Frank Froest and Tumblety

[Simon Wood]

Hi All,

In press reports during the late 1880s Frank Froest's rank was given as Detective Sergeant, and from 1890 as Detective Inspector.

But on Francis Tumblety's November 1888 indictment he is listed as "Frank Froest, PC, CID".



Any ideas?

Froest's partner on the Tumblety case was PS Walter Dinnie who became an Inspector and worked again with Froest on the 1898 "Harry the Valet" case. In June 1903 he became the New Zealand Commissioner of Police.

My grateful thanks to Chris Phillips for the above image.

Regards,

Simon

[mklhawley]

PC - Police Constable and PS - Police Seargent

Does this sound correct?

Sincerely,

Mike

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Simon, Mike, et al,

In researching Le Grand I read some of the biography of Jabez Spencer Balfour, whom Froest travelled overseas to arrest. In this biography, the writer stated that Froest claimed to have been the only policeman reprimanded for his zeal in chasing the Whitechapel murderer. Unfortunately, the author does not name his source. Froest co-authored a number of fictional detective stories later in life. For what its worth, after arrested Jabez in 1895, he and Froest spent some of their long boat ride back to London discussing the Whitechapel murder victims. I'm not sure if this had any impact on Jabez's already well-formed and rather well-informed views on the case, but in 1906 when he wrote about 4 different Ripper suspects, none of them resembled Tumblety.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Simon Wood]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for that.

It would be interesting to know from where JSB's biographer got his information about Froest's zeal in chasing the Whitechapel murderer, for in Balfour's 1907 autobiographical "My Prison Life" he makes scant mention of Froest when describing the voyage from Argentina.

Regards,

Simon

[Tom_Wescott]

Hi Simon,

The biographer accessed personal letters and (I believe) spoke with family members of various people, including Froest. I'm sure there's much out there on him, I just don't think anybody has had cause to look too hard yet, except perhaps for Joe Chetcuti. I understand he wrote an article on Froest for the Whitechapel Socieity Journal. Unfortunately I have not yet had the pleasure of reading it.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[Chris]

There's a tantalising little snippet in a report about Balfour in the Western Mail of 13 May 1895. It comes from a letter written by a Mr John H. Evans from Dunkirk to his brother in Lampeter. Evans had apparently travelled from Buenos Aires on the same ship as Balfour. He adds a note about Froest: