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When newspapers began publishing their reviews of Andrew Cook's 2005 biography of Special Branch Superintendent William Melville, titled M: MI5's First Spymaster, some of those interested in the Whitechapel murders took notice. In these reviews, Melville was described variously as having "worked" the Jack the Ripper case, "involved in the pursuit" of Jack the Ripper, and, most eyebrow raising, as having "collared the man many believe to be Jack the Ripper". Collared? What could this possibly refer to?
The Sunday Times
October 24, 2004
Francis Tumblety, a doctor from New York, had skipped bail on sex offence charges and Melville nabbed him while on port watch for the Special Branch in Le Havre.
To Melville’s anger, the French authorities insisted on letting Tumblety go as Melville did not have the paperwork to make an arrest there. Tumblety escaped to America, and later lived in at least two cities where Ripper-style murders were committed.
But what does Cook's biography of William Melville actually say? Was he really involved in the hunt for 'Jack the Ripper'? Did the future successor to John Littlechild really apprehend and detain Dr. Tumblety upon his flight to America?
William Melville was one of the earliest officers assigned to Scotland Yard's Special Irish Branch and his chief post was at the French port of Le Havre, where he served for the better part of the 1880s. Much about his duties in France remain a mystery to this day, but it is likely that his role involved keeping watch over the port in order to stem the flow of the illegal international prostitution industry plaguing Europe and South America at this time. There are conflicting sources as to when Melville and his family returned to England, and if he was indeed still stationed in Le Havre during the Autumn of Terror. If he was in France in the later months of 1888, how much he was aware of the investigation into the Whitechapel murders occurring in London is unknown. Andrew Cook claims that Melville returned to London in December of 1888 and coordinated the security for the Shah of Persia's visit to that city, but the Shah did not visit London until the summer of 1889. Cook uses the primary sources that state that Melville leased property while other sources claim the date of 1887 as when Melville quit Le Havre. Cook says that Melville returned in December 1888 "attested to not only his lease to 51 Nursery Road, Brixton, but to Melville family records which state that his wife died of pneumonia three months after the families return to England to France".
Chris Scott provides the following census information:
1891 census:
51 Nursery Road, Brixton
Head: William Melville (Widower) aged 40 born Ireland - Inspector of police
Children:
Kate aged 8 born Lambeth
William J aged 7 born Lambeth
James B aged 5 born France (British Subject)
Celia aged 4 born France (British Subject)
Visitor:
Amelia Foy aged 39 born Guernsey - Living on own means
Lodgers:
Alice Davey (Widow) aged 33 born St Lukes - Tie maker
Harold Davey aged 5 born St Lukes
Death of Kate Melville
Name: Kate Melville
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Year of Registration: 1889
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
Age at Death: 33
District: Lambeth
County: Greater London, London, Surrey
Volume: 1d
Page: 363
Other primary source documents may exist that could specifically point to the exact date Melville left France and returned to England.
In Andrew Cook's biography, there is a brief (five pages total) description of Tumblety's supposed involvement in the Whitechapel murders, his flight across the Chanel by ferry to Boulogne and on to Le Havre, where he, on November 24, boarded the steamship La Bretagne to take him to New York. It is in Le Havre, of course, where he could have encountered William Melville, but there is no evidence that Tumblety was ever pursued, detained or in any way interfered with on his journey back to the United States. Despite what the book reviewers stated of M: MI5's First Spymaster in 2005, it's author never really makes this claim.
What Andrew Cook does in his book is speculate as to what could have occurred had the CID wished to have Tumblety detained in Le Havre, and in Cook's estimation, Tumblety would not have been prevented to leave on the La Bretagne. Cook's reasoning is that Melville, hindered by bureaucratic communication issues, would have been left "gritting his teeth" on the dock at Le Havre as Tumblety's boat steamed away had an official attempt been made to detain him. This is based entirely on the British governments failure to extradite Phoenix Park suspect John Walsh from France in the wake of those murders in 1882. No where does author Andrew Cook allege that Melville in fact was hindered in detaining Tumblety, only that he could have been.
Cook does add a bit of information in an attempt to bolster his hypothesis that Melville could have detained Tumblety. He states on page 74 that "anecdotal accounts from within the family relate that he was indeed involved in the pursuit of the Ripper". A footnote to this sentence leads to a citation on page 264 which says "Melville's oldest son, William, gave a number of talks on Radio Station 2YA New Zealand, commencing 24 August 1937. Melville's involvement in the Ripper episode was one of his anecdotes".
It is with this very specific citation of a New Zealand radio broadcast starring William Melville's son that Andrew Cook's attempt to link Melville with Tumblety's flight from Le Havre unravels.
The Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand keeps in its collection seemingly every issue of New Zealand's Radio Record, a weekly guide to radio broadcast stations and their programming across that country. On top of that very detailed publication, the Wellington Evening Post carried its own radio guide, which also exists on mircofilm at the Alexander Turnbull Library. A search of these two publications from 20 August 1937 through the week of 24 September 1937 found no program about William Melville, or featuring William Melville Jr, on Radio 2YA or any YA or ZB stations carried throughout New Zealand. A search of the same months for the years 1936, 1938 and 1939 again turned up no results for programming that could even come close to being the series of talks supposedly had by Melville's son, detailing his father's involvement in the pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
In a communication with this author, after being confronted with the utter lack of evidence that this program took place on the date and station specified in his book, Andrew Cook admitted that there was "certainly no record" of the broadcast ever having occurred. Mr. Cook said that he relied solely on the living Melville family's insistence that these talks were given by their deceased ancestor, and on that specific date. Cook suggested to this author that the William Melville Jr. series of talks took place on a "regularly scheduled programme rather than being given a slot of [its] own".
Lets have a look at the Radio Record for 24 August 1937 to see where in the time slot William Melville, Jr.'s series, according to Cook, could have been broadcasted.
Programming began daily at 6:50am and ended at 11:00pm.
6:50- Weather for aviators
7:00- Cricket
7:30- Breakfast session
8:00- Cricket
8:50- Breakfast session cont.
9:00- Cricket
9:30- Close down (dead air)
10:00- Weather for aviators
10:55- Work done by the pupils of the
Education Department Correspondence School
12:00- Lunch music
1:00- Weather for aviators
2:00- Classical hour
3:00- Time signals/Weather for farmers
4:00- Sports results
5:00- Children's hour, conducted by Jumbo
6:00- Dinner Music
6:26- Royal Opera Orchestra
6:45- H.M. Coldstream Guards Band
7:00- News and reports
7:30- Time Signals
7:40- Recorded talk- Dr. Kendel "A Visitor Looks at Our Education"
8:00- Chimes
8:15- Operatic contest from Wellington's 1937 festival
9:00- Weather. Station notices
9:30- Essie Ackland (contralto) presents "Dido's Lament"
9:19- Saint Saens Orchestra
9:30- Reginald Morphew (baritone) Recital
9:45- Oboe Recording (Leon Goosens)
9:48- John McCormack (tenor)
9:51- Saint Saens Orchestra "Danse Macabre"
10:00- Music, mirth and melody
11:00- Close down
The only unspecified non-music, sport or weather programs are the 10 minute 'Breakfast sessions' on the either side of the 7:00am Cricket coverage and the 7:00pm News and reports segment. It is possible that Willaim Melville Junior's series of talks about his father's illustrious career as one of Great Britian's foremost Secret Agents filled one of these two time slots.
Andrew Cook had never directly claimed that William Melville detained Francis Tumblety at the port at Le Havre, only to let the Whitechapel murderer go free for lack of paperwork. Tumblety himself never referenced any abuse or restriction of travel he may have suffered at the hands of British law enforcement while in France. And there is no evidence, outside of one man's descendants 70 years after the supposed date of broadcast, that William Melville Jr ever detailed on New Zealand radio his father's involvement in the hunt for 'Jack the Ripper'.
But the press, for some reason or other, picked up on the sparse five pages of the book M: MI5's Frist Spymaster, and labeled Melville as the one who nabbed Jack.
Citations:
for the 1887 date of Melville's return from Le Havre
Wars on Terror; The Responses to the Anarchist Violence of the 1890's. E. Thomas Wood, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge 2002
Shah of Persia visit to London
1 July 1889. The Times of London 'The Visit of the Shah'.
Mary Cobeldick, Librarian at the Alexander Turnball Library Research Centre and researcher Duncan Bailey are responsible for aiding me in checking the New Zealand Radio Record over a four-year time span in search of William Melville Jr's broadcast. AP Wolf also provided information about press reports on the release of Andrew Cook's book and basically encouraged my research into this subject. Thanks to all.
The Sunday Times
October 24, 2004
Francis Tumblety, a doctor from New York, had skipped bail on sex offence charges and Melville nabbed him while on port watch for the Special Branch in Le Havre.
To Melville’s anger, the French authorities insisted on letting Tumblety go as Melville did not have the paperwork to make an arrest there. Tumblety escaped to America, and later lived in at least two cities where Ripper-style murders were committed.
But what does Cook's biography of William Melville actually say? Was he really involved in the hunt for 'Jack the Ripper'? Did the future successor to John Littlechild really apprehend and detain Dr. Tumblety upon his flight to America?
William Melville was one of the earliest officers assigned to Scotland Yard's Special Irish Branch and his chief post was at the French port of Le Havre, where he served for the better part of the 1880s. Much about his duties in France remain a mystery to this day, but it is likely that his role involved keeping watch over the port in order to stem the flow of the illegal international prostitution industry plaguing Europe and South America at this time. There are conflicting sources as to when Melville and his family returned to England, and if he was indeed still stationed in Le Havre during the Autumn of Terror. If he was in France in the later months of 1888, how much he was aware of the investigation into the Whitechapel murders occurring in London is unknown. Andrew Cook claims that Melville returned to London in December of 1888 and coordinated the security for the Shah of Persia's visit to that city, but the Shah did not visit London until the summer of 1889. Cook uses the primary sources that state that Melville leased property while other sources claim the date of 1887 as when Melville quit Le Havre. Cook says that Melville returned in December 1888 "attested to not only his lease to 51 Nursery Road, Brixton, but to Melville family records which state that his wife died of pneumonia three months after the families return to England to France".
Chris Scott provides the following census information:
1891 census:
51 Nursery Road, Brixton
Head: William Melville (Widower) aged 40 born Ireland - Inspector of police
Children:
Kate aged 8 born Lambeth
William J aged 7 born Lambeth
James B aged 5 born France (British Subject)
Celia aged 4 born France (British Subject)
Visitor:
Amelia Foy aged 39 born Guernsey - Living on own means
Lodgers:
Alice Davey (Widow) aged 33 born St Lukes - Tie maker
Harold Davey aged 5 born St Lukes
Death of Kate Melville
Name: Kate Melville
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1856
Year of Registration: 1889
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
Age at Death: 33
District: Lambeth
County: Greater London, London, Surrey
Volume: 1d
Page: 363
Other primary source documents may exist that could specifically point to the exact date Melville left France and returned to England.
In Andrew Cook's biography, there is a brief (five pages total) description of Tumblety's supposed involvement in the Whitechapel murders, his flight across the Chanel by ferry to Boulogne and on to Le Havre, where he, on November 24, boarded the steamship La Bretagne to take him to New York. It is in Le Havre, of course, where he could have encountered William Melville, but there is no evidence that Tumblety was ever pursued, detained or in any way interfered with on his journey back to the United States. Despite what the book reviewers stated of M: MI5's First Spymaster in 2005, it's author never really makes this claim.
What Andrew Cook does in his book is speculate as to what could have occurred had the CID wished to have Tumblety detained in Le Havre, and in Cook's estimation, Tumblety would not have been prevented to leave on the La Bretagne. Cook's reasoning is that Melville, hindered by bureaucratic communication issues, would have been left "gritting his teeth" on the dock at Le Havre as Tumblety's boat steamed away had an official attempt been made to detain him. This is based entirely on the British governments failure to extradite Phoenix Park suspect John Walsh from France in the wake of those murders in 1882. No where does author Andrew Cook allege that Melville in fact was hindered in detaining Tumblety, only that he could have been.
Cook does add a bit of information in an attempt to bolster his hypothesis that Melville could have detained Tumblety. He states on page 74 that "anecdotal accounts from within the family relate that he was indeed involved in the pursuit of the Ripper". A footnote to this sentence leads to a citation on page 264 which says "Melville's oldest son, William, gave a number of talks on Radio Station 2YA New Zealand, commencing 24 August 1937. Melville's involvement in the Ripper episode was one of his anecdotes".
It is with this very specific citation of a New Zealand radio broadcast starring William Melville's son that Andrew Cook's attempt to link Melville with Tumblety's flight from Le Havre unravels.
The Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand keeps in its collection seemingly every issue of New Zealand's Radio Record, a weekly guide to radio broadcast stations and their programming across that country. On top of that very detailed publication, the Wellington Evening Post carried its own radio guide, which also exists on mircofilm at the Alexander Turnbull Library. A search of these two publications from 20 August 1937 through the week of 24 September 1937 found no program about William Melville, or featuring William Melville Jr, on Radio 2YA or any YA or ZB stations carried throughout New Zealand. A search of the same months for the years 1936, 1938 and 1939 again turned up no results for programming that could even come close to being the series of talks supposedly had by Melville's son, detailing his father's involvement in the pursuit of Jack the Ripper.
In a communication with this author, after being confronted with the utter lack of evidence that this program took place on the date and station specified in his book, Andrew Cook admitted that there was "certainly no record" of the broadcast ever having occurred. Mr. Cook said that he relied solely on the living Melville family's insistence that these talks were given by their deceased ancestor, and on that specific date. Cook suggested to this author that the William Melville Jr. series of talks took place on a "regularly scheduled programme rather than being given a slot of [its] own".
Lets have a look at the Radio Record for 24 August 1937 to see where in the time slot William Melville, Jr.'s series, according to Cook, could have been broadcasted.
Programming began daily at 6:50am and ended at 11:00pm.
6:50- Weather for aviators
7:00- Cricket
7:30- Breakfast session
8:00- Cricket
8:50- Breakfast session cont.
9:00- Cricket
9:30- Close down (dead air)
10:00- Weather for aviators
10:55- Work done by the pupils of the
Education Department Correspondence School
12:00- Lunch music
1:00- Weather for aviators
2:00- Classical hour
3:00- Time signals/Weather for farmers
4:00- Sports results
5:00- Children's hour, conducted by Jumbo
6:00- Dinner Music
6:26- Royal Opera Orchestra
6:45- H.M. Coldstream Guards Band
7:00- News and reports
7:30- Time Signals
7:40- Recorded talk- Dr. Kendel "A Visitor Looks at Our Education"
8:00- Chimes
8:15- Operatic contest from Wellington's 1937 festival
9:00- Weather. Station notices
9:30- Essie Ackland (contralto) presents "Dido's Lament"
9:19- Saint Saens Orchestra
9:30- Reginald Morphew (baritone) Recital
9:45- Oboe Recording (Leon Goosens)
9:48- John McCormack (tenor)
9:51- Saint Saens Orchestra "Danse Macabre"
10:00- Music, mirth and melody
11:00- Close down
The only unspecified non-music, sport or weather programs are the 10 minute 'Breakfast sessions' on the either side of the 7:00am Cricket coverage and the 7:00pm News and reports segment. It is possible that Willaim Melville Junior's series of talks about his father's illustrious career as one of Great Britian's foremost Secret Agents filled one of these two time slots.
Andrew Cook had never directly claimed that William Melville detained Francis Tumblety at the port at Le Havre, only to let the Whitechapel murderer go free for lack of paperwork. Tumblety himself never referenced any abuse or restriction of travel he may have suffered at the hands of British law enforcement while in France. And there is no evidence, outside of one man's descendants 70 years after the supposed date of broadcast, that William Melville Jr ever detailed on New Zealand radio his father's involvement in the hunt for 'Jack the Ripper'.
But the press, for some reason or other, picked up on the sparse five pages of the book M: MI5's Frist Spymaster, and labeled Melville as the one who nabbed Jack.
Citations:
for the 1887 date of Melville's return from Le Havre
Wars on Terror; The Responses to the Anarchist Violence of the 1890's. E. Thomas Wood, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge 2002
Shah of Persia visit to London
1 July 1889. The Times of London 'The Visit of the Shah'.
Mary Cobeldick, Librarian at the Alexander Turnball Library Research Centre and researcher Duncan Bailey are responsible for aiding me in checking the New Zealand Radio Record over a four-year time span in search of William Melville Jr's broadcast. AP Wolf also provided information about press reports on the release of Andrew Cook's book and basically encouraged my research into this subject. Thanks to all.
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