The first victim was known as Polly Nicholas, the murder was committed on Friday 31 August 1888. The body was discovered by Charles Cross in Buck’s Row. The victim was lying in front of a stable year on her back with her skirts pulled up to her waist. After his attempts of trying to wake her he called on a police officer but before he returned police Constable John Neil came upon the body. After examination of it he noticed there had been a slit across the woman’s throat to each ear. Neil then called for an ambulance and even more police, after this the doctor Rees Llewellyn arrived and pronounced the women dead, she had been killed by the cut to her throat. The doctor also said she had been killed no earlier than thirty minutes. Once Polly’s body had been taken to the mortuary her clothes had been taken off and several deep wounds were discovered to the abdomen. The doctor believed the wounds were inflicted while she was dead lying on her back, and the murder weapon was believed to be a long bladed knife.
This murder was the first of the series which were to be committed. However this murder did not attract so much attention before the second murder was finished, because the police believed to of caught the criminal ‘Leather Apron’ which calmed the public. However this was indeed a wrong lead. There were other obvious reasons as well like the murders had not become a series yet there fore no one had anything to look out for.
The second victim was known by the name of Annie Chapman. The murder was committed on 8 September, a week after the murder of Polly Nicholas. The body was discovered by John Davis in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street. Davis found the body just after 6: oo am. The victims skirt had been pulled up to her pelvis just like the first murder. After John Davis had found the body he got help immediately. Dr George Phillips, a police surgeon reported that the body was found on its back. The legs and throat like the last murder were drawn up and cut to each ear. The face was all swollen and so was the tongue. The small intestines and other parts were lying on the right side of the body however they were still attached to the body. A narrow thin blade which was about six to eight inches long was believed to be used for the murder. Also the police constable mentioned that the person who had done these wounds to the body must have been some kind of surgeon or doctor because he knew what he had to get out of the body.
After the second murder the case was overwhelmingly growing into an outrageous incurable disease. Hundreds of letters sent to the press where all believe to be fakes however, debating whether they were really sent by ‘Jack the Ripper’ was irrelevant. The fact was the letters done their job by attracting huge attention on to the case. Not only were the letters bringing about the attention but the murders were forming into some kind of a pattern of only praying on certain people i.e. prostitutes.
The third victim was Elizabeth Stride and the murder was committed on September 30 between 12: 36 and 12: 56. The body was discovered by Louis Diemschutz in Dutfield Yard off Berner Street. Once he saw the body he called for a police officer. Constable Henry Lamb called for a doctor then examined the body himself briefly. He noticed the skirt was not raised and there was no sign of struggle to him. After this Dr Fedrerick Blackwell arrived at about 1: 16 am. He writ on his report that there was only an incision to her neck and nothing else however the incision appeared to cut the wind pipe completely in two. The doctor assumed the murderer fled and there fore did not get to make his usual wounds in the body because he was disturbed. This idea was formulated because later on that day another murder took place only thirty minutes after.
This murder was nothing more than ammunition to fuel the on-going publicity of the case. The patterns of murder were forming and more people became even more disturbed by the horrible nature of these crimes.
The fourth and last murder I will be considering is Catherine Eddowes on the 30 September, just 30 minutes after Elizabeth Stride murder. The body was discovered by a police Constable Edward Watkins in Mitre Square. Dr Brown described Elizabeth Eddowes wounds. Her body had been cut open from her breast bone to her lower abdomen. The left kidney, intestines and some of the womb were cut out of her body. Also the eyelids had been cut, the nose tip detached and the ear lobe also.
This murder was the final one committed by ‘Jack the Ripper’ (I believe). One of the letters named the ‘Dear Boss’ letter became apparent to its words. This increased the publicity to its maximum potential, the man killing these women formed a name which became his true identity as ‘Jack the Ripper’.
In my opinion the nature of the crimes was the most important factor which attracted the most attention because of its unusualness. People of this time had not seen murders like this before and therefore were surprisingly shocked and scared which then attracted attention.
The nature of the crimes was an important factor which also affected the public attention however, the nature of the victims is also an important factor as it may attract attention because the victims may have been doing something strange. All victims had one common attribute which was prostitution This linked with the nature of the crimes attracts even greater public attention as it builds a story of which ‘Jack the Ripper’ prayed only on prostitutes and this information is enough to be worthy of spreading. The individual details of their personal lives and where they lived did affect how the publicity was attracted.
Polly Nicholas was forty-two years old and was married to William Nicholas. She had a awful drinking problem which led to the breakdown of her marriage. She like all the rest of the victims lived in Whitechapel, and like the others used prostitution as a source of income. For her it was her main source of income.
Annie Chapman was forty-seven and homeless, she wandered from lodging house to lodging house in search of a place to stay. She like Polly Nicholas suffered from alcoholism however she as a side effect suffered from depression. At 2: 00 am on 8 September was turned out of her lodgings and died later on before 6: 00 am.
Elizabeth Stride was forty-five years old. She was originally from Sweden and came to Britain for the last thirty years of her life. She did not use prostitution as her main source of income. She worked by sewing and cleaning. She left her lodgings early in the evening however, did not tell anyone where she was going. She was carrying some money at the time when she left.
Catharine Eddowes was like all the rest of the victims I have chosen to write about was in her forty’s. She was forty-six years old and had been living with John Kelly for the past seven years. Before she died she said she was going to visit her daughter but never returned and was found dead in Mitre Square.
The nature of the victims may have been the biggest factor which affected the publicity coming in. This I believe in my opinion because if you analyse all murders and check for similarities they have some things in common like prostitution, alcoholism and there ages of being in their forties. These similarities show that the ‘Ripper’ must have been selective in his killings. When the M.E.T found out about this it may of intensified the investigation, and as a result of this greater public attention was drawn to it.
How the murders were publicised was also an important factor. After the first two murders publicity became a very big thing. People were sending in many letters most of which were fakes except the ‘Dear Boss’ letter which came apparent when ‘Jack’ got to his final murders. As a result of the fake letters being sent to the newspapers it was realised what was going on by all people. This case was so publicised it appeared to people in U.S.A and Canada. Every time a murder took place the police would release some information to the press and they would bombard the streets with news on it.
In conclusion I believe that the nature of the crimes and victims, the location and press coverage all combine together to amass an enormous amount of public attention. Why? Because all these factors link together to make a case of great mystery where the murderer was never caught. All of these factors demonstrate how powerful they were in publicising the case as even today we still hear of this mysterey.
