Skeptical Inquirer on Jack the Ripper

SI's article on the subject is not really news to people who've studied the Ripper, but I mention it here because the author of the article seems more willing than most to credit Francis Tumblety as a suspect. As evidence, he points to the suspicions of an original Ripper investigator, Inspector Littlechild of Scotland Yard:

"In his letter, Inspector Littlechild writes: '. . . amongst the suspects, and to my mind a very likely one, was a Dr. T. . . . He was an American quack named Tumblety and was at one time a frequent visitor to London and on these occasions constantly brought under the notice of police, there being a large dossier concerning him at Scotland Yard. Although a 'Sycopathia Sexualis' [sic] subject he was not known as a 'Sadist' (which the murderer unquestionably was) but his feelings toward women were remarkable and bitter in the extreme, a fact on record. Tumblety was arrested at the time of the murders in connection with unnatural offenses and charged at Marlborough Street, remanded on bail, jumped his bail, and got away to Boulogne, France. He shortly left Boulogne and was never heard of afterwards. It was believed he committed suicide but it is certain that at that time, the 'Ripper' murders came to an end.'"

While this is interesting, there are a number of problems with Tumblety as a Ripper suspect. (Problems which the article notes, to its credit.) Witnesses who were the last to see the various victims alive all said that the man the women went off with was considerably younger than the 56 year-old Tumblety. Tumblety was also physically larger than the man eyewitnesses saw. The "unnatural offense" that Tumblety was charged with had to do with homosexuality, and homosexual serial killers who murder for sexual thrills tend to hunt other homosexuals. While Tumblety was certainly a misogynist, it is unlikely that women would have fulfilled his fantasies of lust and power in a way that would have provoked him to such sexually sadistic mutilations. Indeed, while he claimed a hatred of women, there is no evidence anywhere that he had ever attacked a woman physically in his life--no beatings, no rapes--which would be unusual for a man who would become one of history's most notorious sex slayers.

Further, the crimes escalated quickly in brutality, from a relatively simple throat-slashing and slight mutilation of Polly Nichols to the bloodthirsty orgy that ended Mary Kelly's life. The early killing suggests someone murdering quickly and timidly, in surroundings not entirely comfortable to him. It looks like the work of a killer early in his career, perhaps his first-ever murder. Most serial killers get started as teenagers or young adults; they don't wait until middle age. If Tumblety were the killer, he would have likely had a much longer and more stable killing career than the Ripper did.

My favorite Ripper suspect is known serial killer George Chapman, who was hanged in 1903 for poisoning two of his wives with antimony. (Antimony causes a particularly slow and painful death, characterized by exceptionally harsh stomach cramps and dysentery.) Crime library lists a likely profile of Jack the Ripper, which I'll show you here;

A white male
Average or below average height
Between 20 and 40 years of age in 1888
Did not dress as laborer or indigent poor
Had lodgings in the East End
Did have medical expertise, despite 1-2 opinions to contrary
May have been foreigner
Right-handed
Had a regular job since the murders all occurred on weekends
Was single so that he could roam streets at all hours

George Chapman was white and male, obviously. He was twenty-five years old during the Whitechapel murders. While in Poland, he apprenticed to a surgeon and later completed his medical studies. He lived in Whitechapel at the time of the murders. He was employed at the time as a barber, owning his own shop. He was single in 1888. He had a long history of violence against women, both with knives and with poison, and would later become a convicted serial murderer. You can read all about George Chapman here.