26th January 09
How well did the police conduct their investigation?
On the night of the double event, graffiti thought to be left by the ripper and a piece of Catherine Eddows blood stained apron was found. The decision to rub away the writing from the wall in fear of provoking anti Semitism was given the go ahead by City police office Warren. I feel this was a major mistake as the writing on the wall should have been photographed first and could have been linked to hand writing in letters later confirmed to be by Jack the Ripper. I feel this is a very vital mistake the police force made.
In 1879 the instructions for dealing with a murder was that ‘the body must not be moved, nor anything about it or in the room or place interfered and the public must be excluded’ However, the police didn’t follow those orders. Clues and evidence could have been lost. The police were careless and if they had a structured technique after dealing with the murders then more information and evidence could have been gathered.
I also believe that the police were not very thorough with preserving the items found in each crime scene. There may have been a possibility that the murderer left behind evidence, which could have been found if proper cataloguing was implemented. Another flaw made by the police was they waited several hours to investigate the crime scene of Mary Jane Kelly. Valuable evidence was lost with each passing minute. It was the only murder done in her room and careful immediate analysis could have lead to fundamental leads.
Jack the Ripper would create many false leads, which provoked the police force in gaining a false impression. An example of the most popular false accusation was when he provoked the police into thinking he was Jewish, this caused a lot confusion among the Jewish community. The reason for the police this was because of a statement written by Jack the Ripper, which mentioned the possibility of him being Jewish. Soon he clarified this when he carried out the murder of Catherine Eddowes where near her body he wrote the message "The Jews are not the men to be blamed for nothing". Also the discovery of the leather apron, led to the belief that "Leather Apron" was the serial killer. Though several cobblers and others were arrested and later released.
In conclusion I feel that the police force were under a lot of pressure. This was because the Jack the Ripper murders created suspense and people were anxious to get hold of the serial killer and they were under a lot of pressure from the media. Even though they did attempt to use new methods to try and catch Jack the Ripper, such as the use of bloodhounds. Unfortunately this wasn't very effective because they were unable to find any evidence. I feel that one of the main mistakes that the police force made and that is one of the reason why they were unable to find Jack the Ripper, was that they had a lack of communication and their inability to recognize early on the significance of the crimes.
