Why did The Whitechapel Murders Attract So Much Attention in 1888?

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Why did The Whitechapel Murders Attract So Much Attention in 1888?

There were many reasons why the Whitechapel murderers were very popular perhaps one of them would be that It was an astonishing story a serial killer who leaves no clues kills random and prostitutes in Whitechapel area which was very poor and a lot of criminals lived there but not of the calibre of Jack the ripper. The people wanted to read about it and make sure they know all of the details like some people say ‘’There is no better news than bad news’’

Another reason could be the fact that Jack the ripper was killing his victims very brutally by slashing their throat from ear to ear this also caught the attention of the public. In the 19th century, like the present day, people were interested in gruesome crimes, maybe even more so in the more suppressed society of the Victorians. As a number of 19th century journalists commented “violence especially violence with a sexual frisson sold newspapers”. When the newspapers published the Ripper story they saw that their newspapers started selling in amazing figures so they started publishing more of the story every time.

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Another thing that greatly scared people was the fact that letters were sent to the central news agency all claiming to be from the Ripper. All but three are now considered to be false but of the three the letter titled “from hell” is mostly considered to be genuine. Addressed to Mr Lusk a vigilante heading the “vigilance committee” there was, with the letter half a kidney, believed to be that of Kate Eddows who was another prostitute murdered brutally by Jack the ripper.

Jack the ripper was the first famous serial killer up to 1888 no one ...

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