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Tumblety visited Europe several times, including Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, and France where he claims to have been introduced to Charles Dickens and King William and to have provided treatment to Louis Napoleon, for which he was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

During one visit he became closely acquainted with Victorian writer Hall Caine, with whom it has been suggested he had an affair.

Authors Stewart Evans and Paul Gainey speculated in their 1996 book Jack the Ripper: First American Serial Killer that Tumblety lived in Whitechapel in London during the infamous 1888 Whitechapel murders that were blamed on Jack the Ripper, and he even may have been the murderer.

London police arrested Tumblety on 7 November 1888 on charges of " gross indecency ", apparently for engaging in homosexuality, which was illegal at the time.

Awaiting trial, and on bail of £ 300 ( equivalent to £ today ), he instead fled the country for France on 20 November using a false name – Frank Townsend.

On 24 November, he left Europe for the United States.

Already notorious for his self-promotion and previous criminal charges, Tumblety's arrest was reported in The New York Times as being connected to the Ripper murders.

American newspaper reports that Scotland Yard tried to extradite him were not confirmed by the British press or the London police.

However, English police inspector Walter Andrews travelled to America, perhaps partly to trace Tumblety.

The New York City Police, who had him under surveillance, said " there is no proof of his complicity in the Whitechapel murders, and the crime for which he is under bond in London is not extraditable ".

Tumblety published a self-aggrandising pamphlet titled Dr. Francis Tumblety – Sketch of the Life of the Gifted, Eccentric and World Famed Physician, in which he attacked the rumours in the press but omitted any mention of his criminal charges and arrest.