Polly Nicholls was the first victim of the five murders. Murdered on the 31.8.1888, her throat was cut from ear to ear and there were several deep cuts to the abdomen. Polly's body was found at 4.00 am by Charles Cross while walking through Buck’s Row in Whitechapel. Doctor Rees Llewellyn arrived at the scene and said that she had not been dead for no longer than thirty minutes. News of Polly Nicholls murder spread quickly through Whitechapel. When searching her clothes they found a comb, a broken mirror and a handkerchief. No clues where left behind to o committed this gruesome crime. Most people in Whitechapel linked the two murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nicholls. It was said that both crimes were the work of a demented being, as the extraordinary violence used is the peculiar feature in each instance. Polly Nicholls.
‘After the death of Polly Nicholls just over a week later a second body was found by John Davis, in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. He found the body just after 6.00 am on 8th September. He got help immediately, Doctor George Phillips; a police surgeon was called to the scene. He described the face as swollen, the small intestines and other portions were lying on the right side of the body on the ground above the right shoulder, but still attached, there was a large quantity of blood. Phillips estimated the time of death at 4.30 am. He believed that the knife used for the murder had a narrow, thin blade about six to eight inches long. It could have been similar to the knives used by surgeons for amputations. This may have attracted attention because this may have suggested that the murderer was a doctor. The Coroner commented that the injuries had been made by someone who had considerable anatomical skill and knowledge. No meaningless cuts, it was done by someone who knew where to find what he was looking for, no unskilled person could have known where to find the organs. The victim was identified as Annie Chapman. Many items were found, near Annie’s feet was a small piece of cloth, a pocket come and a much smaller comb, lying nearby in the back yard of 29 was a leather apron, a nail box and a piece of steel. The evidence found was of little value. Annie Chapman’s body was found in a very different place from Buck’s Row. It was opposite Spitalfields market, which opened at 5.00 am. This meant that there would have been people around in the area long before that. Also three witnesses came forward. There being three witnesses attracted attention because people would have wanted to know what they knew and saw. At 4.45 am and 4.50 am John Richardson entered the yard to make sure that the door of the cellar had not been tampered with. He was sure that there was no body there at that time. The second witness was Albert Cadosch; he said he heard voices coming from the back yard at about 5.20am, at about 5.30am he heard something falling against the fence. The final witness was Mrs Elizabeth Long, she heard a clock strike 5.30 am and saw a man and a women talking in the backyard of number 29. She identified the women as Annie Chapman, but the man had his back to her. She describes him as, dark complexioned and was wearing a deerstalker hat. She thought he was wearing a dark coat, he was a man over forty and he looked like a foreigner. This was a problem for the police as the police surgeon, Dr George Phillips, had given the time of death as about 4.30am, but the witnesses suggested that 5.30am was much more likely. The police decided to accept the evidence of Dr Phillips and so did not use the evidence from the three witnesses. This attracted attention because the police did not no what they were doing and still didn’t have any clues to who the ripper was.
These two murders led to hundreds of letters to newspapers claiming to be from the murderer. Mostly all these are now believed to be fakes, but they brought the murders to the attention of the public. Reports of the killings appeared to the USA and in Canada.
The murders had a dramatic effect on Whitechapel. Streets were almost deserted. Newspapers publicised the murders and local people sent a lot of information to the police about anybody whose behaviour was in the slightest way unusual. A lot of attention focused on the Jewish community in the East End. This resulted partly from Elizabeth Long’s statement that the man seen talking to Annie Chapman looked like a foreigner.
Things in Whitechapel were almost back to normal. A committee was formed by business men, mostly Jewish, and the MP for Whitechapel, Simon Montagu, he was also Jewish, offered a reward for the killer. On September 11th, police arrested John Pizer ‘Leather Apron’ a suspect of the murder for Polly Nicholls. Everything seemed to be fine for another couple of weeks. But the a letter was received by the Central News Agency on 27th September, it was treated as a hoax at first, like other letters but after the next murder, police had it reproduced on posters and newspapers. It became known as the ‘Dear Boss’ letter. It was signed ‘Jack the Ripper’. This was the first time this name had been used. This would have drawn attention because now the public had a name for the killer, and it was a name he used for himself. The third victim was Elizabeth Stride; she was discovered on the 30.9.1888 by Louis Diemschutz in Dutfield yard off Berna Street. She was discovered at 1.00 am and murdered between 12.36 am and 12.56 am. Elizabeth had no mutilations to her body, this suggested that the ripper had been disturbed and fled. Another letter was sent by Jack the ripper, this letter was taken much more seriously after the next two murders, which appeared to confirm some details mentioned in the letter. The letters being sent by the murderer attracted the publics attention because they were interested in what he had to say and what clues may be in the letters or to what he was going to do next. Police Constable William Smith said he saw Elizabeth Stride talking to a man at 12.30 am. He described him as having dark hair, in his thirties and had a moustache. He was wearing a dark deerstalker hat, a black coat and a white collar and tie. Israel Schwartz saw a man talking to a woman at 12.45 am. He tried to pull her to him then threw her onto the pavement. He then called a second man. Schwartz thought that the man was called Lipski. He then left because he thought he was going to be followed. He identified the women as Elizabeth Stride. He described the first man as in his thirties, dark hair and a black cap. The second man was also in his thirties, light brown hair, wearing a dark overcoat and a black wide-trimmed hat. There were two more witnesses describing the man in a similar way.
All these murders were attracting attention because Jack killed women on the open streets and seemingly got away without being seen, or heard. The main factor that attracted so much attention towards the murders was the press at the time. The media were interested in the murders because of letters sent and the brutality of the murders. The tabloid press need to attract new readers, which meant they were all describing the attacks in graphic detail so this sold papers. In the papers they wrote about throats being cut, wounds being two inches wide and blood flowing profusely. The readers were attracted by the detail used and wanted to no more, and whether he was caught. All the types of press also reacted to the excitement and morbid fascination the public took so they wanted to produce more and more.
The fourth murder happened on the same night has the third murder. It was less than an hour after the third body was found that the fourth was. The body was discovered by PC Edward Watkins in Mitre Square, barely a quarter of a mile away. He found the body at 1.44am. Her throat was cut and her stomach was ripped up. They searched for clues and found part of the dead woman’s apron, written above in white chalk, were the words ‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.’ If these words were a genuine clue, then they were almost certainly written by the murder and would, therefore, have been his handwriting. The body was identified by John Kelly as Catherine Eddowes. Her body had been cut open from the breast bone to the lower abdomen. The intestines and the left kidney had been cut out, so had most of the womb. The right ear lobe had been cut off. One witness came forward, Joseph Lawende. He saw a man and woman talking, he described the man as medium height, wearing a dark jacket and a deerstalker hat, and he also had a small fair moustache.
A Day after the murders, a postcard was received. The postcard was posted the day the murders were committed, so it was possible that the writer could have read about the murders in a newspaper before posting it. Another letter was received, considered to genuine. It was contained in a three inch square card board box, which also contained half a human kidney preserved in wine. A medical examination suggested that the kidney was very similar to the one removed from Catherine Eddowes. Whether these letters were genuine or not, the effect they had was dramatic. In the eyes of the police and public, the ripper had now become even more horrific. His flaunting and saying he was going to stop till he was caught attracted a massive amount of attention.
Attraction was being drawn because people in Whitechapel lived in fear. Businesses suffered as a result because know one would set foot in Whitechapel unless they had to. The fifth and final murder was Mary Kelly, the youngest of them all, being 25, was discovered on the 9.11.1888. Thomas Bowyer was the one who found her, at her lodging, 13 Miller’s Court. Dr Bond stated she had been murdered between 1.00am and 2.00am, but Dr Phillips said between 5.00am and 6.00am. Mary Kelly had the most horrific mutilations of them all. Her body had been slashed but she also had her skin removed. The body was completely mutilated, beyond recognition.
The confusions with the times about her death did not help the police make use of the evidence of he witnesses. George Hutchinson a witness said that he had met Mary at 2.00 am on the morning on the 9th of November. She left him and then stopped to talk to another man. He described him as in his thirties, slight moustache, dark hair, dark hat and a Jewish appearance. Another witness said they saw Mary going into Miller’s Court with a man at 11.45am. She described him as in his thirties, had a moustache, dark over coat and a dark hat. At 2.30am on Friday morning, Sarah Lewis saw a man near Miller’s Court. Just before 2.00am she heard a women shriek ‘murder’. The horrific ness of this murder attracted more attention, no one could believe that some could do such a thing or could Whitechapel have produced somebody capable of committing these crimes. The murder of Mary Kelly led to still more police patrols and also to outbreaks of mob violence against any suspicious individuals. These murders were so horrifying and talked about even the Queen showed concern at what was going on, she said that the police weren’t doing enough.
All evidence suggests that Jack the Ripper struck at random, this attracted attention because no one knew who was going to be next. He worked so quickly that his victims were unable to even put up any sort of a fight. He was entirely cold-blooded, completely ruthless and clearly some sort of sexual psychopath. That is why these murders attracted so much attention. Even today murderers who work like this are very difficult to catch.
After talking about everything above that attracted so much attention to the ripper murders, it seems because of the press, telling people how gruesome these murders were, news spread quickly with each murder. The lack of clues attracted the publics’ attention because it showed how clever he was; also the fact that he was never caught drew attention. The Ripper murders have been talked about ever since; people still try to work out who did these disgusting crimes and attention is still drawn to them today.