Investigating Why the Police Were Unable to Catch Jack the Ripper
I believe the most important reason why Jack the Ripper was so hard to
catch was because of the lack of evidence. In those days they did not
have as advanced technology as we have today for instance, we have
forensics where we can tell from a strand of hair who that hair
belongs to. In those days they were only just learning the
significance of footprints to catching a villain. Another part to this
is that Jack the Ripper was so random towards who he killed the police
could not find a link between the murders except that they were all
prostitutes, which did not really help, although prostitute murders
were not terribly uncommon.
The press coverage to the case didn’t help much as they had forced the
police to investigate ‘Leather Apron’ and this wasted a significant
amount of the police time which, if spent properly, may have allowed
them to uncover more information needed to catch the Ripper.
Furthermore, the public reaction was very unhelpful, as the people in
Whitechapel did not like the police for many reasons. The police had
brought a bad reputation to their name with acts of violence. Due to
this history behind the police, the locals decided not to help the
police as much as they could have in their investigations.
The lack of policemen did not help either. They had a very small
force. In 1878 the old department was abolished and the CID was
created which helped considerably. (The table below shows the
statistics for the police force)
1879
1884
Number of detectives
216
294
Number of arrests
13,128
18,344
The police did not offer a reward for catching the Ripper because it
would have attracted too much attention. They believed this would
create several false leads and would waste police time. The ‘from
hell’ letter was a example of a possible false lead. It was very
Today people such as Agatha Christie have carried on the crime genre which in my opinion is successful. The use of technology in the art of forensic science in Doyle’s books is why, in my opinion, they are successful because in those days the technology had just started and they were intrigued by it.
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).
False starts in Whitechapel led to more confusion such as, the investigation of the
Jack Laidlaw is a universe apart from other examples of detectives, he examines the more intriguing issues of how and why people can commit the reprehensible crime of murder and the harrowing aftermath of crime and violence. Jack Laidlaw can deeply understand people more than anyone could ever imagine. Jack Laidlaw is an odd sort of detective, and this is an odd sort of novel. He lives and works in the gloomy, cheerless heart of urban Glasgow; and he keeps the works of "Camus"," Unamuno" and "Kierkegaard"in his top desk drawer, "where other detectives would normally rather keep their secret stashes of liquor." Unlike many other detectives with uppity tastes in literature, no one congratulates him for this or encourages him in any way; the whole world tells him that However, he persists in trying to understand crimes as well as solve them: “You want to live as if the rest of the world was just a necessary evil and that you have to be a monster to be a criminal,it's not true, it's all in peoples concealed heads. That may be a nuisance to you.
Why the Police were Unable to Catch Jack the Ripper In the Victorian Times, smog was a big problem. It made visibility extremely bad, so the murders would have been harder to witness. There were lots of prostitutes because there weren’t many jobs available for them. woman, so they were forced to walk on the streets. Most turned to alcohol.
The idea of a detective catching an elusive convict or solving an improbable crime has been prevalent in all corners of the world, spread throughout many cultures and societies. The detective genre is held as the idea that an individual has to solve a crime. This detective usually has nothing to gain from solving the crime, but they see it more as an obstacle. The detective doesn’t always take every case, as human beings, we are too often curious of the impossible; our natural instinct is to question why and how things work in this world. People crave mystery, to taste a bit of improbable, to see what the detectives see, to see what is overlooked by many. The idea of an intelligent witty, sharp “sleuth” with an obedient sidekick has been prevalent
The second point we can learn from this article is that the killer had no apparent motive for the killings, supposedly because money wasn't missing from his victims; 'no adequate motive in the shape of plunder can be traced'. Also, the article tells us that the victims have been 'the poorest of the poor' Even though these pieces of information are product of the media, they appear to be true, as there would be no need for the newspaper to sensationalise such facts. The source also suggests the killer is a 'demented being', due to the 'extraordinary violence' exhibited in each of his murders. Finally, the source makes reference to the 'excess of effort' used by the killer 2. The report of Dr. Frederick Blackwell on the body of Elizabeth Stride supports the coroner's report on source B when it states that 'in the neck, there was a long incision which commenced on the left side, two and a half inches below the jaw, cutting the windpipe completely in two'.
Jack the Ripper is one of the most well-known serial killers of the ages. Although everyone knows the name, “Jack the Ripper,” nobody really knows of his true identity. When the murder victims were found the press and the detectives could never put a name with the crime.
Twelve decades have passed since the killings by Jack the Ripper, and the culprit still hasn’t been found, making it one of the greatest mysteries in history. Only a year before The Ripper’s first strike, there were no records of murder in Whitechapel district. However, The Ripper got his name from the way he mutilated five prostitutes from August 31st to November 9th, 1888, each of them in or within a mile of Whitechapel. The district had the highest percentage of poverty at the time, a shocking 47%. There were approximately 1200 prostitutes in the area while the killings were going on. Montague John Druitt, Michael Ostrog, and James Maybrick are three of the main suspects for who could have been Jack the Ripper.
Mysteries have always held great fascination for the human mind, not least because of the aura that surrounds them and the realm of the Unknown into which they delve. Coupled with the human propensity of being particularly curious about aspects which elude the average mind, the layer of intrigue that glosses over such puzzles makes for a heady combination of the literary and the popular. In the canon of detective fiction worldwide, no detective has tickled the curious reader’s imagination and held it in thrall as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. The 221-B, Baker Street, London ‘amateur’ detective combines a rare blend of intellectual prowess and sharp wit to crack a series of baffling riddles.
The birth of classic detective fiction was originated just in the mid nineteenth century, and was producing its own genre. Classical detective fiction follows a set of rules called the ‘Ten commandments of detective fiction’. The genre is so popular it can bee seen by the number of sales in any good book stores. Many of these books have been created a long time ago and there is still a demand for these types of books. The popularity is still ongoing because it provides constant entertainment, and also the reader can also have a role of detective trying to solve the crime/case committed. Classical detective fiction has a formula, the detective story starts with a seemingly irresolvable mystery, typically a murder, features the astute, often unconventional detective, a wrongly accused suspect to whom the circumstantial evidence points, and concludes with a startling or unexpected solution to the mystery, during which the detective explains how he or she solved the mystery. Formula that includes certain elements such as, a closed location to keep the number of suspects down, red hearings spread around the stories to keep the reader entertained yet interacted.
...lice or lawyers used their integrity. The police skirted around the law and use evidence that the witnesses said was not correct. They had a description of the suspect that did not match Bloodsworth but, they went after him as well. They also used eyewitness testimony that could have been contaminated.
Then comes the step of finding data. Holmes once said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize without data." You should never come up with theories and then try to support them. You must always find facts and then come up with theories. My thoughts are that you go in the wrong direction if you do it ass backwards. Not only will the crime take longer to solve but it also could never be solved.
In this era, one of the most useful tools we have is the internet. The internet would make solving the murder ten times faster and easier as well. Poirot could easily have googled ‘local strangulations’ and found all the information he needed; furthermore, along with the article there would be pictures of Edward Corrigan and Alice Deverill, also known as Patrick and Christine Redfern respectively. However, while the internet does have its pros, it also
Crime Scene Investigation For my assignment, I will be looking into the case of James Bulger, aged 2 years old, who was kidnapped and murdered by John Venables and Robert Thompson on February 12th 1993. Through evidence found at the crime scene and testimonial statements, the police saw that the two boys, ages 11, abducted James from Bootle Strand Shopping Center, Liverpool. They took him on a long, aimless walk where they brutally attacked him and left him for dead. In my assignment I will show how work done by the police, forensic scientists and Investigators helped to convict Jon and Robert.