: Tragedy in and Triumph

for Police Work

Xander Marvin

Junior Division

Paper Word Count: 1,979

Jack the Ripper became so well known for a couple of different reasons. One reason is that in the 1800s there was a great rise in photography and journalism. London was a major city and had at least thirteen daily newspapers that circulated throughout England as well as to the thirteen colonies. Another reason that Jack the Ripper captured people’s attention then and now is due to the gruesomeness of the murders. People had a hard time believing these things could happen. ( Jones) The newspaper reports complete with photos left little doubt in the minds of readers.

Jack the Ripper began his killing spree in London starting in 1888. There were five known victims, and there were several other unsolved murders at that time that were also possible victims of his. Life in the 1800s was pretty divided, either you were rich or you were poor. Many women of the lower classes were unable to find work and had to resort to prostitution which was legal at the time. Prostitutes were ready victims for criminals since they were out at night and often did not have family to notice if they were missing. All of Jack the

Ripper’s victims were prostitutes, many who were in their late 30 early 40s and well known for drinking heavily. Rings were also taken from the victims that he killed.

( FBI file) The murders struck fear in the women of London, especially those of the lower classes who had to go out at night.

The first victim was . She died on August 31, 1888. Her throat was severely slashed, and she was disemboweled. She was discovered on B uck's Row at 3:45

AM. She had a very faint heartbeat as if she was trying to breathe.

The next victim was . She died on September 8th, 1888. Like Mary

Ann, her throat was cut. The murderer also took her womb. Police used the press to see if anyone had knowledge of this murder including a description of the killer or knowledge of his whereabouts. Before the third victim was discovered, the killer wrote a letter to the chief of the police and signed it with his assumed name “Jack the Ripper.” He told police that he would clip the ears of the next victim and send them to the police. The third victim named , and she died on September 30th, 1888. The killer didn’t get ears for police because it is believed the killer was interrupted during the murder. It did appear as if the ears of the victim were in the process of being cut. The police were not completely sure about the interruption, but it is thought to be true because Stride’s throat was cut rather hastily in contrast to the cuts on some of the other victims.

On the same night, September 30th, the fourth victim named was killed. Her body was severely mutilated, including her face and her uterus, and her left kidney was removed. Her face was so mutilated that they could only identify her by her apron.

The killer ripped a piece from her apron and wiped her blood off his knife and hands on it. This was found by police and told police the escape route he took. Found near the piece of apron was this writing on a wall, “The juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.” Police thought that the message could hint that the killer might be Jewish or anti semitic just by the message. It is also possible that the message was on the wall long before the apron piece was dropped there.

After the double murder, the chief of police got a letter from the supposed killer prior to any news release, and it went into lots of detail about the twin killings. It was believed that this must have been the killer.

The final victim named died on November 9th, 1888, in her home. Her body was said to be virtually skinned down. Some of her body parts were removed and placed around in different parts of the room. Some believe that the reason this woman was mutilated this badly was to say that this would be the last murder so it would be the worst out of all of the murders.

It is widely recognized that there was great incompetence by the police in the Ripper investigation. One thing that police didn’t do in the 1880s was use the forensic science of the time to help them solve the case. They also didn’t regularly use fingerprinting though it was suggested later that if they had used fingerprints, they would have got a conviction. The police also usually took pictures of the victims. They did not, however, take pictures of the crime scene. They also could have brought bloodhounds to see if they could get a scent for him.

(Jones)

Additionally, although the killer sent items and letters to the police, they did not use these successfully to any advantage. Nor is it believed that they did a thorough search for possible witnesses that could have provided a good description of a potential killer. ( Casebook, Ryder)

The reason why these murders were different was because of how badly he mutilated the bodies. The killer was a person who had anatomical knowledge, knowledge of how to evade the police and became one of the most well known serial killers in history. People at the time thought that Jack the Ripper was a person who was perfectly sane but capable of true evil.

The initial investigator on the Ripper case, quit instantly due to the horrors of the first murder. Howard Vincent, the next main investigator,resigned when his home office was blown up. Jack the Ripper inspired the police commissioners to leave after the murder occurred and during the murders as well. ( Jones). Poor investigation tactics and inconsistency in the investigation made it unlikely a perpetrator would be found. Since the 1880s however, people have continued to try to solve this case.

Four suspects are most often identified as likely perpetrators. The first suspect was

Queen Victoria’s Grandson Prince Albert Victor, a man of high profile. He was not suspected until long after the crimes because his status protected him from accusations. One reason that he is suspected of the killings was that he would have been protected by his servants and family if there was any evidence of his guilt. Another reason he is a likely suspect was that he had a baby with a local woman, and when the Queen heard of this, she said that anyone who knew about the child should be killed. This makes historians suspect that the “canonical five” victims may have been people who knew about the baby. Prince Albert

Victor is also a suspect because he contracted syphilis and was suffering its effects including

“madness.” Additionally, prostitutes were known for carrying syphilis, a sexually contracted disease. It is believed that his family knew that he was the killer after the second murder but there was no attempt to restrain him from killing until after the double event (Stride and

Eddowes), when he was finally put in a mental hospital. Historians have a theory that the Prince later escaped to carry out the final murder because notes were found from his doctor indicating that he had been able to escape from the hospital during this time. The official story from the

Queen and Royal family was that the Prince wasn’t in London during the time of the killings. (

Casebook, Ryder)

Another possible suspect is Joseph Barnett. He wasn’t suspected of the killings until

1970 when a man named Bruce Paley (an author that had published his book in 1995) told some of his colleagues about him. He fit the profile of Jack the Ripper. He is suspected of the killings because he was in love with Mary Kelley (the final victim) and he used to visit her often and used to live with her. He used to give her money so she didn’t have to go to prostitution. But once he lost in job in June 1888 ,as a fish porter, she had to go to prostitution. So when she had to go to the streets, he wanted to scare her off the streets so he killed all of those prostitutes.

But when she kept going to the streets, he went mad and killed her. This is a possible reason the killings stopped ­­ because of his link to her. The police interviewed him for four hours and they seemed satisfied with his testimony and didn’t interview him further. ( Casebook, Ryder)

Another suspect is James Maybrick. He was a cotton merchant and he didn’t live in

London, but all of the killings happened on a weekend. If you were a cotton merchant you were allowed to travel on the weekends. His diary and his watch were found under the floorboards of his house. "I give my name that all know of me, so history do tell, what love can do to a gentle man born. Yours truly, Jack the Ripper." That is a quote from his diary. It is still believed that this is a hoax because in the diary there is a page about the Mary Kelley murder but some of the details are completely wrong. Michael Barrett, the person who found the diary, also later said that he forged the diary, but he retracted his confession because he didn’t want attention because he was going through and nasty divorce. ( Casebook, Ryder, Jones)

The final suspect is Jill the Ripper. This theory highlights that the police were looking for a man, but they should have been looking for a woman. It was normal for a midwife to have blood on her, and midwives knew about anatomical knowledge. Since police would be looking for a man, it would be easy to kill as a woman because police would not be looking for the right gender. It was also common to see midwives out at night. Apparently, Mary Kelly was three months pregnant at the time of her death. She wanted an abortion because she couldn’t afford a child. Midwives did abortions and hinted that the killer could have been a midwife (

Casebook, Ryder).

The triumph related to Jack the Ripper is how the infamy and incompetence of this case fueled better investigation strategies after this event. Police started to use fingerprinting more.

Another way that they had more evidence is that they started to take more pictures of the crime scene instead of just the body of the victim. Then, smart phones came out and cameras became more developed and now we have drones. One impact that this event happened is that police work got way better at finding criminals. The reason why this happened is that technology has gotten better and police are starting to use more and more technology. This changed forensic science because autopsies have gotten more advanced and more people to work on the case. On the eddowes murder the chairman of got a box where it had a kidney reserved in wine. It was a human kidney but they couldn’t find out if it was her kidney because they didn’t have the other kidney and a part of the kidney was missing. The reason that this was a triumph is that with forensic science they found it that it was a human kidney. They are still trying to found out more information about Jack the Ripper. ( Elizabeth Murray, Forensic

Science)

I believe that the reason why he is still popular is that his case is still unsolved. It has been unsolved for over 100 years. People have been giving theories and trying to solve a case which only has one important key of evidence.

Primary Sources

“Jack the Ripper.” L earning Curve, United Kingdom National Archives, 2018, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/education/jacktheripper.pdf.

This is a lesson plan for teachers that I found at the National Archives for the United Kingdom. It includes many of the letters sent to the police by a person claiming to be Jack the Ripper. I used this site to see what the letters contained and how the police may have used the letters to try and catch the murderer.

Ryder, Stephen P. “Casebook: Jack the Ripper.” C asebook: Jack the Ripper - Main, 1996, www.casebook.org/.

This is the Ripperologist website that I found. It is one of the best places on the internet to find complete information about these crimes. It has letters that are believed to be from the killer. I used this site to really explore those letters as a primary source.

“THE JACK THE RIPPER NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE.” J ack the Ripper ­ History, Victims, Letters, Suspects., www.jack­the­ripper.org/newspaper­archive.htm.

This is a newspaper archive with many images of newspapers from the time of the Ripper murders. They were good for me to see because I learned how the press covered the events at the time and what the reactions were from the general public as the murders continued and became more and more grisly.

United States, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Douglas, John E. “Jack the Ripper.” J ack the Ripper, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1986, pp. 1–7.

This is a report prepared by a Special Agent of the FBI about the Ripper crimes. This source gave me information about London during this time and helped me with the aspects of the police work that was done to try to solve these murders in 1888.

Secondary Sources

Clancy, Michelle. “BBC One Tackles the Jack the Ripper Mystery with Modern Forensics.” R apid TV News Main News, www.rapidtvnews.com/2018072152883/bbc-one-tackles-the-jack-the-ripper-mystery-wit h-modern-forensics.html#axzz5em9jMBiP.

This is an article that talks about how modern scientists were going to re-examine the evidence in the Ripper case, I used this to prove that the initial investigation was not done well. This also includes an image of one of the newspapers that reported on the Ripper murders at the time they took place.

“FINGERPRINTING AND CSI TECHNIQUES USED ON THE JACK THE RIPPER MURDERS.” Jack the Ripper ­ History, Victims, Letters, Suspects., www.jack­the­ripper.org/investigation­techniques.htm.

This is an article that explains the Crime Science Investigation Techniques that took place during the time fo the Ripper murders. I used this article to explain how the police did not collect prints at any of the murders except the last one, which made the fingerprint evidence less helpful in the case.

“JAMES MAYBRICK - THE DIARY OF JACK THE RIPPER.” J ack the Ripper - History, Victims, Letters, Suspects., www.jack-the-ripper.org/james-maybrick.htm.

This is an article about James Maybrick who had an entry in his diary where he claimed to be Jack the Ripper. Also, he had a watch that had the initials of the “canonical five” victims and his own initials engraved on it. This site helped me to explore Maybrick as a potential suspect.

Jones, Richard, “JACK THE RIPPER - THE POLICE INVESTIGATION.” J ack the Ripper - History, Victims, Letters, Suspects., www.jack-the-ripper.org/police-investigation.htm.

This is a website that includes newspaper and letter archives on the Ripper murders as well as general information on the crimes. This site was very useful to me in explaining how the failure to solve the murders impacted the police and London. I also used this site to gain background information on the murders, the victims, and the suspects.

Ryder, Stephen P. “Casebook: Jack the Ripper.” C asebook: Jack the Ripper - Main, 1996, www.casebook.org/.

This is one of the best sites on the internet for information on the Ripper murders. I used this site to explain about each of the major suspects and why they were not charged with the murders. I used this site to look into the people who may have been witnesses.

“The Grisly Murders of Jack The Ripper.” Y ouTube, YouTube, 26 Jan. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?

This is a video that I found explaining what happened and gives me some information on the suspects. This was the video I watched that convinced me to choose this as a topic.

“The History of Forensic Science: Identifying Jack the Ripper.” T he Great Courses Daily, 5 Sept. 2018, www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/history­of­forensic­science­jack­the­ripper/.

This is a forensic science that was done on the Ripper case and it shows that there were likely mistakes in the investigation of these murders, which may have led to the killer never being found.

“THE JACK THE RIPPER VIDEO TOUR.” J ack the Ripper ­ History, Victims, Letters, Suspects., www.jack­the­ripper.org/jack­the­ripper­murder­sites.htm.

This is a video tour of the areas where the murders occured. I used this source to get more information about the neighborhood and where the murders took place.

Top5s.” T op5s, www.top5s.co.uk/the­5­victims­of­serial­killer­jack­the­ripper/.

This is a documentary film about the victims of Jack the Ripper. I watched this video and it helped me understand more about the five victims.