For two years, I’ve been investigating the Jack the Ripper case – pouring over the original police and court records, as well as contemporary newspaper reports and other evidence. What I’ve uncovered will amaze you. On May 28, 2024 – I will reveal all in a new book: Jack the Ripper and Abraham Lincoln (Troubador publishing).
The spark for this investigation was an appearance on the documentary series: William Shatner’s The UnXplained. We were looking at the arrest of an Irish American suspect: Dublin-born and New York raised Francis Tumblety. At the end of 1888 – after months of brutal slayings on the streets of London – Scotland Yard believed they had the notorious serial killer in their grasp. But then Tumblety jumped bail and fled back to New York. Despite being trailed by English detectives to Manhattan – no serious attempt was made to extradite him. Why? Even when a copycat murder happened in the city!
The mystery deepens even further…. Because a quarter of a century earlier, Tumblety was arrested in connection with one of the other great crimes of the 19th century: the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. A coincidence perhaps, but I decided to take a much closer look. How could this man have been a key figure in two such iconic crimes?
Going through American and Canadian newspaper reports from the 1850s onwards, I found that Tumblety had quite a track record. He was implicated in at least two manslaughters, several cases of alleged gross indecency, fraud, assault, and most disturbingly of all – owned a collection of women’s uteruses in glass jars. He would produce these at his dinner parties from a cabinet of curiosities. Tumblety’s outspoken misogyny was well known.
However, that was not the end of the matter. The book details Tumblety’s personal life as an open homosexual who had a string of stormy relationships with younger men. This in turn reveals networks that protected Tumblety from prosecution on several occasions. Now, I’m both LGBT and half-Irish. That’s in part what fascinated me about an Irish American kicking and clawing his way out of poverty in mid-19th century America – and also a gay man arrested repeatedly for cruising and over allegations of abuse. Not that I fit that description! But the use of his ethnicity and sexuality to insulate himself from prosecution was something I had to understand and expose.
What emerged were connections to top politicians, military officers, and other grandees. Even allowing for Tumblety’s ability to lie and spin – he was undoubtedly well networked and he needed to be. I’ll explain this fully in the book.
And finally – if that has not been enough to whet your appetite – we discover that Tumblety may have been linked to another serial murder spree before the Ripper killings. So – pre-order your copy today to avoid disappointment. For now – you will have to order from United Kingdom based sites but a US edition will be out soon!
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jack-Ripper-Abraham-Lincoln-greatest/dp/1805143646/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/jack-the-ripper-and-abraham-lincoln/tony-mcmahon/9781805143642
