By Tony Mcmahon https://tony-mcmahon.com/ @tonymcmahon_TV
Published by Matador https://www.troubador.co.uk/ @matadorbooks
308 pages ISBN 9781805143642
Publication date 28 May 2024
I was sent a signed paperback copy and a selected extract to enable me to take part in this Blog Tour. I would like to thank Anne at Random Things Tours @RandomTTours for the invitation to participate and of course the Author and the Publisher.
The Cover
Its an interesting cover, the kind a Ripper ‘enthusiast’ would expect, with gaslight, hints of fog, a man in a top hat with a vicious looking knife. The reality is it is a fanciful depiction that bears little resemblance to the contemporary descriptions of the killer.
My review
When I saw the title, my initial reaction was that this would be some fanciful nonsense in a similar vein to that Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie of a dozen or so years ago. No, I was informed it is a serious work of non-fiction, with sources fully referenced in footnotes. Realising who the author is, having seen him on a great many television programmes, my interest was piqued.
Jack the Ripper is probably the most written about person in Britain, I would say English speaking world but there are an awful lot of books on JFK, yet next to nothing factual is known about him because his identity is unknown. Certainly, more is known of his victims, but through laziness and possibly misogyny, they have all been wrongly portrayed as prostitutes. That was until Hallie Rubenhold redressed the balance with her brilliant book The Five but still this myth persists. Indeed, there is uncertainty as to how many victims there were, five is the widely accepted number (the ‘canonical five’) but strong cases can be made for others to be included such as Martha Tabram.,
The whole uncertainty over the killings has inspired generations of armchair detectives, researchers and writers, with each new generation throwing up its own prime suspects. Some of the potential suspects are credible, others less so, with others far too fanciful. With some it borders on obsession, as Patricia Cornwell as spent twenty years in a fruitless pursuit for evidence to support her theory that he was the artist, Walter Sickert.
Our author has settled on Francis Tumblety as his prime suspect, a strange man who Scotland Yard were certainly aware of at the time. In this book he looks at the life of Tumblety, a man who was arrested amongst the conspirators to Lincoln’s assassination and traces it through to his death, whilst presenting the evidence he has discovered to support his claims. A well written and fascinating book it proves to be too.
Tumblety was a flamboyant, larger than life man, who took enormous risks as well as earning several fortunes and losing much of them. The merest glance at the photograph on the back cover, with the outrageous moustache, elaborate garb and pickelhaube demonstrates how arresting his appearance could be. He was a man who lived for self-promotion, writing his autobiography or updating it no less than four times. He lived a life that if it were to be filmed as a piece of fiction would be described as far too fanciful!
He was a self-styled Indian Herb Doctor, a ‘quack’ with no formal medical qualification, a ‘snake oil’ salesman selling his cure-all potions to the masses. To do this he cultivated a unique appearance, advertised extensively and ingratiated himself with people of power and influence. This is a man born too early, he would have loved the internet.
Tumblety was a homosexual, an illegal and very dangerous activity then. He was charged with gross indecency whilst in London around the time of the Ripper attacks and absconded via France home to America to avoid trial. It is suggested that clandestine connections between fellow homosexuals, who needed to be circumspect and operate in secrecy, lead to some very surprising meetings of men with a common interest. He also had valets under employment, always young men, who changed frequently, the implication being they were sexual partners is quite reasonable.
It was one such valet that was the connection to the murder of Lincoln. Tumblety knew some of the conspirators and was certainly arrested and held for some days before release, one of many instances where he managed to free himself from the clutches of the law when all seemed lost. The controversial claim in the book is that Booth, Lincoln and Tumblety may have had knowledge of each other, possibly carnal by nature because of their homosexuality. We all know Lincoln was married, but that doesn’t preclude such leanings, and there appears to be a good deal of evidence that the President regularly slept in a bed with another man. There is also a suggestion that syphilis played a part and in particular explaining Tumblety’s misogyny and strange behaviour later in life.
Unsurprisingly little of this can be considered common knowledge historically recorded in black and white on the page. There are clues though, some subtle innuendo, others by cleverly disguised by almost coded language. It is here that the author has excelled in researching source documents and piecing together the connections and inferences.
Was Tumblety the Ripper then? Well, there is certainly some strong evidence to support the claim. He was a known misogynist; he knew how to handle a surgical knife even without formal qualifications and perhaps most damning of all, he had a unique collection. It is documented that he had a collection of uteruses in specimen jars which he would show to male visitors when drunk whilst entertaining. He also travelled to England regularly throughout his career and was in London at the right time, possibly staying in a boarding house in Whitechapel. However, ‘Ripperologists’ have recently gone a little cold on him as a suspect. The author examines their doubts and puts together a quite cogent and clever response. The clincher for him is a simple worthless item in his possession at death, something totally incongruent with his life and how he lived it.
Jack the Ripper and Abraham Lincoln is an intelligently crafted, well researched and clearly written speculation about the connection between two of the most significant events of the nineteenth century. Even if after reading you are unconvinced, you will have more insight into the darker aspects of life in that century. A fascinating read.
Jack the Ripper and Abraham Lincoln can be purchased direct from the publisher here
Peter turns the page 