Jack the Ripper Question 5

‘The police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper.’ Use all the sources and your own knowledge to explain whether you agree with this view.

I disagree, the police were not to blame for not capturing the Ripper as he was a very clever man with no motive to kill and he also didn’t leave any clues behind so therefore the police didn’t have anything to investigate from. As we can see in source H, part of an article published in the Times after the murder of Mary Kelly. ‘The murders, so cunningly continued, are carried out with a complete ruthlessness which altogether baffles investigators. Not a trace is left of the murder, and there is no purpose in the crime to afford the slightest clue.’ We can infer that it must have been extremely hard for the police with nothing to work with.

The police were also not to blame for not catching the Ripper as Whitechapel was in a condition which could have made the Ripper kill even more people. It wasn’t all down to the police as we can see clearly in source E an article published in a newspaper after murders of Polly Ann Nichols and Annie Chapman, ‘Whitechapel are connected by a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes. Everyone apparently containing some headquarters of infamy.’ What could the police do to stop this, nothing would suddenly just make Whitechapel citizens change their lifestyles. Conditions in Whitechapel helped the Ripper escape. No one could be trusted in Whitechapel, everyone was a suspect. At the time women found it exhaustingly hard to find jobs to feed themselves or even family, so they had no choice but to work as a prostitute. Some police were against each other even in Whitechapel. People hated the police particularly citizens of Whitechapel and the media didn’t help either, they were constantly blaming the police for not capturing the Ripper. The police did what they could at the time, they did house to house inquires, they would call a doctor to the scene of the crime to investigate the victim for any clues into finding the Ripper. They focused on the witnesses and took them seriously, which they shouldn’t have done as there were several witnesses all with different descriptions of the Ripper. In source D, is Elizabeth Long describing the man talking to Annie Chapman, which could have been the Ripper, ‘He looked to like a foreigner.’ The police were convinced it was a foreigner and this could have misled them into only looking for a foreigner.

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The police also dressed up as prostitutes and went undercover in turn to find the Ripper, plain clothed and uniformed policemen also flooded the streets of Whitechapel at night. 76 butchers and slaughters were questioned, as source A implies ‘that both crimes are the work of a demented being’, from an article in the East End Observer. The police shouldn’t be blamed for not capturing the Ripper as they also tried to find the Ripper by giving leaflets out to many houses to ask them to come forward if they see anything suspicious. Source F a police leaflet says the following, ‘should you know of any person to whom suspicion is attached, you are earnestly requested to communicate at once with the nearest police station’, this leaflet was distributed to 80,000 houses. The police shouldn’t be entirely blamed as they visited lodging houses and interviewed around 2,000 lodgers, sailors were also questioned. They took pictures of the victims which would have been very useful. In Mary Kelly’s case she was the only one to have had her picture taken at the scene of the crime unlike the other four. At the time there was anti-Semitism towards the police, this would have stopped communication between the police and the people, which would have been harder for the police to capture the Ripper.

The police did what they could have done at the time, with no forensic evidence, CCTV cameras DNA identification, finger printing and a national organised police force that we have today. As the killer struck randomly and only met his victims by chance made it harder for the police in 1888. However the police could have been blamed for reasons such as losing crucial evidence such as the message on the wall about the Jews which was left by the scene of Catherine Eddowes, which read ‘the juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’ this message was erased before it was photographed. This could be blamed on the police into why didn’t catch the Ripper. Source E, the article in a local newspaper explains that ‘the police force on the spot should be strengthened’, which could mean that they found the police force to be weak. The police didn’t seem to care about the murders much as source E states, ‘he was referred from one police office to another but without making any impression’. The police could have been too busy looking for butchers and slaughters rather than looking for an educational person, in source B the coroner’s report of the death of Annie Chapman describes what type of person the killer could have been, ‘the injuries have been made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.’ ‘No unskilled person could have known where to find the organs’. We can infer that the Ripper may have been a doctor or a surgeon but very unlikely a butcher with ‘anatomical skill.’

A description of the Ripper should have been given to the public, as this would give them an idea of who the Ripper could have been. Source F, the leaflet published has no description of the Ripper at all, we can imply that the police had no fix description of what the Ripper looked like because there were several witnesses with different descriptions of the Ripper. As the police had no real evidence they just arrested people randomly. The only way they could have captured the real Ripper is if they had caught him red handed. People in Whitechapel had no respect for the police, this is the reason why they mocked them and blamed them harshly for not catching the Ripper.

George Hutchinson who was a prime suspect for Mary Kelly was not questioned at all by the police, which they should have done as his description was almost too good. The police should have given rewards as this would have motivated the people of Whitechapel to find the Ripper but in source G a part of a letter from the Home Secretary explains they shouldn’t be offering rewards because ‘offers of reward tended to produce more harm than good.’

We also know that the murders either took place in Whitechapel or near Whitechapel, so therefore it should have been easier for the police to investigate and find him. We can see in source I the map of East London showing the sites of the murders and how close they were, if the police had put more policemen on patrol on every street at night then this could have resulted in them having a chance of catching the Ripper.

In conclusion the police did what they could have done but they could of tried harder and to not have destroyed crucial evidence.