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Serial killer jack the ripper
Jack the Ripper and why he was never caught
Jack the Ripper and why he was never caught
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Jack the Ripper Terror of London
Jack the Ripper is infamous for his serial killings during the late 1800’s of London. Jack the Rippers legacy lives on today shrouded in folklore and mystery. We will look at the facts surrounding the macabre murders and examine evidence provided by the victims, the press, and police. To first understand the case of Jack the Ripper, you have to know about a very different time period, the year 1888 in London. In the late 1800s, London's East End was a place that was viewed by English citizens as the place for outcasts and immigrants. London was seen as a dreamland to the immigrants, one where skilled Irish, Jews, and Russians, came to start a new life and start businesses. However the harsh reality was that
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the district was overcrowded, poor, and jobs were rarely available for any non-Englishmen. This lead to a growth in gangs, violence and crime in the East End. Prostitution was only illegal if the practice caused a public disturbance. Thousands of brothels and low income lodging houses provided sexual services during the late 19th century. At that time, the death, rape or murder of a prostitute was hardly reported in the press or discussed within society. The reality was that prostitutes were subject to violent attacks, which sometimes resulted in death. (Jack the Ripper. (2015). Victims The Unfortunate victims of Jack the Ripper were all women the total number of which is not known due to how many murders that were committed during the time, but the general agreement is the canonical 5 victims due to all of them taking place within a mile of each other.
The first murder took place on August 31, 1888. The victim was Polly Nichols, a 42-year-old alcoholic. The Ripper cut her throat from ear to ear left to right, back to the vertebrae, and sliced open her abdomen from pelvis to stomach but no organs were removed. The autopsy found she sustained stab wounds to the vagina. The next killing took place on Saturday, September 8, 1888. Annie Chapman was 45 years of age, an alcoholic. She was found with her neck cut twice very deep almost as, in an attempt at deception. Her abdomen was cut open up to the breastbone and her small intestines placed on her right shoulder. Parts of her vagina and bladder had been removed and put over her left shoulder. On Sunday, September 30, 1988, Jack the Ripper committed a high risk double murder. The Ripper first attacked Elizabeth Stride in a courtyard. Stride was a 45-year-old alcoholic. The Ripper had cut her throat, severing the windpipe. The mutilation was very minimal compared to his previous victims and it is believed he was interrupted by a carriage entering the courtyard. Within the hour a second body was discovered in the City of London. Catherine Eddowes, 43 years, was, like her fellow victims, an alcoholic with a broken …show more content…
marriage. Her throat was deeply cut left to right all the way to the spinal column, and her abdomen laid open from breast downwards, the entrails flung around her neck. Her ear was almost cut off and face slashed continuously with deep v’s cut under her eyes, and her nose almost removed. The Ripper took a kidney which was latter apparently mailed to the authorities. The final and most horrific murder occurred on Friday, November 9, 1888. Mary Kelly, only 25 was a widow with alcohol problems. Her head and left arm were almost severed, her breasts and nose cut off, thighs and forehead skinned, entrails wrenched away, and her body parts piled on the bedside table. The murders were all within a mile of each other, and with the total area was just over half a square mile in size. (Rossmo pg. 236-237) The Press The murders became a heyday for Media at the time due to widespread circulation of a short newspaper giving Jack the Ripper worldwide fame.
Many letters were received by the police claiming to be the killer. Most of these we fake and just attempts a getting attention. However one letter made the killer infamous. The Dear Boss letter mailed to the Central New Agency mentioned sending ears to the police and the letter was dated before the double murder in which Jack the Ripper tried to cut off Catherine Eddowes ear. The letter latter read “My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper. Don’t mind me giving the trade name.” The letter was latter published in an attempt to get somebody to recognize the killer’s handwriting. The amount of hours spent investigating hundreds of letters sent to the police ended up hampering the investigation which was already short on man power. As the investigation went on with no new suspects the press wore down the integrity of the Scotland Yard with public outcry for not producing results. This further decreased the moral for the
constables. Police and Suspects In early September 1888, Scotland Yard the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police assigned the newly promoted Inspector Frederick George Abberline, a local to Whitechapel London to oversee the case. They believed that Fredericks 14 years of dealing with crime in the area was key into solving the crime. Jack the Ripper was an opportunist killer who seemingly did not know his victims but felt comfortable working within the area. This lead police to believe Jack the Ripper to be in one of the local violent gangs. "The officers engaged in the case are pushing their inquiries in the neighborhood as to the doings of certain gangs known to frequent the locality, and an opinion is gaining ground amongst them that the murderers are the same who committed the two previous murders near the same spot. It is believed that these gangs, who make their appearance during the early hours of the morning, are in the habit of blackmailing these unfortunate women, and when their demands are refused violence follows, and in order to avoid their deeds being brought to light they put away their victims. They have been under the observation of the police for some time past, and it is believed that, with the prospect of a reward and a free pardon, some of them might be persuaded to turn Queen's evidence, when some startling revelations might be expected. (Waikato Times pg.2)" However by late September 1888, the police had come to the conclusion that, were the local gangs responsible, the publicity and panic that the murders had generated would have led one of the members to inform on the others. With this information they proceed to turn the case towards Jack the Ripper being a lone assassin, one with some medical knowledge. The police broadened their scope of search to include any butchers, slaughterers, surgeons and physicians that could have committed the mutilations. Police had several good suspects like Thomas Cutbush, who studied medical books by day and wandered the streets at night, often returning home with muddy and sometimes bloody clothes. Cutbush was detained as a lunatic. On 5 March 1891, after stabbing serval women’s bottoms. He became the prime target for the media as the number one suspect for the murders. Melville Macnaghten Assistant Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police was the first to dispute this. He mentioned that Cutbush was unlikely the killer due to the knife he used in his crimes was different from the one used by Jack the Ripper. It wasn’t purchased until 2 years after the murders and it was unlikely for The Ripper lie dormant for two years, then re-emerge and be content with stabbing women in the bottom. Macnaghten also mentioned 3 other suspects, however these leads went nowhere. “Over 2,000 interviews were carried out by the Victorian police officers, more than 300 people were actually investigated and 80 people were detained in police custody. It is possible that Jack the Ripper was one of these, but none of the interviews, investigations or detentions yielded anything concrete that enabled the police to point the finger at one suspect and say that he was Jack the Ripper. (THE JACK THE RIPPER SUSPECTS)” Many different aspects of the Ripper case could have been handled differently. The police had a hard time with the Ripper case due to being under staffed. London then had around 5.5 million inhabitants and only around 9000 officers. The press was reporting false stories promoting Anti- Semitism and the investigations drained police power. No reward was offered due to department policy which went against the public getting incentive to help. The lapse of time after the murders were committed sealed the fate of and leads being found. “In 1988 the FBI prepared a criminal personality profile for the Jack the Ripper murders After an analysis of the crime scenes, police and autopsy reports, photographs, victimology, and area demographics, the following key crime scene elements were identified: blitz attacks and lust murders, high degree of psychopathology exhibited at the crime scenes; no evidence of sexual assault; possible manual strangulation; postmortem mutilation and organ removal, but no torture; elaboration of ritual; victims selected on the basis of accessibility all the crimes took place on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, in the early morning hours; and unreported attacks might have occurred.” (Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation) Jack the Ripper Lives on toady as one of the most famous unsolved murders within works of fiction, TV shows, movies, and books. Due to the contradictions and unreliability of contemporary accounts, attempts to identify the real killer are hampered by the lack of surviving DNA evidence that hasn’t been contaminated.
On May 21, 1980, Katherine Reitz Brow was stabbed over 30 times in her Ayer, Massachusetts home. There were bloodstains throughout the house and her purse, some jewelry and an envelope where she had been known to keep cash was missing. Investigators found hair, blood ladened fingerprints on the toaster and the kitchen faucet which was left running. A bloody paring knife which was perceived to be the murder weapon was found in the waste basket. Mr. Water’s became a suspect because he lived next to the victim with his girlfriend, Brenda Marsh. He also worked at a local diner that Ms. Brow frequented and employee’s revealed that she had been known to keep large amounts of cash in her home.
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.
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).
Most statements from witnesses claimed that, the 'Ripper' suspect must have been a white male, average or below average height, between 20-40 years old, did not dress as a labourer or homeless person and was right handed. They also felt he had accommodation in the East End of London, possible medical connections, may have been a foreigner, and also have a regular job as the murders took place at the weekend. Because this description did not single out anyone, it made it more difficult to arrest anyone as the evidence was very weak. Jack the Ripper was a clever man, as we can see from his Modus Operandi, as he managed to choose different locations for his murders, yet they were all very close to both public and police scrutiny. Even though they were supposed to be keeping a close observation over Jack the Rippers movements, they were too complex for them and the Whitechapel area was so vast.
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.
The people out at the time of the murder would have been tramps and drunk, not reliable witnesses. The East End streets were maze-like. and easy to escape from. These were a few of the problems the police encountered. The snare Jack the Ripper was extremely clever to be able to evade the police.
Murder is murder, or taking the life of another person. Repeatedly taking the life of other people is killing in a serial way. Serial killers are those individuals who repeatedly murder other people. There have been thousands of nameless serial killers, but none more famous than Jack the Ripper. The 1888 maliciousness of Jack the Ripper became one of the very first investigated, and most widely studied, serial murder cases, that established the protocols that are still used today to investigate these heinous crimes. The name Jack the Ripper has instilled fear in the public since 1888, and is a name that is synonymous with serial killing. Jack the Ripper set the bar by which all other serial killers are judged, studied, and
Jack the Ripper killed five women between the 31st of August 1888 and the 9th of November 1888. They were murdered in Whitechapel and Spitalfields in the East End areas of London, England. The killer was never caught and because of this there are hundreds on his personality and motives. No other killer in the British history rivaled that of the gruesome, mocking, utterly superior Jack the Ripper, a multiple murderer whose arrogance and boldness deified the entire police department of London and held in terror a great city for as long as he cared to roam its streets and slay at will.
Jack The Ripper 1. From looking at the newspaper article on source A, I can determine the following information regarding the murder of Polly Nichols. Firstly, I can ascertain that it was the second of the Whitechapel murders. I can draw this conclusion from the first few words 'the two murders which have so startled London'.
Though many have been named, only a few have good cases. However, Michael Ostrog fits the bill well. He was a certified physician and was known to be insane. Along with Druitt, he was also placed on the top three list. In late November of 1888, he received his final, but not first, jail sentence (Cohen 6). Another suspect who wasn’t listed by Macnaghten, James Maybrick, wasn’t considered until a very detailed 63 page diary turned up, signed “Jack the Ripper.” He was poisoned by his wife in 1889, but before he died, he told her that he was indeed The Ripper. His wife says that the tales were simply meant to scare her, but there were details Maybrick mentioned that none other than The Ripper would know; each of them checking out as true. The most exclusive detail being that there would be no more killings, and there weren’t. On October 9th, 1888, a newspaper in Liverpool was released stating that the next attack would be in Dublin. This message was quickly refuted saying it was a hoax and that Jack would be in New York at the time. This message was signed Jack the Ripper Diego Laurenz. In Spanish, Diego means James and the name Laurenz might have been used because it sounds similar to Flauence, the name of Maybrick’s wife (Rubinstein 5-8). The many suspects named only make it harder for ripperologists, but the tale lives through them. With new technology and information being released,
“Jack the Ripper,” was the name given to an unidentified serial killer in the White Chapel district of London in 1888. The name came from a letter left at the crime scene, written by someone claiming to be the killer. The letter was believed to be a joke and thought to be written by a reporter in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the investigation.
In the San Francisco Bay area, as well as in the rest of California, the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s was a time of terror and fear. What started out as a seemingly random, but brutal murder on the night of October 30th, 1966, turned out to be the start of a series of horrific murders that would span 2,500 suspects, 56 possible victims, and over 400 miles. On the calm, cool night of December 20th, 1968, a young seventeen year-old named David Arthur Faraday was getting ready to take a young sixteen year-old named Betty Lou Jensen on her first date.
Jack the Ripper was created after the mysterious killing of five prostitutes. He is known for the gruesome murders from August 7 1888 to September 10, 1888 (“Jack the Ripper Biograpy”). The murders were committed a mile apart from each other. He would attack his victims on the public streets of London by stabbing them through their clothing. He targeted five out of the 1200 prostitutes that worked the streets of London (Raines).
London has a history dating back to more than 2,000 years ago and several variables have it allowed it to become what it has today. London has experienced plague, devastating fire, civil war, aerial bombardment, terrorist attacks, and widespread rioting. The 18th century was an era where in order to convict someone of a crime you needed eyewitness testimonies or “smoking gun” evidence. For example, a man named Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the short story series Sherlock Holmes. First published in 1887 in The Strand Magazine, the Study of Scarlett was published and Holmes’ success encouraged him to continue to write more short stories. Much of the late 18th century and even until now, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes cultivated an addiction for his
Edward Pierce, the criminal mastermind behind the robbery, never revealed his exact motive for committing “the crime of the century.” Trapped in an era of stifling moral standards and harsh class distinctions, Pierce committed The Great Train Robbery in defiance of the oppressive social conventions propagated by The Crown. Although 19th century Britain was a world economic power, ruled over history’s most extensive empire, and had the best quality of life, millions of people lived lives of squalor in overcrowded, dangerous slums. Some higher-class Victorians blamed these deplorable conditions for the ongoing crime epidemic in Britain while others simply attributed intellectual and social inferiority to