Jack the Ripper Suspect – Francis Tumblety

Tumblety made a small fortune posing as an “Indian Herb” doctor throughout the United States and Canada,in the 1850’s and was commonly perceived as a misogynist and a quack.

In 1860 he was connected to the death of one of his patients, but escaped prosecution.

Tumblety was in London in 1888, and was arrested on 7 November, apparently for engaging in homosexuality, which was illegal at the time.

Whilst he was awaiting trial, he fled to France and then to the United States. Already notorious in the States for his self-promotion and previous criminal charges, his arrest was reported as connected to the Ripper murders.

American reports that Scotland Yard tried to extradite him were not confirmed by the British press or the London police, and the New York City Police said, “there is no proof of his complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he is under bond in London is not extraditable”.

In 1913, Tumblety was mentioned as a Ripper suspect by Chief Inspector John Littlechild of the Metropolitan Police Service in a letter to journalist and author George R. Sims, in response to some questions asked of him by Sims.

The letter calls Tumblety ‘a very likely suspect’

Reasons for Tumblety’s candidacy as Jack the Ripper:

Tumblety fits many of the requirements of what we now know as the ‘serial killer profile.’ He was well known as a misogynist, with a hatred of women and prostitutes .
Tumblety was in London at the time and may have had a fair knowledge of the East End.
Tumblety had some anatomical knowledge, as was inferred by his collection of uteri, his ‘medical’ practice, and his work with Dr. Lispenard in Rochester.
He was arrested in the midst of the Autumn of Terror on suspicion of having committed the murders.
There were no more murders after he left England on the 24th November, if one counts only the canonical five murders.
Chief Inspector Littlechild, of Scotland Yard, believed him a ‘very likely suspect,’ and he was not alone in his belief.
Tumblety was fond of using aliases, disappearing without a trace, and was the subject of police enquiries before his arrest.
Scotland Yard and the American police had been in touch numerous times concerning Tumblety’s flight from France to New York.
One of the three detective inspectors assigned to the case was sent to New York at the same time, perhaps to pursue Tumblety.
Tumblety had the wealth necessary for frequent travel and could afford to change his clothes frequently should they have become bloodstained.
He had violent tendencies.
Several of his acquaintances in America believed it likely that he was the Ripper when interviewed in 1888.
There is a strong case to be made that he was indeed the Batty Street Lodger.

Reasons to discount Tumblety as Jack the Ripper:Tumblety’s homosexuality should rule him out as a suspect, as homosexual serial killers are concerned singularly with male victims and would be uninterested in female prostitutes.

Conclusion:

The case against Tumblety is strong, but circumstantial. However, Tumblety’s candidacy as Jack the Ripper was never mentioned by the press or police after his escape to France, then America, and it was another 105 years before his story came to light with the Littlechild letter, acquired by Stewart Evans in 1993.

Conclusion: It is possible that Francis Tumblety was Jack the Ripper.