims included the ownership of a castle at Helsinki (described as being in Norway), a house in Stockholm, a house and grounds in Colombo, Ceylon (inherited from an uncle who had died intestate and whose son was presumed to have been eaten by "wild beasts") and a 40-ton yacht. He claimed to have travelled also in Australia, to have spent time at Monte Carlo and the German spas, and to have lived in Berlin and Copenhagen (where he taught in a school, as he had done in Norway according to a different report). Not surprisingly, these claims were treated with some scepticism."

Regards,

Simon

[mklhawley]

That's it! Thanks Simon.

Mike

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

NY Times, 15th September 1888—



Regards,

Simon

[lynn cates]

looney tune

Hello Simon. Thanks.

With all due respect, what kind of looney tune are we dealing with here?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Sir Ed

Hello (again) Simon. Thanks.

I suppose his wealth came from Sir Ed and HM government?

Cheers.
LC

[Simon Wood]

Hi Lynn,

Regarding Looney Tunes—



Regards,

Simon

[Mayerling]

Can't tell you who the French lady was who Red Jim shadowed in Paris, but I recognized what they are referring to regarding Sir Charles Russell's defense of O'Donnell. It was a big news murder in 1883. The Irish informer James Carey (who was the chief witness against the Phoenix Park assassins of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Thomas Burke) had to be spirited away from real threats to his life. He was shipped by boat to South Africa, and then by a second boat further up the east coast of Africa, when O'Donnell, an Irish Fenian, discovered who he was and shot and killed him. O'Donnell was taken back to England for trial. Despite a spirited defense by Russell, he was found guilty and hanged.

O'Donnell had connections with some of the Molly Maguires in the Pennsylvania Coal Fields of the 1860s-1870s. When Conan Doyle writes THE VALLEY OF FEAR in 1914, he has Jack Douglas (the James McParland character who exposes the villains) flee England by boat to Africa, only to seem to have fallen overboard off St. Helena. Holmes deduces that an ally of the "Scowrers" (the name given the Mollies in the book) is Professor Moriarty, who made it his business to get Douglas and erase an earlier failure.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Samuel McLean and Red Jim McDermott

Hi all,

I spent the last two hours looking at the Brooklyn Eagle for articles on both the gentlemen from Brooklyn. I have done some background for you on McLean (who was a wealthy dry goods merchant and supporter of the Republican Party - more important in Brooklyn than in the then seperate New York City of Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx).

First there is a report of McLean seeing McDermott in London in the September 15, 1888 Eagle on page 6. I'd advise you reading it and comparing it with the one earlier on this thread - some details are slightly different but the story is basically the same.

However, in an article in the Eagle, dated on September 17, 1888 page 4,
McLean went to some pains to explain his connection with Red Jim. He never fully trusted McDermott (he had heard things about how the man seemed to be devious) and McDermott sought of insisted on giving his side of the story to McLean, and was only accepted by McLean (partially) when he learned that McDermott had substantial proberty and social successes.

There is an article in the Eagle regarding Red Jim dated May 14, 1889 (page 7) giving a rather black view of the man by one who would be fully against the traitor/spy: Editor Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. He fully shows the activities of Red Jim against the Irish cause.

In the Eagle of July 14, 1891 (page 6) a Scotland Yard Detective named O'Brien (who worked with Red Jim in Broolyn) states that neither of them would be safe if they went back to that city. He mentions the meeting of McLean and McDermott three years earlier, and another meeting by Brooklyn District Attorney Ridgway and McDermott in London. This article brings up (as did the Rossa article above) that McDermott had been married earlier, but his wife died. There was a son who was alive but in poverty in the then upper Manhattan enclave of Harlem. O'Brien said he would see that McDermott (now happily and wealthily married to the second lady - a countess whose name he was using) would do the right thing for his son.

One last item in Eagle of August 4, 1887 (page 4) mentioned how Red Jim cheated an Irish priest out of $50.00.

Samuel McLean was an interesting man too. He was married until 1875, when his wife died (Eagle, November 1, 1875, page 4 - she died on October 29 after a long illness). They had two children (not mentioned in this obit. notice) named Thomas and the daughter was later Mrs. John A. Buckingham of Watertown, Connecticut.

McLean was not Irish! He was from Scotland. He frequently travelled between the U.S. and the British Isles, but each time he came back enjoying the freedom and opportunity of the U.S. more and more. Although not Irish he did contribute $100.00 in 1880 to an Irish Relief Fund (Eagle, Feb. 11, 1880, page 4). In 1871 he bought a house at Hicks and Pierrepont streets that had been the home of a brewer named Hezekiah Pierrepont. He added a "French Roof" to the house, making it a showplace in the area and the city of Brooklyn. It was sold to one William Langley in February 1891 (Eagle, Feb. 5, 1891, p. 6). The actual price was not released until an article in the Eagle on May 1, 1891 (p.7), and it was $65,000. That was an immense sum in the 1890s. Samuel McLean moved to the Campse, Watertown, Conn.

Basically he made his fortune in dry goods, and occupied his time with politics (he was a Republican - one of the first). An editorial in the Eagle on the time of his death (January 11, 1893, p.4) stated that he moved conservatively until he was certain to give full support to a political movement. "He waited till reform took the shape and held out the promise of a political movement. Then he was immediate and earnest in profession and action." This explains certain switches he made that may seem odd to us.

You would have to follow the crazy split in the Republican Party in 1876-1881 between the followers of the moderates (James Blaine and friends), reformers (Rutherford Hayes, John Sherman, Carl Schurtz), and the "spoilsmen" (led by Roscoe Conkling of New York). The obituary for McLean mentions that he was a warm admirer of General/President Ulysses Grant, and an "appreciative constituent" of Roscoe Conkling, and intimate of Senator (former Treasury Secretary) John Sherman (Eagle, Jan. 11, 1893, p.1), but he and fellow Brooklyn Republican leader Benjamin Tracy (future Secretary of the Navy - "Father of the Modern Navy" - under President Benjamin Harrison) rallied the Brooklyn Republicans to support the Garfield Administration in it's struggle with Senator Conkling over control of the New York City Customs House in March 1881 (Eagle, March 24, 1881, p. 2). When Conkling and Platt (his junior Senator) resigned to try to get the reelection of both by the state legislature (state legislatures elected Senators at that time) McLean supported Garfield against Conkling. Conkling and Platt lost, and only years later did Platt get elected U. S. Senator again (Eagle, Jan. 11, 1893, p.1).

While in his prime, McLean used his home for important entertaining, and for meetings with other Republican leaders (Eagle, Feb. 5, 1891, page 6). Tracy and Congressman (former General) Henry W. Slocum were at the funeral of McLean in 1893 (Eagle, Jan. 15, 1893).

In September 1887 McLean was embarrased in an incident involving the four year old, "modern wonder" the Brooklyn Bridge. He was arrested by an overzealous policeman assigned to watch the bridge for being disorderly. McLean was able to prove the charges were false, and his reputation was restored.

At least one incident involving his business did not seem to go correctly. The Eagle reported that a firm, William Turnbull & Co., apparently failed. It was a dry goods business, and McLean was a backer or it (Eagle, November 3, 1889, p. 1).

His death was quite tragic. In the details of the funeral in the Eagle of January 15, 1893, the exact details of his fatal accident were given. He had attended a friend's funeral in Brooklyn, and was returning home. At Bridgeport his bag was resting on the platform, and being nearsighted he felt it was too near the edge. McLean bent down to pull it back, and his head was forced down by the locomotive's cylinder box, pushing it into his chest, and snapping his spine. He was able to ask the people to contact his daughter in Watertown. He died four hours later.

The funeral ws handled at Christ Church, Watertown, Connecticut, by Bishop Williams of Connecticut. He was buried at Watertown (Eagle, January 12, 1893, p. 12).

Jeff

[lynn cates]

card game

Hello Jeff. Thanks.

There was one story that O'Donnell shot Carey over a card game and found out, only later, who he was.

Know anything about that one?

Cheers.
LC

[lynn cates]

Take that!

Hello (again) Jeff. Thanks for that.

I'm sure you have heard about the time when the Clan-na-Gael figured out that Red Jim was a spy and shot at him (in a pub, I think). The gun misfired and he lived.

Sir Ed became alarmed and had him arrested on a trumped up charge. (This to make him look like a dangerous Irish terrorist.) The judge smelled a rat and dropped the charges.

Cheers.
LC