jack the ripper coursework

GCSE History

Jack the Ripper COURSEWORK

From the source, we learn a number of things about the murder of Polly Nichols and Martha Tabram. We learn straight away in the first paragraph that the” two murders” were linked together, they “startled London”. We’re told that the murders were different from the ones London had seen before as the victims were the” poorest of the poor” and there didn’t seem to be an adequate motive for these murders as the victims would have not had anything of value. We learn that the two murders were the works of a “demented being” and that he used “extraordinary violence” in each of the murders. The source only gives a brief description of the murder saying that the “excess of effort” was noticeable in both the murders. However, this source is not reliable to an extent because it has no real evidence and no statements from witnesses which means the information given might not be 100% true. It is also from a part of an article in the East-End observer which means the information given might have been exaggerated to make the story more interesting and help sell more newspapers.

The evidence of source C supports the evidence of source A and B to an extent but there are some key differences. For example, Source C supports source A in suggesting that the murder was violent. A explains how “extraordinary violent” was noticeable in the murders, and C describes the actual murder saying “there was a long incision” (neat cut) in the neck which means that the murderer took great care in what he was doing. C also supports A in implying that the victims were poor. A describes the victims as “the poorest of the poor” which could mean that the victims were really poor and or could be another way to suggest that the victims were prostitutes. C tells us that “there was no money on the body” which again could suggest the fact that the victim was poor and had no money or the murderer might have taken the money after committing the murder. However, C does not support A in linking any of the murders that had happened or even suggesting that they might have been committed by the same person. A links the “two murders” straight away by suggesting that “both murders were the works of a demented being” and that “the excess of effort” was noticeable in both of the murders which could mean that they were done by the same person. But C only describes the murder of one of the victims and does not make any make any connections between her murder and other murders that had happened. Source C supports source B to an extent but there also some key differences. It supports B in suggesting that the murderer was skilled and knew what he was doing. B explains how” the injuries must have been done by someone who had considerable anatomical amount of skill and knowledge” and that no “mere slaughterer of animals” (butcher) would have been able to do what he did. However C does not support B in suggesting that the victims were poor or that the murders were linked in any way. Source A is not reliable to an extent because it has no evidence which could mean that the writer is not fully sure about the information given and also, source A is a part from a newspaper which could suggest that the information given could be exaggerated in order to sell more newspapers, However, sources B & C are reliable to an extent because they are both given by professionals who are specialised in investigating deaths and looking into the causes of the death. Source B is a coroner’s report which means it must have been read out in a coroner’s court. The fact that it’s a coroner’s report being read out in court makes it the more reliable as a coroner is meant to be under oath when reading a report and so therefore the chances of him telling a lie are minimal. There would also be no benefit for him lying as it would cost him his job and give him a bad name. This applies to source C also which is a report from a doctor. This source is reliable because for a doctor there would also be no benefit for lying. He is a professional and he would put in a bad name for lying and could also cost him his job.

Source D and E are useful in helping us understand why the ripper was able to avoid capture. Source E is part of an article published in a local newspaper. It tells us that the “sights and sounds of Whitechapel were an apocalypse of evil” when the source mentions ‘sounds were an apocalypse of evil’’ it implies that people screaming and running and police cars everywhere was nothing out of the ordinary and the people living in and around Whitechapel were used to it and so therefore would just ignore it. When the source says ‘sights ...

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Source D and E are useful in helping us understand why the ripper was able to avoid capture. Source E is part of an article published in a local newspaper. It tells us that the “sights and sounds of Whitechapel were an apocalypse of evil” when the source mentions ‘sounds were an apocalypse of evil’’ it implies that people screaming and running and police cars everywhere was nothing out of the ordinary and the people living in and around Whitechapel were used to it and so therefore would just ignore it. When the source says ‘sights were an apocalypse of evil’, that implies that there was probably prostitutes, drunkards, people fighting everywhere and so a guy running or hiding would not have been something that never happened in white chapel. This was good in helping jack the ripper to escape and so was “the narrow, dark, crooked lanes” that Whitechapel had. Whitechapel was always extremely dark at night due to lack of good street lights and so if the police couldn’t see as far as around the corner then jack the ripper would have had a good chance to escape. Whitechapel was also a very high crime area which meant that when people heard that a crime had been committed, they would see it as no bid deal until hey heard about the excess of effort used in these crimes. There was also a possibility of a lack of police in Whitechapel as described by the informant, and although this information may not be reliable and the informant may be telling a biased story when there probably is enough police, his demand for more and stronger police came just before the first murder. This could mean that Jack the Ripper could have gotten away because of the lack of police and also the weakness of the police force at the time. This information might not be reliable to an extent because it is from a local newspaper which means the information could have been exaggerated in order to sell more newspapers and raise awareness of this killer. Source D is evidence from Elizabeth Long at an inquest and although the information was incredibly vague, it was the only evidence the police had to follow. Elizabeth Long described the person she thought she saw talking to Annie and although she made out that he was “a foreigner” and he was “over forty”, her information was useless to the police as nearly half the population in London were foreigners and over forty. This information is reliable in helping us see why the Ripper was able to escape because Annie was a prostitute so she had probably talked to various men before getting to the Ripper in which case, Elizabeth might have seen the wrong guy. The Ripper could have been thirty years old and Elizabeth had seen the man over forty so the police would be on lookout for a man over forty while the Ripper escaped. Although Elizabeth is in an inquest, she’s not sure she’s telling the truth which is why she continually repeats” I think” which suggests that she is unsure and that her information is not helpful to the police but however is helpful in buying the Ripper more time to escape.

From sources F and G, we learn about the numerous ways that the police tried to capture Jack the Ripper. In source F, Four murders in, police sent a leaflet as a form of plea for help to homes in Whitechapel in hope that by doing this, they would get some much needed help and hopefully catch the Ripper. Although there was no real evidence that the Ripper lived in Whitechapel, the police felt that he did and so decided to send the leaflets in Whitechapel alone. The language used in the leaflets was really formal and so therefore, these leaflets had little or no use to the police as a huge percentage of people in London didn’t read or speak very good English. By sending out this plea, it showed the weakness of the police and how they couldn’t cope with a big crime like this one as they were not educated enough.” should you know of any person...” shows just how desperate they are and how much they don’t know. “…you are earnestly…” also shows how desperate they are and how they’re almost begging the people to tell them of anything they know. Source G is part of a letter from the home secretary which is explaining that offering rewards for a possible suspect is not a very good idea as it’s doing “more harm than good”. Police took thousands of statements from people pretending to be the murderer which made it harder for the police to catch the Ripper as there were so many possibilities and they didn’t know which one of the people were telling the truth and which one was not. “there’s nothing in the circumstances of the present case to justify a departure from this rule” means that the police force decided not to offer a reward for this case as they knew that people would do just about anything to get to that reward and that even innocent people would have probably been put forward even if they didn’t commit the crimes, instead, the police decided to solve the case themselves in their own ways. They dressed as prostitutes and went out prostituting in the hope that the Ripper would target them. This may sound stupid but they had absolutely no choice and no evidence whatsoever and did not know where or when the Ripper would hit next.

The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper. There are many arguments for this statement and against it. Although the police did make mistakes, they weren’t to blame for Jack the Ripper escaping as the environment around Whitechapel was very dirty and crowded didn’t contribute in helping them find the Ripper. Whitechapel was full of “narrow, dark, crooked lanes” and was always dark due to lack of good street lights. Whitechapel was close together as shown in source I but when you look at source J, you see just how hidden and dark places were. Places were also very dirty and “sights and sounds were an apocalypse of evil”. This suggests that prostitutes on the floor, girls screaming, police sirens going off were things that happened regularly and so the police could not stop nor control things like those that were part of an everyday routine for the people in Whitechapel. There was a transient population and also lots of foreigners constantly coming in and out of London and so this would have made it much harder for the police as the murderer could have been coming into London and then leaving after he had committed his murder. There were lots of exits in and out of the country which would have made it easier for the Ripper to get away. Whitechapel was always crowded on Fridays and all the way through the weekends which is when the murders took place which means that after the Ripper had committed his crimes, he could have just walked into a crowd of people and blended in which would have made it much harder for the police especially because there wasn’t much light in Whitechapel at midnight. Whitechapel was also a very high crime area and according to source E, the police force wasn’t as strong which means that police would have been busy dealing with other crimes so not as many of them would have been dealing with the Jack the Ripper case which would have made it easier for Jack the Ripper to get away. Technology was also a major problem the police had as they did not have any forensics to help them and could only rely on what they saw there and then. They didn’t have the basic things that police nowadays have like modern communication which would mean that communicating between police and calls for back up would have been very difficult. They also didn’t have the equipment to do blood tests and finger prints which meant that finding the criminal was a very hard thing to do even if they did find have his finger prints all over the walls, they couldn’t do much about it. And even if they had had those types of equipments to take finger prints, they would have still found it hard as they didn’t have computers and so would have had to go through everybody checking their finger prints with a magnifying glass instead of just scanning it and getting a page of names like they do nowadays. This would have been very time consuming and would have resulted in the Ripper getting away. The nature of the victims was also one of the reasons Jack the Ripper got away very easily. The victims were all prostitutes which meant they had met thousands of men before meeting Jack the Ripper which would have meant thousands of suspects and not one of them known of by anyone. This made it much harder for the police as they had no piece of evidence apart from the one by Elizabeth Long and her evidence was not reliable because she was not sure about any of the information she was giving. This made it much harder for the police to capture Jack the Ripper as they had no lead to follow whatsoever. The nature of the crime could also have been another reason why Jack the Ripper found it so easy to get away. He was one of the 1st ever serial killers he was a person who “knew what they were doing”. This could have “startled” the police as they had never seen anything like that before. The murderer was “extraordinarily” skilled and he cunningly continued his murders which showed his strongness and the fact that if he could commit these crimes so perfectly, then he must have known how to escape perfectly. In source H, which is part of an article published in the times, we know that the murderer “baffled all investigators” which means that he had left no clues which would have made it harder for the police to find him and made it not their fault he escaped. However, police could have been the ones to blame for Jack the Ripper escaping because of lack of professionalism in handling big crimes like this one, they were educated in preventing minor crimes but when big crimes like this one happened, they didn’t know what to do. According to the information given in source E, the police force wasn’t very strong and needed to be “strengthened”. This could have been one of the reasons why the Ripper got away. They also destroyed evidence which meant that any information they would have found from that evidence would be gone. For example, they would find a dead body in a room get it cleaned up, get the room cleaned up even before the investigators saw it. This would mean that almost every little bit of evidence that could have led them to the killer would have been destroyed. This was due to they’re lack of education and would have helped the killer get away as there would have been no clues left. Source F is a plea for help from the police to everyone in white chapel. This shows a weakness of the police as they hadn’t been able to catch the murderer and they were already four murders in. the fact that they only sent that plea after the 4th murder could have meant that they were too little too late. They also only sent out the leaflet to people in Whitechapel which could have been the reason why the murderer got away as the murderer could have lived outside Whitechapel. The wording on leaflet is also very formal which would have meant that half of the people in Whitechapel would not have understood it which would have meant very little help from the public. During the time these murders took place, the police force would change officers on a particular case after every two weeks. This was very stupid as after a particular officer had followed the case and gathered some information and understood it for the two weeks he was on duty, he would then be replaced and there would be a new person taking over the case who would have had to start from scratch as they didn’t know a thing about this case apart from what they read in the papers which could have been exaggerated in order to get more customers. At that time, 2 different police forces had different jurisdictions which meant that they weren’t allowed to go into each other’s areas of authority. These were the London city police and the metropolitan police. They didn’t share information between each other even if it would have been much easier to, they both wanted to have the glory of having caught the Ripper. They were doubling up on the work and could have had one easy job to do if they only worked together. This conflict between the police forces could have been the reason why Jack the Ripper found it so easy to escape and never get caught. In my opinion, I feel that the police were not to blame for Jack the Ripper escaping. They couldn’t help the fact that computers were very expensive things to have then and it wasn’t their fault that equipment for testing DNA, blood and finger prints were not invented yet so I feel that they did the best they could to stop the Ripper and couldn’t help what they didn’t have.

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