It was quite odd that the murders of five prostitutes would attract so much attention from a society that frowned upon their trade. It was the brutality of these murders that gained them so much attention. The five women were not just murdered - they were butchered and mutilated.
Mary Ann (Polly) Nichols is widely believed to be the first of Jack the Ripper’s victims. Early in the morning in 31st October 1888, Polly was found dead in Buck’s Row. She had gone out to earn money for a lodging house because she drunk away the rest of her money at the local pub. She was sure that she could get a customer because she had a new hat, even though she was actually missing five of her front teeth. She was last seen at about 2:37AM by another prostitute called Emily Holland, Polly says she’ll be back before long with some doss money. The next time anyone saw her she was lying on the floor in Buck’s Row, with her throat cut and her abdomen ripped open. The press caught wind of this quickly, and it was in all the papers by the following day. The Evening Times stated that it was “a ghastly sight” and The Daily News described it as “a murder of the most brutal kind.” The strangest thing was that nobody saw or heard a thing when she was being murdered. The murder happened in such close proximity to houses, and watchmen and policemen patrolled the streets – yet nobody heard or saw a thing.
The next murder was that of Annie Chapman, who was murdered in Spitalfields on September 8th 1888. She was found at around 6AM in Hanbury street with her throat cut. Annie had also been disembowelled, her uterus had been taken and, her intestines had been cut out and placed over her shoulder. A witness had seen Annie with a man at around 5:30 AM, however this was no thought unusual, as she was a prostitute. Another witness heard a woman saying “no” through the fence and then heard something fall against the fence, but the significance of this is unknown. All the incisions were made with great precision, which indicates that the Ripper had great anatomical knowledge. However, it has been speculated that even a skilled surgeon of the time would not have been able to carry out the mutilation in under 15 minutes, as Jack the Ripper must have done.
Then came the night of the double murder. The next victim is believed to be Elizabeth Stride (or “Long Lizzy”), but this is very controversial. Her body was found on 30th September 1888 at around 1AM in Dutfield’s Yard. Her throat had been cut, but no further mutilations had been inflicted. It is widely believed that ‘Jack’ had been disturbed during the murder and scared away, whilst some believe that it’s an unrelated incident.
Catherine Eddowes was killed about 45 minutes later that night; PC Watkins discovered her mutilated body at 1:45AM. Her throat was cut right across, ‘V’ marks were cut into her cheeks and her intestines had been pulled out. Her womb and left kidney had been cut out and taken.
The murder of Mary Jane Kelly was the most savage and brutal of all the ripper murders. Her body was discovered by a rent collector at around 10:45AM on November 9th 1888. Mary was lying naked on the bed of her lodging house; her was throat cut, she had been completely disembowelled and her breasts were cut off. Her face had been mutilated beyond recognition. Mary’s nose was cut clean off and both of her ears were severed, and there were to V shape’s cut into both of her cheeks that stretched right up to her eyelids. The uterus, one breast and her kidneys were found underneath her head and other body parts were scattered around her. The only organ that could not be located was her heart.
The sheer brutality of these attacks was not the only reason that these murders got so much attention. The killer’s Modus Operadi was the kill prostitutes by slitting their throats, and then mutilating their bodies. This MO linked these five victims; therefore the police ‘knew’ there was only one murderer. ‘Jack the Ripper’ is credited with being the first serial killer ever logged. Neither the public nor the police were familiar with this sort of offence, and that panicked everyone.
Once it was discovered that they were after a serial murder, the police were under a lot of pressure to catch him before he could kill again; but there was no proper procedures to deal with crimes of the nature. They followed hundreds of false leads and accused many people of serial murder, but none of these accusations could ever be substantiated. Lives of innocent people were made hell by false accusations made by the police. John Pizer, or ‘Leather Apron’, was suspected of the murders and was attacked by in his home and on the streets by frightened and angered members of the public.
The new transport system in Britain meant that national newspapers could be distributed across the country. Although the murders were contained to the East End of London, the panic was spread nationwide due to press sensationalism. The journalists did what they could to sell papers and cared little about the truth. The papers used graphic descriptions and detailed illustrations to portray the full horror of the murders. The pictures meant that the lower class, badly educated citizens could take an interest in the Ripper murders. This information - though largely fictitious – whipped the nation into a frenzy. Everyone was afraid for their lives, even upper class citizens living nowhere near the East end.
In all, there were many reasons for the attention attracted by the Whitechapel murders; the brutality, police incompetence’s and the press all played major parts in terrifying the nation. The press were responsible for informing the entire country, and most of Europe, about the horror of the murders; this was probably the main cause of the wide spread panic.
