Jack the ripper - Source related work.

In conclusion Source C differs from supporting Source A and B

3. Source D is helpful to know how the ripper avoided capture because it’s a description by Elizabeth Long, describing some one talking to Annie Chapman who was believed to be the ripper. The description states that he was wearing dark clothes, deerstalker hat and black coat, so since the murders took place during nighttime wearing dark clothes would have made escaping easier. It also states that he looked foreign, if this was true this may have made things difficult for the Ripper because at the beginning of the 1800s many foreigners were expelled from Prussia and came to the East end of London because of cheap lodgings, consequently people became very suspicious of foreigners. Source E helps me to understand how he wasn’t captured from the line stating that a man warned the police that if police patrols were not made during night, murders would continue. Since the murders didn’t stop this suggests that such an action was not effective enough at the right time. The lanes of Whitechapel were dark, misted and were like mazes. Coal fires from house’s and factory’s chimneys mostly made the smog, from all of the coal fires a lot of carbon was in the air and this also caused the houses to turn black with dirt, because the East end of London was still using gas lamps, the streets weren’t very lit up. If a murder were committed an escape would have been easy by the darkness, smog and black houses. The word “network” is used in the sense of complicated lanes going in all directions, and if some one were to know the area well they could make an easy and quick escape.    

4. The police tried to catch Jack the Ripper by making posters and leaflets telling the people to contact the nearest police officer or police station if they had seen anyone who were under suspicion. Consequently lots of people were arrested but all were released, for example ‘Leather Apron’ a name given by the newspapers to John Pizer, a man who was believed to have murdered Polly Nichols because he had a reputation of demanding money from prostitutes under threats of violence, and descriptions of him from the Star news paper fitted the descriptions of the killer from the witnesses. However he was cleared later from an owner of Polly Nichols lodging house, he said he was in hiding at the time of the murder. The police methods on tracing the ripper were searching for items near the murder scene. The police made extra patrols on Whitechapel and police constables were criss-crossing regularly. Police patrols increased more after more murders and several policemen dressed as prostitutes in an attempt to catch the killer. On 30th September the police questioned over 2,000 lodgers and 76 butchers and slaughters, hounds were used to try to sniff the scent of the killer in aid to catch him, and this was used while the police were questioning sailors on some riverboats at the Thames, but this didn’t get the police anywhere. In desperation on the same day handbills were distributed to 80,000 houses, these were stating the same as the leaflets and nothing new because the police refused to apply description of the killer on the handbill, and the police still believed the killer was living in Whitechapel. Even though the police had evidence that the killer could not have lived in Whitechapel because he only struck on weekends, which suggested that he worked during the week and moved to Whitechapel to commit his murders. The handbills made no change in hope of catching the killer. The police tried to jog the memories of the public about the killer by publishing the dear boss letter; this did no good at all but gave more panic to the public. This also caused some mob attacks. Posters with rewards for capturing the killer were not used because people would start to attack at random or on hunches as the Home Secretary of the Mile End Vigilance Committee pointed out.

5. “The Police are to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper,” I agree with this statement because there are a number of things the police could’ve done or done better to help in tracing the ripper. This may’ve been the first serial killer they had came across but since 1879 the number of detectives had grown as well as arrests and the new CID was set up, Criminal Intelligence Department, this made many improvements. Even though on many occasions the police ignored witnesses and listened to the educated people even though they weren’t a witness, for example, the murder of Annie Chapman on the 8th September, the police ignored the witnesses about the time of the murder and listened to the doctor’s estimate, which was one hour from the witnesses estimate which could prove to make a difference. The police also ignored evidence on occasions, for example the police had evidence that the ripper may not be living in Whitechapel because he committed the crimes on weekends which suggests that he has a job during week days and came to Whitechapel on weekends, but still the police issued 80,000 handbills to the houses of Whitechapel on the 30th September 1888. It stated the same things the public already knew. All of the handbills were a complete waste of police time, effort and money because everyone was aware of this from posters and leaflets they had already issued. If the police had paid attention to this evidence they may have decided to investigate outside of Whitechapel more thoroughly. Many people came to the police because they had seen suspicious people. But none of them was identified as Jack the Ripper, so again, a complete waste of time. However with all the houses burning their coal fires, this let off fumes that caused smog all over Whitechapel. It made it almost impossible to see especially at night, the carbon in the air also caused the houses to turn black with dirt, along with the maze like streets this made an easy escape for anyone who was to commit a crime. Since in these times they didn’t know about tracing some one with DNA, unless a suspect left a distinguishable item behind which could only be owned by them, tracing them would be very difficult. The police made leaflets and handbills in an attempt to identify Jack the Ripper, but this caused many people to waste the police’s time by telling them about suspicious people that were actually innocent. Also this was the first time the police had ever heard of serial killers so they may not have known what to do at first. In conclusion I think the police could’ve done much more to ensure a possible capture of the ripper all though they did have many faults with how careful the ripper was, Whitechapel’s environment, and the technology at the time.