His next victim was Annie Chapman, whose husband died. To make money she became a prostitute as it was the only way for her due to her age. She died between five thirty and six o’clock on Friday 8th September. She was seen talking to a man of five foot six, dark complexion and moustache and a black peak cap by Elizabeth Long. John Davis was the first to find her body in the back yard of the house at 29 Hanbury Street. Her body had a deep gash to the throat and her intestines had been laid over he right shoulder. Also her vagina, uterus, ovaries had been cut out and two thirds of her bladder which began the speculation of Jack the Rippers anatomical knowledge and the police thought he was a doctor.
Three weeks passed and then on the 30th September 1888 was the night of the double murder of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes. The two murders were very different to each other; people in the local pub near when he murdered Stride disturbed Jack the ripper. Also the knife he used to kill Stride was different from all of his other victims, it was blunt and it was possible that it was Strides and she took it out to defend her self but had it taken off her and used against her. Elizabeth Stride had a gash to her throat and when she was found blood was still spurting out of it, she also had bruising to the face but no other mutilations which suggested that the infamous Jack the Ripper was disturbed by someone. Catherine Eddowes, on the other hand had her rectum, breastbone ripped open, intestines were detached and she had a gash to both eyes. Her nose was cut off and the skin on both sides of her cheeks was in a triangle shape flapping off. Again like Annie Chapman’s murder he took Eddowes vagina, ovaries and kidney.
The fifth and final murder was of Mary Jane Kelly on the 9th November in her own room of 13 Miller's Court. She had a boyfriend, Joseph Barnet who was a market worker; Kelly took to prostitution to pay for the rent of the 12-foot square room. A very well dressed man in an expensive coat and white gloves approached her at one o’clock. George Banwell, who was concerned about the welfare of Kelly in the hands of this man, he followed them for thirty minutes but he was cold and tired so stopped and went off. By nine in the morning Thomas Bowey went to collect the rent but found the door was locked and he thought she was hiding from him. He went in to the side alley and looked through window, the horrific sight made him smash the door down. When the police walked in to her room they slid due to the amount of blood on the floor. Kelly’s flesh was on the bedside table and flesh was removed from her throat and knees up to thighs. Her abdominal cavity organs had been taken out and part left on the bed, part was hanging from the picture rail and some one was lying on the floor. Her uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet. Her face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed; her eyes had been left intact staring. Her right arm was put in her abandoned cavity, her heart had been removed and he took it with him as a memoir.
The murders bought attention to themselves, as they were very gruesome and the way they got savagely murdered got worse as they went on. Jack the ripper baffled the police with the letters and not being able to catch him. They also created tension as the Salvation Army tried to improve the situation but didn’t. The situation got worse as more prostitutes were murdered and people were scared to leave the safety of their homes to walk the streets at night.
The nature of the victims caused a lot of people to give some attention. All the victims were prostitutes, this made other prostitutes scared for their own safety therefore they would have paid a lot of attention to whether Jack had been caught yet so they could get back to business normally. The fact that they were all poor along with being prostitutes made richer people have sympathy for them as they thought they suffered enough for being poor. This is why they wanted to find out what was going on with Jack and if had been caught yet.
The press at the time attracted so much attention towards the murders. The murders coincided with the beginning of the rise from the tabloid press. As they were just starting they needed to attract new readers so they all kept describing the attacks. The need for the papers to attract readers leads to sensationalism to the extreme. Drawings were used as well as photos even thought they took longer, the photos were more realistic which made them more gruesome. A popular image of the killer as a 'shabby genteel' man in dark clothing, slouch hat and carrying a shiny black bag was also beginning to gain currency. The press, especially the recent tabloid papers, were having a field day. They also sent hoax letters in to the police when the need to write something about Jack the ripper started to die down. Initially, by publishing letters on the subject, the press alerted the public to the British government's policy of refusing to subsidize a reward for information on the murders.
The police attracted attention to the murders as they leafleted 80,000 homes. They also interviewed 2,000 people about the murders and accused many for being the renowned ‘Jack the Ripper’. Some of the police force used to dress and act like prostitutes in the hope of them being a target for Jack and then being able to catch him. This never worked, as Jack did not target the men that were dressed up.
In conclusion, the Press attracted the most attention towards the murders as they were just beginning. The press wrote about the murders in graphic detail and to the extreme just so that they got attention so that people would buy their newspaper. The hoax letters that were written by the press also attracted attention for the press as it kept the story alive and from getting boring. The police also contributed to attracting attention but not as much as the newspapers.
