# Jack the Ripper came to the US? What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 8, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586 "2004-11-08T04:33:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/1 "2004-11-08T04:33:01Z")
A classmate of mine told me in all earnestness on Friday that Mr. Ripper traveled to the US after his last murder in London to continue his spree. I have never heard this particular theory, but my classmate is convinced there is evidence to back this up. So does anyone know of any evidence to support (or better yet, debunk) this? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/2 "2004-11-08T05:00:12Z")
No one knows for a fact who Jack the Ripper was, or what he did prior or subsequent to the Whitechapel murders. Anything in this regard is pure speculation. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/3 "2004-11-08T05:17:29Z")
Your classmate is probably referring to Ripper suspect [Dr. Francis Tumblety](http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-yostamerican.html). Since as noted the identity of JtR is unknown it is impossible to say with absolute certainty either that JtR never came to the US or that JtR did. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/4 "2004-11-08T05:26:22Z")
It’s true that nobody knows for certain whio the Ripper was. However the prime suspect at the time was one Francis Tumblety, an American living in London. He returned to America shortly after the last Ripper murder. The murders certainly stopped when he left, butn they had only been going on for a few weeks before that. Most serious commentators consider him the most likely suspect. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/5 "2004-11-08T05:37:50Z")
I’ve heard other theories about who JtR was, but I can’t remember why the man we’re talking about here was ruled out. Sorry I don’t remember better. For that matter, it was a special on TV (though it was a thorough one), so that may be a strike against it. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/6 "2004-11-08T13:28:53Z")
Writer Patricia Cornwell claimed to prove that JtR was Walter Sickert in her book \*Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed \*. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/7 "2004-11-08T14:35:14Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Writer Patricia Cornwell claimed to prove that JtR was Walter Sickert in her book \*Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed \*. … unfortunately her conclusions have been described by some as, to coin a phrase, a load of bollocks. There’s a rather good site [here](http://www.casebook.org/) which has lots of info about the Ripper murders, the police investigations and London in general in the 1880’s. It also has a discussion board where people can rehearse all the theories about JtR’s identity. Dr Tumblety is mentioned among the suspects but he doesn’t seem to cut the mustard among the Ripperologist fraternity. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/8 "2004-11-08T15:17:50Z")
[A Crime Library LINK to Tumblety. Scroll down.](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/suspects_18.html?sect=1#continue) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/9 "2004-11-08T15:37:33Z")
I read Patricia Cornwall’s book. I think she makes a case (with mitochondrial DNA) that Sickert may have sent some of the Ripper letters to the police, but the particular letters in question are not believed to have been authentic. IOW, Cornwall’s evidence shows that Sickert may have amused himself by writing some hoax Ripper letters, but it doesn’t really show that he committed the murders. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/10 "2004-11-08T15:47:25Z")
Your classmate might also have been referring to the 1891 Ripper-esque murder of a New York prostitute called “Old Shakespeare,” the perpetrator of which was never found. At the time, many people said it was the Ripper, although of course there’s no proof one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/11 "2004-11-08T15:48:00Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > Most serious commentators consider him the most likely suspect. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/12 "2004-11-08T15:53:53Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > Writer Patricia Cornwell claimed to prove that JtR was Walter Sickert in her book \*Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed \*. My sister, a fan of Cornwell’s fiction, gave me a copy of her Jack the Ripper book. My response: Not only does she not make a dispositive case (ie: a case made so thouroughly as to convincingly rule out all other explanations), she doesn’t even make a plausible case for her theory. It is, as **seosamh** noted, bollocks. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/13 "2004-11-08T16:31:20Z")
So IOW, there weren’t any murders in the US following the Ripper murders that fit Jack’s MO? The impression I got from my classmate was that there were just _tons_ of murders that were done by Mr. Ripper and that I was the last person on earth to have heard about it. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/14 "2004-11-08T17:11:06Z")
Nope. Just one, as mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/15 "2004-11-08T17:33:14Z")
Probably just played this [PC Game](http://www.gamezone.com/gamesell/p20541.htm) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/16 "2004-11-08T17:57:18Z")
I seem to recall that in one the books I’ve read on the subject, a note that one “possible” was hung for murder in the US some years later, and his last words were “I was Jack the–”. I can’t recall either his name or the source. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/17 "2004-11-08T18:05:39Z")
That was Dr Thomas Neil Cream: From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper): > [@](#): > > His last words were reported being “I am Jack…”, interpreted to mean Jack the Ripper, but the words were muffled by a hood. Cream shouted out at the moment he was hanged. He was reportedly still imprisoned at the time of the murders but theorists suspect that he could have bribed officials and left the prison before his official release or that he left a look-alike to serve the prison term in his place. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/18 "2004-11-08T21:27:49Z")
I read a semi-interesting (but probably fictional, alas) that Jack wasn’t actually a mass-murderer, but targetting a specific fallen woman who was his mother. (Hiding a tree in a forest, or something, as Pirot might have said.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/19 "2004-11-09T02:56:17Z")
Of course he did! Haven’t you people read the Batman “alternative world” graphic novel **Gotham by Gaslight**? ---
**Author:** ![Saranga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Saranga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saranga)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586/20 "2004-11-09T08:39:58Z")
I believe that support for Dr. Tumblety as the prime suspect for Jack the Ripper comes mainly from the book “Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer” by Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey. Stewart Evans was a historical consultant for the movie **From Hell** , even though the Alan Moore book is based on another, entirely different book and theory. However, in the special features for From Hell they go into possible suspects for JtR and put particular emphasis on the Evans and Gainey theory. Specifically, they claim that **a series of murders were committed in the Caribbean** in the “style” of JtR. Conclusion: Your friend watched From Hell on DVD with the special features and fell for their version of the Tumblety theory. [Cite](http://www.casebook.org/authors/interviews/stewart_evans.1.html) > [@](#): > > There were a series of prostitute murders, undetected, in Kingston Jamaica in late December 1888 and in Managua, Nicaragua, in early 1889. These murders were so similar, involving both facial and bodily mutilation, to the London killings that the contemporary newspapers gave details of them speculating that the London Ripper was responsibe. This appeared in American newspapers and in the London TIMES, and it was alleged that Scotland Yard contacted the Nicaraguan police for details, feeling that their quarry was ten in that country. Dr Tumblety, as stated in his books, visited both the Caribbean and Central America, and he was on the run at the same time of these other murders. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jack-the-ripper-came-to-the-us-what/273586.md?page=2)