Study sources D and E
How useful are sources D and E in helping you to understand why the ripper was able to avoid capture?
Source D is an extract of evidence given by Elizabeth Long at an inquest. It was given soon after Annie Chapman’s death. It was put forward to provide evidence to help police forces catch the notorious ripper. However, instead of helping to solve the crime, the extract could have clouded the picture further as it was 5.30am when Elizabeth saw Annie Chapman talking to the man whilst she was on her way to Spitalfields market. This suggests that she was probably under the influence of alcohol, like most of the prostitutes in Whitechapel, and looking for a place to sleep. She mentions that the murderer looked like what she called, “shabby genteel”. This contradictory description could suggest to the reader that she may have not been in a fit state of mind to give this evidence to the police. This shows that the police at that time in the 19th century had little experience in solving crimes, as the main duties of the police force were to deal with drunkenness, beggars and prostitutes. The description of the ripper is supported by similar descriptions given by other witnesses who saw the ripper with Mary Kelly: George Hutchinson and Mary Anne Cox. This may have influenced the police to keep her as a witness. All three descriptions depicted the murderer as a man in his late thirties/early forties, wore a dark coat and hat and had a moustache. It is possible that the police had some more upper/middle class suspect in mind and this ambiguous statement from an intoxicated witness would prevent the ripper being captured. Throughout the text, Elizabeth makes assumptions of what the killer looks like but clarifies to the reader that she is unsure of his definite appearance by using phrases like, “…but I cannot be sure” and “…as far as I could tell” perhaps because she couldn’t exactly remember what she had seen. This is a massive limitation to the source because she isn’t sure herself of what she saw, possibly due to the fact that she was under the influence of alcohol. The source is useful because it helps us to realise that the police were using the oldest method of interrogation in order to get evidence on the ripper and were struggling because of how unreliable Elizabeth was. Although the police took her statement seriously, they didn’t consider her background and the fact that she was drunk to be a limitation of the evidence and took it very seriously.
