Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888?

Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? My essay will include details on the Whitechapel murders and the ripper letters which will relate to why the Whitechapel murders attracted so much attention in 1888. The ripper murders were very popular at the time because no one had ever seen such gore from a murder. The way these murders were conducted was not ones of vicious stabbing and bloodshed but of dissection and precision. The public had never seen anything like this and it caused a spark which spread through the population of London. The murders of Mary Anne Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Kate Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly were all conducted in exactly the same way: the murder would ask for the prostitutes services, they'd lift up their skirts, he would grab them by the neck and strangle them until they went unconscious, he would then slice the neck from right to left making sure no blood got on himself, the murderer would then, in the darkness of the night, dissect the body, removing organs and other body parts with extreme accuracy which could only have been accomplished by a man with experience of using a knife on meat. Many surgeons who examined the bodies believed that the killer had some knowledge of organ removal and could not just have been a butcher. The problem the police had with tracking down Jack the Ripper was that the

  • Word count: 721
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888?

2. Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? Jaidip Vekaria There were many murders in 1888 but only five really caught people's attention, the Ripper murders. There were many reasons for this such as politics, the role of the press and the nature of the murders themselves. This essay will explore and evaluate these reasons why the Whitechapel murders attracted so much attention. The first reason why the Whitechapel murders attracted a lot of attention was that the politicians used the murders as propaganda. The Ripper murders happened during the period of a huge political turmoil in Britain and politicians exploited the fact that the government wasn't taking care of its people and was not handling crime on the streets. For example, the Liberals and the Radicals blamed the government for the poverty and immorality that existed at the time and they did this for their own political gain. The politicians especially blamed the government for the state of places such as Whitechapel. Whitechapel was in the East End of London and was a cosmopolitan area. Immigrants came to the East End, mainly Poles and Jews from Prussia, because the rents were low and people did not ask many questions. Rents were low because there were more than 200 lodging houses which sleep almost 90,000 people. Even though rents were not high, people were poor and many women

  • Word count: 940
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888?

Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? In 1888 Jack the Ripper started a series of murders in Whitechapel. We found that all these murders were linked, not only were they all prostitutes but the mutilations done to them were horrific. The fact that they were all murder was bad enough but the horrific nature of them was unbelievable. For example Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols' throat was slit from ear to ear, her body was ripped open from thorax to the abdominal and after death she sustained other abdominal injuries. Jack the Ripper even took the skin off some of his victims. No one had ever heard anything like this before, the nature of these attacks was inhumanly and extremely grim. However, these attacks wouldn't have been as widely known f it hadn't been for the main way to get news round in those days, the press. The press spread the word of the serial killer all around the world, they gave him the name 'Jack the Ripper'. Once people heard of him they immediately wanted to know more because of the way the name grabbed their attention. The press made the crimes real to the public by filling in all the gory details which made people more interested in them. In 'The Star' newspaper they published a description of a man, in this description it talked about a man wearing a leather apron. 'Leather Apron' was a nickname, given by the press, of a man who

  • Word count: 668
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888?

Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? The main reason the 'Jack the Ripper' murders were famous was because of the odd modus operandi. This means the 'mode in which he operated'. The mutilation that the victims were exposed to was unnecessary. This was unusual for the time. The victims were all prostitutes, this infers that the killer had a wild hate for prostitutes. Maybe they were just easy targets or maybe he had a grudge against them. The place 'Jack the Ripper' killed his victims was Whitechapel. Here, 900,000 lived. All the people were poor and lower class. Also, due to the pogroms in Russia, Jews came to live in the East End, attracted to the low rent and the ability to settle in quickly. However, many civilians were suspicious over the sudden increase. There were approximately 1200 prostitutes who needed to work this way to survive and pay their rent. They lived mainly in lodging houses that could house 900 people easily. However, this was very basic and had no luxuries. Living in poor conditions had major side effects. The death rate in the United Kingdom today is around 9.9. This is incredibly low compared to life in the 18th century where 50% of children born died before they were 5. Even if they did survive, there was still a high risk of them being disabled. Life was poor and consisted of poor conditions, food and drink, accommodation

  • Word count: 1201
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888?

Why did the Whitechapel murders attract so much attention in 1888? The Whitechapel murders attracted so much attention mainly because no-one knew who Jack The Ripper was, what he looked like and also because Jack The Ripper was the first serial killer in 1888. The people of Whitechapel were so scared that they did not want to leave their homes because of what the newspaper said, this also shows how the newspapers were exploiting the murders by lying and exaggerating in the story so people would buy the newspaper; because of exploiting the murders they made the people of London panic. Another point that the Whitechapel murders attracted so much attention was the whereabouts were the murders happened. The East End in 1888 was a dangerous place to be and most of the lower class lived there. There were mainly English, Poles and Jewish people living in the East End. The Jews fled and settled in the East End and the Jewish population was on the increase, they had more power, money and numbers than most people who lived in London. Many Poles came to live in the East End because the rents were low and few questions were asked. The inhabitants of Whitechapel, and of other areas, were at first very suspicious of these newcomers. The Metropolitan Police estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes in Whitechapel and many more women who took clients from time to time to supplement their

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did William win the battle of Hastings?

Why did William win the battle of Hastings? William won the Battle of Hastings in 1066. I think that he won because of his planning and leadership but many other people think that he won because of his luck and a big, strong army. It could be possible that all of them played a part in William's victory at the Battle of Hastings. Planning helped William a lot because he knew that if he made Harold Godwinson and his Saxon army travel from the north of England to the south of England, where the Normans had set their camp up, then the Saxons would be very tired whilst the Normans would be rested. He also knew that once the bad winds had stopped, his army could cross safely without the Saxons to stop them for they were in the north of England fighting Harold Hadrada. This was also to do with luck. Whilst the battle was going on, William thought up a plan. He ordered his men to pretend to retreat down the hill and used the rumour of him being dead to help him as well. William's leadership and skill helped him a lot because he commanded his men very well and had an army eager to fight. William kept control all the through the battle by speaking to his troops and fighting at the front. He had also gotten the pope, Alexander II to support him. William was given a banner from the pope saying that William's attack on England was a holy crusade. Harold Godwinson had also shown great

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the number of women employed in Britain begin to rise significantly from mid 1915?

Question 3 In what ways did ww1 help to change the employment opportunities in Britain? Before the war job opportunities for women were scarce and the only jobs available were very lowly paid. An average maid or cleaner would make about £5-10 a year, some even less. Most jobs that women were employed in would include: maids, cleaners, jobs in the textiles industry and a few of the luckier ones would be employed as secretaries or shop till ladies at shops. Some older women with experience of looking after children would be employed by wealthy families as nannies to look after there children. Men's attitudes to women working were that they only had the skills required to work in jobs that needed minor intelligence and skills. Statistics taken estimate that before the war the number of women in paid employment was about 2.5% to 10% of men. During the war job opportunities for women started increasing as men left to go fight in the war. Jobs that were known as men's jobs, had no men to full them, this meant the government were left with a problem. During this time women's rights campaigners such as Emeline and Christina Pankhurst saw an opportunity for women to help in the war effort so they started campaigning heavily for women's right to help in the war campaign, at the beginning of the campaign it seemed they were protesting to deaf ears until the government saw the

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why did the Spanish Armada fail?

Why did the Spanish Armada fail? Dicky Lau (9) 7A In this essay, I am gong to tell you the main three reason on why did the Spanish Armada fail for myself. The first reason was the English fleet. While a number of the Spanish ships were built for the purpose of invasion, in general the Spanish looked at their ships much as the ancient Romans did. The idea was to close with the enemy, and overwhelm them by boarding. The Spanish guns and gunners were not designed to shoot effectively after the first broadside. Their ships were also harder to work. The English ships, while not enjoying an overwhelming advantage in their own weaponry, operated on the principle that the broadside was the primary weapon of the ship. They also learned from initial engagements and knew how close they had to get to their enemy, for their fire to be effective. With more nimble ships, the English were able to keep their fleet to windward of the Spanish. This allowed them to avoid coming too close to be boarded, and gave the English the best conditions in which they could engage the enemy ships. Secondly, the use of Fire ships. The English launched fire ships at the anchored Spanish fleet, which scared the Spanish captains enough to make them cut their anchors and try to avoid the burning ships. Not many Spanish ships were lost, but the Spanish formation was broken up, and the Armada would be in

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why Slavery was abolished

Why slavery and the slave trade was abolished Slavery was cruel trade that started in the 16th century for innocent people .Who were taken from their homeland away from their loved ones to be treated cruelly .Some said slavery was the worst punishment a human being can receive a lot of people campaigned for the abolishment. But the slave traders and people for slavery didn't give up easily One of the reasons it ended was due to white abolitionists because they had the freedom to go out their and make bills and campaign one of these types of people were the white working class William Pitt said " Nothing worse than slavery I know no evil that has ever existed" and Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce were also famous abolitionists who were wealthier and inspired the white working class who signed petitions and gathered among themselves for huge meetings support grew in 1792 and in Manchester 1792 and in Manchester 1788 over 10000 petitions were signed to help end slavery "in Manchester in 1788 over 10000 working people signed a petition support grew in :in 1792 over 20000 Manchester people signed another petition (out of a population of 75,000) huge meeting were held". From textbook. Another reason was because of the actions of the Black people from the sabotaging of crops to the flee of freedom for some .Also burning plantations, the black slaves started to go of

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma Codes?

Why was Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma? During the Second World War, Station X revolved around cracking the German Enigma codes. This was possible due to many important reasons. Firstly, the Poles were the first to work on the German Enigma and the first to understand its mechanism. A German spy had over the years before the war, collected documents on how the machine worked. In 1938 the Poles struck a deal and the documents were sold to them. In July 1939 the Poles passed on their knowledge and their collected information to the British. This enabled Station X to understand more of how the Enigma machine worked. The machine was equipped with three wheels (later on in the war more were added) each one printed with the letters of the alphabet in order. The rotors contained one of the central secrets of the Enigma machine, which was the cross wiring inside the wheels. The enigma also had a plug board in which letters would be joined together into pairs. When a key was pressed an other would light up thereby coding the message. The Germans thought the Enigma codes unbreakable and they were not far from the truth as the machine was extremely complex. There were around 150 million, million, million different combinations. The Poles' help was vital and the staff of Bletchley Park worked in collaboration with the three Polish mathematicians, Zygalski, Rozycki and

  • Word count: 771
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: History
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