Reasons Why the Police were Unable to Catch Jack the Ripper

Reasons Why the Police were Unable to Catch Jack the Ripper

Catching a serial killer today is no easy job, but more than 100 years

ago it was an even more difficult job. The police then had to face no

forensics, little structure within the forces, people unwilling to

help, and yet they were still expected to find the ripper.

In 1888 there were no forensics, no DNA tests and no fingerprinting.

The area in which the murders occurred was an especially abysmal place

where people often walked round covered in blood due to the slaughter

houses. The technology of the time wouldn’t have been able to

distinguish between human and animal blood. The lack of forensic tests

would also make it difficult to prove conclusively if two or more

crimes had been committed by the same person. These limits were partly

because of the bungling police work.

Normally the police did not investigate cases like this under as much

pressure. They only investigated this case because the rich had become

concerned over the plight of the poor, as did the press. The police

did not always record evidence as well as they could have done. In

comparison with today’s standard procedure, few police reports were

written relevant to the case, and insufficient attention was paid to

forensic details and interviews. What could have been a crucial piece

of evidence (writing near a crime scene next to a piece of bloodied

apron belonging to a victim) was removed before it could be

photographed; and it wasn’t uncommon for other evidence to

mysteriously disappear. The writing on the wall case though was one of

the greatest blunders; without the sole handwriting sample police

could...

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...killer. In the Ripper inquiry, sufficient record keeping,

and information management/co-ordination was practically absent; and

in the Green River Killer case it was too late in coming. In both

investigations, the relationship between the law enforcement agencies

and their relationship with the public was not idyllic. In both

investigations, police also did not have the right knowledge and

resources to accurately measure the situation, grasp its significant

factors, and immediately collect an appropriate reaction. Even if the

Jack the Ripper, and Green River Killer investigations had possessed

the needed means, their investigations could not have lasted the

absence of key people, poor public relations, interagency conflict,

bad judgments, missed opportunities, or the exclusion of women from

highly dangerous police work.