The police also tried to catch the Ripper in the act, rather than solving the crimes themselves. This was a poor tactic, as they spent less time researching, doing detective work and instead, wasting time by putting more officers on the beat and by using decoys of policemen dressed as prostitutes, in attempts to just ‘find’ the killer. This method was criticised heavily by the newspapers.
The idea of localising the search meant that only specific people would be interrogated (i.e. doctors, surgeons and butchers). The police were also very prejudice and would target foreigners and people with ‘criminal’ features.
The Whitechapel area was a ‘cosmopolitan’, which means that it was an area with a mixture of races. Jews, who, in the past has been discriminated against (Semitism), were a main target for Ripper accusations. George Hutchinson, said to be one of the most reliable of all Ripper witnesses proclaimed that the person he saw with Mary Jane Kelly (the last of the Ripper victims) was a ‘Jewish’ man. Though it could be possible, the likelier opinion is that he, like many of the witnesses was slightly Semitist and chose to blame a Jew because of their prejudice.
The eyewitness accounts were also very different to each other. In some, the Ripper would appear a gentleman, and in others, he was a crooked man with ‘criminal’ features. There were also different heights being told (5”6 and 5”11 in some) and different ages (35, 30 and 40). This kind of evidence was very unreliable as the lighting in those days was not like it is today, and so everything should have been dark and concealed.
The CID in the 19th century was still in their infancy and were therefore limited in their search. Forensic science was still being developed, and in 1888, the Alphonse Bertillon method had not even been invented yet. Because of their lack of knowledge, they had not been able to gather enough information on the scenes, the details around the room or anything that could have gave them some clue. Fingerprints and blood samples would have been a useful aspect for them, though the use of fingerprints for forensics and crime were first introduced at the very end of the 19th century, and the beginning of the 20th century. But even with the forensic science technology of today, it is still difficult to catch a criminal.
But others claim that it was not only the police’s fault. It was also the way in which the Ripper conducted his attacks. He was extremely clever and worked very fast when murdering his victims. In each of the scenes, the Ripper had left not one piece of identification behind. In the case of Polly Nichols, the murderer was said to have worked incredibly fast – P.C. John Thain and Sgt. Kerby of the police force passed Buck’s Row at 3:15am and almost half an hour later, Polly was found dead on the same street. She was also said to be killed on the spot.
The killer must have also been very confident in his abilities and very calm whilst performing them. It’s a chilling thought, but the fact that he was so skilled and silent only proves this. Jack the Ripper had no fears of being caught (evidence for this is that he was never caught)
The murders were also very random. The Ripper did not know his victims, and so the police had no sort of regular pattern to which they could catch. Though, there was one theory on the dates of the murders. Apparently, the murders occurred on days coinciding with the phases of the moon, on the year of 1888. It was thought that the murders were part of a pagan sacrificial ritual, though this seems very unlikely, as there were no murders in the month of October.
The public also had a big part to play in the misleading and confusing of the police force. Because the general public thought that the police were not doing their job properly and their relationship with the police, they played a lot of hoaxes and tricks on them. The police would receive false letters, prank phone calls and it would often lead them astray off their real duty.
Another fact about life in the Victorian times was that society was very much class-based. Criminals were treated less than second-class citizens and prostitutes fell under that category. Unfortunately, because of this, the police were more reluctant to act for five miserable prostitutes.
In conclusion, though the police did use different methods to try and capture Jack the Ripper, they all proved unsuccessful. But the blame is not to be put only on the police. Jack the Ripper was indeed a very intelligent and quick person and so even with the technology of the 21st century, 200 years after, it would have still been very difficult to catch the culprit. We would have a major advantage though, because of our DNA samples, fingerprinting, blood matching and our extended knowledge in forensics can aid in the investigation. But society nowadays would not have made such a big deal of a mere five prostitutes killed. There have been larger mass murders since Jack the Ripper, such as Harold Shipman’s example of murdering approximately 236 deaths in 24 years – in comparison to the Ripper, five meager prostitutes is almost nothing. But perhaps it is the nature of the crime which keeps Jack the Ripper alive and makes people still wonder about his mystery. The case was closed on 1892, the same year Inspector Abbeline, the head of the Jack the Ripper case retired. But though the murders may be over, the legend will still live on.
