Hamilton Evening Times
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
8 May 1865
Dr. Tumblety and the Assassination
The telegraph this morning announces the arrest of Dr. Tumblety at St. Louis on some charge connected
with the assassination of Lincoln. The following from the New York Tribune of Friday gives all that is
known of Tumblety's connection with the crime:-
A boy about 15 years of age was arrested in Brooklyn on Tuesday by a United States detective on
suspicion of having in some way been connected with the assassination plot. The boy was taken to the
Forty-first Precinct Station-house, where he was held in custody until Wednesday, and was then taken to
Washington. The only explanation which the officer gave in relation to the matter was that the prisoner
was one of the persons implicated in the plot for the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Johnson and Mr.
Seward. During the time that the prisoner was in the station-house, he conversed with some of the
police officers, and from his conversation it was discovered that he had been employed by the assassin
Booth for some months prior to the assassination of President Lincoln, in the capacity of errand boy,
and he was supposed, with his connection with Booth, to be cognizant with the entire plot, and the
parties who were connected with it. He refused to give his name, as did also the officer who arrested
him. It appears from his conversations with the officers during his stay at the station-house, that
Harrold, the companion of Booth, is well known to the citizens of Brooklyn as the agent and companion
of a man known as the "Indian Herb Doctor", who came to Brooklyn some eighteen months since and opened
an office in Fulton Street, where he made himself notorious by the peculiarity of his dress. Harrold
was a kind of confidential valet of this doctor, and was generally attired in the cast-off clothing of
the latter, and from the fact that both were continually to be seen promenading the principal streets
of the city, their appearance created considerable remark. The doctor got into difficulties with some
of his patients, and left the city, and is said to be in New Orleans at the present time, and Harrold
returned to Washington. The truth of the boy's story is corroborated by the fact that the published
descriptions of the personal appearance of Harrold agree in every particular with the appearance of the
companion of the doctor; and there is every probability of its correctness, from the fact that he was
always noticed to have the same apparent degree of attachment to the doctor, who was a man of dashing
appearance and infinite impudence, that he is said to have manifested toward the assassin Booth. The
prisoner also stated that the doctor had been acquainted with Booth in Washington, nd that it was
through him that he became acquainted with Harrold.