The Chicago Daily Inter Ocean
20 November, 1888.
BILLY PINKERTON’S POINTS.
Billy Pinkerton, whose mind is a storehouse of faces, that the rushing world quickly forgets when removed from the immediate arena of its life, late yesterday afternoon, suddenly found without any explanatory introduction, unless a rapt gaze at anevening (sic) paper which he had just bought, could be called an introduction, exclaimed as he walked along Clark street with a reporter of THE INTER OCEAN:“Peculiar Dr. Tumblety (looking at the paper, and the description of the supposed Whitechapel murderer.) “Tumblety! No, that’s not it. Something like that, though. Tumbledy. No! Twombley! That’s more like it.”
“What’s more like it,” asked the surprised reporter; astonished at Billy’s evolution of the printed murderer’s name as given in the London cablegram, into some other name, less peculiar and more directory-form.
“What? Why it’s the same man. The very same man that I met in Washington long ago.”
“Well, but what man. What can your Washington man of long ago have to do with the Whitechapel murders?”
I’LL SHOW YOU, AND TRAIL HIM
down, too, for you from that long ago, and then you can judge for yourself whether or not it is not the same man. I first knew that man – this Dr, Tumblety or Tumbledy or Twombly, (I think the last is it) – in Washington during the latter part of ’61. He was then a man of about 30 years of age, six feet high, well built; had very dark hair, and very long mustaches dyed coal-black. In fact his mustaches grow into his beard, or rather the beard lengthened out his mustaches until the latter spread down over his shoulders. The natural color of his hair was dark brown. He was, in short, a very conspicuous figure all over. He was a splendidly built man, and made his dress add to his attractions. He wore a sort of military dress. He made himself as conspicuous by his dress as he did by his immense coal-black mustache. He wore a military cap, a black velvet coat, and lavender colored pants. On his feet he had Morocco top boots, and silver or gold spurs on the boots, and rode a pie-bald horse, caparisoned a good deal like a circus horse. He would be taken anywhere forA SWELL ARMY OFFICER.
At that time my duties in Washington were connected with the secret service of the army, and my attention was naturally drawn to him a good deal by his military appearance. But had that not been the case I could not have failed to noticed him, or had my attention drawn to him, for he was the talk of the whole city, and all Washington seemed to know him. In passing up and down Pennsylvania avenue, he was the most conspicuous figure on the street. I soon found out that he was a quack doctor, and that he was scattering broadcast his advertisements of a cure for a certain class of complaints. A little inquiry soon showed that he had flooded the army with his handbills and with objectionable books, so much so that General McClellan issued strict orders that the circulation of these books in the army should be suppressed, on the ground that many of the books were calculated to debase the soldiers, their contents being of an immoral character and their illustrations still more so. Of course this military acknowledgment that the doctor existed only caused a still more wide attention to be turned upon him. He was watched with closer scrutiny, and, at last, it became known that he was in the habit of indulging in certain vices that finally resulted in him being driven from the city. The next time I met him was in Baltimore. ThenI MET HIM IN NEW YORK
And in different other cities throughout the country and as far west as San Francisco even. In Chicago, along about ’69, he was detected in indulging in the vices to which I have referred and he had to fly that city. The next time I saw him was in England, in 1874. I ran across him then, accidentally, in Liverpool, and again in London. In the latter city he made a complaint to the police that a boy whom he had employed as an office boy, had stolen his watch and chain. The watch, as it turned out afterward, was a very large, flashy gold watch, and the chain was a very heavy neck chain, going twice around his neck. When I met him in London, he was dressed about the same as he had been in Washington when I first saw him. The boy who stole the watch from him had been picked up by him in Liverpool and taken along to London. The police instituted a search after him. They found that the watch had been pawned, and recovered it, and afterward succeeded in arresting the boy. When the boy was in custody he confessed the theft but also made a statement to the police which caused a warrant to be issued for the Doctor’s arrest. The fellow claimed to be an American citizen.SUPERINTENDANT SHAW
asked me about him. I told him that the boy had undoubtedly told the truth, as the vile character the boy gave of the Doctor was just the character that he had a reputation for in the United States. Up to the time I left London – some three months after that incident – the Doctor had refused to call or, at least, neglected to call for his watch and chain, though they were very valuable. It was finally discovered that he had gone to Paris, his property being left in the hands of the police.“And what did people who came in contact with the doctor think of his general character?”
“People familiar with the history of the man always talked of him as a brute, and as brutal in his actions. He was known as a thorough woman-hater and as a man who never associated with or mixed with women of any kind. It was claimed that he was educated as a surgeon in Canada and he was said to have been quite an expert in surgical operations. I have not heard his name mentioned in ten years.”
“And what do you think are the probabilities of his being the man who committed the Whitechapel murders – murders committed, apparently, without any object in view? Do you consider that the Doctor was insane?”
“Yes, I do. I think a man guilty of such practices as those I have referred to must be insane; and Dr. Hammond – Surgeon General Hammond – some time ago, when asked as to whether or not he thought that the Whitechapel murderer was an insane man, said that when the murderer of those women was discovered he would undoubtedly be found to be a woman-hater and a man guilty of the same practices which I have described, and Twombley, or Tumblety, as being guilty of, and that such men were crazy and as likely as not to murder women.”
Some things to keep in mind. Although Pinkerton says he knows Tumblety he doesn't seem to actually know his real name.
Other than this article there seems to be no mention of Tumblety's books being suppressed on orders from General McClellan or anyone else.
Pinkerton gets the facts behind the arrest of Henry Carr wrong. This happened in 1873 not 1874 as Pinkerton states. Carr was arrested when he pawned a gold chain, not watch and chain, that drew the suspicions of the pawnbroker. Tumblety was not involved in the Magistrate's hearing and no order for Tumblety's arrest was given nor did he flee to Paris.
It is obvious that Pinkerton thinks Tumblety is responsible for the Whitechapel Murders because he was a homosexual and therefore a monster and sexual deviant capable of any atrocity. Although R. J. Palmer has claimed on these boards that he believes that homosexuality can be linked with violent crimes, more enlightened minds will strongly disagree.
Wolf.
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