Yuku free message boards

Quote:

---

FRANCIS TUMBLETY
(1833-1903)

A more recent suspect emerged in Evans and Gainey's 1995 book, Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer. He was born either in Canada or Ireland in 1833. The family found its way to Rochester, NY by 1849.

First reports of Francis are not promising. In 1848 he was described by neighbors as "a dirty, awkward, ignorant, uncared-for, good-for-nothing boy...utterly devoid of education." In 1850, he moved to Detroit and set up a practice as a physician sometime later. There is no indication that he ever finished school or even attended medical school. Despite that detail, he became quite a prosperous doctor.

He moved all across North America setting up various medical practices and living in flamboyant splendor. Occasionally he would run afoul of the law and would set up his practice somewhere else.

At one point he went to Liverpool in 1874 and carried on a homosexual affair with Sir Henry Hall Caine. When he returned to New York, he became known for his "mania for the company of young men and grown-up youths." He was also known as despising women, particularly "fallen women."

Tumbley arrested

Tumblety returned to England in June of 1888 and was arrested for homosexual activities. He was then charged on suspicion in the Whitechapel murders. He jumped bail on November 24 and fled to France and then onward to New York. Police in New York were on the lookout for him and finally found him. He was not arrested because there was no proof that he was implicated in the Ripper murders.

---