“Here are seven people living in one underground kitchen and a little dead child lying in the same room” They were horrified by this and so when these brutal killing started happening they were desperate to find out about them.
The way that Jack the Ripper killed his victims was one of the main reasons that attracted attention to the murder's. Murder wasn't really well known in these times, especially in the form of Jack the Rippers murders. The only thing that upper class really knew about murders was from what they had seen in the many sensational plays that brought hundreds of people to watch as this interested them. Most of Jack the Rippers victims were strangled and then arranged in a revolting way, Superintendent Arnold described the women as a “horrible and sickening sight... the poor women lay on her back completely naked. Her throat was cut from ear to ear, right down the the spinal chord.”
This was a type of killing that people had never witnessed before which caused a large increase in the attention towards the murders. The state of the victims created fear among many of Whitechapel's inhabitants which was escalated by the press.
In my opinion, one of the most important factors that drew attention to the murders was the press coverage. As tabloid news papers were on the verge of stopping Jack the Ripped increased their sales and gave them something to write about. They would often publish graphical descriptions of the victims.
“A women with her throat cut from ear to ear.. blood flowing profusely.” these papers profited hugely from these sensationalist stories and the graphic descriptions gathered a large interest in the public. The press would always fill the public in on all the gory details and give the killer names such as “Leather Apron” and “Jack the Ripper”. If ever the story would die down the press would also always show letters that were apparently from the killer however the was a large debate over whether these letters were actually written by press or not. Some of the famous ones being the ‘dear boss letter’ and the ‘from hell letter’.
Lastly, another possible reason that could of attracted attention was the fact that he was never caught. Many victims were created by the press and many people were blamed for the killings by the press which sometimes caused angry mobs chasing after someone that the press had accused. The media created hatred of some people saying they failed to try and catch Jack the Ripper; Sir Charles Warren, the MET police commissioner in charge of the Jack the ripper case, was questioned over his ability to deal with the ripper, also Henry Mathews the home secretary didn't offer a public reward to find him. Overall the tabloid papers were against the police as they blamed them for not catching Jack the Ripper. A lot of papers also were also against Jews and said that a Jew was responsible for the killings of these prostitutes.
There are many things contributing the large amount of attention in these murders. The fact that all the victims were prostitutes, or maybe the way that they were killed but by far the most significant factor that attracted so much attention towards these murders were the press.
