Jack the ripper - Source related work.

In conclusion, source B supports source C entirely whereas source A contradicts the source to some extent. This is because the authors of sources B and C had much more access to information than the author of source A. It is also because source A is likely to be much more sensationalised to keep the interest of readers whereas source B is much more official and therefore agrees with source C, another official document.  

3. Sources D + E are very useful in helping us understand how the Ripper avoided capture. Source D, the evidence of Elizabeth Long is extremely vague with her using phrases such as ‘but I cannot be sure’ and ‘as well as I could make out’ so it is likely that this would have confused the police. The police also spent far too much time on the investigation just with the evidence of this source, which is vague and unreliable. This is also because, with their limited technology, the police had no other leads to go on. Source E shows the failings of the police, but as a newspaper article it is not necessarily reliable or could be bias. The article does, however, expose the lack of police control and the extreme lack of organisation throughout the police force. The article is very critical of the police though, in my opinion, it is not all their fault as they were given very little training with many learning their duties on the street. The environment would have also played a part in helping the Ripper avoid capture and is described in source E as ‘a network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes’.

Amy Gilmour

This would have given the Ripper an easy job in hiding or escaping before being caught. So both sources are indeed useful and are even more useful together but they still don’t give the whole picture as many details are left out.

4. Sources F and G show that the police were trying to catch the Ripper though at this stage in the investigation they were becoming desperate. From the start of the investigation they had no idea that they were dealing with a serial killer, or even what a cereal killer was. They had wasted a lot of time in abattoirs. They also wasted more time following rumours about John Pizer or ‘Leather Apron’. He was well known for threatening prostitutes with violence for money. He went into hiding but was found, arrested and later cleared as he had many alibis confirming that he was in hiding on the night of the murder. The police then proceeded to waste more time still on the extremely vague evidence of Elizabeth Long, they arrested many people but each was subsequently cleared. They became more and more desperate and distributed the handbill shown in source F to 80,000 houses. The handbill proved hopeless, as it gave no description of the killer, assumed that the killer lived in Whitechapel and have asked for information on suspicious characters again. Another reason for the failure of this handbill was that previous to the murders the police had treated people badly, this meant that local people gave them no respect and held them in low esteem. This meant that they had no cooperation and decided that they would have to offer a reward. After sending a pleading letter, they received the reply shown in source G, they were turned down. This source shows that they had tried but there was nothing that they could do now about the situation, they had come to a dead-end. Source G is a primary source and an official document to the Mile End Vigilance Committee. It is from the home secretary and has no reason to be bias. It rejects the request for a reward claiming that such offers ‘tended to produce more harm than good’. They said that there was nothing under the circumstances of then case for an exception from this, so the police were then stuck.      

5. The police tried but were not successful in catching Jack the Ripper. There are many reasons for this. At this time the police were not nearly as technologically advanced as they are now and, unlike now, forensics were not of much use to them. However, the police wasted a lot of time looking for someone with anatomical knowledge, and then they wasted even more time on the extremely vague evidence of Elizabeth Long. In her statement, she uses phrases such as ‘as well as I could make out’. This shows that none of her evidence is particularly reliable and in my opinion they could have spent this time more wisely. Even though they wasted this valuable time it is unlikely that they had any other leads to follow. The police were trying, though they were obviously lacking the technology and the information to get very far. With this lack of technology they probably found it difficult to get anything from the body whereas now we could have used forensics. Source F, though a newspaper article and not very reliable, describes the lack of control and organisation in the police force. On the other hand, it also tells us that the environment in Whitechapel was ideal for someone to hide; the ‘network of narrow, dark and crooked lanes’ would make it easier for the Ripper to escape.  

Amy Gilmour

The police did arrest many people but eventually released each of them in turn.  After a long period of searching they became desperate and so published the handbill shown in source F.  They had to publish this and the ‘Dear Boss’ letter because they had no co-operation from the public.  This is because the public had previously been treated badly by the police so they had no support from local people and no respect from them.  The police had been trying to find the Ripper and at this stage of the investigation were desperate. They tried asking for reward money but were rejected. An offer of a reward would have more than likely been very helpful in getting co-operation from the community.

In conclusion, the police were not entirely to blame for not capturing Jack the Ripper, as there were many other factors involved such as misleading rumours in the press and being spread by word of mouth, the environment in Whitechapel and the lack of co-operation from the public.  Each played some part in the police failing to capture Jack the Ripper meaning it was not entirely their fault.