How the Police Tried to Catch Jack the Ripper

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How the Police Tried to Catch Jack the Ripper

In the 1880s, the police were very different from the police of today.

Their main propose was crime prevention and their methods their

methods were very primitive

Source F is a police leaflet, which was published after the murders of

Elizabeth Stride and Kate Eddowes; it was written to aid the police in

their investigation it was also written in a factual tone, it suggests

that the police were appealing for any information regarding

suspicious characters. Because of the timing of this leaflet shows the

desperation faced by the police but for because of the many defects

reasons the leaflet was not successful: The first being that they did

not offer any description of the murderer at all, 'person to whom

suspicion was attached'. The second being that they still assumed that

the person was living in Whitechapel, when there was a large amount of

evidence suggested that the murderer wasn't from Whitechapel (the fact

that the murders were all done on the weekends or on Friday nights,

which suggests that he had a job and came into Whitechapel to murder).

The third reason being that they did not offer any rewards to the

public but it must be taken into account that the police were not

responsible for handing out rewards- the home sectary was the one who

decided against it. In addition, there is no information on the

mutilations to the bodies, it just gives the dates, which would not

have encouraged anyone to come forward as it could have been thought

that they were just non-violent attacks, and it would have persuaded

people to come forward. The leaflet also suggests that the police had

run out of all possible leads and were using this leaflet as a last

attempt. To sum up source F shows us that that the police methods were

very much reliant on witnesses and help from the public.

Source Gis part of a letter from the Home Secretary to the mile End

Vigilance Committee dated 17th September, after the murder of Annie

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