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Jack the Ripper and why he was never caught
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Samantha Rangel
Professor Soma de Bourbon
FYS 156/Technology and Society
15 November 2013
Serial Killer
Everyone has heard or read about serial killers at one point in their lifetime. Serial killers are known to be dangerous psychotic people who enjoy killing. They are not known for being loveable towards their victims, they are brutal and have no regrets to what they do. One serial killer in particular was very brutal and has had a lot of fame around the world. Whenever someone hears the name Jack The Ripper, they wince at the thought of knowing what he did. Now a days they even have shows portraying Jack The Ripper. He is a widely known serial killer for the killing of five women. The police never identified Jack The Ripper, so no one has any idea who Jack The Ripper is. Jack murdered five women, prostitutes, and he horribly mutilated them between August 31- November 9, 1888 in Whitechapel, England (East End London). The investigators of the case believed that Jack might have had surgical knowledge due to the fact that three of the five women had their internal organs removed. Throughout Jacks killings there were hundreds of letters sent to the police and many of those letters hinted that they were Jack The Ripper or they were suggestions for ways to catch the Ripper. The police always disregarded those letters because they thought it was a waste of time reading over silly letters until one day three letters stood out of the bunch. The police believed that Jack The Ripper wrote them himself because they had specific details on how the women were being killed and they even said things like, “ Yours truly, Jack The Ripper, Don’t mind me giving the trade name.” (casebook.org/ripper_letters) The three letters were “Dear Boss” (Sept...
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...Most serial killers do have OCD which is obsessive compulsive disorder which is when you have to have things go a specific way or else you think everything is going wrong, so organized serial killers will most likely have this disorder. Having multiple personality disorder is when you have two personalities; one is your normal self which serial killers most likely use to cover up the fact that they are killers. Depression, anxiety, and panic attacks are triggered by the kind of things the serial killer goes through, so for depression the serial killer could get it from having a non-loving family, Anxiety can come from the struggles that the serial killer faces. Panic attacks can come from having too much anxiety. Serial killers are dangerous and very sick people. Most of them don’t realize they are doing something wrong because they could be severely mentally sick.
...theorize that serial killers have brain damage or other biological abnormalities that contribute to their actions. Damage to areas like the frontal lobe, the hypothalamus and the limbic system can contribute to extreme aggression, loss of control, loss of judgment and violence. Henry Lee Lucas, who was convicted of 11 murders, was shown to have extreme brain damage in these areas, probably the result of childhood abuse, malnutrition and alcoholism. Arthur Shawcross, another 11-time serial killer, was found to have had several brain injuries, including two skull fractures. While in prison, he suffered from headaches and often blacked out. Bobby Joe Long, convicted of nine murders, stated at one point, "After I'm dead, they're going to open up my head and find that just like we've been saying a part of my brain is black and dry and dead" [source: Scott].
"I am Jack the Ripper, catch me if you can" (Cornwell, 55) has been one of the most haunted lines of history, especially in London's Whitechapel area from August 1888 to November of that same year. Jack the Ripper was the mystery everyone wanted to solve, but not everyone was as determined as Patricia Cornwell. Throughout her series of all her Ripper investigations, she was destined to prove once and for all that Jack the Ripper wasn't just any man, but Walter Richard Sickert himself. In her book Portrait of a Killer Jack the Ripper Case Closed, she discusses and confirms that everyone had known the Ripper all along, just fell for his act. The author wasn't going down without a chance to prove to the world that Walter was the evil serial killer
Whereas, disorganized serial killers typically have low IQ’s and are extremely antisocial. Pick their victims at random whenever the opportunity crosses. They find themselves compelled to perform rituals with every victim. It’s also known that some of these killers suffer with a history of mental illness.
In order to identify serial killers before they kill repeatedly, a person needs to study the characteristics that makes up this type of criminals. Most serial killers have been abandoned, by one or both parents, they are emotionally, physically, and even sexually abused by a family member, or relatives from unstable families who have criminal, psychiatric and alcoholic histories, or tend to have hate for their parents and people in general which makes them have antisocial personality disorder. They have conflicted pain or tortured animals at a young age and most are highly interested in gaining control over things. Even though not every serial killers posses these characteristics, but most share these characteristics the same way they share the psychological need to have complete control and power over people.
Several serial killers have a definitive and common personality profile. Almost every major social, biological, psychological behavioural influence that has been seriously suggested as playing a role in causing crime has been thoroughly thought as potentially contributing to the behavior of serial killers (Levin, 2008). The time period and amount of killings fluctuate depending on the individual committing the crimes. Usually, the murders happen in different geographical areas. A mass murder has a separate definition than a serial killer, because a serial killer has a “cooling off” period, where mass murders kill several individual in a single event.
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.
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.
Jack the Ripper was an infamous serial killer who killed at least five London female prostitutes in 1888. Never captured, his identity is one of English's most famous unsolved mysteries. Today, Jack the Ripper is one of the most, if not the most, famous serial killer ever. There are many theories on who Jack the Ripper is, and why he killed, but none of these theories were ever proven. Jack the Ripper is simply a lone assassin who “officially” killed four prostitutes and got away without ever being caught and convicted of his crimes.
A serial killer is a person who murders three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a "cooling off" period between each murder, and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. Most people do not understand what can make a person want to kill multiple people for no reason other than their own satisfaction gain. In actuality, serial killers have been studied for over hundreds of years, and the information that has been documented continues to grow. The research that I have gathered about serial killers focuses on their childhood development, the differences and similarities between male and female serial killers, and finally general information on how their brains operate and their motives for committing such harmful acts. There have been many theories over the years about how a person becomes a serial killer, and how having an unstable childhood affects a person.
Albert Victor was a slow child and grew up to be a rather dull adult.
Serial killers have many frightening facets. The most frightening thing about them is that experts still do not know what makes a human become a serial killer. Many experts believe serial killers become what they are because they have a genetic disposition or brain abnormality while other experts believe that a serial killer is created by childhood abuse; and some other experts believe that it is a combination of both brain abnormalities and abusive childhood experiences that creates a serial killer. A murderer is considered a serial killer when they “murder three or more persons in at least three separate events with a “cooling off period” between kills” (Mitchell and Aamodt 40). When defining a serial killer, their background, genes, and brain are not mentioned; perhaps one day those aspects of the serial killer can be included.
A serial killer is defined in Webster's Dictionary as someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short period of time. There is no one generic profile to identify a serial killer. They usually are people seeking for a sensation, a lack of guilt or remorse, a need for control, impulsivity, and predatory behavior. These traits make up a psychopathic personality disorder. Psychopathy is a disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, manipulation, and occasional violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own wants and needs. There are four main types of serial killers; thrill seekers, mission-oriented, visionary serial killers, and power and control killers. There may be other
Serial killers murdered because they are insane or evil geniuses. In fact, this is another misassumption about serial killers. Maybe they have been neglected or abused in their childhood? Well, it could be. According to Freeman, most serial killers have similar patterns of childhood neglect. Serial killers tend to grow up without a sense of empathy and love toward other people either because they were often physically or sexually abused as children. At the same time, however, many neglected and abused children do not become serial killers. Researchers have been working for many years to figure out what causes a person to become a serial killer or a psychopath, but they find no answer. Serial killers, in fact, are always psychopath, but not all psychopaths are serial killers. All psychopaths are not insane, and they tend to have many common traits. These traits involve family history, or genetics, as well as environment and experience (Freeman). Most research can show that there is no one cause for violent behavior. Although serial killers and other psychopaths may have brain abnormalities or dysfunctions, personal experience and environment also play a large role in how they become serial
So what makes a serial killer? Levin points out that contrary to popular belief, serial killers don't just 'snap'; or 'go crazy'; (Douglas, p. 137). Many of the serial killers have been the victims of childhood abuse. Jack Levin stated 'Research shows many serial killers suffered abuse, incest or neglect as children and develop poor self images'; (Douglas, p. 137). Serial killers often have a childhood marked by the absence of any nurturing relationship. 'They often come from families where the parents were absent or ineffective, where authority was not defined, and where they could engage in destructive behavior undeterred-violent play, cruelty to animals, and incidents of arson being some of the childhood behavior patterns noted among many serial killers'; (Clark, p. 206).
Jack the Ripper murdered five women between the time of 31st of August 1888 and the 9th of November 1888. They were murdered within Whitechapel and Spitalfields in the East End areas of London, England. He was never caught, and because he was not there are hundreds on his personality and motives. There has been no other killers in the British history that rivaled the gruesome, disrespectful, utterly superior Jack the Ripper, a multiple murderer whose arrogance and self-assurance defied the entire police department within London and held in a great terror in a great city for as long as he cared to roam its streets and slay at will.