Source E is part of an article that was published in a local newspaper after the murders of Polly Nicholas and Annie Chapman it explains how the murders came about and the effects that they had on community. Source E tells us that there are many “dark and crooked lanes” in Whitechapel therefore any evidence would have been hard to trust, due to the witness not being able to see clearly. There was always a lot of trouble in Whitechapel, so a lot of police time was wasted trying to sort it all out. This made some people especially if they had been involved with the police for the wrong reasons would be reluctant to communicate with the police. Maybe with more information the police would have been able to catch the ripper before he killed again. So by looking at both sources it is clear that they are useful because they explain why the ripper was able to avoid capture this was because there was no evidence that the police could rely on.
4. Source F and G are vital sources in which they tell us a bit more about the ways the police tried to catch jack the ripper. Source F which is a police leaflet that was published after the murders of Elizabeth stride and Kate Eddowes and Source G which is part of a letter from the Home Secretary to the Mile End vigilance committee, which was Wrote on the 17th September 1888.
Source F was written by the police asking witnesses to come forward and help them with their investigations. The source states that the possible murderer is “supposed by someone residing in the intermediate neighbourhood” therefore the police are saying that the murderer may be local so if anyone has any information then the police wanted to hear from them. The leaflet that the police sent out did not suggest any idea about them being closer to catching the Ripper the reason I say this is because they are making such an appeal for witness this shows that they are desperate. By the police sending out this leaflet it was a good and bad idea. The reason it was good was because it may have helped the police with their investigations and gathers more information from any witness that may have seen something about any of the murders. But it was a bit of a bad idea as well because the public would have had less faith in the police catching the culprit but also would have been scared to go out and live their lives because the public of whitchapel knew that the police were not any closer to catching the Jack the Ripper.
Source G which is part of a letter from the home secretary to the mile end vigilance committee stating that he would not offer a reward to any one who was to discover the criminal. This letter is important because it is the head of the police saying that he will not offer a reward. By doing this the Home secretary was risking losing vital evidence from people who may have spoke the truth for the reward of money if then the police had a lead to someone they may have been able to catch the ripper before he committed more murders. If the Home Secretary had agreed to offer a reward it may and may not have helped the police. The Home Secretary decide not to have a reward because he said “ experience shows that such offer of reward tend to produce more harm than good” by saying this he means that you may get some information that is good and helps the investigation but more often get false information which would have wasted police time. If the Home Secretary had offer a reward I think that the police may have got a bit closer to catching the Ripper even though they may waste a lot of time at least they would have been able to select some information that they were given and created to a more detailed idea of who the murderer was and where he was from.
The main methods that the police used while investigating the case of Jack the Ripper was interviewing witnesses many people gave their accounts of what they saw, heard or knew. This was sometime a help to the police but more often during the case the information that was received from witnesses was not useful because the witnesses were not sure about the precise details. Another thing that the police did was interview possible suspects such as slaughter men and doctors the reason why they interviewed so may people was because the injures that the murderer caused on the victims were not ordinary and someone with a knowledge in that area of work would known how to cause the injures that had been inflicted during the murders. For more information the police used other methods like the time of death of the victims. This helped the police to tell if the witness’s statement was accurate, because they could compare the times and see if they were connected. Another method that was popular in the police was publicity the police would send out many leaflets and put up posters in the area to inform the public about what was happening and to apply for help in the case. The police also increased the amount of police that were on the beat the theory behind this was that if there were more police they might be able to catch the Ripper in the act.
All of these methods were useful and make the police a little closer to catching the Ripper especially increasing the police that were patrolling the area; therefore there was more chance of catching him.
5. I think that the police are partly to blame but not all of the blame must be placed on them. The reason I say this is because the evidence that the police received was not accurate this was not the police’s fault. With no clear evidence it was impossible for the police to get a result. By the Home Secretary not offering a reward it hammered the investigation and may have put people off going to the police with any extra information that may have helped. The problem was that when the police received lots of information about the case of Jack the Ripper they found it very hard to select information that could help them because they had to go through everything by hand unlike today’s age where they use computer to select useful resources saving a lot of useful time.
Source G part of a letter from the Home Secretary to the Mile End vigilance this source was written on the 17th September explaining that they will not give a reward to the police to hand out to any one who comes forward with useful information. This sources supports my statement of the police were partly to blame because if they had offered a reward there may have been more chance that people would have come forward. People who lived in Whitechapel did not have much money most of them were near enough poor so the idea of money would have made them go to the police with information but only if it was useful to stand a chance of getting money which would mean a their life would change dramatically.
Another thing that the police were to blame for was the letters that were sent and wrote by the Ripper they did not take too much notice of them at first they also destroyed one. The first letter was sent after the murder of Elizabeth Stride this was known as the “dear boss letter” in it, it explains how the police could not catch him and he is use blood to write it. The next message was left on a wall near the crime scene of Catherine Eddowes death it commented “The juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing” but before the words could be photographed the head of the metropolitan police Sir Charles Warren ordered it to be rubbed off this was a mistake because they could have matched the handwriting to see if they were the same. Sir Charles Warren explained later that he ordered it to be rubbed off because it was an onslaught to Jews and property would have been wrecked and life’s lost. The next letter was wrote on the 1st October. This was then known as the “saucy Jack postcard” here he tells the police that he did a double event. He also makes threats during the letters that he wrote to the police. The last letter that the police received was on 16th October with the letter was a small box. The box contained a human kidney preserved in wine. A medical examination suggested that the kidney was very similar to the one removed from Catherine Eddowes. Whether the letter was genuine it scared the police and the public even more because in the letter he mentions that he fried and ate it and it was very nice so not only is he a murder he is also a cannibal so this terrified everyone.
A source that does not place blame on the police is source D. This source is the evidence that Elizabeth Long gave in the inquest into the death of Annie Chapman. This source explains a description of a man that was seen talking to Annie Chapman before she was murdered on the 8th of September 1888 the evidence that Elizabeth Long gave was not accurate we can tell this because she commented “ I think he was wearing” “I cannot be sure” “ as far as I could tell” “as well as I could make out” as of the comments show she was unsure about the information that she was giving. With Elizabeth long not knowing the truth about what she saw the police could not act upon it because it may have lead them in the wrong direction wasting time that they could have spent finding the Ripper. There was a lack of information on many of the murders, which was one of the reasons that the Ripper was so hard to catch but people must have seen things. By looking at source J which is a photograph of the death place of Annie Chapman. The house behind the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street has many windows and has a very good view onto the back yard. There were so many windows someone must have seen something so it shows that people were reluctant to talk and give information to the police.
The police found it extremely hard to solve the case of Jack the Ripper there were many things that were not on the police’s side. One of these things was the area of the murders, all except one were committed in Whitechapel the one that was not was the murder of Annie Chapman this murder took place just outside of Whitechapel in Spitalfield. Whitechapel and Spitalfield were not nice places to live all of the people who live there were poor and had to sell whatever they could at market each day. The houses in Whitechapel had many stories with families in each room, and one bathroom outside. The houses were dirty and carried many diseases. It was also a rough and unsafe place to live. There were around 900,000 people in the whole of the East- end so it was overcrowded and hard to find somewhere to stay. There were many public houses and many people were always drunk many men from the west end would travel to the East-end because the would go in search of prostitutes, all of the Rippers victims were prostitutes a reason for this could have been because we were informed that the Ripper did not like them. At night the streets if Whitechapel were not a nice place to be it was dark and gloomy with alleyways where you could not see down, they often would have had drunken men at the end. This was why it was easy for the Ripper to attack because the victims could not see any one coming so the was no chance to escape. A key question that the police kept asking themselves was, Was the Ripper from the area because they did not believe that Whitechapel was capable of producing someone that could have committed the murders. All of the Ripper murders had no motive the Ripper had no insight to the victims. All he knew was that they were all prostitutes; this was one of the reasons that he picked them to be his victims.
The police were using several methods at the time of the case of Jack the Ripper. The main one was collecting information from witnesses by doing this they hoped that someone would come forward with some useful evidence that the police could use. Also interviewing possible suspects such a doctors and slaughter men also “leather apron” who was a suspect and when straight into hiding when the murders came about. he was a suspect because he had been known for having a reputation for demanding money from prostitutes under threats of violence. The police also used the time of death of the victim it was useful because the police could then link the evidence with the time of death to see if there was a link between them, if there was, there was more chance that it was useful information that was being given. Another method that the police introduced was increasing the amount of police on the beat the reason for this was that with more police the Ripper may not strike again because there was more chance of getting him being caught and because with more police there was more chance of catching them in the act. There were problems in the investigation like not having enough evidence, and then when having lots it would take so long to sort through because they had to do it all by hand.
When the first murder took place the police arrived on the scene and didn’t think twice about touching anything because they did not think about the consequences. Members of the public were allowed to the crime scene and to walk all over it this was destroying any evidence like a footprint. By the last murder the police did not move anything or let others in, they were then more likely to find more evidence. This shows that the police had learned their lesson by the last murder.
With the Jack the Ripper case we can relate it to recent events of the American sniper. The sniper has killed 10 victims including 1 child. On each shooting there has been many witnesses given accurate evidence. Which they did not get in the Jack the Ripper case. A white van that the suspect may have used to drive away in, was took in for forensic test’s they could not do this in the case of Jack the Ripper case because what they do today is advanced technology. Today they can match DNA samples. This could then lead the police to the person who had been committing the shootings. The sniper like Jack the Ripper has attacked in a enclosed area. The snipers victims have all been in a 80 mile radius. Also like Jack the Ripper the sniper left notes for the police warning them that there “children are not safe”. While comparing the two events I can see that the sniper has been much easier to catch because of modern day technology to help solve crime.
My conclusion on the Jack the Ripper case is that the police could have done better at some things like not rubbing the writing away and possible offering a reward under certain guidelines and being better police men by not being drunk all the time, then the public may have had more faith and trust in the police. By doing all of that it may have helped to catch the Ripper. But other thing were not the police fault like no accurate information this was something that the police could not control and was out of their hands so I think that the police were partly to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper.
