Tumblety in Toronto

[timothy]

Attached is an image from the Canadian Almanac of 1858 that was recently posted on Google Book Search. It presents the best representation of the woodcut used in his early ads that I have ever seen. Mostly this occurs in smudged newspaper ads.

Best,

Tim

[johnnyerwin]

Interesting find!

I thought I would save other readers the bother of going to find this, so I've attached the whole ad:

[Chakk]

"Tumblety...office....opposite the St. Lawrence Hall".
That's funny. I used to be a doorman at the St. Lawrence Hall!
But the Hall is at 157 King St. East so Tumblety's office was on the same side of the street. I looked it up on Google Maps and his office was on the same block. It's a restaurant now. La Maquette.

[Chakk]

Here is an image of Tumblety's former office space from travel.yahoo.com.

[perrymason]

Good stuff fellas, I live like 5 minutes from there as well.

I wondered if anyone would take up the hunt for him here, I knew he was here for sometime, I think his announcement of coming to stay might actually have translated to months or maybe a year, he had his main Canadian office in Montreal I understand, so I wonder if he actually used the local office space here himself.

People forget what a success he was with "Snake Oils", if nothing else, an actor and a showman for sure.

Best regards.

[Graham]

Not that it matters much, but I always thought that of all the 'historic' characters linked to the Whitechapel Murders, Tumblety is/was possibly the most likely. However, as has been mentioned a zillion times, surely the presence in the East End streets of a larger-than-life personage such as he would not have gone unremarked. And there is, of course, the small matter of his being (probably) in police custody at the time of Kelly's murder.

But for all this, his was a fascinating life, especially apropos his possible link with the Lincoln Assassination, although he vigorously denied this accusation.

Was he not also an early practioner of germ-warfare, bringing in clothing from the West Indies infected with yellow-fever for distribution to Union troops? Or was that really a mix-up with some other doctor who used the same assumed name as he did?

Cheers,

Graham

[perrymason]

Was he not also an early practioner of germ-warfare, bringing in clothing from the West Indies infected with yellow-fever for distribution to Union troops? Or was that really a mix-up with some other doctor who used the same assumed name as he did?
Cheers,

Graham

Hi Graham,

On the section of your post I didnt include with the above, which was the main catalyst for my reply, I liked the way you dealt with the question of his incarceration, because it appears as if he may have been on bail, which was substantial for the times, and the reason he was in custody was for the "moral" crimes he was charged with, Lewd Conduct, not suspicion about the murders. His getting out of Dodge and quick, then sailing as Frank Townsend is more than a little dramatic for Lewd Conduct charges.

But on the piece I quoted above, that sounds fascinating, I havent heard it before, and if you have anything else about that story Id love to hear it.

Cheers Graham, all the best.

[Roy Corduroy]

Thanks for the picture, Chakk.

Graham, it was the mix-up. Dr T used the alias Dr Blackburn and that's what got him in hot water in St Louis.

Roy

[jmenges]

The idea that the authorities in Washington DC continued to believe, after receiving him in custody, that Tumblety was Luke Prior Blackburn is pretty slim. Luke Blackburn was a well known figure, and many photographs of him existed. Nevertheless, Tumblety was held in custody for a length of time that extended past the execution of the Lincoln conspirators Booth, Harold, Paine et al.

JM

[Chakk]

Nice to know I won't have to go to Rochester to visit all things Tumblety....
Speaking of assassinations, James Earl Ray's two hideouts are here on Ossington and on Dundas, and Tumblety even claimed he was asked to run in Montreal against D'Arcy McGee, Canada's only assassinated politician.

I wondered if anyone would take up the hunt for him here....

The hunt for H.H. Holmes led Pinkerton to Toronto where Holmes killed two girls on what is now Bay Street (our Wall Street). I believe it was the lower part of Bay which was once called St. Vincent.

[Wolf Vanderlinden]

Tumblety in Toronto

Tumblety may have first visited Toronto in the early 1850’s and was described by G. S. Gurnett, the Mayor of the city, as having been a member of a “strolling company of concert or menagerie folks,” possibly a circus, which visited the city. This may or may not be true but he certainly was in London, Canada West, in 1853.

By November, 1856, however, he had definitely moved to Toronto, after stops in Hamilton, London and possibly Brantford. In December he announced that “after traversing the United States and Canada [I have] concluded to make Toronto [my] home for the future.” He probably opened his office at 111 King Street East at this time; he certainly had an office there by 1857. He spent late 1856 – early 1857 travelling throughout south western Canada West visiting London, Brantford, Paris, Woodstock, Burlington and Hamilton.

In 1857 the first direct rail link between Toronto and Montréal opened and in June Tumblety took advantage of it, travelling to Canada East with possible stops in Quebec City and Montréal. After this he was back in Toronto, where he kept his main business headquarters. On 1st of September, however, Tumblety temporarily moved to Montréal stating that he would be in that city “from 1st September to 1st May next.” He opened up an office at No. 18 Great St. James Street, described as being “nearly opposite the St. Lawrence Hall” Hotel, and “a few doors below the post office,” Unfortunately for him he was arrested in Montréal on the 23rd of September, for attempting to perform an illegal abortion, and held on remand until 1 October. He quickly travelled back to Toronto only returning to Montréal some time after the Grand Jury returned a verdict of no true bill on the 24th of October.

His legal troubles caused his Montréal business to fail and he was back in Toronto either in late December, 1857 or very early January, 1858.

By mid February, Tumblety’s ads cease in the Globe and Mail and it has been suggested that he may have moved to Buffalo (he was certainly in Rochester in mid March) although, in fact, he probably stayed in Toronto, using it as a base, while he travelled south and north again.

He may or may not have been back in Montréal on the 27th of March when the Montréal Superior Court rendered a verdict in the “Devlin vs Tumblety” law suit (where one of Tumblety’s lawyers from his illegal abortion charge, Bernard Devlin, sued him for non payment of funds. Tumblety was represented by his other lawyer from that case, Lewis Drummond). Either way he was back in Quebec in June, 1858, and back in Toronto by July.

He stayed in Toronto, while travelling back and forth to Buffalo (where he opened an office), until sometime in the summer of 1859, when he left the city. Reportedly he returned to Toronto and reopened his “practise” some time in the summer of 1880 before soon leaving the city for good.

Wolf.

[Byzantine]

The advertisement mentions among other things "all diseases of the blood, such as Scrofula". But Scrofula is not a blood disease, it is a form of tuberculosis affecting the lymph nodes of the neck. It is usually categorized as a skin disease.

Next mentioned is Erysipelas, also a skin disease. Though admittedly in some cases the bacterial infection causing it can spread to the bloodstream. Salt-rheum is also a skin disease, a chronic form of eczema.

Tumblety may have had some experience with treating skin diseases but does not even mention actual blood diseases such as hemophilia.

[timothy]

Tumblety's medicine

Tumblety was what was referred to as a "blood doctor" and his system was fairly simple. Bad digestion was the root of all evil. Food rotted in the stomach and tainted the blood. The blood carried that taint to all parts of the body. Skin erruptions were the result of bad blood, so was lung congestion, cancer, blindness, etc. The way to cure any of these was to clean out the body with a laxative and then stimulate the stomach to eat more food. For this system, Tumblety had no need to understand the body or anatomy.

Best

Tim