Metropolitan Police view of Tumblety today

[Simon Wood]

Hi Cap'n Jack,

Take thee your time, me hearty, as forsooth I'm about to launch a single-handed attack on a fine looking bottle of 'Old Tennis Shoes'.

May the hairs in yer head turn to candles and light yer way to heaven.

Regards,

Simon

[Cap'n Jack]

Well, Natalie, and Simon, it does appear that Tumblety had taken the trouble to write letters to the authorities, actually incriminating himself in earlier criminal acts, as this report from the Rochester press of December 1888 appears to demonstrate:

'Colonel Dunham also said that Tumblety had not been arrested on suspicion of having guilty knowledge of the assassination conspiracy. "He was arrested in St. Louis," said the Colonel, "on suspicion of being Luke P. Blackburn, lately governor of Kentucky, who had been falsely charged with trying to introduce yellow fever into the northern cities by means of infected rags. It is perfectly clear that Tumblety purposely brought about his own arrest by sending anonymous letters to the federal authorities to the effect that Blackburn and himself were identical. His object, of course, was notoriety. He knew he was too well known in Washington, whither he felt certain he would be sent, to be kept long in custody. '

I see no good reason to think that he acted otherwise in regard to the Whitechapel Murders.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Cap'n Jack,

Do I take it the assassination conspiracy mentioned by Colonel Dunham was that of Abraham Lincoln? "Apart from that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" an intrepid young reporter was heard to ask.

Tumblety appears to have been the original Teflon boy—Tony Blair must have had a portrait of him hanging on a wall in Downing Street.

Spreading yellow fever, cottaging, manslaughter, the WM—my God, Tumblety was a busy beaver, cleaving unto himself all manner of sins. Did he, perchance, also happen to go by the name of Grim Reaper?

Joshing aside, Robert Anderson wasn't a stupid man. Mendacious, certainly. Gripped by a righteous and lofty opinion of himself, most definitely.

But not stupid.

If Anderson had the merest suspicion that Tumblety was the author of (or had complicity in) the WM (and here we are being asked to believe SY was busting its collective CID balls to bring the miscreant to justice), he would never have allowed him to break bail, travel to France and subsequently board a ship for America.

Littlechild (Head of Section 'D' in 1888) summed it up best in his September 1913 letter to George R. Sims.

"Tumblety was arrested at the time of the murders in connection with unnatural offences and charged at Marlborough Street, remanded on bail, jumped his bail, and got away to Boulogne. He shortly left Boulogne and was never heard of afterwards."

"Never heard of afterwards."

In June 1903—ten years before Littlechild's letter to Sims—the NYT was reporting Tumblety's death and the disposition of his not inconsiderable estate.

Faulty memory? Pshaw. People at the time were being lied to on a grand scale.

Regards,

Simon

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Cap"n and Simon,
I wouldnt say anything at all is perfectly clear,Cap"n, with regards to Tumblety....the man presents a mighty mess of a mystery.
Ok so he liked attention,but even that could have been some kind of cover for what he was really getting up to.For example,from very humble beginnings he had a line in making advertisements for himself as a "doctor" , setting up "herbal shops",becoming famous for his "pimple cures"etc and all the while making money, hand over fist.But was the money made from his herbal cures or did he have it as a front for what he really made money from?
If you read Fenian Fire,especially the footnotes you will discover that Pigott wasnt just a Dublin journalist who went to Buckle to offer his services regarding Parnell but he ran a Porn business as a sideline.According to Parisian booksellers he bought the most scandalous books and Michael Davitt's notes reveal this Richard Pigott the forger claimed to represent a "Club of Tory connoisseurs of the erotic"---and wait for it---the Club included Irish patriotic union people of the types Anderson and Randolph Churchill supported.Now Pigott and John P Hayes were joined at the hip when it came to drinking and plotting in Parisian bars and had earned a "reputation" of sorts.Its at this point I think of Tumblety.Joe is dead keen to have Tumblety "passing through" these Gentlemen"s Clubs.I wonder if Tumblety was in there peddling his line of "erotica sales" which got that old galloping major going-Hughes Hallett was it--you know the one who got on his charger and raced to George Yard within hours of the Martha Tabram murder? Remember too that Tumblety was peddling porn practically as a toddler.He seems to have been a sort of" infant prodigy" in sussing out the black market value of pornography on canal boats at the age of six so by the time he had his herbal doctorate business up and running he probably had a double first in both .Sounds to me that might have been how he was known as a "collector of wombs" it was a sort of "euphemism" for him being a "collector of high class pornography"?
Hey Cap"n Jack could Uncle Charles have been part of Pigott"s or Tumblety"s " Genteman"s Club of "connoisseurs"of Erotica?-----and if that was how poor Thomas Cutbush was corrupted into buying pictures of ladies in pink silk stockings?
Natalie

[Natalie Severn]

This thread has gone so very quiet ---
anyway---I have been intrigued to have found out who Macnaghten was referring to as "the leader of an assassination plot to kill Balfour" -the person linked to the Ripper---according to Macnaghten.This apparently was JP Walsh who had taken time out from his 6 year exile in America after his alleged leading role in the Phoenix Park murders of 1882.
He had taken time out to go to Paris [where the dynamitards hatched their various plots usually in the company of British spies-posing as dynamitards such as Patrick Casey and John P Hayes].He had gone this particular time to organise "the Balfour assassination" [and invigilate other assassinations]in March 1888 and was followed,and soon interviewed by the French police and "M" Melville,posing as a French policeman.They simply put them on the boat back to New York .....!!!!Curious!
more to follow
Cheers
Natalie

[Cap'n Jack]

Yes, Natalie, I have come across several references to Fenians and the like being shoved onto the next steamer for New York, after they had been shadowed and then been warned that their criminal activities were known to the police. It seems always from France.
What strikes me in Tumblety's case is that travelling under the alias 'Townsend' he would have had no problem boarding a New York bound steamer from Liverpool, but instead he chose a French port. One has to remember that he was on bail at the time and was not being actively searched for by the police.
So why depart from France?
Simply because it suited the authorities to have known criminals leave their actual area of control - England - so that they could claim afterwards that they could do nothing about it, because the person was on foreign soil.
I have always said that I believe Tumblety left England at the behest and request of the authorities.
I posted something up for you on How's board demonstrating how any well known Irish American from New York in 1888 was shadowed by detectives from the second they disembarked at Liverpool. I am convinced that this would have applied to Tumblety.

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks for responding Cap"n Jack.I looked to see where you had posted on How"s site but couldnt find that particular reference.I will look again later.
Meanwhile, I quite agree.Any Irish American was likely to have been shadowed.
What I find unusual about Tumblety are two things: the wealth he amassed from such humble beginnings as Joe outlined in his timeline, and his ceaseless travels from one continent to another,from East coast to West from there on to Canada,over the pond to England ,speeding up at certain times such as in 1883/4 etc.
I wonder what type of man would amass a fortune while constantly on the move?
And why would the police want rid of him?
If he helped Clan na Gael in the transportation of dynamite and arms that could account for the wealth.But if he was being shadowed by British Intelligence-and the large file Littlechild refers to suggests he was being shadowed, then why wasnt he stopped? And the answer I think may lie with his links with someone,possibly Jenkinson who though he worked for the British ,Jenkinson worked to quite a different agenda to Monro and Anderson.Jenkinson"s agenda included his firm belief that Home Rule for Ireland was essential.To this end he betrayed Anderson, Pigott and other anti Home Rule plotters to the dedicated Irish Nationalist,Michael Davitt.This was in Paris on the eve of the Special Commission of October 1888.Whether Anderson or Monro or Littlechild ever knew this is debateable----he was already considered a dangerous enemy and they had actually managed to get him to "resign" and "had tried "to put a stop to his use of extra legal informers.
Tumblety,with his flamboyant manner,Fenian sympathies and flouting of the law,might have been a perfect "runner" for the fenians while being kept watch on by Anderson and Monro.And ofcourse Jenkinson answered to a higher authority than either Monro or Anderson viz Home Secretary Matthews and the Prime Minister himself-he actually tried hard to win Salisbury round to Home Rule.Obviously Jenkinson had friends in some very high places moreover he was the one who was knighted-Sir Edward Jenkinson -not James Monro.
BTW I am mindful that according to Joe"s timeline, Tumblety was in Paris in 1874.Doing what? He either had a sideline,maybe in porn, or he was in the Casey /Tevis Paris cabal even back then- or maybe porn was par for the course[-not with Jenkinson but certainly with the others from what I can gather from Fenian Fire and the book on Melville !
Best
Natalie

[Cap'n Jack]

It's on the 'Dr T as a Suspect' thread, Natalie.
As I said to you before I'm not 100% fit at the moment, and am having great difficulty relating to stuff that I have written a few moments before; and appear unable to digest and respond to information in my usual manner.
So please forgive the lack of response.
I appear to be slowing down, but that should cheer some folks up.

[Natalie Severn]

Found it Cap"n! Cheers and thanks a lot-Natalie

[Cap'n Jack]

Natalie - a little present from DS McIntyre:

'I am attached to the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard—throughout the London divisions there are a number of divisional detectives different from Scotland Yard—information of any Crime in London would come first to the local police, and be forwarded to Scotland Yard—I do not know anything about
the divisional police—on (1st November I received a letter about Clover's death—I don't know whether that letter came from Scotland Yard—Tunbridge would know more about it than I know—I know Haynes, not as an ex-detective or a private inquiry agent—I first knew him as an engineer on board ship; he is a friend of mine—I asked him what he had been doing in America—he has been in the Home Office department, as a secret agent to make inquiries about suspected persons—I was connected with the dynamite case—'

[lynn cates]

resolution

Hello Norma and Simon. Given the discussion of Tumblety on the Swanson thread, I was wondering if there had ever been any resolution to the questions you were asking:

Norma: posts #68, #72, #73, #78, #82, #88, #94, #95 & #97.

Simon: posts #80, #85, & #93?

Cheers.
LC