In 1888 Francis Tumblety was accused of being Jack the Ripper. Twenty-three years earlier he was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Contemporary press reports give valuable, if exaggerated, insights into the lifestyle of this extraordinary character known as the Indian Herb Doctor and the pimple banisher.

Tumblety was said to have been attacked by the public and medical profession in every city where he sold his vegetable cures. Previously he had been charged with manslaughter, procuring abortions, and assaulting a patient. Once arrested for wearing military clothing he continued to dress in an eccentric fashion, being known for his curly hair and mammoth moustache. In Washington he rode a spotted circus horse, took a yellow dog around, and used publicity stunts, such as giving flour to the poor, to boost his business.

He was released after three weeks imprisonment with the authorities accepting his innocence and wrote an indignant letter to the newspapers who accused him. In 1869 he began visiting Europe, styling himself The Great American Doctor. Eventually arrested for homosexual offences at the time of the Ripper murders he skipped bail and fled back across the Atlantic.

Whilst the American newspapers connected Tumblety to Jack the Ripper in 1888, their British counterparts did not. In 1913, ten years after Tumblety’s death, Chief Inspector Littlechild wrote a private letter, naming him as a likely suspect.