History Coursework - Jack the Ripper

Source A is part of an article from the East End Observer which describes the murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nichols – a paper is not always reliable because its purpose is to sell the papers and would do this by sensationalising the story to a higher extent than what is really is. It was released after the two murders to report the events that occurred and the paper also comments on the murderer himself. The overall tone of source C seems more formal than source A and this would be because source C is an official and factual report. Source A describes the effects the murders had and suggests the killer is a “demented being”; it also suggests that is it probably the same person committing the murders. It mentions almost nothing about the murder itself but more on the “extraordinary violence” unlike source C. However it does mention that there was no real motive as the victims were poor and crimes were normally committed to thieve from their victims afterwards. In source C, in the medical reports, it tells of the body when it was found and how there was no money found on the victim, this therefore shows no obvious motive for the victim to be murdered, like in source A.

Source B is part of the Coroner’s report of the death of Polly Nicholls. It was published after Polly’s death and focuses mainly on the murderer and how he had committed the crime which suggest that they had a special to do these types of cuts and had perhaps dealt with human bodies before whilst having knowledge of the human body and where certain organs are, to then go on to describe that it they would have more knowledge than a butcher suggesting maybe a surgeon was the murderer. The report also says that a knife was used as does source C says which means source C does support source B to some extent however source B is more conjecture and opinionated than source C as source C is a medical report which means it is more formal and factually whereas source B is not. Source B focuses more on the murderer and less on the actual murder at hand.

In conclusion, I believe that source C supports source B better as they are both official in their own right and help towards the investigation on the identity of “Jack the Ripper”. Source B talks about the murder and describes what’s going on giving details however source A is more about the effects and assumptions of the murder which is probably more interesting and easier to sensationalise for the paper meaning that they are probably able to sell more of their newspapers.