5Q With NEMO

[How Brown]

Many thanks to Nemo for helping out with his answers !
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Please provide 5 or "the five" most significant developments in Ripperology that have occurred in this millenium so far.

I would have different answers for the 5 most significant developments in the case itself. The 5 developments I give here are what I consider to be of the most importance to "Ripperology" ie the study of the case

1) Undoubtedly you cannot study the case without evidence and by far the most significant events relating to the evidence are the opening of the Scotland Yard files and also the receipt of the mortuary photos and post-mortem evidence in 1988

2) The publication of "Jack the Ripper the Ultimate Source Book" and "Letters from Hell" by Stewart Evans and Keith Skinner that finally made all the relevant documents available to all students worldwide. Included here would be Philip Sugdens and similar works that do not perpetuate the myths but try to state the facts only, setting a high benchmark for current and future writers on the subject

3) The uncovering of the "Littlechild letter" by Stewart Evans provided much food for thought on a suspect (Tumblety) who was there for all to see but was significantly overlooked by "modern" Ripperologists

3) The formation of the Cloak and Dagger Club/ Whitechapel Society that gave a platform for speakers and writers and inspired many people to research and study the case

4) The advent of multi-media projects such as DVDs, CD-Roms, internet based research,genealogical sites and the like and the creation of public forums to discuss and probe the evidence

5) I'm going to have to include the discovery of the Swanson Marginalia and the McNaughten Memorandum which gave great insight to the contemporary police views on some of the major suspects

[How Brown]

Nemo:

As always,thanks for this contribution.

Allow me to ask you your view on the speculative side of Ripperology in say the last 5 years...in regard to Tumbelty.

More to come.

[Nemo]

I think when Tumblety was first looked at, he seemed a very strong candidate for being the Ripper. Over the past few years, I think he has been considered as much less of a suspect.

There have been numerous excellent threads and posts examinating the details of his life, character and demeanour, not least of which is the current thread on these boards "Come Fly with Me" which is producing an immense amount of information regarding Tumblety's social life and actual and possible aquaintances, though nothing I've seen seems to provide conclusive evidence for or against his candidacy.

As far as I can perceive, current arguments against him being the Ripper are, in the main, his age and appearance, and the fact that he may have been in custody while Mary Kelly was murdered.

I can see every reason for the police to have suspected him, but no real reason to connect him to the murders. I think a lot of their suspicion came from the police view that they had a sample of the Ripper's handwriting. Within the text of the most famous letters, they could see "Americanisms" and Irish phonetics. Together with the speculation about an American doctor and/or Fenian plots you can easily see why Tumblety would be top of the list for further investigation when they came across him. If they had known about his collection of uteri at the time then I don't think he would have got his bail.

I don't think his age goes against his capability of committing the crimes, and his appearance may not be out of kilter if he really laid on a disguise and was probably not one of the people saw by any supposed witness to the Ripper murders though that is a bit of a convoluted explanation

I have seen recent speculation regarding Tumblety paying or otherwise controlling an accomplice who did the actual murders. This negates the speculation about Tumblety's skill with a knife and seems highly unlikely though not absolutely impossible. He always seemed to like having a faithful companion with him and may have been able to influence them strongly

Apart from Kelly being a possible copycat, surely someone would have mentioned in the press or police reports that he was in custody during the last murder if that was the case.

It is interesting that the murder dates coincide somewhat with his alleged homosexual offences

I would like evidence that exonerates Tumblety as I can't help but keep returning to him as a suspect. He reminds me of Stephenson in certain aspects of his character though a lot more "sinister".

Anything that connects him with the "lodger" would be valuable evidence pointing toward him being the Ripper, I think. A black bag with pornography, cheques etc sounds a very Tumblety-like possession and it would imply a lot if the police were asking for a sample of his handwriting in connection with this and the "bloody shirt" incident.

Overall though, from recent speculation on the boards, I get the impression that Tumblety is unlikely to be the Ripper, and he would be quite low on any list I would come up with at the moment, though it would not surprise me in the least if it did turn out to be him.

There is an immense amount of material on Tumblety and I wish I could read it all. He is definitely worthy of intense investigation in my opinion

[How Brown]

Great post,Nemo. You hit a lot of targets with that one.

Allow me to ask you a few more Tumbelty related questions.

Do you think that because he either was associated or was considered to be associated with the Fenians, that this assumption may have been a primary factor in the way he was percieved as a possible Ripper?

In other words, if a man is "bad" enough to be a Fenian, he therefore could be "bad" enough to be the Ripper.

I see Stephenson traits in his saga as well,Nemo.

One of those traits is an individual's self-infusion into the WM (Stephenson and Marsh,for an example)...and in Tumbelty's case, that his claims to be a doctor,as well being an American one at that, may have backfired on him...

What other traits do you see,if you don't mind me asking?

[Nemo]

I think one of the greatest if not THE greatest worries at the time was Fenian plots against the Crown. The Ripper crimes could have been perceived as a diversion for other crimes, the results of internal policing among conspirators, an attempt to bring shame and disrepute on Scotland Yard due to their inefficiency etc I'm sure the police would not have been surprised to discover Fenian connections with the crimes

I think some connection was made with the use of surgical knives to assassinate Lord Cavendish and Thomas Burke in Pheonix Park in 1882, after which there occurred ant-irish and anti-Catholic riots. The police/politicians might have been worried that the Ripper murders were a plot by the Fenians to throw suspicion on the Jews and so cause anti-Jewish riots and anarchy in London/England
They seem also to have considered the main Ripper letters to contain "Irishisms"

Tumblety as an Irish -American doctor would seem to fit the bill. Either the police did not put 100% reliability on witness descriptions, otherwise they would not have arrested Tumblety for the WM in the first place, or possibly they might have considered him to be an important organiser rather than the perpetrator of the Ripper crimes.

Tumblety more than matches RDS in his flamboyance and self-aggrandisement and his willingness (almost a necessity) to include others in his fantasies. He appears to believe in his own lies and exaggerations. He seems to wallow in notoriety while denying the crime - such as his (non-existent) connections with the Civil War plot and the Lincoln assassination.

..and when you get to the bottom line, it all seems to be about money and how to get it without having a real job. Both Tumblety and RDS had money trouble. How artful Tumblety must have been to get two people whom he had just met to put up £1500 as surety for his bail in a case involving sexual "perversion".

Both RDS and Tumblety seem totally self-serving and would not think twice about turning over the next guy
They both seem very well educated and literate and put a lot of time, thought and effort into their machinations. They are both "plotters" and almost certainly revel in their perceived superiority over their fellow men.

[How Brown]

Nemo:

Thanks so much for the concise and clearly expressed post. I wish I could condense ideas like you do...I wind up getting into side issues because I have a relaxed brain and the attention span of a fruit fly..

More Q to come in case you're up to it.:kiss:

[Nemo]

Thanks Howard

More questions are welcome

Regards

Nemo