Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

Source A is an extract from the 'East End Observer'. It is an extract

from an article in the newspaper describing the murders of Martha

Tabram and Polly Nicholls. I use describe in the loosest possible

sense, as to describe is not the motivation for which it was written.

Any newspaper is intended not only to inform, but for entertainment

purposes. Journalists will always try to glamorize and strongly

exaggerate and event of intrigue and suspense, in order to instill

panic in the reader. Rumour will quickly spread, and in the hysteria,

people want to be informed, and newspapers sell in abundant numbers;

greatly more than before. In pursuit of this, journalists may lie or

cautiously omit details. With this in mind, it is fair to say that the

reliability of this source is thusly compromised.

Also what is missing from the source is a date, so we do not know how

recently it was written, with respect to the two murders of Martha

Tabram and Polly Nicholls, although it is a logical assumption to make

that it would have been written close to the time of the murders,

because in a newspaper report, a piece of breaking, hard-hitting news

is more exciting than if the event in question is dated, unless it is

further development on a dated event, which in this source is not the

case.

The fact that this is, 'part of an article', is important to consider,

as we are only being handed a small part of what could have been a

long and extensive review of the Ripper crimes, unlikely but a

possibility. We are not given the whole picture from this source as to

what the article was like in it's entirety, however, we must deal with

the source we are given, and should not speculate as to what the whole

article contained. We must deal with the source as it stands.

A newspaper article is written for the general public. It can

therefore make speculations and somewhat wild allegations into details