History Coursework - Jack the Ripper

Source E is useful as well because it is a newspaper and it posted updates on the Ripper case coming from the police. This meant that if “the Ripper” were to read the paper then he would always be one step ahead of the police and could easily change his plans to avoid capture and to get away with him crimes. Source E is a newspaper article from the local newspaper around Whitechapel – the article was published after the murders of Polly Nicholls and Annie Chapman- it mainly blames the police for their deaths. Papers at the time were reporting of poverty and social issues of Whitechapel and were running a campaign; the article says how it was the polices fault and in a way it is a “told you so” article as the campaign began before the murders took place, meaning that if the police were to listen to the criticisms then the murders maybe, could have been avoided- but because they didn’t, “the Ripper” was able to avoid capture because he could easily get away with what he was doing because of the conditions and area of Whitechapel. It also states that the conditions of Whitechapel with its dark alleyways meant it would be easier for “the Ripper” to sneak around, and avoid capture. Newspapers were however sensationalising the story in order to sell more copies therefore perhaps they were exaggerating a lot of the time about Whitechapel.

Overall, both sources are fairly useful by giving an impression of the killer and the way he conducted his murders; source D about the description of the killer and source E, the description of Whitechapel and how it the police should tackle the problem. However, source D has its faults as Elizabeth Long is fairly unsure on what she saw when she witnessed Annie’s murder and means that it may not be reliable, yet the police took it too seriously thus helping “the Ripper” avoid capture by just concentrating on foreigners when he possibly wasn’t a foreigner. Source E also has its faults because newspapers are unreliable due to their constant sensationalising of stories. Nevertheless, they both give a certain degree of good evidence but it was put to the wrong uses and did more to help “the Ripper” avoid capture than get him caught.