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Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 11
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 11:49 am: | 
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Hi all
I have read Stewart's book on Tumblety (more than once!) and am reasonably well acquainted with his implication in the Lincoln assassination. But in recent newspaper research I have found a reference that links him by association with the perpetrator of the assassination of President Garfield in 1881.
I found a long article head "Oh! Dr. Tumblety" (which I will be forwarding for inclusion in the Press Reports section) and in it was this passage:
"He was about six feet four inches in height, and was an extremely well built though homely featured man. His face was very red, and his mustache dyed a jet black. Sometimes he rode, but generally he strode through the streets attended by a huge mastiff. He disappeared from public view after he had achieved great notoriety when he was suspected of complicity in the scheme to introduce yellow fever, by means of infected clothing, during the war, into New York city. Not long before the assassination of President Garfield he was often seen at the Fifth Avenue hotel with Charles Guiteau."
Charles Guiteau was the assassin who murder Garfield for which he was hanged in 1882.
Does anyone know anthing more about Tumbelty's association with Guiteau?
There was a drawing of Tumblety in this article which I had nor seen before so Im attaching it to this.
Chris S
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Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 12
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 11:52 am: |
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A propos of the above, the best article Ive found for a resume about Guiteau is at
http://gulib.lausun.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/cl133.htm |
Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 13
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 11:55 am: |
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So that folks can put the quote in my first post into context, here is the full article:
Atchison Daily Globe December 15 1888
OH! DR. TUMBLETY.
He Was Charged with Being the Whitechapel Fiend - Where Is He Now?
Dr. Tumblety, the American who was suspected of being the Whitechapel murderer and arrested in London not long ago, but soon after released, is a man with a singular history. Between 1860 and 1864 he was as well known on the streets of Brooklyn, where he posed as an Indian herb doctor, as he subsequently was in the corridors of the Fifth Avenue hotel, where he paraded as an Englishman of wealth and a physician of marked pretensions.
Oddly enough, his companion when in Brooklyn was young Herold, who was implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and who formed one of the quartet that subsequently swung from the gallows tree. Tumblety, at that time, had an office on Fulton Street, where he sold herbs for removing pimples from the face. Herold - who was a pale faced, large eyed, poetical looking boy - was with Tumblety constantly. He seemed a compromise between friend, companion and servant to the doctor. Tumblety had a large following in Brooklyn at this time, but played himself out after a time, and went across the river to New York. He always amde a good living - how, aside from his quack herb business, no one could tell. He was at this time a curious looking man.
He was about six feet four inches in height, and was an extremely well built though homely featured man. His face was very red, and his mustache dyed a jet black. Sometimes he rode, but generally he strode through the streets attended by a huge mastiff. He disappeared from public view after he had achieved great notoriety when he was suspected of complicity in the scheme to introduce yellow fever, by means of infected clothing, during the war, into New York city. Not long before the assassination of President Garfield he was often seen at the Fifth Avenue hotel with Charles Guiteau. Little has been heard of him of late years. He has a cunning felicity for achieving world wide notoriety by getting into apparent scrapes, but he always comes through his scrapes unscathed, unharmed. His notoriety in connection with the Whitechapel horrors is but another instance of this. |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2698
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 12:01 pm: |
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Great find, Chris! The following link makes another quick reference to Guiteau and Tumblety:
http://new-brunswick.net/new-brunswick/ghoststory/ghost12.html
Interesting, all the connections Tumblety seems to have had with notoriety.... 
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Christopher T George
Detective Sergeant
Username: Chrisg
Post Number: 83
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 12:15 pm: |
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Hi, Chris:
This appears to be new and interesting information about Tumblety, if it is in fact true that the Lincoln conspirator David Herold worked for him, although that charge was denied by Tumblety. See below.
The link between Tumblety and Guiteau has also been mentioned before. I believe on the old boards Stephen Ryder posted a newspaper article that stated that Tumblety and Guiteau were both thrown out of the same hotel, although no other link was imputed about their relationship in that article. Another odd coincidence is that as I reported at the 2002 U.S. convention Tumblety is known to have stayed at Kirkwood's Hotel at 12th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., where the Lincoln assassins planned to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson -- in that instance, conspirator George Atzerodt lost his nerve and the attempt on Johnson's life did not occur. I am not necessarily saying that Tumblety's stay at the hotel ties him to the Lincoln assassination but the fact that Tumblety wrote to the New York Times from Kirkwood House on 10 June 1865, after the assassination, when he was staying there, is curious.
In his June 1865 letter to the newspaper, to be found in full here on the Casebook, Tumblety says this about his supposed employment of David Herold:
"While in imprisonment I noticed in some of the New-York and other Northern papers, a paragraph setting forth that the villain Herrold, who now stands charged with being one of the leading conspirators in the assassination plot, was at one time in my employ. This, too, is false in every particular, and I am at a loss to see how it originated, or to trace it to its origin. For the past five years I have had but one man in my employment, and he is yet with me, his character being beyond reproach. I never saw Herrold, to my knowledge, and I have no desire to see him."
Tumblety also wrote: "Another paper has gone so far as to inform the public that I was an intimate acquaintance of Booth's; but this, too, is news to me, as I never spoke to Booth in my life, or any of his family."
Best regards
Chris George |
Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 14
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 12:33 pm: |
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Glad it's of interest and I will, of course, post anything else I find
Chris S |
Kevin Braun
Sergeant
Username: Kbraun
Post Number: 30
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 1:36 pm: |
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Chris Scott,
You should be at least a Detective Sergeant by now.
"He has a cunning felicity for achieving world wide notoriety by getting into apparent scrapes, but he always comes through his scrapes unscathed, unharmed." Very curious. The stuff good movies are made of.
Great find.
Take care,
Kevin |
Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 15
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 1:48 pm: |
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Hi Kevin - thanks for the recommendation for promotion:-)
I have been asked if I could post the original article so here it is:
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Sergeant
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 16
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 10:16 pm: |
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The best book on the Garfield assassination was
THE TRIAL OF THE ASSASSIN GUITEAU by Charles
E. Rosenberg. My copy is a paperback version
by the University of Chicago Press in 1968.
Although it deals with the issue of Guiteau's
sanity, and the state of psychiatry in the Gilded
Age, it does go into some background of Guiteau's
career. Guiteau does not appear (judging from
Rosenberg's research) to have been spending any
time in New York City immediately before the
assassination (July 2, 1881) in Washington, D.C.
But there is nothing to suggest that he could not
have spent a few days there. His belief that he
was owed a big job by the Garfield Administration
stemmed from his giving a speech (the last of a
series of speeches) for Garfield in NYC just before the election of November 1880. In terms
of popular vote, the election of Garfield was
the closest in our nation's history (less than
9,000 votes seperated Garfield and his opponent,
General Winfield Scott Hancock). Guiteau was
convinced his rambling speech, about how a
Democratic Administration would increase the
national debt by absorbing and paying the debts
of the defeated Confederacy, convinced the
New York voters to vote Republican.
Guiteau was a shyster lawyer and a dead-beat,
usually going to good hotels and not paying for
them. Therefore, if he went to the Fifth Avenue
Hotel (a first class hostlery of the period)he
probably would have been thrown out for not paying
his bill. Possibly the cause of the he and Tumblety being noticed there (though why Tumblety
would have palled around with Guiteau is hard to
fathom).
David Herold (whose face is not that "poetic"
looking, but rather stupid looking) usually was
found around the forests and trails of southern
Maryland, which was why Booth chose him for his
conspiracy (Herold was to help Booth sneak out
of Maryland after the assassination - in fact
they were together when Booth was fleeing into
Virginia, up to the point where Booth was shot
and killed). If he spent time in Brooklyn with
Tumblety, it would have been unique. However,
Booth did send his fellow conspirators around
the country (usually though sending the more
dependable Lewis Payne/Paine/Powell). So Booth
might have sent Herold to New York City, which
had a large pro-southern Copperhead group.
I might add, if there is any truth about a
Tumblety and Guiteau connection, there is a bit
of irony connected to the election results that
Guiteau built his ill-fated dream castle upon.
General Winfield Scott Hancock, the best Union
army corps. commander in the Civil War, and one
of the heroes of Gettysburg, was also the General
in charge of the hanging of Payne, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mrs. Surratt in July 1865. This
was used against the General during the election
campaign. It might explain if Tumblety suddenly
found himself and Guiteau in agreement about that
Presidential election. But it would have forced
Tumblety to support Garfield, a partisan Radical
Republican Congressman, and a war hero (he was
the second-in-command to William Rosecrans at
the battle of Chicamauga).
One final point. Rosenberg's book has an index -
and it does not mention Tumblety.
Jeff |
Chris Scott
Sergeant
Username: Chris
Post Number: 16
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 08, 2003 - 6:48 am: |
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Jeff
Your background info is very helpful - many thanks for posting
Regards
Chris
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RosemaryO'Ryan
Unregistered guest
| | Posted on Monday, April 07, 2003 - 8:24 pm: |
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Dear Chris,
I think you will find that a number of foreigners were providing funds that enabled Dr T to live above his means. One such benefactor was the famous Victorian writer, Hall Caine,who was also alledgedly a confidant of the author of that notorious epistle "The Diary". Hellish?
Rosey :-) |
Stephen P. Ryder
Board Administrator
Username: Admin
Post Number: 2711
Registered: 10-1997
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2003 - 11:22 am: |
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Just as a matter of interest, possibly to corroborate the claims made in the above article, letters reprinted in Tumblety's 1872 pamphlet "Narrative of Dr. Tumblety" do list his address as "Fifth Ave. Hotel."
Stephen P. Ryder, Editor
Casebook: Jack the Ripper
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Jeffrey Bloomfied
Chief Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 863
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 - 8:21 pm: |
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Hello all,
Two weeks back I went to the New York Historical Society, and before I left I purchased a book at the bookstore there, DARK HORSE: THE SURPRISE ELECTION AND POLITICAL MURDER OF PRESIDENT JAMES A. GARFIELD by Kenneth D. Ackerman (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2003). Naturally Charles Julius Guiteau figures largely in the second half of this book (which is interesting and entertaining reading). Guiteau's appearances at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in the 1880 campaign are mentioned, but he went there because that was the Republican campaign headquarters (very fancy too - the Fifth Avenue Hotel was one of the nation's swankiest hotels for many years). But Guiteau did not live there - he couldn't afford it. Tumblety probably could afford the price of a room. [Tumblety is not mentioned in the book.]
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Jeffrey Bloomfied
Chief Inspector
Username: Mayerling
Post Number: 866
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - 8:47 pm: |
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Hi folks,
As I continue reading Mr. Ackermann's book, I have been considering a thin possibility regarding Guiteau's "maybe" connection to Tumblety, but I need all of you Tumblety experts to consider it (rejecting it or digging deeper into it).
It goes like this - Guiteau had a brush with the law in the winter of 1880 connected to his ridiculous political ambitions and plans. He believed that he could make an advantageous marriage with a well-to-do woman he saw in church. In his crazy brain, he felt that providence had put this unknown lady in his way for the purpose of financing his bid to be the American Minister to Austria - Hungary in Vienna, or the Counsel in Paris. Guiteau began to pester her, and she finally contacted the New York City police department to get after him. They pointed out he was a transient (at best), and that he should get out of New York City at once if he knew what was good for him. Guiteau left.
I just wonder about this incident. The name of the lady was never given (as far as I know). But is it just possible that if Tumblety actually knew Guiteau at this time, he was involved in this crazy business. As far as anyone knows, did the Doctor ever try being a matchmaker? Or, as he was a misogynist, could he have been egging Guiteau on to enjoy a lady's discomfiture and embarrassment?
I open up this to any possible discussion.
Best wishes,
Jeff |
Malta Joe
Detective Sergeant
Username: Malta
Post Number: 131
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 1:57 pm: |
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Hi Jeff,
You sure know how to find good books to read! Garfield was shot in July 1881. Detective Pryor claimed in the Pittsburgh Daily Chronicle and Telegraph that he threw Tumblety + Guiteau out of the 5th Avenue Hotel "three months" prior to Garfield getting shot. So April 1881 would be the apporximate time of this double-eviction. You reported that the Republican Campaign people were involved with the 5th Avenue Hotel during this time period. This makes sense since Detective Pryor said he evicted Guiteau while the future assassin was writing a political speech for the Republicans.
What gets me is that in early April 1881, Tumblety had been briefly jailed in New Orleans for pick-pocketing a Government official. Before the month was out, he was intruding upon NY's 5th Ave Hotel while this Republican Campaign activity was happening. It makes me wonder what Tumblety was trying to steal from that Government official in New Orleans. Was it Government paperwork of some sort? Tumblety seemed to have been politically-minded during this month.
The Democrat Party had reached out to the Irish-born New Yorkers during this era. New York's huge 1863 riot opposed Republican President Lincoln's conscription decrees, and Tumblety prominently addressed crowds at this riot while wearing Irish Patriotic Military attire. Tumblety's support probably was with the Democrats. I don't blame anyone for wondering if the doctor was up to no good at the Republican Campaign Headquarters on 5th Ave during 1881.
As for playing the role of a shystering cupid, this next item may help: The May 4, 1865 Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that just after Tumblety's NY patients had abandoned him and his popularity decreased, the quack turned on the charm and "gained the heart and hand of the heiress of one of the richest families in (Brooklyn) Heights..." The woman fell in love with Tumblety during a visit to his office. Tumblety would only get involved with this type of a relationship for status purposes. It seemed like he courted this wealthy woman to regain a respectable position in the eyes of his community. Could he have also manipulated another woman at some time while playing the role of a matchmaker? I wouldn't put it past him.
There has been no connection between Tumblety + Guiteau other than them sharing a 5th Ave Hotel eviction date together. Keep reading, Jeff! If there was a connection, you'd be the man to find it! Bye! Joe
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