Jack the Ripper - source related questions.

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Heather Dorey        Page  of         10/05/2007

Jack the Ripper Coursework Assignments

Question One

Study Source A

What can you learn from source A about the murder of Polly Nicholls?

Source A is part of an article in the East End Observer describing the murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls; it is a summary of the two murders.

The East End Observer is linking the two murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls, but there is actually no proof that they are linked.

From studying source A, I can conclude that she, Polly Nicholls was a murder victim maybe connected to the one of Martha Tabram. Both were in the previous month, but which were mutually unique as that the victims were both of the low class, shown in the report as;

“…poorest of the poor…”

The murder is shown to have ‘no adequate motive’ to why Polly Nicholls would have been killed or who this killing was committed by.

The murder was a shock to everyone in London, as the passage states that they were poor, and there would be no reason for the murder as they would be no reason to rob them for money as of their social class.

Polly Nicholls was brutally killed and had ‘extraordinary violence’ taken out on her, which may suggest that she would have horrific wounds, and that it would have been committed by someone unusual to society such as a ‘demented being’, although this that he is demented is just a suggestion and not a fact.

Question Two

Study Sources A, B & C

Does the evidence of source C support the evidence of sources A and B about the Ripper murders? Explain your answer.

Source C like sources A and B suggest that extraordinary violence was used in the Jack the Ripper murders.

“…the injuries have been made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge.”

This passage from source B suggests he carried out brutal murders on his victims, this is shown in source as it is ‘The report of Dr Frederick Blackwell on the body of Elizabeth Stride on the scene’.  In Despite of these vicious murders there seemed to be no motive of why these murders took place, this is shown in the social class of his victims, as it states in source A;

“…victims have been of the poorest of the poor…”

This supports source C when it states;

“There was no money on the body.”  When it is describing the body on the scene and what the murder victim had with her.

        Source C supports B when it says;

“It was done by one who knew where to find what he wanted…”

This implies that the killer knew exactly what he was doing; this is shown in source C as describing the body’s wounds, including the incision in the neck;

“…two and half inches below the angle of the jaw, cutting the windpipe completely in two.” From this in source B the Coroner is implying that a doctor may have been the killer, as they say of his anatomical skill and knew what he wanted.

Although, when source C says about the throat being slit and the murderer knows what he is doing, it does not state as in B that the killer has medical knowledge.

        C supports B when it describing the wounds on the body it describes only of the slit in the throat, backing up source B when it states;

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“The body has not been dissected,…”

The source C supports a lot of good evidence in the sources but especially source B; this is probably because B and C are both professional eyewitnesses of examining the body, where as source A is part of an article in the East End Observer.

Question Three

Study sources D and E

How useful are sources D and E in helping you to understand why the Ripper was able to avoid capture?

Source D is the evidence of Elizabeth Long at the inquest into the death of Annie Chapman; she ...

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