With Halloween 2013 right around the corner a new theory about the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper has emerged. It has been 125-years since the infamous killer took the lives of five women in Whitechapel, London. Many theories have come to light in the century and a quarter since Jack the Ripper last stuck. One detective even postulates that Jack the Ripper never existed. A new theory about the identity of the Whitechapel killer suggest he was an American named Francis Tumblety.
Jack the Ripper is said to be responsible for five murders that occurred between August and November of 1888. Jack the Ripper was never caught but his legend grew after the Ripper supposedly signed a letter claiming responsibility for the five murders. Numerous theories have cropped up through the years about who Jack the Ripper might be. Legends and ghost stories also surround the Ripper. The latest theory claims that Jack the Ripper never existed and the letter signed by him was penned by an overzealous journalist hungry for a story.
The newest theory about who Jack the Ripper could possibly be comes from Atlas Obscura. The website says it is dedicated to the discovery of new things. "In an age where everything seems to have been explored and there is nothing new to be found, we celebrate a different way of looking at the world," reads the Atlas Obscura website. The newest theory about Jack the Ripper suggests that the Ripper was an American named Francis Tumblety who was in Whitechapel during the time of the murders and left around the same time the killings stopped.
Francis Tumblety is said to have had medical training and a hatred of women. Both characteristics are attributed to Jack the Ripper and Tumblety has also had his fair share of legal troubles while traveling through the United States and Canada. Of the more serious charges Tumblety was said to have sold abortive material to prostitutes and may have had knowledge of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The article states that Tumblety had a known hatred of prostitutes and was mortified to learn his wife was a working prostitute.
Tumblety's hatred of women was documented in the testimony of a man named Colonel Dunham who had once had dinner with Tumblety. The Colonel was surprised at the response Tumblety gave when he was asked why no women had been invited to dinner. "No Colonel, I don't know any such cattle," Tumblety is said to have responded. "And if I did, I would as your friend sooner give you a dose of quick poison than take you into such danger." After dinner it is reported that Tumblety invited his guests into his office and displayed a wardrobe full of specimen jars.
Inside the jars were pieces of human anatomy including the "Uteri of every class of women. Nearly a half of one of these cases was occupied exclusively with these specimens," the Colonel's testimony reads. There is no empirical proof that the interaction between Tumblety and the dinner party actually took place. But if it did it would explain the savage and surgeon like precision Jack the Ripper used against his victims. One should not simply take a possible second hand conversation as proof Tumblety was Jack the Ripper.
However, Tumblety was a suspect in the initial investigation in the Ripper murders in 1888. When a police investigator was penning a letter about the murders he mentioned "an American quack named Tumblety." While in London Tumblety was staying at a boarding house on Batty Street close to where the murders took place. The owner of the boarding house contacted police at the time of the murders to report an American that was staying with him had been acting strange and left behind a blood soaked shirt.
Other evidence that points to Tumblety in the case of Jack the Ripper includes handwriting analysis by modern technology comparing and matching the handwriting of the Jack the Ripper letter to Tumblety's writings. In May of 1903 Tumblety became gravely ill and checked into a St Louis hospital. When his possessions were inventoried the hospital cataloged a variety of expensive jewelry such as a diamond ring and a gold pocket watch. What stuck Ripper investigators as odd and as evidence, were two cheap pieces of imitation jewelry found among Tumblety's possessions.
The Ripper's second victim, Annie Chapman was missing two imitation gold rings. The fake rings that were found among Tumblety's possessions matched a description of those said to have been taken by Jack the Ripper after the Chapman murder. Is any of this sold proof that Francis Tumblety was Jack the Ripper? Probably not, there are several other theories about Jack that could boast an equal amount of evidence. The mystery of Jack the Ripper may be one that we are destined never to solve.
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