Jack the Ripper - source related analysis.

GCSE History

History - Jack the Ripper Coursework

By Ahmed Jamil

Exam no. 8571

I can learn from source A that the extract from the East End. Observe newspaper provides the reader a meticulous outlook of the brutal murders of the forty-two year old Polly Nichols, whose body was found in Buck's Row, Whitechapel and the thirty-nine year old Martha Tabram. The way which the crime was carried out on Polly Nichols was extremely extraordinary and brutal. First of all, the murders were not a coincidence and were peculiar as the fashion by which they were murdered was carried out by "a demented being". The killings were peculiar because there was no sufficient motive involving any means of theft or assault in order to get money, as the victims were "the poorest of the poor". Furthermore, the article describes and links the violence used in the killings on a catastrophic scale and mentions that the extremity levels reached had been so brutal that no such murders had ever been witnessed before. In addition, the berserk effort of the murderer depicts a person who possesses animal behaviour and clearly a lunatic that "startled" and perturbed London. The two murders shared common patterns and links.

The evidence provided by Dr. Fredrick Blackwell in source C supports the East End article & the Coroner's report to a certain extent, albeit they are based upon different victims. The evidence provided in source C supports sources A and B by the fact that all the victims were murdered in an odious & brutal method. Source C supports source A by the fact that the Ripper victims were poor. The report provided by doctor Fredrick Blackwell agrees with the Coroner's report on its precision and meticulousness regarding the various injuries & the horrid incisions by the Ripper, as both sources are reported by experts in the field of the human body (anatomy). Furthermore sources B & C both suggest that the killer had to have some degree of anatomical knowledge to do what he did and that he almost certainly must have had some experience in using his knife. An obvious distinguishable disagreement between sources C and B is that the effort put into the murders is quite contrary. Dr. Blackwell's report states that a sharp instrument, possibly a knife or a scalpel is used with surgical skill to cut Elizabeth Stride's windpipe & oesophagus, whereas the coroner's report states that the killer had actually looked for different organs. There are some major points which sources A and C disagree on, such as; the articles suggestion about the murderer being a wild & deranged creature whereas it is contradicted in the report where the killer is described as a person who knows exactly what he is doing as there "were no meaningless cuts", again, there is a contrast in the efforts by the criminal. A significant note that must be mentioned is that the article in the East End observer is hyperbolized in order to maintain the readers interest or to attract customers to actually buy the newspaper because the language is more gripping and is more likely to rouse public fear and fascination. While reports such as Dr. Fredrick Blackwell's are more reliable as he is an expert physician who was just carrying out his job.

In my opinion, sources D and E are greatly helpful and are quite adequate in helping me understand why Jack the Ripper was able to evade capture having perpetrated the murders. Firstly, the evidence provided by Elizabeth Long (source D) supplies many indications of why the police forces and the public were misled; it may be either due to the untruthfulness of Elizabeth or her uncertainty. As the reader begins to read the evidence, the first thought that strikes the reader is that the criminal was of foreign origin as she describes him as a person of a ...

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In my opinion, sources D and E are greatly helpful and are quite adequate in helping me understand why Jack the Ripper was able to evade capture having perpetrated the murders. Firstly, the evidence provided by Elizabeth Long (source D) supplies many indications of why the police forces and the public were misled; it may be either due to the untruthfulness of Elizabeth or her uncertainty. As the reader begins to read the evidence, the first thought that strikes the reader is that the criminal was of foreign origin as she describes him as a person of a "dark complexion". She depicts an image of herself which seems to be quite resentful towards foreigners living in Whitechapel, perhaps there were too many of them living in her area. This seems to be quite preposterous as the murder took place at night and the illumination in the streets was poor at the time. Secondly, a noteworthy fact is that Elizabeth Long constantly made inaccurate and guessing assumptions and used terms such as "I cannot be sure" or "as far as I could tell" to describe the murderer, this explains why the public and the police were misdirected as the evidence is quite vague, but to the police who were lacking clues, this was sufficient enough. The extract from the article published in a local newspaper provides good perspectives to illustrate why the Ripper was able to avoid capture by the police. The source outlines that the public were generally irritated and frustrated by the police as the "informant" demanded changes and undoubtedly other people did also. The blame was resting upon the police force as they were entirely ignorant of the informant's warnings, despite the occurrence of the murder of Polly Nicholls. Also, another feature the source gives is that there was widespread ruffianism and crime so the Ripper murders were not standing out at the beginning so this makes the source a little less useful. Furthermore, the source describes Whitechapel as being an insecure and ominous area connected by poorly lit and narrow paths, so clearly Jack the Ripper could have easily absconded.

The investigations carried out by Scotland Yard and London's metropolitan police used many different and most of the time, unsuccessful methods when they were trying to capture the notorious criminal Jack the Ripper. The police leaflet provided in source F regarding the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Kate Eddowes portrays the disparateness of the police when they attempted to capture the criminal. Immediately, the reader pictures how the perplexed police were dealing with the matter. In my opinion, this method seems to be unreliable and unprofessional because not only were the residents unhappy with the police procedures in Whitechapel but as the East End was characterised by slums, poverty and crime, many people would take this opportunity to accuse people whom they did not actually like for the murders which they had not even committed. The leaflet is written in an unintelligent layout as the text states "…suspicion is attached…", the fact that people should report someone who they are suspicious of is clearly going to overcrowd police stations as they will receive too many reports from too many suspicious people. This may baffle the police and does tend to do more harm than good. In source G, which provides a segment of a letter from the Home Secretary to the Mile End Vigilance Committee gives useful information. I can deduce that the Vigilance Committee requested to offer a reward for people who might have knowledge concerning the whereabouts of Jack the Ripper. The outcomes are similar to the police's leaflets, and this shows how the investigations were lacking evidence to capture Jack the Ripper. The Home Secretary makes a wise decision and realizes that the poverty in the East End would tempt many people to report false information to the police and the Vigilance Committee. There are several methods which the police used; one that must be mentioned is the night or neighbourhood inspections, this is a good method in the sense that Jack the Ripper was most likely to strike during this time but as other sources illustrate, the poor visibility was in favour of Jack the Ripper and also the network of narrow alleys. The police force also tried to increase the men it had on the streets, this might have been a good method but it shows how they possessed little man power. An unintelligent method used by the police detectives was examining the eyes of the victims after they were murdered, in belief that the Ripper's face would remain imprinted on their retinas. The police enforcements were questioning a large number of people who all claimed to be first hand witnesses. I can conclude that the police used many methods which gave insufficient detail about the person who committed the murders or perplexed and misled them even more. By relying on the habitants for help, they put themselves in a more complex ordeal. The public were unhappy with the police's efforts and were reluctant to help, but other people used this opportunity to give false accusations either for their own cause or to blame the wrong person for the murders.

In my opinion, I think that the police were to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper, however there are factors which explain why the Ripper was able to escape. Despite the intensive investigations by the police, it is clear that the Ripper was a skilled opponent who knew what he was doing, but there were some incidents where capturing him was possible. For example, in source C, Dr. Fredrick Blackwell states that ''The neck and the chest were quite warm, as were also the legs…'' this indicates that the murder only happened recently and the chance of capturing Jack the Ripper was quite high because the map provided in source I shows that the crimes took place quite closely to each other. So a skilled and thorough search should have been made instantly after the discovery of the body. The ignorance of the police holds them to be responsible as source E illustrates. There was a serious feud and miscommunication between the two head chiefs of the Metropolitan Police force and the City of London Police, their arrogance and formal pride forces them to work separately, therefore, not establishing any links in information between one police force and the other. Furthermore, a large criticism of the police had been that they were uneducated and poorly trained to carry out their jobs properly. The police had little man power in relying on leaflets, rewards and accidental circumstances, as this brought forward many unhelpful and time-wasting witnesses such as Elizabeth Long in source D.

The police are not to be blamed entirely as they were faced with an adversary that picked on prostitutes who belonged to the lowest social class. The prostitutes had to maintain a private and discreet life in order for them to carry out their 'jobs', they were also disconnected from family and friends so nobody really paid any attention to their existence. This was the perfect environment for Jack the Ripper, and the police had no power over this apart from advising some of the prostitutes. The police were frequently faced with dark murder scenes consequently this low visibility made it even harder to catch the criminal. At that time, police were not equipped with the technology we possess today, such as forensic science, finger printing, and blood typing. Finger printing was not developed at that time, and blood typing was only developed in the early 20th century, approximately after the murder rampage ended by 23 years, this meant that any blood that could have been the murderers could not be identified or classified. Over the years, many professional and amateur sleuths have put forth various suspects. Many of which belonged to the aristocratic social class or possibly working for the police because the murderer must have been well protected somehow-but they are all assumptions. But if the murderer did not belong to any of these two categories, then he must have blended well with a crowd of people to avoid capture, so the police had a laborious time searching for him. And I conclude that either way, they are to blame.

By Ahmed Jamil