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Thomas William Simpkin
Born:- 4th quarter 1879 - Mile End 1c/541
Occupation:- Printer
Married
Maude Evelyn Shelley
Winnipeg, Canada
Born:- 1882
Died:- 1978
Children
David William
John Shelley
Grace Evelyn
Emigrated - To Canada and the U.S.A.
By the age of 40
Thomas Simpkin was by all accounts a lunatic, deserter from the
Canadian army on the run in the U.S.A. and suffering from intestinal cancer.
His wife, Maude, had been
deported back to England
in April 1919 as he was unable to support her. In 1920 he planned to murder
John Pierpont Morgan
the founder of the Investment bank of that name. However on learning he had died seven years earlier he instead
murdered Dr. James Wright Markoe in St. Georges Protestant Episcopal Church, Stuyvesant Square,
New York. Reports imply that Dr. Markoe was chosen at random, although Dr. Markoe
was physician to John. P. Morgan and a close family friend. A hospital founded
by Dr. Markoe had been funded by J.P. Morgan.
Thomas Simpkin used his wifes surname Shelley to avoid recognition following his earlier release from asylum.
Maude Shelley returned
to the U.S.A. in 1923. (Source : www.ellisisland.org)
Transcripts of The New York Times reports
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