Tumblety Articles From More Obscure Sources

[Archaic]

Hi everyone.

I've accumulated another collection of Dr. Tumblety articles, so I thought I'd post them all on one thread. Most of them are from the more obscure newspapers, journals, etc.

I don't know if any of these articles have been posted before, so my apologies if they have. As these come from more obscure papers & journals it's to be expected that they will probably repeat some information that was first published in a major newspaper or journal. However, I think it's interesting to see how news stories "filter down" the pipeline, undergoing small changes as they do so, and thus in their own way contribute to the larger mythology that grows up around their subject.

Hopefully at least some of these articles will also contain some interesting little nuggets of information for those of you researching Dr. Tumblety, so I thought I might as well share them.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

"A Sort of Modern 'Count of Monte Cristo' -Brandon Mail, Nov. 22, 1888

This is from 'The Brandon Mail', November 22, 1888.



Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Bermondsey "Jack the Ripper" & Tumblety -Thames Star, Jan. 5, 1889

This article is from the Thames Star, Jan. 5, 1889.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

'Maiden Tribute', WCM-style Murders In Jamica & Nicaruagua, Feb.1889

From the February 25, 1889 issue of the 'Gray River Argus', a New Zealand newspaper.

This article mentions Stead's "Maiden Tribute of Babylon' and the laws enacted in its wake to clue readers in to the fact that Tumblety was arrested for a sex offense. It also repeats the Dunham story of Dr. T as a woman-hater, then suggests there may be a link between the Whitechapel Murders and "a number of murders very like" which occurred in Nicaragua and Jamaica.

I have to laugh every time I see Dunham's memorable phrase "I never saw anything more closely approaching ubiquity." I wish I'd said that.

Best regards,
Archaic

[mklhawley]

Excellent Archaic. It has always interested me that the Dunham interview being just over a week after Tumblety's arrest shows Dunham, or Conover, personally possessing Tumblety's pamphlet from years ago. Since he seems to be showing the interviewer the pamphlet, I'm sure he had it. How did Dunham come across the pamphlet in such a short time? Did he always have it?

Mike

[lynn cates]

correspondence

Hello Bunny. Nice find.

Does any of Tumblety's correspondence remain archived somewhere?

Cheers.
LC

[Siobhan Patricia Mulcahy]

Hi Archaic,
Well done. I don't think I've seen these before, certainly not the Brandon Mail article.
Tumblety was quite the chameleon given all the aliases he managed to use!
Cheers.
Siobhan

[Archaic]

Links To Tumblety Books & Tumblety's Memoirs

Hi Mike, Lynn and Siobhan. Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the articles; I'll try to dig out a few more and get them posted.

What i find most interesting when reading these articles is that one can see how facts, rumors, and speculations about Tumblety filtered down from the main London and New York newspapers to the much smaller newspapers all over the world, all adding to the almost "mythological" popular opinion regarding him. Untangling the actual facts about Tumblety from this morass of information & misinformation is quite a challenge, especially when much of the "mythology" about dear Dr. T came from his own mouth or pen!

Mike and Lynn, I'm afraid I can't answer your questions about Dunham and about Tumblety's correspondence. As I've said before, I'm no Tumblety expert and don't personally believe he was involved in the Whitechapel Murders; I see him as a very intriguing and eccentric personality. While doing my own research I just try to keep my eyes peeled for old articles that might be of interest to those of you who research Dr. T.

For further information on Tumblety I recommend the books by Stewart Evans & Paul Gainey and by Timothy Riordan.

Some of Tumblety's own fabulously egotistical writings have been reprinted and are now available on Amazon. Here is a link-
Tumblety Books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_no...per+in+America

Here on Casebook, members such as Wolf Vanderlinden, Jonathan Menges, Stewart Evans, and others know a great deal about Tumblety and might be able to answer your questions. (Anybody reading this thread who can answer those questions is very welcome to post a reply.)

Hi Siobhan. I agree that Tumblety was a "chameleon" in that he created a fantastic persona for himself, but in some ways he was the very opposite of a chameleon. I actually owned a chameleon when I was a little girl. 'Clifford' was usually bright green, but when he got out of his terrarium and climbed up my curtains he would change his color to blend in with the fabric- which of course made it very difficult to find him! I used to search and search. Clifford would cling to the curtains and watch me, probably laughing. Tumblety, on the other hand, was so flamboyant, egotistical, and self-aggrandizing that he was both conspicuous, and, as Dunham says, ubiquitous. I guess to me the flamboyant Dr. T seems more like a strutting peacock or a flashy pink flamingo than a chameleon.

Thanks and best regards,
Archaic

[Archaic]

Tumblety Charitable Contribution, 1891

I'm not sure if this has been posted before; apologies if it has.

This is a report from the 1891 'New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor'.

Note the size of Tumblety's contribution in comparison to the (quite generous) contributions of others- $200 was a lot of money in 1892! Tumblety appears to have had a need to "outdo" everybody else...and of course this contribution was terrific advertising, both for his flamboyant "personality" and for his quack remedies.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Magpie]

An impressive haul! Thanks for sharing!

[mklhawley]

Yes, Tumblety certainly enjoyed attention, but only if it improved business. His unusual flamboyant approach or alleged involvement in the Lincoln assassination gave him attention and made him bucks. The type of attention Tumblety did not want was anything to do with his private life when he would hang out in the slums hooking up with young men. I'm sure Tumblety would not have minded the attention of him being a JTR suspect just as he enjoyed with the Lincoln assassination, so why did he hate it? First, he was initially arrested in London for his activities with the young men, i.e., gross indecency. Not good in the eyes of the public and Tumblety. Second, if Tumblety thought he would go to jail for awhile because of possible involvement in the JTR case, this is too close for comfort. It's time to back off and try to improve his public persona. 1891 would be the perfect time to give to the poor.

Sincerely,

Mike

[Archaic]

December 13, 1888 Tumblety Article

Hi Magpie; nice to see you!

OK, Mike and gang, here's another Tumblety article for you. I don't think this one has been posted before. It's from an English periodical focused mainly upon farming, cattle, etc., called 'The Country Gentleman and Cultivator', December 13, 1888.

How's that for obscure?

Best regards,
Archaic