Because of the darkness, Elizabeth Long is not even sure about the age of the man seen. Yet again, you would have to go right up to him to see around what age he was. In truth, you would not just walk tight up to a person to see what they looked like unless they were doing suspicious. So, as long as the ripper kept a low profile just after the murder with no sudden movements, nobody would have noticed.
Also, Elizabeth Long reckoned the man looked like a foreigner as far as she could tell. “He looked to me like a foreigner, as well as I could make out.” Once more, she is not sure. This could be because she may have been brought up to hate foreigners (as many people in the East End were), therefore, as she knew who she must have seen was Jack the Ripper, she said he was a foreigner. This was true of many people. They did not want to believe the Ripper was English. They just could not believe an Englishman would do such a thing, and as a result, blamed foreigners. This is just one of the many things that she is not sure about. It must have been simply too easy for the Ripper to commit murder and go unnoticed. Elizabeth Long probably did not pay too much attention to the man, but she almost certainly did pay more attention than most people would have. This was because she might have know the deceased and therefore her attention was drawn in that direction, where as most people who did not know the deceased, would not have paid the slightest.
Furthermore she was not one hundred percent certain about the height of the man compared to the deceased. “He seemed to be taller than the deceased” This was probably down to her not looking carefully, for the reason that she was just passing by.
“He looked what I should call a Shabby Genteel.” Again, she makes she contradicts herself. In describing the man, she says “…shabby…” which means scruffy, but then says, “…Genteel…” which means posh. So what she ends up saying is he looked a scruffy posh, which would have confused the police. What she had seen may have been correct, because the suspect may have put on a disguise, to entice the deceased, especially if she was a bit short of cash.
In the East End, it must have been very difficult to notice people and to see what they were doing even if you were looking out for it was dark when the Ripper usually struck. This was the only witness in source D, and she could hardly remember anything. It just shows how little others saw or witnessed.
Source D is extremely useful to help us understand why the Ripper was able to get away so easily without being seen. It was usually dark, and hardly anybody noticed him because he wore dark clothing.
Source E is also very useful in explaining how the Ripper was able to get away. It is a newspaper article written after the murders of victim number one and two. It is from the local newspaper, which could have got its source from anywhere. However, it does say it got the information from an informant. “My informant demanded…” As it does not mention the name, the information may have been leaked by someone who would have wanted to stay anonymous which really makes me believe that this informant is also telling the truth. However, the writer of the article itself, may have taken the basic account from the informant, and then exaggerated it to make the story sound more interesting in order to sell more papers.
This source makes us believe the streets of the East End was a rough and disorderly place where many people were getting away with anything, and in the Ripper’s case, getting away with murder. “My informant demanded at that time that the police force on the spot should be strengthened and some kind of order created on the streets.” This makes me feel as if the informant wanted to prove that he was right, and that the streets were disorderly and the police force was weak.
It also comes across as if it out to blame the police force by showing how weak it was. It tries to point the finger towards the police force saying if they were stringer, the streets would not have been disorderly, and if someone were seen running through alleys, it would look suspicious. But with something appalling going on in every corner, someone running through the streets would seem normal, and therefore, it was not only easy for the Ripper to commit the murder, but it was also easy for him to get away.
“He was referred from one police office to another without making any impression.” So, he was ignored. This in itself shows how weak the police force was and how easy it was for the Ripper to blend in to the disorderly streets.
The streets were dark, with prostitutes in one corner, opium dealers in the other.
It also mentions the dark alleys and poorly lit streets. “The main thoroughfares of Whitechapel are connected by a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes…” Moreover there were short alleys, which, if the Ripper was form around the area could have easily exploited. Someone chasing or following would probably have lost him, so if you were not looking out for him, it would have been near impossible to notice him and extremely easy for the Ripper to get away. Also, near the Thames, it often got very misty, which made it very difficult to see, which again would have helped the Ripper get away. Nobody would notice him running into an alley.
This source articulates that even though the police were told to do something about the streets they did not. However, after the first murder, you would think the police force would have sorted things out, but instead they thought the murder was a one off and decided to do nothing about the streets, even though the informant went and told the police force again after the first murder to sort things out. “He went again to the police and warned there would be more mischief…” The informant is probably having a field day passing on this information, as now he has built up so many reasons as to why the police force was weak. He again blames the Police force.
Source E is just as useful as source D. Source E however concentrates on the how weak the police force was which helped the Ripper get away without being noticed after a murder. The streets were disorderly due to the weakness of the police force allowing the Ripper to blend in after a murder.
Putting both sources together, we can understand it was extremely easy for the Ripper to avoid capture, firstly, due to the fact the Ripper always struck in the dark wearing dark clothes (source D) and the disorderly streets due to the weak police force. (Source E) There was just so much disorder about, that things like screaming (from victim) would probably go unnoticed. However, in source E, we do not know who the informant was, and therefore, the source is slightly limited.
