Jack The Ripper - source related study.

3. Sources D and E are both useful when trying to understand why the ripper was able to avoid capture, but neither of the sources are entirely trustworthy. Source D is Elizabeth Long describing the man seen talking to Annie Chapman before she was killed. This souce may not be completely accurate information, Long could have mistaken vital details or seen a different man or maybe even lied to protect herself or the Ripper. Elizabeth Long may even have been under the influence of alcohol which may have blurred her memories of what she actually saw that night. On the other hand this souce was one of very few eye witness accounts on Jack the Ripper. Therefore the police would take any evidence they could get very seriously. The fact that the police went out searching for a forieghn looking man suggests that they believed Long's story so to them it must have been very usefull and convincing evidence. Souce D tells us that if the Ripper had a dark comlexion and could have been a forighner it may have made it herder for the police because he may not have any police records. Souce D also states that the man Elizabeth Long saw was wearing a dearstalker hat, this would have been shadowing his face and his features. For example people wouldn't be able to see his hair colour and his face would be darkened. He was wearing a long coat, this would have helped him to blend in with other perople when walking around the streets and could easily not be noticed on a dark night and could get away from a murder scene quickly and unnoticed.

Souce E also has the possibility of not being a reliable source as it was written and published by a newspaper. Newspapers in Victorian times wanted people to buy them so they exaggerated stories and maybe even exaggerated the article used in source E. In this artcle the police are being blamed for the Ripper getting away with such brutal murders. This could have just been people looking for someone to blame and the police were the easiest target.

Dispite the possibilies of source E being trustworthy we do learn quite a lot about the police's reaction to the murders and the area of Whitechappel . It tells us that dispite warnings of how dangerous the area and perople of Whitechappel were the police did not take any action into preventing violence and even murder in the area. The fact that all the murders were around the Whitechappel area shows that it was not uncommon for violence to go on. If a victim of the Ripper screamed not many heads would turn because there were so may drunks around at night and strange noices went by unnoticed.

Overall I think that sources D and E are partly useful to help you understand how the Ripper was able to avoid capture. In some aspects they explain different reasons of how the Ripper was able to avoid captue but neither are entrily trustworthy.

4. The police used many different strategies to find information to help their investigation on the Ripper murders. But some of their actions were foolish and consequently vital evidence was destroyed for example when writing was found on a wall regarding the Jews the police decided they would wash it off. It could have helped with the Ripper case and could have been used as evidence.

Souce F shows us that the police started taking the Ripper muders very seriously but not until after three attacks. The fact that the police had taken the time to publish those leaflets suggests that they were getting slightly desperate for some evidence to help their investigation. The police were using valuable time making and distributing the leaflets, these murders were taken more seriously and the police were determined to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper. By giving out these notices the ploice were trying to get evidence and information to help them to descover Jack the Rippers true identity. The police should have realized that not all of the people reciving the leaflet could actually read it. Therefore they would not know to tell the police if they had seen or heard anything on the nights of the murders. Another possibility is that the leaflets readers could have been criminals so they would not have wanted to come forward to the police.

Souce G a letter from the Home Secretary to the Mile End Vigilance Committee shows that the Home Secretary were taking the time to explain why they would not take certain actions to catch the Ripper. The fact that someone had formed a group of people to write to the Home Secretary regarding Jack the Ripper shows that people were conderned about the police catching him. The leter from the Home Secretary was written on 17 September 1888 only nine days after the second murder, this means the committee wrote to the Home Secretary almost straight away and the Home Secretary replyed extremely quickly. This suggests that the Home Secretary considered these murders a s very importanat case and they had thought about what actions they were and were not going to take. The Home Secretary had already decided after two murders that they would not try to encourage witnesses with money as it could work to their disadvanage. The Home Secretary had got involved in the case of Jack the Ripper this shows that they thought this particular case needed to be solved quickly and efficiently.

5. The statement "The police were to lame for not capturing Jack the Ripper." Is one that was said throughout the time of the Whitechappel murders. Although it is still hard to determine wheather the police were completely to blame. Throughout the investigation the police tried many different stratigies in attempt to catch Jack the Ripper but unfortunately were unsuccessful. This could have been due to the lack of technology or the lack of experience and knowlage. In the age of the Ripper murders the police did not have such resources as cars which would have helped them to get to the scene of a crime much quicker and maybe even used to patrol the Whitechappel area. The police did not have fingerprint systems which could have been incredibly useful in such cases as the writing regarding the Jews on a wall which may have been linked with Jack the Ripper. The police did not have a Criminal Investigation Department which could have helped them, if they had the knowlage they could have discussed and assessed cases much more. Another thing working in the police's disadvantage was that they different police stations were not linked. There was one police station to each area of London, different police stations did not descuss crimes in different areas of London. If the Ripper had commited a murder in another area of London away from Whitechappel the police of the Whitechappel area would not have known about it. Now we have Scotland Yard, London Headquarters of Metrapoliton police, this would have been useful then because the police couldhave desscussed various important crimes, for example the Ripper case and worked together helping each other to solve them.

Although the police did not have the advantage of technology they still could have done a number of things differently during the muders of Jack the Ripper, for example the leaflets that were given to people in the area of Whitechappel. The leaflet was not even published until after three muders, with such an unusual case the police should have taken action as quickly as possible. Plus the fact that there were few educated residents in the area of Whitechappel so not many of them could even understand the leaflet. The police could have been loosing vital witnesses because they did not think of this.

Source E also shows another thing the police did wrong, although this source may not be entirely true as it was written by a newspaper and they may have just wanted to sell copies. It states that someone had actually gone to the police and warned them that there was not enough order in the streets of the Whitechappel area, but the police disregarded this information. The area of Whitechappel was a dangerous and out of control area it was known for its "deficient ruffanism" yet the police did not try to get in under control. The police could have had a number of night watchmen out patrolling the streets of the Whitechappel area at nights and in the early hours of the morning. They could have tried to prevent drunks aimlessly roaming the streets and tried to prevent the overall crime rate. Source J shows the area in which the body of Annie Chapman was found, it was enclosed and in the evenings a dark shadowed space. The police should have tried to open up these sorts of places which would have made it herder for any sort of muder of assault to take place.

Having considered all the evidence I think that the police were not completely to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper, limited resources and limited knowledge worked very much to their disadvantage.