Tom Cullen, author of Autumn of Terror, died in the summer of 2001. He was 88 years old.
Cullen was born on 16 May 1913 in Oklahoma
City, the son of a hotelier. He moved to Long Beach, California, with
his family, when he was 7 years old and went to school in San Pedro. He
studied economics and political science at the University of California
then started work as a journalist on the United Progressive News. In
the 1930's he campaigned on behalf of Upton Sinclair who ran
unsuccessfully as the Democratic party candidate for Governor of
California.
He joined the US Army in 1942 and served in Europe and Africa during
WWII as a military journalist. He was discharged in the rank of
Technical Sergeant in 1946 and worked for a while on trade magazines.
He used the GI Bill to attend the Sorbonne in Paris. During the 1950's
he freelanced in France, Germany and India before arriving in Britain.
The American Government confiscated his passport because of his
Communist connections. He obtained leave to stay on in Britain on a
visitor's passport on the condition that he stayed out of trouble.
He then began research on his first book, Autumn of Terror: Jack the
Ripper, His Crimes and Times (1965). His next book was The Empress
Brown (1969), followed by books about Maundy Gregory, the Vicar of
Stiffkey and Dr Crippen.
