Jack The Ripper Died In St. Louis

Because I live in St. Louis, I am convinced that Jack the Ripper died in St. Louis.  He died on May 28, 1903, at St. John's Mercy Hospital.

His name was Francis Tumblety, and he was so appreciative of the care he received that he bequeathed his jewelry to the nuns who ran St. John’s Mercy Hospital.  The jewelry consisted of:

     - One cluster ring of 17 diamond stones 

     - One 5 stone diamond ring

     - Two imitation set rings

Tumblety grew up in Rochester, New York.  As a young boy, he made money selling pornography to the people who traveled the Erie Canal.  

As an adult, he moved from city to city.  He called himself Dr. Tumblety and made his money by selling an ointment he concocted called “Dr. Tumblety’s Pimple Banisher”, which promised to make old faces look young and beautiful.  

Tumblety sported a long moustache, and dressed elegantly.  He was often seen riding a white steed accompanied by two greyhounds on a leash.  

It seems odd that such an ostentatious man would own two cheap imitation set rings.

For a few years in the early 1860's, Tumblety lived in St. Louis, in the Lindell Hotel - the largest hotel in the world at that time.  He held card playing evenings in his hotel room, inviting only men.  When one of his guests remarked about the absence of women, Tumblety would grow livid. He would speak about how he deeply detested women, especially fallen women.  Then he would show his guests his medical museum: two cabinets filled with glass jars.  In each jar: a uterus.

In 1888, Tumblety was not living in St. Louis.  He was living in England, in the Whitechapel section of London.  Whitechapel was the locale of the five Jack the Ripper slayings in 1888…slayings of five prostitutes, or in the parlance of the times: "fallen women".

Scotland Yard arrested Tumblety, not for the slayings but for “gross indecency between men” on November 7, 1888.  He posted bond and slipped out of England to catch a ship from France to New York.  Scotland Yard sent two detectives to New York on a ship from Liverpool.  The Liverpool ship arrived before the French ship, and the two detectives met Tumblety on the dock when he reached New York.  Scotland Yard sent a supervisor a few days later.  But the policemen from Scotland Yard had no authority to arrest Tumblety on U.S. soil.

After November 7, 1888, there were no more Jack the Ripper slayings.  The fact that Scotland Yard would send three personnel to North America pinpoints Tumblety as a prime suspect.

There is now an official word for the study of Jack the Ripper: ripperology.  Each ripperologist has their own favorite prime suspect.

I am not a ripperologist, but Tumblety is my own favorite prime suspect.  Not just because of the St. Louis connection.  But also because of Annie Chapman, Jack the Ripper’s victim number two. 

When police examined Annie Chapman’s body on September 8, 1888, they saw that her uterus was missing.  It had been removed intact.  Also, missing from Annie Chapman’s left hand: two imitation set rings.

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Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Tumblety (7 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xGFqS4ulac

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NOTE: Doug's best stories have been collected into a book: Puppy Out Of Breath.  Price = $11.  You can purchase a copy at  http://www.puppyoutofbreath.com