Why were the police unable to catch Jack the Ripper?

        The murders were done very cleverly and the area they were committed in was a very good area to commit a crime. In the east end it was very dark at night and there were very small alleyways which meant a criminal could escape easily. All of the Jack the Ripper murders were in a small house in an alley where the streets are dark. It would have been easy for the murderer to creep up on one of the women in the dark alleyway and do what he could with out any interruption. However in one of the murders the killer looked like he was interrupted but because it was so dark he could easily run off without getting noticed. The crimes seemed to be quiet because no-one ever heard them. The killer was very quick and there were few clues left so there was no way of an easy catch.

        The police had so much pressure put on them during the Jack the Ripper murders. The public were getting very scared and were demanding action. The police were not listening and took no action so the public took matters into their own hands and started vigilante groups. They went around accusing people, starting riots and causing so much trouble that while the police were dealing with the vigilante groups they could be trying to catch the Whitechapel murderer. The press were also putting a lot of pressure on the police by putting information that was false about the killings and they deeply exaggerated the truth. The main focus for them was on the gore and making fun of how the police were blind in not catching the killer. Queen Victoria usually didn’t get involved with what was happening with crime but the government and she were very worried that all this worry among the public would lead to something much worse. The queen wanted him caught and to face her in person to be sentenced.

        The absolute carelessness in the police themselves was hard to believe. They were following many false leads that lead to the police going completely of course in catching the killer. The police made so many mistakes though. The only murder scene that was photographed was Millers Court. This meant that all evidence that was left in the others could not be compared and noticed which gave away a big chance of the killer being caught. Going against regulations, they washed the blood away and removed the body from the crime scene before the police thoroughly investigated it. They had made there job a lot harder by doing this. A very big mistake made by the chief of police Sir Charles Warren washed off a very key piece of evidence that may have meant the killer was Jewish because some graffiti left on the wall that was not photographed was washed off without being photographed. But this did prevent any problems that may have been caused by the Jewish community because this was aimed at the Jews.

        The police had made so many mistakes in the hunt for Jack the Ripper and the Whitechapel murders. Washing away key evidence meant they could not act upon what they found out. The police thought listening to rumours instead of listening to facts would lead to the capture of Jack the Ripper. This obviously didn’t work and today no-one knows how, why, and who he was and it may not be like this if the police had done there work properly. Carelessness and stupidity is the reason why the police were unable to catch Jack the Ripper.

David Astarita