Jack The Ripper

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Question 1: What can you learn from source A about the murders of Martha Tabrum and Polly Nicholls.

Source A is an article from a newspaper called the East End Observer, concerning the deaths of both Martha Tabrum and Polly Nicholls, it was published September 1888, a month after the murders.

        You can learn from source A is misleading because it is a newspaper article which originated from the East End Observer, the job of a journalist is to sensationalize situations and sell the magazine/newspaper. The motive of source A is to inform the reader and to make business of the story (bring more readers) and ear money reporting the news.

        The East End Observer succesed in doing this by firstly linking the two murders together “the last month are singular for the reason that the victims have been of the poorest of the poor” which suggests that they maybe the act of the same “serial killer”, this also helps to inform the public that they were poor and therefore there may not be any motives.

        The only strong lead that the police had to track down the killer was the “excess of effort that has been apparent in every murder” this suggests the idea that both crimes are the work of a demented being “as the extraordinary violence used is the peculiar feature in each instance” which questions the reliability of the sources because they contradict each other.

Question 2: Does the evidence of Source C support the evidence of Source A and B about the Ripper murders.

Source A is a newspaper article about murders of Martha Tabrum and Polly Nicholls. Source B is a coroner’s report about the death of Polly Nicholls. Source C is a report by a doctor about the body of Elizabeth Stride after her murder. Source A was written to inform and to also sensationalize. Source B and C were written to inform and dissect information in a way that is not bias and one sided about the victim’s deaths.

        Source A suggests that the deaths were porpostrasily violent and brutal it also later goes on to link the victims of the murders and furthermore concluded that the murders must have been done by a “mentally deranged” or in a extremely high tested situation. The assumptions where backed up by some sort of evidence because of the nature of the victims, poor prostitutes which casts doubts in the readers mind because at first site there is no apparent motive for the killer which makes the reader confused onto why the murders took place.

        Source B does not really support Source A. This is because Source B suggests that the murder of Polly Nicholls must have been performed by an individual that had skills in cutting a human body such as a barber, doctor, surgeon or maybe a butcher because of the accuracy of the cuts and “there are no meaningless cuts” and “no unskilled person could know where to find the organs”. This furthermore contradicts Source A and also helps to narrow down the search for the killer because he has to be skilled which practically eliminated most of the East End. The suggestion that he may have been a butcher is a bit ambiguous because it is stated that “no man slaughter of animals could have carried out these operations” but the statement seems to be slightly biased because the coroner thinks that other professions may have more ability and skill due to the difference in class and status.

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        Source C elaborates on the death of Elizabeth Stride. She was also the first half of the double murders the Ripper acted out in the same night this was thought that he was disturbed by something so he fled and preyed on another victim because his thirst for blood wasn’t completed, this is suggested because the amount of mutilations done to the victims body.

        There is a similarity in styles between the murders of Elizabeth Stride and Polly Nicholls because stated, lines “in the neck there was a long incision, cutting the wind pipe in two”.

        Which furthermore fuels speculation ...

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