Tumblety in St. Louis

[Defective Detective]

Hello all. Long-time reader, first-time poster.

Of all the individuals suspected by Ripperologists to have been involved in the murders, none has caught my fancy as much as Francis Tumblety. Aside from Sickert he's probably the most fascinating as an individual even aside from his connections to the case. Primarily, however, he interests me because I happen to live in his old home town and so actually have access to some of the materials related to him.

So I think I should begin by investigating him, beginning with his last years here in St. Louis, Missouri. He was buried in Rochester, New York, so unfortunately I won't have access to his grave site, but I don't particularly need it. I would like to begin by examining some of his papers, though I'm not sure as yet how I'll approach the rather arduous task of obtaining them.

Are there any sites of interest? For instance, do we know where he lived while he stayed here? It's not in the Casebook, and apparently not anywhere on the Internet. What haunts did he frequent? What social circles did he move in while he was here? Sorry for the questions, but I'm rather an amateur at all this sleuthing.

Regards,

Ben

[mklhawley]

Greetings and welcome! In order to catch up on Francis Tumblety, I suggest you read the articles and books from Tim Riordan, Wolf Vanderlinden, Simon Wood, Joe Chetcuti, and Roger Palmer. This is quite a bit, but it's the honest truth.

Sincerely,

Mike

[Jonathan H]

I agree with Mike.

I would just add that the first secondary source I recommend you go to is 'Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer' [aka: 'The Lodger, The Arrest and Escape of Jack the Ripper'] by Stewart P Evans and Paul Gainey, first published in 1995 or 1996.

A former British police constable, Stewart has written, or co-written, many excellent, must-have books on this subject.

In 1993 he rediscovered Dr. Tumblety as a Ripper suspect, though to what degree -- and to what duration -- he was suspected by Scotland Yard of the Whitechapel crimes is a matter of heated, sometimes acrimonious contention.

Evans has himself said that the Tumblety book is inevitably dated because other sources have since come to light, unavailable to the writers at the time, which arguably point in both directions, eg. away from Tumblety being the Batty St. lodger, and yet towards him being a prime police suspect: he gave an extraordinary interview, discovered by the brilliant writer-reseracher R J Palmer, placing himself in Whitechapel -- and offering no alibi for any of the murders.

There are two excellent essays about this interview source on the dissertations section of this site.

'Tumbelty Talks', by R J Palmer

and

'A Slouch-Hatted Yank', by Stewart P Evans

The argument that Tumblety was actually a minor though colourful Ripper suspect but one who was, nevertheless, wildly over-inflated by the sensation-hungry North American tabloids -- and thus deservedly 'forgotten' -- is very well argued by Wolf Vanderlinden, in two parts, in the online mag: 'Ripper Notes'.

I am not sure if you can access that defunked publication?

This would be a pity as Vanderlinden's pieces are meticulously researched, and cogently argued -- eg. required reading.

This counter-argument has just been challenged by R J Palmer, with equal intricacy, in the last few issues of the new Casebook online mag: the Examiner.

Of course, the strength of the arguments and counter-arguments are up to the judgment of each invdividual reader.