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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3109
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 11:22 pm: | 
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Just came across this small bit today... don't recall seeing it before.
Washington Post
22 April 1891
Mr. Tumblety Robbed of $7000.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark., April 21.--Thieves went through the Plateau Hotel, securing about $8,000 in money and diamonds. The thieves secured a gold watch and a considerable sum of money from Judge Duffy, and $2,000 in cash and diamonds valued at $5,000 from Dr. Tumblety.
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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CB
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Sunday, May 30, 2004 - 11:44 pm: |
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Hi Spry,
I guess that lets him off the hook for the Carrie Brown murder. I wonder if there were any murders in Arkansas. Thanks for posting the article.
All the best,CB |
John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 226
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 7:17 pm: |
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Hello Stephen,
An interesting article you have posted.
What perplexes me is why the sub-editor has combined the total of money stolen from Judge Duffy AND Dr Tumblety and headlined it as :
"MR TUMBLETY ROBBED OF $7000."
Obviously hastily edited, Tumblety has lost his "Doctor" title, and...perhaps.. the sub-editor is implying Tumblety and Duffy were sharing rooms: or- even more sinisterly- Tumblety was in cahoots with the judge.
Did Duffy ever try Tumblety for anything?
(Its either that or just careless editing).
With all this stuff on Tumblety tumbling out of obscure & mainstream newspapers, the man deserves to become the subject for a new film by Johnny Depp!! |
Dan Norder
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 129
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 7:22 pm: |
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Hi Stephen,
Hrmm... Is there any sort of context that would let us believe that it's the the same Tumblety? Odds are good, I would think.
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes
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Dan Norder
Detective Sergeant
Username: Dannorder
Post Number: 130
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 - 7:25 pm: |
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Hi John,
I think you read that wrong. Tumblety's $2,000 in cash and ~$5,000 in diamonds would be $7,000 from him. The editor didn't combine the total of both men when writing the subhead or it'd be $8,000.
Dan Norder, editor, Ripper Notes
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Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3111
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 1:49 pm: |
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Hi Dan -
Francis Tumblety was generally very well-known all over North America... so much so that Vanity Fair lampooned him in 1861. Anytime an article published 1860-1900 references "Dr. Tumblety," its safe to assume it refers to our Tumblety (unless internal evidence suggests otherwise).
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 372
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 9:09 pm: |
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I checked the Brooklyn Eagle web site to see what more could be gleaned. I found an item on the jewelry/cash burglary, but it seems to be from the same source as the one in the Washington Post. However it does give a day of the incident, and I was able (using the Eagle web site) to find the date of the burglary. This is it. It was in the Brooklyn EAGLE of April 20, 1891 on page 6 in a column of small news items:
"Thieves went through the Plateau hotel, in Hot Spring, Ark., Friday night, securing about $8,000 in money and diamonds. The thieves secured a gold watch and a considerable sum of money from Judge Duffy, and $2,000 in cash and diamonds valued at $5,000 and $7,000 from Dr. Tumblety."
Notice that it is almost word for word like the original Washington Post article, except for the phrase, "Friday night". The calendar for April 1891 showed that the last Friday before April 20, 1891 was on April 17, 1891.
I would like to know who Judge Duffy was.
Jeff |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3113
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 01, 2004 - 10:49 pm: |
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I tried searching for newspapers published out of Hot Springs Arkansas, but it seems not a single one is to be found in OCLC from 1891... anyone else have any luck? Several papers were published out of HS, but there's a complete void near the 1891 period.
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 227
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 8:11 am: |
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Hello Dan,
Thanks, you are correct, I did misread the WASHINGTON POST article.
The BROOKLYN EAGLE seems to have a more ambiguous
last line though.
Yes, I too would like to know more about Judge Duffy.
Doubtless Stephen will find some bio on him, I wonder what Jeffrey Hoffman can tell us? |
John Ruffels
Inspector
Username: Johnr
Post Number: 228
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 8:15 am: |
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Apologies. Jeffrey. Of course I blundered again. I meant Jeffrey Bloomfield, not "Jeffrey Hoffman". |
Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 2
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 1:22 pm: |
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CB, that was a very good + quick observation concerning the Carrie Brown matter. It shows the importants of keeping a reliable time-chart of events. Tumblety used to travel to White Sulpher Springs, Va to alleviate his rheumatism. I wonder if he chose Hot Springs, Ark for the same reason. Bye!
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 373
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 02, 2004 - 10:13 pm: |
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I have hopes of finding more about Judge Duffy soon. If I do, I will tell you.
Jeff Bloomfield (not Hoffman, John) |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 376
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 10:45 pm: |
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So far (in going through the Brooklyn Eagle on the web) I have found two candidates for Judge Duffy. Given the commonness of the surname "Duffy", it is surprising that in the years immediately before 1891 (1886 - 1888) I have found two judges of that name. One is a judge of the federal circuit court in Baltimore, who gave a decision in Southern Telegraph and Cable Company of New York vs. the United Lines Telegraph Company regarding the ownership of some property. That was in the Eagle of April 15, 1888, on page 9. But the other articles deal with a magistrate of New York City named Judge Duffy, and his various police court cases. The most interesting one deals with one Donovan who claimed he jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived (which Duffy did not believe). This was reported in the Brooklyn Eagle of August 29, 1886, on page 1. [Historical note of explanantion: After the Brooklyn Bridge was opened in 1883 it was the highest structure in New York City and Brooklyn. A physical fitness trainor named Robert Odlum jumped off the bridge as a stunt, but was killed in the attempt. Subsequently a man named Steve Brodie claimed he did jump off and survived. It is not known for certain if Brodie did or not, but the public decided to accept this story, and the phrase, "Pulling a Brodie"" (meaning doing a remarkable athletic stunt) became a popular line of the 1880s. Mr. Donavan was not seen jumping off the bridge, so he could not be charged with disrupting traffic - but Duffy made some pointed comments about the fact that since nobody saw the dive he hardly believed that Donavan actually did it.]
I will continue looking closer to the 1891 date. Hopefully more information will appear.
Jeff
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d g cornelius
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 11:52 pm: |
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CB, M.Joe, et al:
Not so fast! Carrie Brown met her sad fate, whomever that might have been, on the night of 23-24 April; our Dr Tumblety was robbed the 17th, giving him a week to travel back to Gotham. If his rheumatism was in remission courtesy of the water cure, he could have made the trip in two days,tops, by train.
But let's get the dirt on Judge Duffy. Did he really exist? Could the robbery have been a hoax to establish an alibi for a future crime? or an undiscovered recent one?
Steve Brodie actually survived in esoteric cultural memory into the 1960s, when he was occasionally and mysteriously referenced in MAD Magazine...now I finally know who he was!
respex
d g cornelius |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 391
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 1:14 am: |
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I have found out more about our New York City Police Court Magistrate (whether or not he is the Judge Duffy of the hotel robbery is still unclear). His death watch was first mentioned in the Brooklyn Eagle on August 15, 1895, on page 12.
"EX- JUSTICE DUFFY DYING.
STRICKEN WITH PARALYSIS AT A NEW JERSEY RESORT.
Ex-Police Justice Patrick Gavan Duffy, formerly of New York but lately a resident of the eastern district of this city [in 1895 Brooklyn was a seperate city from New York City], is dying at the Lafayette house, Forked River, N.J. He was stricken with paralysis yesterday morning. His general health as been poor for some time. Judge Duffy was one of the most picturesque police justices who ever sat on the petty bench in New York, and was known far and wide as the Little Judge. His polirical influence made him more or less of a factor in Tammany hall and at one time he was considered the mouthpiece of John Kelly in the Fourteenth street wigwam [Historical footnote: "Honest" John Kelly was the head of Tammany Hall (the "Fourteenth Street wigwam") after the fall of Boss Tweed in 1874 until he left the Hall in 1885.]. It is estimated that during the seventeen years of his service as a police magistrate he disposed of more than 170,000 cases. For a time during the long period of his bachelorhood he lived successively at the Astor house and the Union Square hotel."
The "little judge" died on about two weeks later. His full obituary notice in the Brooklyn Eagle appeared in the issue of August 28, 1895, on page 12.
"Patrick Gavan Duffy held a unique place in the roster of New York's celebrities. At the zenith of his career he was probably the best talked about man in the country. His name was known in almost every hamlet in the United States, and always in connection with some good story that had its birth in his court room. He was the son of a college professor, and received his eduction at Seton Hall college, with the intention of entering the priesthood. This idea was relinquished, however, and coming to New York he became a teacher in the public schools. Soon interested in politics, he attained prominence in the First ward, and in 1870, a vacancy in the police court bench having occurred, he received the appointment. His popularity on the bench soon obtained for him his sobriquet of "The Little Judge," a nickname that stuck to him for the rest of his life. When John Kelly became leader of Tammany Hall, Judge Duffy was one of his right hand men and was popularly supposed to be the former's mouth piece. This reputation gratified him and he never denied its truth. One of his hobbies, perhaps the chief, was that of seeing his name in print. He caught at every straw to gratify this ambition and that he was successful in it, a whole trunk full of clippings, preserved till to-day, fully attest.
It was his habit, to address prisoners brought before him by their first names and the dialogues between judge and prisoners were always well worth listening to. Judge Duffy lived at the Astor house for nearly fifteen years while he was a justice and he accumulated some little means. Two years ago he married, after having railed against it all his life, and a year ago gave up New York for a home in South Brooklyn, where his wife came form. Of late he had entirely passed from the scene of his early triumphs and his fame had become but an echo of what it had been. One of his strongest passions was an unreasoning antipathy to Jews, which he was never at any pains to conceal."
Although there are two Judge Duffy's mentioned in the Brooklyn Eagle articles I went through from January 1886 to August 1895, I think it is the police magistrate Patrick Gavan Duffy who is the robbery victim (with Doc Tumblety) at the Plateau hotel in April 1891. He was in declining health for the last years of his life - which would lead him to go to a resort like Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Also, the connection with Tammany Hall is suggestive (though admittedly a stretch). Tumblety was frequently in New York City during the Civil War. He was pro-Confederate supposedly (and was suspected of involvement in Lincoln's Assassination). Tammany Hall was a hotbed of Confederate support in the Civil War (it was a Democratic Party stronghold, and the South was also a Democratic stronghold - as opposed to the Republican Lincoln administration and Congress). It is just possible that Duffy and Tumblety had crossed paths in the early 1860s in New York City (even in Tammany Hall itself). Perhaps they kept in touch, and both were at Hot Springs to share their vacation. Although it is true that Duffy was married at the time of his death, he had only been married a few years. So at the time of the 1891 robbery he was a bachelor. And, certainly, Doc Tumblety was one too. But we are jumping too far with these conclusions beyond the actual information we have.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 3
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 6:22 pm: |
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I just received a response from the Hot Springs Police Dept and the Sgt. at the Office of Research and Planning said that their police records for this 1891 time period were turned over to the Garland County Historical Society in 1997. He also said that the society has the Hot Springs newspaper accounts of this time period. So maybe that's why those Arkansas news articles have been hard to find.
The Sgt. was wondering why a Washington DC newspaper would carry a small Hot Springs incident. Where do I begin telling him of the Tumblety saga? Anyway, the Sgt. did point out if this news article reported the incident correctly as being a "robbery" then the crooks met face to face with Tumblety and the judge. (As opposed to being a "burglary" with the victims not being present when their valuables were taken.) I'll see if the Garland County people can help us out. |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3126
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 6:53 pm: |
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Nice research, Malta Joe! I'd be interested in seeing the local coverage of the robbery if you're able to acquire copies.
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 768
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 9:30 am: |
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Hi all
I might be wrong about this, but I seem to recall that my English master back in Liverpool, Mr. Selwyn Cash, used to insist that "a burglary" takes place at night, while if the theft or larceny takes place in daylight, it is a robbery. If this is correct, I am not sure that you are right, Malta Joe, when you conclude that Dr. Tumblety and Judge Duffy were present when their valuables were taken.
I do note, however, that Webster's dictionary defines robbery as: "An act or instance of illegally taking another's property by the use of intimidation or violent force" -- which could imply the victims were present at the time. The question is whether the newspaper reporter was using the correct term to describe what happened.
All the best
Chris
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
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Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 4
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 3:48 pm: |
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Hi Christopher,
I was just repeating what a Police Sgt. had expressed, and I couldn't tell you if Liverpool teachings or Hot Springs comments prevail here.
For what it's worth, the exact quote from Arkansas was, "Robbery is a face to face act with a high probability of injury or death. Burglary has a cloak of darkness and is done in secrecy." Comparing your quotes with his, it seems that you're both somewhat in the same ball park here.
As I had mentioned, the Sgt. did stipulate that it's contingent on the reporter accurately using the "robbery" term if one were to conclude this was a face to face encounter. It wouldn't surprise me if the newsman wasn't that particular in his reporting. My personal feeling is that this wasn't a face to face encounter, and since the crime occurred at night, the term "burglary" would have been more appropriate.
Stephen, I found out that the Garland County Historical Society doesn't have local news articles before 1909 on microfilm, but they do have them in raw newspaper form. I'll work on it. I hope they're nice people! It was good to hear from both of you. You both do fine work. |
Donald Souden
Inspector
Username: Supe
Post Number: 254
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 4:14 pm: |
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Christopher,
For what it is worth, my experience with the New York City Police Department was the same as Joe's in Arkansas. When my brother's car (which I had borrowed for a heavy date in college) was broken into and the stereo removed the desk sergeant at the precinct rather testily told me I had been "burgled" not "robbed." In either case, I was left to do some heavy 'splaining to my brother.
Don. |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Inspector
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 372
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 9:26 am: |
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Hi,
I vaguely recall from my A level law that a robbery involves some sort of violence
for example give me your bag rararar!!!!!
whereas if I break into your car when you aren't there this is not a robbery because you did not fear any violence as you were not there - therefore this would be a burglary. I may still have my notes around or a book or something if you would like me to go check i would be happy to?
Jennifer
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d g cornelius
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 12:46 am: |
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Maltese Constable:
Your point is appreciated. Criminology 101 riddle: "What's the difference between burglary and robbery?" "At least ten years." People confusing the two tend to provoke the murderer in me [didn't someone say every person carries one around?] Was language less debased in 1891, or are we just nostalgic for Grover Cleveland?
respex
d g cornelius |
Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 5
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 2:25 pm: |
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Happy Independence Day Weekend,
The Garland County Historical Society was very helpful. They contacted me with The Arkansas History Commission + State Archives at Little Rock. The archival manager had a couple of potentially good leads for us.
The Little Rock Gazette of April 19, 1881 page 1 col 2 had a headline "Burglars strike Hot Springs." This was two days after the Plateau Hotel crime. The same Gazette ran a story on April 16, 1891 page 1 col 5 entitled "Thieves work Hot Springs." I haven't viewed either article so I hope I'm not sending anyone on a bum steer. I'm currently in the slow process of having the Arkansas Commission photo-copying these articles and mailing them to me. If anyone knows how to get a hold of these Little Rock Gazette articles in the meantime, just go for it. The archival manager did add that the Hot Springs newspapers of this time period went up in smoke in a fire. So long! |
Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 6
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 6:27 pm: |
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The Arkansas History Commission has come through! The first thing I noticed when I received the two articles is that the name of the newspaper is called the Arkansas Gazette. Here is the article dated 4-16-91:
HOTEL THIEVES AT WORK
Billy Pinkerton Reaches Hot Springs in Time to Work Up the Case. Special to The Arkansas Gazette. Hot Springs, April 15.
Thieves are again working this city for all it is worth. The Eastman and Park Hotels were both entered last night and several guests lost valuable diamonds, but the full facts in the case could not be learned as the managers of the hotels refused to import any information. It is also understood, however, that the thieves made a good haul of valuable diamonds. It is understood that Billy Pinkerton, the noted Chicago detective who arrived in the city last night, has been employed to work the case.
In the Casebook's press reports, the Nov 23, 1888 Daily Examiner of SF quotes a newman named Fred Hart who refers to a Mr. Pinkerton reporting of the "fearful, indecent crimes" which Tumblety has committed in his past. I find it a bit odd that a well-known Chicago detective would drop everything and head to Hot Springs for just a local hotel crime. The fact that Tumblety was in town could have drawn him there.
I'll post the second article really soon. |
Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 7
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 6:40 pm: |
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I told you it would be really soon! Ok here is the 4-19-91 Arkansas Gazette article:
COUPLE OF BURGLARIES
The Plateau Hotel Guests Worked For $8,000
Special to The Arkansas Gazette. Hot Springs, April 18.
Thieves went through the Plateau Hotel last night, securing about $8,000 in money and diamonds, Judge A. M. Duffie, of this city and that well-known mysterious individual, Dr. Frank Francis Tumblety, being the victims. The thieves secured a gold watch and a considerable sum of money from Judge Duffie, and $2,000 in cash and diamonds valued at between $5,000 and $7,000 from Dr. Tumblety. It was well known that Dr. Tumblety had the money and valuables and carried them on his person, besides valuable papers. No clue to the identity of the thieves.
What should be obviously noted hear is the spelling of the judge's name in this article. It is Duffie. Not Duffy. I wish somebody would find Billy Pinkerton's memoirs! I'd like to read them. See ya!
Malta Joe |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Inspector
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 491
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 11, 2004 - 5:24 am: |
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Malta Joe,
thats really interesting. Why were the guys in Chicago so bothered?
Jennifer
"Think things, not words." - O.W. Holmes jr
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Malta Joe
Police Constable
Username: Malta
Post Number: 8
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - 2:27 pm: |
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Yes Jennifer, I find this interesting, too. The Billy Pinkerton which the article talks about has to be William A. Pinkerton. William and his brother Robert ran the Pinkerton Detective Agency out of Chicago in this time period. They were the sons of the deceased Allan Pinkerton who founded the agency in the 1850's. The Pinkertons had close ties with Scotland Yard. Abberline himself hooked on with the Pinkerton Agency's European Branch after he retired from the Yard. Inspector Andrews was quoted in Montreal saying that U.S. Detective Agencies have offered to search for the Whitechapel murderer in America. The Pinkertons were the best ones around so I'd wager they were one of the agencies that Andrews spoke of.
The Pinkertons were absorbed by a Swedish firm called Securitas Security. Securitas informed me that all of the Pinkerton records were turned over to the U.S. Library of Congress in 1956. Two of the manuscripts were entitled "The Papers of William A. Pinkerton" and "The Papers of Robert A. Pinkerton."
If any Tumblety info is to be found in the Library of Congress, I'd try these two documents first. (Robert's lifetime was 1848-1907. He shouldn't be confused with the Library's paperwork of the Robert A. Pinkerton who was born in the 1900's.) I hope this doesn't end up as a wild goose chase! Take it easy. |
Jennifer D. Pegg
Chief Inspector
Username: Jdpegg
Post Number: 592
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - 12:48 pm: |
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Hi Malta Joe,
Thanks for the info. Tumbelty sure was odd
regards
Jennifer
"Think things, not words." - O.W. Holmes jr
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Malta Joe
Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 11
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 2:04 pm: |
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It turns out that the newsman Fred Hart who was mentioned in the 7/10 posting had written for The San Francisco Daily Report through the 1880's. This periodical is hard to find, but I fortunately located it in the archives of the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus. I have just posted one of the Daily Report articles I found in the "Tumblety in SF 1870" section of this casebook. I'll shortly post into this "Arkansas" section the second Daily Report article I found. I'd bet this next article was written by Fred Hart.
In the 11-23-88 SF Daily Examiner article, Fred Hart revealed the Pinkerton Detective Agency's feelings towards Tumblety. Next, we read on these postings that Billy Pinkerton was concerned in the Tumblety burglary at Hot Springs, Arkansas. Now the SF Daily Report will inform us that the Pinkerton interest in Tumblety came as early as the Civil War.
Tumblety's office in Wash DC was usually located on Pennsylvania Avenue from April 1861 through the spring of 1863. He made $30,000 in these two years, and he acquanted himself frequently with military officers. Some unknown falling out occurred between Tumblety and the Unionists. Not only did the quack leave his lucrative business in Washington, he also traveled north to New York City to speak at the indignation meetings during the anti-conscription riots. Tumblety would dress up as an Irish Patriot during these largely attended meetings on East Broadway in July of 1863. I think this SF Daily Report's article for the first time reveals to us a possible reason why Tumblety broke off from the Unionists and spoke at anti-war gatherings. |
Malta Joe
Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 12
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 02, 2004 - 2:23 pm: |
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The San Francisco Daily Report (Page 8)
Wednesday November 21, 1888
Dr. Tumblety
Said to be capable of the Whitechapel Crimes
Chicago Nov 20 - Billy Pinkerton says he remembers Dr. Tumblety who is supposed by the London Police to be the Whitechapel butcher. Tumblety was guilty of the most disgusting unnameable vices, and Pinkerton thinks he is entirely capable of the Whitechapel atrocities. Tumblety was in Washington during the war and sold a book to soldiers which was prohibited on account of its immoralities.
If anyone can obtain Chicago newspapers during the week of Nov 20, 1888 we might get lucky and find out more info from Billy Pinkerton. Knowing Tumblety's vindictiveness, I could see him turning against the Union Army for forbiding the sale of his book to soldiers. It'd be interesting to know if Edwin Stanton's office was involved in the issuance of this decree which prohibited soldiers possessing Tumblety literature. If this is true, it would explain why Tumblety conducted a huge diatribe against Stanton in the doctor's autobiography. Tumblety even tried to make Stanton look foolish when the doctor crafted the farce which brought upon his own arrest in St. Louis in May 1865. The Hamilton Evening News of 5-29-65 declared that Tumblety had deliberately "bamboozled Stanton into jailing him in the Old Capitol Prison." These two had a feud that started somewhere. I wonder if this book-barring episode was the origin.
The final point of this is that the Pinkerton Detective Agency of the 19th century was the forerunner of what is now today the Secret Service. There are photos on the internet of Abe Lincoln together with Allan Pinkerton (The founder of the Agency.) This Agency was mindful of Tumblety's actions in Washington, and the Pinkertons continued to involve themselves with Tumblety in Arkansas a few years after the Whitechapel murders. The Library of Congress has the "Papers of William Pinkerton" in its files. It might be good to take a look at them. |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 472
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 08, 2004 - 10:23 pm: |
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Hi Malta Joe,
Regarding Allan Pinkerton's Civil War work, he'd been brought to Washington due to two men: Abraham Lincoln and General George McClellan. Both men knew and worked with Pinkerton in Illinois before the war (McClellan was a railroad President in Illinois in 1861, and Lincoln was the attorney who represented that railroad - Pinkerton's men helped guard the railroad). In February 1861, while guarding President-elect Lincoln Pinkerton learned of an assassination plot in Baltimore against his friend. Lincoln was to stop there for a speech before he went on to Washington (where the inauguration would occur in three weeks). Pinkerton spirited Lincoln through Baltimore, so the plot was foiled. Lincoln made Pinkerton head of the Secret Service, and McClellan used Pinkerton to the best advantage. Unfortunately Pinkerton's agents in the field were fooled by Confederates into giving inflated counts of Rebel troops. McClellan was all too willing to believe the Confederates were putting out an army of over a quarter million men in Virginia, when their total numbers was closer to 75,000. This would mar McClellan's planning and his performance, not to mention strain his relations with the government. Pinkerton left the army in 1862, shortly after Little Mac was dumped for the final time after the battle of Antietam.
It might be instructive to see those paper of William Pinkerton. Pinkerton had other friends - one of them was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who used the story of Pinkerton operative James McParland and the "Mollie Maguires" in Pennsylvania for the Sherlock Holmes story "THE VALLEY OF FEAR".
Jeff |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 897
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 10:07 am: |
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Hi, Jeff
There is room to think that the "Baltimore Plot" might not have been quite what it was made out to be at the time by Pinkerton.
The ringleader of the plot was said to be a barber named Cipriano Ferrandini, who, it was said, planned to kill Lincoln as he traveled from Baltimore's Calvert Street Station to Camden Street Station, where the Baltimore Orioles ballpark now stands, next to the old renovated terminal building. The two stations, respectively east and west of the Baltimore harbor, were joined by horsedrawn streetcars, and two months later it was while detraining and marching from one terminal to the other that the Union troops on their way to Washington, D.C., were attacked in Baltimore on April 19, 1861, with the hottest action taking place in front of today's National Aquarium on Pratt Street. Certainly pro-Southern sentiment was rife in Baltimore and perhaps the plan to smuggle Lincoln was a wise move as the April riot may have shown.
In his book about Baltimore in the Civil War published in the 1880's, former Mayor George W. Brown, wrote that he was aggrieved that Lincoln did not openly travel through the city and let himself be received by the city dignitaries. This might though be contradicted by an earlier publication put out by Brown himself in 1861, Memorial of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, with Accompanying Documents, in which Mayor Brown wrote an appeal to the U.S. Congress about the political unrest in Baltimore to assure them that the city government was not hostile towards the United States.
Nonetheless, it is a fact that the supposed ringleader of the "Baltimore Plot," the allegedly murderous barber Ferrandini, lived a quiet life in Baltimore for decades afterward and was never prosecuted, so one has to wonder if the plot as it was described at the time really existed. In the 1880 census, he is shown as Cipri Ferrandini, a 58-year-old married barber born in Corsica.
Of course, Ferrandini brings to mind ideas of other murderous barbers closer to the Ripper case: Chapman, Kosminski, and Sweeney Todd. From the viewpoint of Ripper studies it is fair to assume that possibly, as an immigrant, Ferrandini became a convenient scapegoat for Pinkerton just as the Jews of Whitechapel were regularly scapegoated by a suspicious British public even before Sir Robert Anderson claimed that it was a "definitely ascertained fact" that the Ripper was a low class Polish Jew, namely (if we believe Swanson) the murderous East End Jewish barber Aaron Kosminski.
See Night Train to Baltimore
All the best
Chris George
(Message edited by chrisg on September 09, 2004)
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
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Malta Joe
Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 14
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 6:58 pm: |
|
Well done, gentlemen.
Thanks Jeff + Chris. You two probably just saved me a dozen trips to the library! That was good reading.
The Library of Congress has just sent me over 40 pages of subtitled material which they've got concerning the Pinkertons. The "Baltimore Plot" and the "Molly Maguires" in which you two mentioned are listed in this Agency's transcripts along with the container number in which they can be found in the Library of Congress.
As for this April 1891 Plateau Hotel jewelry burglary in which William Pinkerton involved himself with, there is one hope. Container #138 in the Library's "Records of the Pinkerton National detective Agency" contains jewel thefts of the 1886-1897 time period. This box supposedly contains all the related material, including newspaper articles. While Tumblety is not given a subtitled heading in any of this paperwork, it's possible he was mentioned within the contents of this "jewelry theft" subject matter. The "Papers of William Pinkerton" were not subtitled so they could contain almost anything.
I'm hoping to hear back from the NARA with the wild hopes that the military order which banned the Union soldiers from possessing Tumblety's book in Wash DC has survived somehow over these past 140 years. Sometimes you got to get lucky! Funny, this National Archives + Records Administration I contacted has a Wash DC location exactly where Tumblety office was! At the corner of Pennsylvania Ave + 7th. |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 474
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 10:55 pm: |
|
Hi Chris and Malta Joe,
I'm glad that I have been able to revive memories of that long forgotten incident of Lincoln's first inauguration.
Chris is right that the Ferrandini plot has been seriously questioned. Pinkerton had a habit of rewriting a story to make his agents seem more affective, but there is enough evidence of pro-Southern activities in Baltimore to make it plausible. That Ferrandini was never prosecuted is not that implausible - he didn't succeed in his plot (if he was involved in one), and lived into a period when the War was drifting into the past. I might add too that in 1860 one of the men who might have been involved with Ferrandini's plot would have been John Wilkes Booth, who lived in nearby Bel-Air, Maryland.
By the way, the Ferrandini Plot has been the subject of one Hollywood film: THE TALL TARGET
(1951) with Dick Powell playing a New York City police detective named (of all things) John Kennedy, who boards the train Lincoln is supposed to take, and finds every action he is involved in to protect the President-elect is being thwarted.
Adolphe Menjou also stars.
The Pinkertons certainly built up a reputation for breaking up bank gangs, train robbing gangs, and counterfeiters (Jesse James once secretly went to Chicago to try to shoot Allan Pinkerton).
But they increasingly got a bad reputation for involvement in being strike breakers. The account of their fight against the Molly Maguires has been increasingly doubted in recent decades, and the dozen men that McParland sent to the gallows may have been framed. Conan Doyle, of course, accepted the Pinkerton version. Pinkertons were also involved in the battle of Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1892, which was at the Carnegie Steel Works. In later years one of their best workers took a cynical view of the Pinkertons in his fiction, such as RED HARVEST. But Dashiell Hammett did create a model of their type of agent in his character "The Continental Op." ["Op." is for "Operative"]
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 475
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 10:58 pm: |
|
Hi Chris and Malta Joe,
I'm glad that I have been able to revive memories of that long forgotten incident of Lincoln's first inauguration.
Chris is right that the Ferrandini plot has been seriously questioned. Pinkerton had a habit of rewriting a story to make his agents seem more affective, but there is enough evidence of pro-Southern activities in Baltimore to make it plausible. That Ferrandini was never prosecuted is not that implausible - he didn't succeed in his plot (if he was involved in one), and lived into a period when the War was drifting into the past. I might add too that in 1860 one of the men who might have been involved with Ferrandini's plot would have been John Wilkes Booth, who lived in nearby Bel-Air, Maryland.
By the way, the Ferrandini Plot has been the subject of one Hollywood film: THE TALL TARGET
(1951) with Dick Powell playing a New York City police detective named (of all things) John Kennedy, who boards the train Lincoln is supposed to take, and finds every action he is involved in to protect the President-elect is being thwarted.
Adolphe Menjou also stars.
The Pinkertons certainly built up a reputation for breaking up bank gangs, train robbing gangs, and counterfeiters (Jesse James once secretly went to Chicago to try to shoot Allan Pinkerton).
But they increasingly got a bad reputation for involvement in being strike breakers. The account of their fight against the Molly Maguires has been increasingly doubted in recent decades, and the dozen men that McParland sent to the gallows may have been framed. Conan Doyle, of course, accepted the Pinkerton version. Pinkertons were also involved in the battle of Homestead, Pennsylvania in 1892, which was at the Carnegie Steel Works. In later years one of their best workers took a cynical view of the Pinkertons in his fiction, such as RED HARVEST. But Dashiell Hammett did create a model of their type of agent in his character "The Continental Op." ["Op." is for "Operative"]
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Christopher T George
Chief Inspector
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 902
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 11:13 am: |
|
Hi Jeff and Malta Joe
Glad you found my post illuminating. I made one misstatement. I meant to say that at the time of the April 1861 riot, the Union troops going to the defense of Washington, D.C., arrived at President Street Station east of Baltimore's inner harbor, not Calvert Street Station, which is to the north.
Besides the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts troops detraining at the President Street Station in April 1861 and being attacked by the pro-southern mob, the station was also where Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in the 1830's by catching a train north travelling with a sailor's identity papers. I wrote about that on the net, see "Frederick Douglass: A Monumental Rebuke to Slavery."
Best regards
Chris George
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
|
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 477
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 11:40 pm: |
|
Hi Chris,
I just read your article about Douglass. He certainly was a remarkable man, and a gifted writer. In fact, the Library of America has put out a single volume of his autobiographical works as part of it's uniform series of American literary classics.
I also remembered that one of the side results of the battle/riot between the citizens of Baltimore and the Massachusetts troops in April 1861 was that a local writer wrote a poem that has since become the state anthem, "Maryland, My Maryland". Although it did not seceed in the Civil War, I doubt if any other state of the Confederacy has a state anthem based on a pro-secession incident.
I mentioned Booth's home at Bel Air. Apparently it is still standing, and is being turned into a museum (about Junius Brutus Booth Sr. and his family, not only John Wilkes). Recently I was doing some research at the 42nd Street Library, and before I left I visited their book store. They were selling a two CD set of famous actors of the past reciting speeches from Shakespeare and other writers. Included are Irving, Terry, Bernhart, Coquelin (the original Cyrano), and Edwin Booth. He is reciting a speech from OTHELLO
("Most patient, grave, and revered signiores...").
He had a soft and natural way of speaking, as opposed to the ranting of lines that was too common in the 19th Century. It was odd hearing it, for although it was a recording from about 1889/90, it was the voice that John Wilkes Booth would have heard (or Jack the Ripper for that matter).
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 478
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, September 10, 2004 - 11:43 pm: |
|
I forgot to mention that the CD was put out by NAXOS.
Jeff |
Malta Joe
Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 44
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, November 21, 2004 - 5:23 pm: |
|
There is no joy in Mudville.
In the Sept 9th posting on this thread, I had mentioned about Container Box 138. This box focused on the Pinkerton involvement of "Jewel thefts in the 1886-1897 period." The Arkansas Gazette reported that Billy Pinkerton had arrived in Hot Springs while these April 1891 jewelry heists were occurring, and he was subsequently hired to work the cases. The reason why Pinkerton handled these small locally-confined crimes himself instead of delegating the duty to one of his subordinate agents seemed to point toward the presence of Tumblety. The Pinkerton interest in Tumblety had been evident since the early 1860's, and I often wondered if the agency had tailed Tumblety to Hot Springs. Two days ago I took a shot at finding more info about the Pinkerton-Tumblety-Arkansas matter, but I struck out.
Container Box 138 was opened on Friday afternoon at the Library of Congress, and the word that I am getting is that it did not contain references to Tumblety nor these Arkansas burglaries. Since it was the Pinkertons who donated their own material to that Library in 1956, I'd imagine this agency wouldn't be too enthused about divulging the details of a case in which they probably failed to solve. So it's likely to me that these Arkansas crooks eluded Billy Pinkerton's grasp back in 1891. Container Box 138 had plenty of info on jewelry thefts, but it was mostly concentrated on the New York area.
There are 183 Pinkerton Container Boxes at the LOC. Anyone can navigate through these boxes on the web. Each container is given a heading, and you can pick out the box you think may be of use. You can cross out Box 138 though! I personally thought that 138 was our only decent chance to score here. I hope I'm wrong.
The final word has to be an expression of gratitude to the married couple who went out of their way to make this special trip to the LOC. They were on a very tight schedule in Washington DC, yet they were able to conduct + complete this long activity for us. They were celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary on Friday, too. Romantic Malta Joe convinced them that the best way to celebrate was to be together hand in hand all day long (while meticuously researching Tumblety-related material inside dusty old Pinkerton files!!) Please have my deepest thanks you two. Have a safe trip home. |
Christopher T George
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 1107
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 10:28 am: |
|
Hi Joe
Many thanks for that update on the investigation into container 138 of the Pinkerton material at the Library of Congress. Sorry to hear that the couple who asked the staff to open the container struck out on anything in regard to Tumblety. As you do, I have hopes that among the Pinkerton material at the Library of Congress or at the National Archives there might yet be some new and valuable information on Dr. Tumblety.
I do, incidentally, work in Washington, D.C., but am kept pretty busy with deadlines in my primary work as a medical editor, as well as commuting to Baltimore daily. Therefore, unfortunately, I don't often have free time to frequent the National Archives or the Library of Congress despite my relative proximity to both places. 
All the best
Chris
(Message edited by chrisg on November 22, 2004)
Christopher T. George
North American Editor
Ripperologist
http://www.ripperologist.info
|
Malta Joe
Detective Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 133
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 2:54 pm: |
|
By going to google and typing in "Judge A.M. Duffie" we'll see that the third listed item is entitled "Images of Saline County Officials"
Click into that web site and scroll down to the last photo. It's Judge A.M. Duffie! Saline County is in Arkansas so I think we've got the right guy here.
Let's pour some wine. Stephen discovered this judge on May 30, 2004 and a mere 16 months later we now know what he looks like! |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 3303
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 05, 2005 - 2:59 pm: |
|
Nice find, Joe! Amazing what Google can come up with these days, eh? 
The link for the photo is:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~arsaline/coimage.htm
Thanks again for posting this
Stephen P. Ryder, Exec. Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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