Tumblety and the Lincoln Conspiracy

[jmenges]

Hi

Thought I'd start a thread on this topic and share some thoughts.

The below post is moved from the "Timeline" thread in an edited version.

Note for the year 1865 Tumblety was arrested in St. Louis on May 6th and transported to the Old Capitol Prison on May 10th, then held til the 26th.

This would mean that he arrived at the OCP at the time at which the majority of the hundred or so people rounded up as "disloyal citizens" were being released.

Formal charges were filed against the 8 core Booth conspirators on the exact date of Tumblety's arrival, May 10th. This means that Tumblety was held for 16 days AFTER charges had been filed against Harold, Mrs. Surratt, Paine etc. And well after the trial had started.

Why? Because Holt and Stanton believed they had in their possession Dr. Blackburn, the man named by Conover/Dunham and his two associates in late April/early part of May as being behind a plot to infect Northern troops with cholera. Ignoring the findings of the Missouri provost Marshal that no evidence could be found identifying Tumblety with a "Dr. Blackburn", Holt held Tumblety anyway, since at this time he had faith in the truthfulness of Conover et al's claims. As Conover's fraudulant claims, witnesses and evidence became strikingly apparent to Holt, and dreams of making a "Grand Conspiracy"(linking Booth with Canadian Confederates, Copperheads and Jeff. Davis) began to fall apart, Tumblety was released with no explaination and no apologies.

So, one way to look at this 1865 arrest is that Conover/Dunham and his two cohorts (Merritt and Montgomery) were the source of the name "Dr. Blackburn", given to Holt and the military commission in the weeks leading up to the trial of the 8 conspirators; the military commission cabled out the name, which was recognized by officials in St. Louis, leading to Tumblety's arrest. When, to Conover's surprise, the military commission actually produced a "JH Blackburn" in the form of Tumblety, Conover invented the David Harold connection (Harold was a pharmacists assistant by occupation) in an attempt to cover up his fraudulant testimony about there actually being a "Dr. Blackburn" involved with Booth in a yellow fever plot.
What I mean here is, that there was no "Dr. Blackburn", Luke Pryor or otherwise, involved in a plot to spread yellow fever or contaminate New York's water supply. The plot was a Conover/Merritt/Montgomery invention. Testified to at the conspiracy trial by Hyman (see following post), who later, along with Conover, would be accused of perjury.

Luke Pryor Blackburn of course existed (later govenor of Kentucky), but Conover or Hyman never identifies him by any first name, only by "Dr. Blackburn", and so that easily led to the confusion between Luke Pryor and a certain "JH" Blackburn.


All of Conover's claims began to quickly fall apart in the eyes of Stanton (leading to Tumblety's release), and although Holt and the commission continued to argue of a "Grand Conspiracy" in their summation, they knew that no reliable evidence existed to support their theory.

Of course, there is another, in my opinion equally plausable, way to look at this arrest as well that points the guilty finger at Tumblety...

[jmenges]

As with any good mystery there is another possibility, and in this case it is that Tumblety was indeed involved in some kind of conspiracy with Canadian confederates and Copperheads (whom IMO he most politically resembled) during the Civil War.

I give up this little nugget of information concerning the "yellow fever plot" that was eventually discredited in the eyes of the military commission investigating the assassination.

According to the 29 May 1865 testimony of Godfrey Hyams aka J.W. Harris, on July 26, 1864 John Wilkes Booth registered in his own name at the Parker House (hotel) in Boston. He (Hyams) had been hired by "Dr. Blackburn" to bring clothing belonging to yellow fever victims from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Washington DC (Tumblety was in Halifax, Nova Scotia in the late summer of 1864).

An official at the Customs House in Boston read Hyams' testimony in the newspaper and discovered that parcels of clothing were to be routed through the port of Boston. Looking at the hotel register of the Parker House, he did not find anyone named Hyams or Harris, but did find Booth and four other men registered together at the time Harris was supposedly on his way from Halifax with the clothing. Their names were Charles R. Hunter, A.J. Bursted, H.V. Clinton, and R.A. Leech. Since all these names were most probably aliases, only one of these men could ever be traced elsewhere: "H.V. Clinton".

"H.V.Clinton" registered at the St. Lawrence Hall (a known base for Confederates) in Montreal on 28 May 1864 and gave his home address as St. Louis, Missouri. A search of the records for 1850-1870 turns up no "H.V. Clinton" in St. Louis.


Dr. Blackburn, Washington DC, Montreal, Nova Scotia, St. Louis.

Sound familiar?


JM

[Chris G.]

Hi JM

Very interesting information. I especially like your second version of the situation, which fits in with the type of activity that seemed to characterize Tumblety's career.

Chris

[Robert Linford]

Hi JM

There was an H.V. Clinton arrested for a $200,000 bond robbery in the 1860s. No idea if it's the same man.

Robert

[jmenges]

Thanks for your replies!

For the record, there seems to be some question as to whether Tumblety was in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick or New Orleans in the fall of 1864. The information I posted came from the timeline but I know it's not to be taken as a solid.

With that out of the way, I'd like to describe why I feel that, rather than apolitical, Tumblety, through his own writings, shows himself to be a Northern Democrat/Whig. As at least a couple of folks here already know, some Northerners who held these political beliefs were easily persuaded over to the Confederate Secret Service side once the war broke out. This is because Confederates and Northern Democrats were alike in some very important ways:They were both anti-Republican, they felt that the Lincoln Administration trampled upon the rights contained in the sacred Constitution, and they were both totally opposed to the use of force in order to keep the Union together.

Tumblety's 1872 pamphlet is, when he is not advertising his medicine, a vicious tirade against Stanton and the two Republican administrations he served. Bitterness over his arrest is what of course fueled his anger, but in my opinion he left some real indication of how he felt about Republicanism, Lincoln and the War, and these feelings fall right in line with the feelings of Northern Democrats sympathetic with the Southern cause. In it he praised the Whigs Clay and Webster (who were supportive of keeping the Missouri Compromise in place) and had praise for McClellan, who ran as a Democrat against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential race.

"Although I have strictly avoided mixing in the political maelstorm which had proved so disasterous to the universal country, my feeling and sympathy has ever been with the Union and the Constitution, under which Young America progressed in strength, power and wealth, with almost miraculous growth."

The first part of this statement is contradicted by his own words about his Washington associations elsewhere, but he seond part of his comment might as well be the manifesto of the Copperhead: Union, Constitution, and a yearning for the America before the rise of Republicanism.

Here again he expresses the importance of the rights of the citizen, which Lincoln was widely believed by patriotic people North and South, to be tossing in the garbage can:

"a victim to a tyrannical disregard of the rights and liberties of the citizen, and an example of individual outrage and persecution which would at one time have been deemed impossible of perpetration in a free and enlightened America."

Again, obviously, the one-time "free and enlightened America" existed before the Republican party of Lincoln took power.

Everywhere in his text Tumblety refers to the "despotic", "tyrannical" rule, not of Lincoln, but of his Secretary of War, Stanton. When it concerns his arrest and imprisonment this is understandable, but when his comments drift into a critique of the Union's conduct during the war itself, Stanton, in my opinion, is used as a scapegoat.Since by this time Lincoln was viewed as nearly God-like in the Northern states, and, since criticism of Lincoln was publically of the highest taboo, any criticism of his conduct during the war was commonly laid at the feet of Stanton. Stanton safely became the proxy of all the ill-feelings towards Lincoln.

To illustrate this point it is intesting to note one of the War-time greivences Tumblety lays at the feet of Stanton and not Lincoln: the failure of the North to conduct a prisoner exchange with the South.

"The proof is ready, whenever required, that the then Secretary of War was alone the cause of delay in the exchange of prisoners. When the Confederate authorities were pleading with us to take away, without immediate exchange, twenty thousand of our prisoners, Stanton was inexorable, and refused to listen to the application. He did not wish to exchange skeletons for live men. He did not care to have our soldiers brought back in exchange for rebel soldiers" etc etc etc.

Tumblety goes on and on and, towards the end of this section hints that Stanton himself was perhaps a criminal in the "new conspiracy". That is, the assassination of Lincoln by his own men.

What I find interesting about this section is that what Tumblety is describing here is the very motive the Confederate's supposedly used (and Booth certainly cited) for the dozens of kidnapping schemes targeting Lincoln; ie- to force the North into a desperately needed prisoner exchange. This was the whole reason behind what led Holt and Stanton to believe in "the Grand Conspiracy" and what kidnapping plans they sucessfully suppressed at the trial of the 8 Booth associates. Tumblety is not only giving credence to the theory of the Southern motive, but nearly sympathising with it by laying the entire blame about the desperate situation the South was in at the feet of Stanton.


More to come...


JM

[jmenges]

As an aside (sort of), while there is no evidence that Tumblety was in St. Louis in 1862, it is interesting to note what went on in that city in his absence, in a building on the corner of Fifth and Market Street. The New Order of American Knights (later to be the Sons of Liberty) was formed for the first time right in his favorite town. This was the main secret Confederate/Copperhead organization whose goal was to organise support for the South throughout the North, as well as meet frequently with Confederate Secret Service operatives in Canada.

JM

[Chris G.]

Hi JM

I am persuaded by your argument that Tumblety was a northern Copperhead with southern sympathies. However, let's play devil's advocate here for a moment. The quotes that you are giving are from Tumblety's 1872 pamphlet, but how much of this is what he actually believed at the time of the Civil War and how much is it him playing to the crowd in 1872? That is, he could be expressing these attitudes because he feels it will give him some advantage with his reading audience in 1872.

All the best

Chris

[Robert Linford]

Dr T once sent a letter to the British wishing them best of luck in the Boer War. Slippery customer.

[jmenges]

Thanks Chris, Robert...

As far as I can tell, the 1872 pamphlet is in the majority a reprint of the 1866 pamphlet with added supplements. So, in my opinion, the surprise is in that he did not tone down his rhetoric for the 1872 version but indeed kept all the political opinions and attacks on Stanton in place. It was much more acceptable to express hatred towards Stanton in 1866 than in 1872, since by then the man was dead. Expressing Copperhead sympathies, on the other hand, in 1866, would have been risky (since the North was smarting over the decision whether or not to try Jeff Davis for treason and involvement in the Booth Conspiracy), and that is why I believe he coached his views in the vague language he did. But, devil's advocating, the fact that he seemed generally comfortable putting his opinions in print the way he did in 1866 must mean he felt he had nothing to fear re: there being possible evidence of him as a Confederate spy.

What I believe adds a little weight to my suggestion that Tumblety was a Copperhead is simply the places he chose to reside and travel to. I am suprised that he was not arrested more often when his travel schedule took him to such places as Washington DC, New York City, Montreal, St. Louis (all major Confederate-leaning cities and centers of spy organizations) and possibly Virginia itself.

Lastly, what I meant to add to the above post about his writings, is that the only real compliment he gives Lincoln is saying that the man had "social grace" or something to that affect.

Lincoln was parodied, North and South, as a man utterly lacking in any kind of social grace. Close friends of his would comment that, if they did not know who Lincoln was, they would not be seen walking down the street with him. Lincoln is reported to have had frontier manners that shocked the upper-crust members of the southern town such as Washington DC was. He was reported in the Northern press to habitually blow his nose with his finger and thumb rather than use a handkerchief, put his boots on chairs and tables, speak casually in a rather uneducated manner etc.

So it may be that the compliment Tumblety gives Lincoln of being a man of social grace contained just a bit of backhanded sarcasm.

JM

[jmenges]

As an aside (sort of), while there is no evidence that Tumblety was in St. Louis in 1862, it is interesting to note what went on in that city in his absence, in a building on the corner of Fifth and Market Street. The New Order of American Knights (later to be the Sons of Liberty) was formed for the first time right in his favorite town. This was the main secret Confederate/Copperhead organization whose goal was to organise support for the South throughout the North, as well as meet frequently with Confederate Secret Service operatives in Canada.

JM

I should have added that the Sons of Liberty moved their headquarters from St. Louis to New York City in the spring of 1864. I've yet to locate their address. With the Sons of Liberty operating out of New York, it's Copperhead spies (disguised as salesmen, ministers or doctors) were easily coordinated to travel from New York City to Montreal or from NYC to Buffalo. Buffalo being the closest US city on the rail-line to St. Catherines and the Canadian side of Niagra Falls, where the Canadian Confederates had their base. Once in Niagra Falls, the spy would sign the guest book of the Table Rock House Hotel, thereby alerting the Canadian Confederates of his arrival, since this guest book would be checked several times a week by Confederate operatives. This guest book used in during the Civil War currently resides in the Niagra Falls Museum. (source- Come Retribution: The Confederate Secret Service and the Assassination of Lincoln by William A Tidwell)

The bit I wrote a few posts above about the tone of the 1866/1872 pamphlet, (based on Chris' suggestion that T may have had a specific audience in mind) was rather clumsily put together. The reason I said that T would have been safer criticising Stanton and the Johnson administration in 1866, even going so far to suggest that Stanton may have been part of a criminal conspiracy, is since at that time the public was questioning, and Congress was actually investigating, the Johnson administration (and Johnson in particular) for possible cover-ups involving the Lincoln assassination. This stemmed from the calling card Booth left at Johnson's address on the day of the shooting, and, following Booth's death, the rumor about 18 pages of Booth's diary torn out while in the possession of Johnson's men, both of these things (which Johnson was innocent of) caused the radical wing of the Republican party to suspect his possible involvement in the assassination. Mary Lincoln, for what it's worth, also suspected that Johnson was involved in the conspiracy to murder her husband. The conspiracy theory centered specifically on Stanton did not gain wide publicity until the 1930's.

JM

[jmenges]

Another, rather important, thing to be pointed out (for those who do not know), and something that will always sit in the back of my mind, is that Tumblety in his tirade against Stanton and Holt singles out Conover/Dunham twice by name as being part of the coordinated effort to destroy the lives and reputations of innocent people.

Conover was tried for his perjured assassination testimony and the role he played in evidence and witness tampering and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

This raises the familiar spectre of Conover the liar, in 1888, recognising Tumblety's name while reading of his flight from London, and as he recalls the insults and accusations Tumblety metted out towards him in 1866, he may have decided to tamper with Tumblety's reputation one last time.

JM

[Joe Chetcuti]

Hi JM,

In response to what you recently posted on the Casebook, I think it was a wise decision on your part to make a clarification about the report of Dr. Tumblety having been in Nova Scotia during 1864. As of now, I'd only consider this to be a newspaper report. We've had some sharp cookies look into this over the years, but so far nobody has been able to confirm this story to have been true.

Then of course I suppose, nobody has proved it to have been false as well. It was said that Tumblety went to Nova Scotia while using the alias Dr. Sullivan, and that he had to flee Canada to avoid trouble in an attempted manslaughter case. This account deserved to be mentioned on the "Tumblety Timeline" but it still should be looked upon as just a newspaper report until we learn anything different about it.

You're certainly tackling a very complex and interesting subject here, JM!! Lafayette Baker was headquartered in the Old Capitol Prison where Tumblety was incarcerated. Baker had in his possession the 1863 testimony from Private Richard Render concerning the doctor's peddling of phony military discharge papers to Union soldiers. Baker was familiar with Tumblety, and he would have known right off the bat that Tumblety wasn't Blackburn. It turned out that the real Dr. Blackburn was arrested in Canada during Tumblety's incarceration.

JM, do you think they arrested Tumblety for "suspicion of being Dr. Blackburn" to maybe to show that their interest in Blackburn was focused on the St. Louis area, when in reality they were really closing in on him in Canada? Just a thought.

[jmenges]

Hi Joe!

Hope you had a good thanksgiving...

Good question.

Targeting St. Louis (as a former base for the Sons of Liberty) while really closing in on Canada in order to throw off LP Blackburn is a possibility. Especially since the arrest of another Blackburn may have made LP breathe easier for a few more days. But, I betcha LP Blackburn knew who Tumblety was.

If local St. Louis law arrested Dr. T on their own authority, then they may have simply mixed him up with the Blackburn the feds were looking for, and add to that that T was most likely a suspicious character. That all depends if T's arrest was in fact a case of mistaken identity.

Youre correct of course that the Union authorities knew who L.P. Blackburn was, and most likely exactly where he was, at the time of Tumblety's arrest outside of St. Louis. Tumblety was supposedly examining a land purchase when he was arrested, if I remember correctly. Funny that. That's coincidentally the same reason Booth gave when he met with Dr. Mudd and acquired a horse in the months prior to the Lincoln killing, just looking at some land...

I would suspect that the St. Louis authorities knew who Tumblety was, and that he was not Blackburn, and that knowledge was with all the authorities right up to T's stay in the OCP. So there must have been another reason for his arrest and detention.

I would of course like to guess that T was arrested in St. Louis because he was a known Confederate. St. Louis, and the State of Missouri as a whole, had been 'officially' combating illegal and quasi-confederate operations since 1854, and would continue to do so until the 1880's. It is possible that Tumblety's movements, his "land speculating", his travels to and from known confederate locales, were all known to the local authorities (as well as the federals in St. Louis) and that something occurring after the Lincoln assassination finally persuaded the law to arrest him.

JM

[Joe Chetcuti]

JM,

I feel sorry for anybody who wants to look into the Littlechild Suspect because there are thousands of little facts that you have to try to keep in some kind of order. I admire you for having a go at it though! But when Tumblety was arrested while looking for property, that was in Carondelet, Missouri in March of 1865. He was dressed in bogus military attire when it happened so that probably didn't help his cause.

When he was arrested on May 6, 1865 he was at his St. Louis office.

Luke Blackburn was arrested in Montreal on May 18th. This arrest may have resulted in Tumblety's incarceration time getting diminished inside the Old Capitol Prison.

You mentioned that you feel Tumblety was a Confederate. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the doctor received some Confederate kickback money for every phony military discharge paper he sold. Nor would it shock me to hear that Tumblety was getting Confederate money for reporting of the movements of General McCleland's staff. (The doctor was known to have trailed these men.) But the question that arises when considering if Tumblety was a Confederate is....Was he a Confederate, or was he a man who may have just dealt with the Confederates for his own financial purpose?

Be it the Confederates or the Fenians or whoever, I just don't think the entities that hired Tumblety's services would have left much of a paper trail that would link them with such dealings.

[admin tim]

Did we know this?

http://www.abrahamlincoln200.org/upl...er-2007-08.pdf

A very recent article that may have come in beneath the radar.