On November 7th, two days before the last Ripper murder, Francis Tumblety aged 56 and describing himself as a physician was arrested for acts of gross indecency with four men. He was remanded to answer bail at the next session, but he never did. ibid.
Scotland Yard had lost the trail, but the American press was to pick it up. What did they discover about Francis Tumblety? ibid.
As a Victorian serial killer Tumblety’s personality profile fits the expert opinion of those who study his modern counterparts. ibid.
Tumblety had a criminal record, and there’s evidence that as a quack he had killed before. Unlike some other suspects Francis Tumblety was in London when the attacks happened, and they stopped when he left ... And we know that an American disappeared from the Batty Street lodgings after the discovery of a bloodstained shirt by his landlady on the night of the double murder ... Tumblety’s pathological hatred of women ... All the murders except one targeted the womb ... Tumblety did have a collection of his own [uteruses]. ibid.
For instance, no mere slaughterer of animals could have carried out these operations. It must have been some one accustomed to the post-mortem room. The conclusion that the desire was to possess the missing parts seems overwhelming. If the object were robbery, these injuries were meaningless, for death had previously resulted from the loss of blood at the neck. Moreover, when we find an easily accomplished theft of some paltry brass rings and such an operation, after, at least, a quarter of an hour’s work, and by a skilled person, we are driven to the deduction that the mutilation was the object, and the theft of the rings was only a thin-veiled blind, an attempt to prevent the real intention being discovered. Had not the medical examination been of a thorough and searching character, it might easily have been left unnoticed. Coroner Wynn-Baxter, inquest into death of Annie Chapman
And then the final thing on the list two imitation gold rings – value $3 – identical to the two that were wrenched from Annie Chapman’s fingers during the Whitechapel murders. Paul Gainey, co-author Jack the Ripper – First American Serial Killer
Tumblety is in the City: He Arrived Sunday Under a False Name From France. US press report
11 p.m. on April 23rd 1891 Carrie Brown took a customer back to a seedy hotel that once stood on this corner ... According to the autopsy the murderer had a three-stage method: strangulation, ripping open the body and bizarrely scattering the internal organs on the bed ... Could Jack the Ripper have come to New York City? Jack the Ripper in America, History 2009
Jack didn’t write the letter after the murder of Carrie Brown but before. ibid.
Jack got bolder: the original autopsy photos show the horrific violence to fourth victim Catherine Eddowes. Jack ripped her open and took a kidney. Just days later a chilling letter was delivered to the police addressed from hell. With it a human kidney infected with the same rare disease diagnosed in Catherine Eddowes. ibid.
After a ten-week killing spree was this gory conclusion. Then the notorious killer vanished. Three years later another prostitute was mutilated in her bed. This time it was in New York. ibid.
Klosowski, the Whitechapel barber who murdered his three wives – he was in New York when Carrie Brown was killed. Francis Tumblety, an American arrested on suspicion of the London murders, he jumped bail and headed for New York. James Kelly, a convicted killer, escaped from the Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum outside London just before the Ripper killings. There are now three suspects. ibid.
James Kelly, a convicted killer, psychiatric patient, escape artist, he was a man with a violent past. In 1883 less than a month into his marriage Kelly argued with his wife, accusing her of having an affair, and then plunged a knife into her neck. ibid.
As an upholster Kelly did to furniture what it could be said Jack the Ripper did to his victims. ibid.
And Kelly’s confession contained one more secret: he admitted after his escape he went to London. 1888: the year of the Ripper. Immediately there was a spate of attacks on women. Annie Millwood stabbed repeatedly. Ada Wilson slashed in the throat. Martha Tabram stabbed twenty-three times ... His confession told us very clearly where he went: America. ibid.
In New York without the police looking for him Kelly, alias John Miller, would continue his work. ibid.
Twelve murders across five states in four years. ibid.
This is how Jack the Ripper did it: he stalked his victims from behind. He grabbed them, exposed the throat, cut them like this left to right – one, two – took a couple of seconds. Ed Norris, cold case investigator, interview Jack the Ripper in America
It doesn’t make sense that the guy Jack the Ripper would just stop. I think he got scared and I think he took off. And based on what I’ve seen I think he could have easily picked up in New York right where he left off in London. ibid.
This case is of obvious interest because it is in the same city where Carrie Brown was murdered. ibid.
I’m interested in Kelly ... And did he go to New York to kill Carrie Brown? ibid.
If you accept there are five victims; we all accept that. If you put in the other three that are widely accepted beyond the five, that’s eight. You include his wife, that’s nine. Carrie Brown could be number ten and the X could signify the Roman numeral X – his tenth victim. ibid.
We know he puts himself in all these cities coincidentally ... You’ve got a man who killed his own wife, he has severe mental problems, he escapes from the asylum right before the Ripper killings began, he’s in London for all the Ripper killings, he escapes to New York right before the slayings there kick off, he travels across the US and along his trail are murders fitting the Ripper’s at home. Kelly matches the psychological profile of Jack the Ripper. And his age-regressed mugshot is a dead-ringer for the Ripper sketch. There’s no doubt in my mind we have found Jack the Ripper. ibid.
I have been on the warpath ever since I left Broadmoor Asylum. James Kelly
A letter to the NYPD: Capt Ryan: You think that Jack the Ripper is in England, but he is not. I am right here and I expect to kill somebody by Thursday next, so get ready for me with your pistols, but I have a knife that has done more than your pistols. Next thing you will hear of some woman dead. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. Letter to New York Police Department
I looked through all the letters, and I don’t believe any of them were written by the killer. In fact I don’t believe any of the letters fit this crime, except for one letter. And that letter was signed Catch Me When You Can ... This indicates to me that the writer had an Irish background. We have many many similarities between the killer’s handwriting and Tumblety’s. More similarities than you would find in almost anybody else’s handwriting ... Francis Tumblety did write the from hell letter. Michelle Dresbold, graphologist & profiler
Tumblety ... was arrested for committing lewd acts with four different young men. Brent Turvey, criminal profiler
This is actually a person who has [Tumblety] some medical background, somebody who has actually a deep hatred of women, not just of women, of a distrust of women, but of prostitutes as well. Brent Turvey
Mrs Pearcey cut the other woman’s throat very deeply. She almost severed her head. Stewart Evans, author
Tumblety told a tale of how he’d once been married and that he was deeply in love with his wife, but then found that she was a prostitute. As a result of this the marriage broke up and it would seem he never had anything to do with women again. Stewart Evans
While Chapman’s death was more violent than Polly Nichols, the police were convinced the two killings were the work of the same person. Jack the Ripper: An Ongoing Mystery, Discovery 2000
Now nineteen days after the second murder a letter arrived at the Central News Agency: Dear Boss. ibid.
According to this theory the Ripper’s last victim Mary Kelly knew of the Prince’s illicit affair and was blackmailing him. This led Sir William Gull, the royal doctor, to kill Mary and the other prostitutes. A Freemason, Gull, then supposedly left the mutilated remains of Kelly and the other prostitutes as an ancient ritual punishment for betraying government secrets. ibid.
Tumblety had over the years faced a number of charges including malpractice, sedition, and possibly a part in the Lincoln assassination. Just two days before Mary Kelly’s murder, Tumblety was arrested for assault and released two days later. ibid.
The remaining suspect was a man named Kosminski. A Polish Jew who, according to McNaughton, possessed a great hatred of women. Particularly prostitutes. And had strong homicidal tendencies. There were many reasons that made Kosminski a prime suspect, but one seemed particularly telling ... he was a man not unknown to the police ... Kosminski seems the strongest suspect, but with so many conflicting theories there seems little doubt the identity of Jack the Ripper will continue to be debated. ibid.
We have absolutely no idea why he [Montague Druitt] was ever suspected of being the Ripper. He committed suicide at the end of 1888. He drowned himself in the Thames apparently because of some misdemeanour at the boys’ school that he was teaching at. Paul Begg, author Jack the Ripper: The Uncensored Facts
Jack the Ripper’s identity has remained a mystery for more than one hundred and twenty years. Retired Murder Squad Detective Trevor Marriott spent his career catching killers. He is going to use all his detective skills to identify the man who is suspected of killing five women in East London ... He uncovers a man who may have killed on two continents. Jack the Ripper: The German Suspect, 2010
The Autumn of Terror. ibid.
The Lower East Side was even more densely populated than London’s East End ... Hollander thinks there would be no better hiding place for the Ripper. ibid.
The death Marriott is investigating is that of sixty-year-old Carrie Brown. A prostitute. Known locally as Old Shakespeare. A night clerk discovered her mutilated body in the notorious East River Hotel in April 1891. ibid.