“ There are no meaningless cuts… It was done by someone who knew where to find what he wanted.”
Although in source C we are not directly told that a skilled man committed the murder, it is definitely inferred. From source B and C we can make the assumption that the murderer was probably a doctor or a man who had great knowledge of the anatomy. I think that the evidence of source C support the evidence of source A and B about the Jack the Ripper murders. Although there are many similarities between source A and C, the way that source A is written is not as convincingly true as the other two sources are. This because source B and C are official reports, so therefore must be true as they are written by people who have no real reason to give false evidence. Source A however, is not closely linked to source C because the nature of the source is very different.
Overall, I think that the three sources are linked because they all describe the death of three victims, who were murdered very horrifically. However, I still feel that source C is more supportive over source B than source A, simply because of the nature of the source.
Baljit Bhambra
10 red
Jack the Ripper
Q3. How useful are source D and E in helping you to understand why the Jack the Ripper was able to avoid capture?
Jack the Ripper committed six murders, as far as we know, yet was able to avoid capture by the police. Source D is evidence given by a prostitute who was describing a man who was last seen talking to Annie Chapman before she died.
Although this source is given in first hand account we cannot be sure that it is reliable enough. The prostitute, Elizabeth Long, makes assumption instead of being sure of what she saw.
“I think he was wearing a dark coat but I cannot be sure.”
At the time that Elizabeth Long had seen Annie Chapman and the man who looked “…like a foreigner…” it was dark and there was not many streetlights, which meant that the evidence given to the police by Elizabeth Long might have been incorrect and inaccurate. Also there were many foreigners at this time, so it was more difficult for the police to catch Jack the Ripper.
Source E is part of an article published in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman. Newspaper are known for twisting the truth in order to tell a story. This is a similar case as they implied that they knew who Jack the Ripper actually was.
“ He warned… He referred … He went …”
The newspaper could have made this whole story up as they never gave any solid fact other than the way the streets of East End London were at the time. We are told that the street of London are “… a network of narrow, dark and crooked lane.” This shows why it was very difficult for the police to catch Jack the Ripper. The number of dark alleys meant that Jack the Ripper could have hid in any one of them as the police patrolled around trying to find him. The newspaper article is not very specific as there are no connections with names, even though the paper claimed they know who Jack the Ripper was.
“My informant…”
Source E explains the way the street were crammed and dark so no one could be sure of where Jack the Ripper went if they did see him. Also, the lack of light meant that Jack the Ripper could not been seen clearly by anyone who was waling the streets at night. Another reason why Jack the Ripper avoided capture was because there were never enough policemen patrolling the streets at night when most of the murders actually took place. If there were more policemen walking the streets at night in groups of at least three, Jack the Ripper possibly could have caused so many murders because they would have been able to catch him.
Overall, source D and E prove to be useful to show why Jack the Ripper was able to avoid capture at all times. Source D showed that no one knew very much about Jack the Ripper and although people claimed that they knew who Jack the Ripper was, there were very few eyewitness accounts. Those that were given most of the time proved to be false or inappropriate. To most people in London, Jack the Ripper could have been anyone they saw walking alone on the streets at night.
Baljit Bhambra
10 red
Jack the Ripper
Q4. Use source F and G, and your own knowledge, to explain how the police tried to catch Jack the Ripper?
The nineteenth century policing methods proved to be not as good as they were expected to be. To improve the policing methods the government set up to groups of police in London, the City and the Metropolitan. The problem with these two forces was that they never got on, so therefore could not well together. The two forces never shared their information so if Jack the Ripper was in the area that was covered by the City police force and then crossed over to the that was covered by the Metropolitan police force, Jack the Ripper would get away because the City police would not inform the Metropolitan police. This is one of the reason how and why he avoided being captured by the police.
The police also discovered that they could use bloodhounds, a large dog with an excellent sense of smell, to find Jack the Ripper. This however, also failed because they did not know how to train the dogs to the correct ability and therefore found that the dogs were no use to them. DNA testing is a very valuable way of finding murderers these days, yet in those days scientist did not know much about DNA testing. This consequently limited forensics for the police.
Source F is a police leaflet published after the murderers of |Elizabeth Stride and Kate Eddowes. Leaflets of this sort were posted though doors of the house in town, which that more police were on the street at the time that the leaflets began getting posted, as they made door to door calls. The police thought that this would be a good way of informing the town’s people about the murders and that they should tell the police if they knew of who Jack the Ripper was. However, what they forgot to realise was that many people in England at this time could not read. This proved that this method was again not very useful, but the police were desperate to find some information so they had to do what they thought would bring them the information and evidence that they needed.
Source G is a part of a letter from the Home Secretary to the Mills End Vigilance Committee. This letter was written to tell people to tell the police anything they might have known about Jack the Ripper. This letter stated that no reward would be given to the person who gave the police the information they required to find Jack the Ripper. This was because the government realised that offering rewards for discovering of criminals meant that more harm was caused. They realised this as people in those days were poor and would therefore do anything to get money, even give false evidence to the police.
The date of the letter, 17th September. 1888, gave the police reason to believe that no more murders were going to take place. The police assumed that Jack the Ripper had previously committed three murders, the last on 8th September, and that he would not carry out any more as they had not heard from him for over a week now.
Overall, the police tried a few methods to catch Jack the Ripper, but it seemed as though they all failed. The nineteenth century policing methods obviously were no good as they helped the police to catch Jack the Ripper in no way at all. From the source you can tell that the leaflet was no good as very many people could not read, and the letter offering no rewards was not very convenient either as most of the public would only react to something if there was any sort of reward involved, for example money. I think that if the police really wanted to catch Jack the Ripper so desperately, the two forces, City and Metropolitan, should have joined together instead of constantly fighting and keeping valuable information away from each other. This way Jack the Ripper had crossed from one force area into the other, the police would have been able to contact each other and then only Jack the Ripper would have been possibly been captured.
Baljit Bhambra
10 red
Jack the Ripper
Q5. “ The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper.”
Use the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view?
From the above statement we can come to a great deal of assumption as to whether the police really were the people to blame. We have already realised that the general policing methods were not very beneficial. However, things would have been easier if everyone, including the people of London had cooperated more and told the police things that they possibly knew about Jack the Ripper or anyone they assumed they knew who Jack the Ripper.
In source A to F we are told about five of Jack the Ripper victims. The sixth victim was Mary Jane Kelly but nothing was mentioned about her in any of the source. The victims of all the murders that Jack the Ripper perpetrated were all very poor and were all prostitutes. These were the only two connection that could be made between the victims. Other than that there was not much more evidence available for the police because to them woman were all random with nothing that linked any of them together.
In the source we are also given detail of a few possible murderers, but there is a variety, which again made a difficult to track down Jack the Ripper. In source A we are told that the murderer is a demented being, in source B and C we are told that the murderer is a skilled man, who has a great knowledge of the anatomy and is referred to be a good craftsmen with a knife. So the murderer could have been a doctor. In source D the last person is seen with Annie Chapman, one of the victims, was described as a foreigner and in source E he was said to be a social reformer. Jack the Ripper is supposed to be a cunning and clever, in source H, as he commit the crime without leaving a trace of evidence.
“Not a trace is left of the murderer.”
After looking at source D it is very evident that the eye-witnesses were no use to the police as they were never really sure of what they saw. This possibly could have been because the streets of Whitechapel where very dark at night because there were no streetlights at the time. This meant that no one was able to see Jack the Ripper clearly, especially at night. Source G also showed that not many people wanted to help the police because they were not going to receive any reward so they felt that there was no point in doing anything without getting paid. People in London again did not help the police as not very many people liked the police’s way of working. For a start there were not enough police men, and the men that were policemen constantly got insulated for not doing there job properly.
The condition in Whitechapel at the time did not help the police. The street were very narrow and also were very dark. This resulted in Jack the Ripper having an easy and quick escape as someone approached, because he could easily run into a surrounding roads and hide behind something, then escape before the police came. Source I and J show that the sites and houses in Whiechapel were very close together. There were two type of lodging at this time, which were St. Giles Rookery and the Penny Rope. The St. Giles Rookery was a conglomeration of building built on, around, behind and above exiting building to form a larger area. The Penny Rope was a room with a long rope hanging from one wall to another. It was placed low down so people could sit down and lean on the rope to sleep. This proved difficult for the police to catch Jack the Ripper, if they may have had a lead on him because he could run into a lodging and hide between the people covering his face, so no one would see him.
On the whole, my verdict on the statement is that the police are not to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper. There are many reason why I am saying this. They are because firstly although their policing method were not very good, they did try new and different things, for example introducing the bloodhounds dogs. So even thought they tried different things that failed, the majority of the public did not give the police any support or guidance. They thought the police were useless and a waste of space. Also, if the people of the town were not so bothered about getting a reward they could have helped the police to find Jack the Ripper. I think that things were beyond the control of the police. Jack the Ripper was a very clever and cunning man because he was out killing people and no one, even now, knows who Jack the Ripper was.
