Who Was Dracula? by Jim Steinmeyer

Author:Jim Steinmeyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Amongst the suspects, and to my mind a very likely one, was a Dr. T. . . . He was an American quack named Tumblety. [He] 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 [sic] Sexualis’ subject, he was not known as a ‘Sadist’ (which the murderer unquestionably was) but his feelings towards women were remarkable and bitter in the extreme, a fact on record.

Littlechild concluded his note by observing that, significantly, the murders ended after Tumblety left for France.

—

A New York World reporter finally caught up with Francis Tumblety, and the interview appeared on January 29, 1889. Tumblety avoided mention of the morals arrest, insisting that he was arrested simply because he had gone to Whitechapel for “the excitement and the crowds and the queer scenes and sights.” He happened to be wearing a slouch hat and was unaware that English detectives had been looking for a suspect that matched his description. In Tumblety’s telling, it was a simple, awkward case of mistaken identity and sloppy police work. He concluded the interview with the expected boasts: “If it were necessary, I could show you letters from many distinguished people who I have met abroad. I am a frequenter of some of the best London clubs, among others the Carlton Club and the Beefsteak Club.”

The phrase “Beefsteak Club” offers a chill.

—

In 1888, there was a Beefsteak Club, an offshoot of the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks that had been founded at Covent Garden. They had headquarters near the Savoy Hotel in London. Three years later, Bram Stoker restored the original Beefsteak headquarters at the Lyceum Theatre and rechristened this the Beefsteak Room. This, too, was an offshoot of the Sublime Society of Beefsteaks—principally celebrating the theater association and serving as a social dining room for Henry Irving’s guests.

Was Tumblety a guest of the Beefsteak Club or the Beefsteak Room? (Confusion over the terms was common, even for Londoners.) As a proper club, with a small group of members, the Beefsteak Club may not have been an option. But to gain access to the Beefsteak Room, upstairs at the Lyceum, he would only have had to finagle an invitation from his old friend, Hall Caine, a Beefsteak Room regular. Or, through Caine, he may have made entreaties directly to Bram Stoker, who was always accommodating to colorful Americans, and then attended a performance at the Lyceum, offering praise for Henry Irving.

Stoker’s records from the Beefsteak Room are not complete, and there’s no way to know if the proud, social-climbing Francis Tumblety ever shook Henry Irving’s hand and offered toasts to Bram Stoker. Most intriguing, did they share advice about fallen women or crime on the street?

Two years after the Whitechapel crimes, Bram Stoker began compiling his notes for Dracula. He was in a unique position to hear that Tumblety had been connected to the crime—as a friend

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