The police had only just been set up when the murders occurred, so had no previous experience. The only way to prove someone committed a murder was to catch them in the act or get a confession. Though they increased the number of officers, they only ever came across the bodies, warm. There was more than one police force operating in London at the time, which meant that there was a lack of communication. In fact, the superior officers told their subordinates to not reveal any evidence they retrieved to their rival force, each police force wanting the glory of catching the Whitechapel murderer. The Metropolitan police force was responsible for all of London, except the city of London, which had its own separate, City Police force. They were both working on the case because one of the murders had been committed in the area where the City Police operated, as opposed to the other ones which occurred in the Metropolitan police forces area. The Detective methods were not sophisticated enough. The police used a technique, visible controlling, to counter the Ripper. The thinking being that if uniformed officers were visible, criminals would be put off. The amount of crime did lower in the East End area, but Jack the Ripper kept on murdering. A man who ripped open and killed his victims so brutally would not be deterred by a few extra Bobbies on the beat. Unlike today, there were no officers trained in psychology, so they couldn’t track or try to predict the murderer’s movement. These kinds of officers might have been able to predict why he was committing the murders, and other theories that could have assisted the police. Because the Ripper case was entirely new, they had no previous case to base their methods of investigation on. The police had no idea what to do. They had never encountered these kinds of attacks from a seemingly sexual predator. The police forces were still facing problems with their own officers; trying to catch a serial killer who was supposedly a genius would have been near impossible.
The police grabbed every lead they could. So no matter how small it was, they followed it up to a great degree. They were also expected by the public to do that. Near one of the early victim’s bodies, a piece of leather apron was found. The press spun this to create a killer called ‘Leather Apron’, a man who got prostitutes to pay him or he would beat them. The police arrested a local man who had the nickname ‘Leather Apron’ He had been previously arrested and prosecuted for stabbings. However, ‘Leather Apron’ had alibis for all the murders, so he was released.
The Whitechapel community, encouraged by the press, targeted the Jewish community in the East End as the persecutors of the murders. The man called ‘Leather Apron’ was Jewish. One witness said the murderer looked foreign. This term is used to describe Jewish immigrants. Rumours and accusations flew around Whitechapel, and the police received hundreds of accusations against Jewish shopkeepers. The police had to use up valuable time and energy to be seen doing all they could by following up these accusations.
The people, who would have seen the murders, would have been other prostitutes and drunks, because they would have been the type of people in that area at the times. Each of witnesses gave a different description of the man seen talking to the ‘Ripper’ victims. This means they were not able to create an artists impression so couldn’t trace anyone. This slowed down the case.
Above a portion of Catherine Eddowes bloody apron, was a message that read ‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.’ It could have been out there to prosecute Jews, or it could have been from the murderer, attempting to throw the police of the scent. However, it could also have been a coincidence, and had nothing to do with the murder.
The letter from Jack the Ripper thought to be genuine is the Dear Boss letter. The Lusk letter however, caused quite a stir when the writer claimed to have eaten half of one of the prostitute’s liver, while the other half was sent to Mr. Lusk in a box. However, the Lusk letter was not written by the same person as the Dear Boss letter. They realised this at the time, but it still caused confusion and disgust at the time.
All of these ‘leads’ cost the police valuable time, when they could have been investigating things that could have led to the criminals capture.
I think the biggest factor that allowed Jack the Ripper not o be caught was Jack the Ripper himself. If it had been any other person, they probably would have slipped up and gotten caught. But his cleverness, unpredictability, the fact no one could trace him, and how he was able to escape the scene of the crime without being seen, all means it was extremely difficult to catch him, of course, add in all the other factors, and the police were doomed from the start.
