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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. George’s 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 wife’s 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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