MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language
Serial killers in the British press
Diploma thesis
Brno 2020
Supervisor: Author:
Mgr. Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. Bc. Lukáš Kačinetz
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Deklarace
„Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracoval samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“
V Brně dne 30.3.2020 ………………………………..
Bc. Lukáš Kačinetz
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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mgr . Renata Jančaříková, Ph.D. for her patience, kind and tolerant guidance and her support and help through the process of my writing.
3 Annotation
The aim of this thesis is the analysis of the medial image of British serial killers. The analysis is conducted through the research of contemporary articles from newspapers, which report about three British serial killers - so called “Jack the Ripper'', Peter Sutcliffe (“The Yorkshire Ripper”) and Steve Wright (“The Suffolk Strangler”). The thesis describes briefly the case and its media portrayal, leading to the comparative analysis of the described cases. The thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part.The theoretical part describes medial English, news values and other phenomena, used by news reporting (Binary opposition, apeal of the negative news). The theoretical part also describes the research questions that the thesis focuses on. The practical part describes the three cases and comments their medial image. The frequential analysis is also presented. The outcome of the practical part is comparative analysis.
Keywords
Media, English, Serial Killers, Newspaper, Jack the Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, Steve Wright
Anotace
Cílem diplomové práce je analýza mediálního obrazu britských sériových vrahů. Analýza je provedena skrze výzkum článků z dobového tisku, které informují o 3 sériových vrazích - “Jacku Rozparovači”, Peteru Sutcliffovi (“Yorkshirský Rozparovač”) a Steve Wright (“Suffolský Škrtič”). Diplomová práce stručně popisuje tyto případy a jejich mediální obraz a vede k porovnávací analýze zmíněných. Diplomová práce je rozdělena na teoretickou a praktickou část. Teoretická část popisuje angličtinu v médiích, zpravodajské hodnoty a další jevy, používané ve zpravodajství. Teoretická část také pokládá rétorické otázky, na jejichž odpovědi se soustředí. Praktická část popisuje zmiňované případy a komentuje jejich mediální obraz. Součástí je také frekvenční analýza. Výstupem praktické části je srovnávací analýza.
Klíčová slova
Media, angličtina, sériový vrah, noviny, Jack Rozparovač, Peter Sutcliffe, Steve Wright.
4 Table of Contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..………..7 1.1 Language of news………………………………………………………..……………….10 1.2 News values theory……………………………………………………..……………….14 1.3 Appeal and likeability of the negative news…….…….…………...……………….…...16 1.4 Definition of a serial killer…………………………….…………………………..…….18 1.5 Binary oppositions……………………………………………………………………....21 1.6 Formulation of the research questions…………….……………………………………...22 2.1 Corpus description…………………………………………………………………….….26 2.1.1 Resources for the analysis (The Corpus)...... 26 2.1.2 Methodology of the analysis…………………………………....……………...28 2.2 “Jack the Ripper” case……………………………….…………………………………29 2.2.1 A brief history of the case…………...……...………………………………….29 2.2.2 Medial image of the murderer……………………………………………….....30 2.2.3 Medial portrait of the victims……………...... ……………………………...…32 2.2.4 Medial image of the police…………………………..…………………………33 2.2.5 Media and the community…………………………...…………………………35 2.2.6 Concept of the articles…………...……………………...……………………...38 2.3 “Yorkshire Ripper” case………………………………………………………..………39 2.3.1 A brief history of the case…………………....……………………………….39 2.3.2 Medial image of the murderer…..………………………………………….....47 2.3.3 Medial portrait of the victims………….……………………………………..49 2.3.4 Medial image of the police……………………………………………………51 2.3.5 Media and the community…………….………………………………………52 2.3.6 Concept of the articles………………………………………………………...53 2.4 “Suffolk strangler” case………………………………………………………..……….54 2.4.1 A brief history of the case…….………………..……………………………...55 2.4.2 Medial image of the murderer..……..…………………………………………56 2.4.3 Medial portrait of the victims…………………..……………………………...56 2.4.4 Medial image of the police…………………….………………………………58 2.4.5 Media and the community…………………..…………………………………58
5 2.4.6 Concept of the articles…………………..……………………………………...59 2.5 Comparative analysis…………………………………………………..………………60 2.5.1 Frequency analysis of the used vocabulary…………………………………….59 2.5.1.1 Frequency analysis of the Jack the Ripper case………………...59 2.5.1.2 Frequency analysis of the Yorkshire Ripper case………....…….63 2.5.1.3 Frequency analysis of the Suffolk Strangler case……..……...….65 2.5.1.4 Commentary on the change of the analyzed vocabulary…………….66 2.5.2 Changes in the medial image of the killer……………………………………...67 2.5.3 Changes in the medial image of the victim…………………………………….69 2.5.4 Media and the police…………………………………………………………...71 2.5.5 Media and the community……………………………………………………...72 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………....74 Bibliography….……………………………………………………………..………………..76 Appendices……………..………………..…………………………………………………...79
6 Introduction
Serial killers have always been among top selling topics of the press and there is a strong connection maintained between the killer, the press and the public. It may seem that the press and media are obsessed with serial killers and they take their own part in shaping the image of the serial killer. The gruesomeness of violence, combined with repeated crime acts usually leads to medial exposure and accentuation of negative messages and connotations. The mishandling of the topic or the case by the media can lead to chaos, public panic and thanks to the media exposure of the case it can be viewed as counterproductive by the police. The press and newspaper reporting can be considered vital both for the police and for the killer suspect as the reporters can create panic and mass hysteria. The opinion of the reporters and the way of the crime reporting can have major effect on the public population. The existence of serial killers of course pre-dates the infamous “Jack the Ripper” case, but it was the first time when the media started an uproar and created mass hysteria and panic. The combination of speculations, improper newspaper reporting and vivid description of the murders created paranoia, chaos and disorder and also gave birth to the iconic “Jack the Ripper”, which still resonates in culture and society. One of the culprits of this can be clearly identified (Goodbody 141) - The Star magazine is considered as a part of “the new journalism” and its sales were one third bigger than usual, raising from 190,000 in mid-September to 300,000 after Mary Kelly´s death (Curtis 59) Since then, it is not unusual that in a killer case, media play an important role as well as in the other criminal cases and investigations. In my thesis I attempt to analyse and compare the medial picture of three British serial killers with a similar profile. All of them committed the act of murder without a reasonable motive. All of them repeatedly assaulted women and all of them targeted prostitutes or other “street working” women. All of them also expressed unnatural violence and usually mutilated the bodies of the victims as a part of the process. Two of the chosen subjects also taunted the police by communicating with the officials or with the press itself. The criminal cases are separated by adequate chronological gap - 1888 (Jack the Ripper), 1981 (Peter Sutcliffe) and 2006 (Steven Wright). This chronology can provide
7 contemporaneous media samples for the diachronic analysis. The medial portrait of the killer, the victims, the focus of the media, the presentation of the murder and the supported follow-up steps or instructions of the police will be analyzed and compared.
The hypothesis is “The medial image of the serial killer has changed over last hundred year and description and reporting is more objective and less frantic through the general press.”. In this paper, I demonstrate how the change in trend of media coverage style has shifted from frantic towards descriptive and "objective" on the example of reporting serial killer cases."
In the theoretical part of the thesis the basic medial values theory is presented, the key concepts of medial English are addressed and the methodology of the analysis will be set up. The part will also contain the basic definitions from criminology - the definition of phenomenon called “serial killer” and it defines the differences between a mass murderer and a serial killer. Also the difference between two basic types of the serial killers are explained. The psychological effect of attractiveness of negative news is also briefly explained through the theory of the news values by Galtung and Ruge. The theoretical part further focuses on supplementary questions considering the style and the medial image of the parties involved in the picture of the serial killers in the press. These research questions are answered in the practical part and they create a methodological foundation for the practical part in order to execute a complex comparative analysis of the three cases. The practical part also includes the description of the corpus for the analysis, a selection of newspaper articles, magazines or the internet news for the newer cases and commentary why these were chosen. The practical part is divided into five main parts - Presentation of the source materials (2.1), one for each case (2.2 - 2.4) and a comparative analysis (2.5). Each subpart, focused on the specific case, will be dedicated to analyze and describe the material in order to lay the foundation for the final comparative analysis of all three cases. Each case will be briefly introduced and the most important facts will be presented to the reader. Followingly the analysis is executed as described in the theoretical part. The most important and relevant press articles are listed and analyzed as a corpus. The practical part also includes frequency analysis of the noun used to describe the killer and the victim in all the analyzed cases. In the final comparative analysis, the analyzed results will be compared and the fundamental questions of the thesis will be answered and elaborated into final statements.
8 This topic has not been analyzed in a complex comparative analysis, the main focus of the academical works were separate cases and their portrayal in media, eg. L. Perry Curtis, Jr., Jack the Ripper and the London Press, New Haven Ct. and London, Yale University Press, 2001 or Feebee M. Qubtan, MEDIA ATTENTION TOWARDS SERIAL KILLERS AND MASS MURDERERS AND ITS IMPACT TOWARDS ATTITUDES ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, The university of Texas, 2013. Most of the works or essays detaily described the medial coverage and medial picture of a specific killer, but none of them formed a comparison or described the change in narrative of the serial killers through years. These partial resources were studied in order to help with the aim of the thesis and the analysis itself. As the main source, the contemporary material is used, mostly original newspaper articles from the according era and location of the press that was interested in the serial killer. The articles were mostly taken from archives and are presented in original, unmodified state, without any commentary or synchronic reference. The specifics of used, contemptuous language are also analyzed and the examples vocabulary connected with the serial killers are specified and furthermore analyzed, commented and compared.
9 1. Theoretical part
1.1 Language of the news
Language means used in the newspapers fulfill a specific function of the language itself. Their aim is not only to inform the reader, but also to relay another type of information - the stance of the newspaper, created together by many people and corresponding accordingly to the stance of the society towards the reported event. As most of the interhuman communication can be also viewed as a manipulation (on a certain level) the newspaper language is not an exception. Various reporting media can use different language in order to describe the same situation, but with a different communicative outcome for the reader. The media can differ in choice of vocabulary, focus of the report, graphic material, level of emotional colourness, level of detail, level of unbiased reporting, position in the newspaper themselves or their direct commentary and addressing the public directly. All of these choices affect the reader and contribute to the shift of the opinion of the reader towards the intended angle of view. The opinions on the exact definition of the function of journalism differ. The traditional concept of journalism addresses three functions of journalism (Richardson 6-9): 1) To inform the reader in a partly entertaining manner. The informative part of the function of journalism is undisputable, but the raw, unaddressed information can not be labelled as journalism. The reporter needs to filter, summarize, address and interpret the data accordingly in order to inform the reader properly. The level of simplification can vary according to the target audience of the media, eg. a specialized newspaper aiming at the doctors will tend to use more professional language from the given field than the general newspapers. The entertaining part of the journalism does not only involve humor, but also self education and self-information. The attractiveness of the news can be addressed through media values, which are furthermore described in 1.2. 2) To designate the views of the powerful The mainstream media can be viewed as a tool of the ruling class and they were often used and controlled by such parties. The media have an auto-evaluation function and their aim is not to publish in the direct opposite of the social standard of given settings
10 in time and place. Although media can refer to certain events as “shocking” or “surprising”, the reader is hardly surprised by e.g. affairs of celebrities or by military disturbances in the Middle East. The certain level of objectivity is required as the state-driven media, reporting in non-objective manner, are considered as propaganda, thus failing the accountability of the newspaper reporting. 3) Business The motivation of the newspaper and other reporting media is also driven by the economical needs of the publisher. The income of the media is realized through many means (Advertisement etc.), but all of these require the media to reach as many people as possible. This affects the choice of the articles and the way of addressing the audience and the whole concept of the newspapers, leading to a certain level of simplification and tabloidization in order to attract the attention of the broader audience. John. E. Richardson in his book Analysing the newspapers (2007) assumes that “journalism exists to enable citizens to better understand their lives and their position in the world (8). This can be interpreted as a positive reaction towards the affirmative action of the news, which strengthens the moral position of the reader. Richardson claims, that there are limits in the concept of journalism - the journalism is not mainly entertainment (which lacks the informative part) nor it is a tool for the ruling class to process its message. Good journalism should partly include all of it - it should inform, it should draw the reader's attention to the problem, creating need for the internal reflection or evaluation (This is good x This is bad) and it should include a social aspect or commentary, direct or indirect. Van Dijk closely connects news and ideology, stating that news structure analysis shows us where and how social values or ideologies preferably manifest themselves in news reports (195)), meaning that certain level of ideological commentary is included in the news. The newspaper reporting can be traditionally divided into two main categories, which should be considered when addressing style - “broadsheets” and “tabloids”. The term “broadsheets” originates from the size of the published newspaper, but the term refers these days to the nature of reporting style. Broadsheets are viewed as a serious, non bulvar reporting medium which focuses on objective, unbiased information and their main focus is non-bulvar news as financial reporting, politics and other serious issues, which resonates with the target audience. Although through tabloidization the broadsheets and other serious media
11 started to include the less serious and important news, they still tend to present themselves as serious and trustworthy media. Thus even serious newspapers, for which objectivity and impartiality remain traditional values, necessarily include views and attitudes, although communicated to the readers less explicitly than in popular papers (Jančaříková, 18). The process of naming, reference, labeling and taking stances towards reported events, thus taking a moral stance towards the issue are still included even in the more serious newspaper. On the other spectrum of seriousness are the “tabloids” - the tabloid magazines or newspapers. These newspapers focus mostly on bulvar, discutable stories in order to shock the audience as much as possible although these stories and their presentation can suffer from serious quality flaws. It is not uncommon that they can be partially or utterly fabricated - the famous story “Gordon Ramsay Sex Dwarf Eaten by a Badger”, published in The Sunday Sport on 18.9.2011, which provides no factual evidence, but it was addressed by other tabloid media (Daily Mail) as a fact. Similar topics about aliens, conspiratorial theories and shockingly presented lifestyles of celebrities do not raise any criticism and they are not taken as a serious reporting despite their fabricated nature. The serial killers and their murderers are an important topic and they are usually addressed by media from both sides of the seriousness scale - both tabloids and broadsides (for more, see chapter 2.1). Naturally the language and communicative means used to describe the events differ but both styles are reporting the same event and both refer to the same individuals, who are involved in the case. Of course, the chosen language, preferred choice of the mentioned details and the concept of articles differ according to the presumed target audience. Tabloids usually target lower educated audience, using more common language, colloquial terms or sometimes even interjections in headlines. As Jewkes states, “The print media have been accused of ‘dumbing down’ their news coverage and measuring newsworthiness by the degree of amusement or revulsion a story provokes in the audience (60).” For the account of this thesis one of the most important parts of the language choice process in the news reporting is naming and reference process. The author is able to choose from different sets of words, which share the same ability to accurately describe the situation, but they have different meanings (Richardson 49). The choice of used vocabulary directly affects the reader's opinion towards the reported (in this thesis mostly the killer or the victim). The different choices by the author can share the same attribute of quality, ergo they are the truth, but the connotation of the chosen vocabulary can differentially affect the reader toward
12 the positive or the negative spectrum of the reader's opinion. There are many categories and characteristics that the author can accent by their addressing and naming them - eg. the perpetrator of the crime can be addressed by his name, age, profession, hobby, nationality or regionality, medical condition etc. Logically not all the categories can be provided and addressed by the author. The choosing of one category over the others excludes certain readers and includes the others, appealing on self-identification with the described individual. These referential strategies correspond with the media´s aim to affect the target audience. The news also tends to simplify the relayed message in order to be comprehensible for the target audience. One of the most important mechanisms in order to do so is dividing the society, which is mostly realized through the binary oppositions (See 1.5 Binary oppositions). This dividing of the reported society usually takes form at “good vs evil” oppositions, “us vs them”, “criminals vs citizens”. Binary oppositions are an effective reporting tool for crime reporting. The victim and the murderer form a complementary semantic pair, which clearly divides and reflects the stance toward the good and the evil. Jančaříková declares that binary oppositions in crime reporting “largely contribute to the polarization of public opinion.(16)”
One of the most distinctive characteristics of the newspaper reporting style are headlines and the choice of the used vocabulary. The newspaper reporting generally uses the “top-down principle” or “top down-strategy”, where the most important information is presented as soon as possible (Ungerer 95) so accordingly the most important information (Who did what to who) are presented in the lead of the article or in the headlines. Jewkes states that headlines “scream for our attention with stories about crime designed to shock, frighten, titillate and entertain” (3) as they are the first line of contact with the reader, urging him to buy the newspapers in order to read the details. Headlines have to contain clear succinct and if possible intriguing message to kindle the spark of the interest in the reader (Crystal, Davy 174). The structure of the headlines is also different from the rest of the text as it does not form the typical sentence structure, but the simplified and compressed information message is used in order to deliver the most important part of the message, but not the details that are in the following text, therefore headline language can be viewed as shocking, but rather ambigious. As the headlines are the first contact of the content with the reader, the naming and labeling process is realized here. There is generally not enough space in the headlines to provide all the viable information, so the author is forced to focus on the most
13 descriptive and impactful label in order to attract the reader's attention and to convey the most important information. The choice of naming and labeling in headlines is vital, as the victim can be described in many ways - the same victim can be labeled as “mother”, “prostitute”, “student” or “heroin addict”. The first naming which happens in the headlines sets the tone of the rest of the article towards the incriminated persons. Generally newspapers and other media support the process of victimisation and creating positive attitude and pitiful response towards the victim as - thanks to the binary oppositions - the opposite spectrum - the murderer - deserves negative attitude and condemnation of the public. The stance of the media towards the third involved party - the police force - is ambivalent and it depends on the current state of the case. The police are inseparable in the crime reporting as they represent the law and the functional system of the society. The media reflect the police activity and their results are heavily commented and in focus of the media. During the serial killer case crisis the police can be criticized for their inability to catch the killer, but on the other hand the public is heavily addressed to cooperate with the police and be as supportive as possible. The leader of the police force is usually described as a heroic figure as the conflict is often simplified by personalisation of the both sides of the case by the reporting media. This process can lead to the stress of the liable investigating officers as their inability to catch the culprit is heavily reported by the media
1.2 News values theory
The news values theory was presented by Johan Galtung and Mari Holmboe Ruge in their article THE STRUCTURE OF FOREIGN NEWS released in 1965. In the article twelve factors describing events are presented . Together they are used as a definition of ’newsworthiness’ - frequency, threshold, intensity, unambiguity, meaningfulness, consonance, unexpectedness, continuity, composition, reference to elite nations, reference to elite people, reference to persons and reference to something negative. The more values are fulfilled, the more likely the message is considered to be worthy to publish in the media in order to get the reader's attention and to affect him accordingly. Vice versa if the news report was published in the media we may presume that it fulfills certain news values, which can be addressed and analyzed. This theory can be naturally applied retrospectively as the criteria for the choice of the articles to publish in the papers do not change much over time. The taste of the reader
14 might slightly differ, but the core media values remain the same as they can be analyzed in the articles in the very similar manner, although the articles are 100 years apart. This theory requires the public accessibility of the newspaper, both from a financial and intellectual point of view - the newspapers need to be cheap, regularly printed and interesting for common citizens, not only for the higher part of society. This creates a demand for articles and requires an editing process of sorting the articles on publishable or non-publishable, unknowingly applying the media values theory and sorting the news reports accordingly. The news theory was modified and updated for criminal reporting - the news values of violence, sex, spectacle, graphic imagery or children are added and available for furthermore analysis (Jewkes 40), although these values can be included in Galtung and Ruge´s value of negativity. The serial killing reporting fulfills the values correspondingly as the serial murders are perpetrated in abnormal violent manner, which can be described as ritualistic. Many serial killers and their murders include a sexual subtext in a certain way, which corresponds with the added media value of sex. Together and combined, these values form a solid foundation for the news to be newsworthy and worth reporting. In order to create appealable, likeable and well sellable news, the journalists need to create articles that fulfill as many values as much as possible. The target audience and the focus of the media are also taken in account - the local tabloid which has mostly local audiences has different priority for individual medial values, but the system is similar. Different target audiences also respond differently to the use of certain style, chosen vocabulary and over-focusing on certain values. The serious mainstream media tend to report crime in distinctive style, avoiding exaggerated descriptions of socially unacceptable topics in the detail, which can be labelled as distasteful by the target audience (Richardson 112-113). This manner of description of the murders is acceptable in tabloid newspapers, where the aim is to shock the audience and graphic content and disturbing language is partly tolerated and expected by the audience. The tabloid language can be clearly distinguished from broadsides newspapers. As it is mentioned by Crystal and Davy, “Everything that happens to be printed in a newspaper or written by a journalist is not going to be linguistically homogeneous - nor there is any reason for expecting it to be so”(173). The newspaper editors are well aware of their target audience, so they should distribute the fulfillment of the individual news values accordingly so it can be presumed that serious press will be more informative and not as focused on negative, low-style and
15 shocking reporting as the tabloids, although the news values are fulfilled to the certain degree regardless of the style used - reporting serial killers will practically always incorporate news value of negativity or violence. We can identify the shift in the media value of celebrity or high status persona during the reporting of the case of the serial killer. The focus of the media and repeated reporting concentrated on the persona of the killer can change the social status, although negatively. One such example is Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper who, in 1981, was convicted of the murders of 13 women in the north of England. After two decades of confinement in a high-security hospital, he remains something of a media celebrity, with endless newspaper column inches and frequent television documentaries devoted to his crimes and his life since arrest. (Jewkes 50). This can be viewed as affirmative for the appealable nature of the negative news, as discussed in Part 1.3.
1.3 Appeal and likeability of the negative news
Bad news, crime reports, disaster coverage and other negative news are generally acknowledged to be more engaging for the audience that regular and positive news, for example a report about a murder will have more attention of the audience than the report about successful production of copper. According to the theory of the news values by Galtung and Ruge , negativity is one of the news values and serial killer news reports include and automatically fulfill more than one news value. As Curtis, Jr. states “Tales about crime and social unrest always appeal to respectable readers, regardless of their class, sex, ethnicity, or religious beliefs, because they live in a world of binary oppositions between good and evil” (51). This is natural to all of the readers, placing themselves into a virtual side of the victim as they identify themselves on the respectful, lawful side of the conflict. The readers are feeling automatically threatened by the news and being emotionally affected by the press. The situation repeats itself regularly - the press uses terms as “moral decline” and “disease of violence” to spread panic in the society, supporting the moral point of view of the readers (Curtis, Jr. 51). Also one of the common sub-messages, that the news tend to relay, is an impression, that anybody can be the victim, especially when the victim can be described as “innocent”, “law abiding citizen” or “a child”. The simplified message “The bad things happen not only to bad people, but also to the good
16 ones” is a direct attack on readers' self-conformity and feeling of safety as the target audience is presumed to self identify positively and self include into the better part of the society. As described in Part 1.5, the binary oppositions are created and used to convey the simplified message and address the reader accordingly, dividing the society in the demanded manner. Medial reports about serial killers include the value of threshold by exceeding the brutality of a regular murder. The threshold of readers callocity is exceeded. The news value of frequency is also relevant, both by being rare and by irregular repetitivity of the murder act. The serial killers reports are more similar to disaster reports, which enhance another news value of unexpectedness. The chance of identifying the abnormal psychological profile specific for the serial killer is really low and the murders are usually not expected to be generally committed by a serial killer. This is a big disadvantage for the police and investigation - usually a time delay occurs, until the separate murders are connected together. Audience identification category, the news value of meaningfulness is also included, due to the nature of the random system of targeting the victims by the killer. A serial killer in a given area means that everyone is a potential target. The cultural and geographical proximity creates a direct contact with the reader. The consonance medial value is fulfilled too. The similarity in the psychological profile and the similarities in behaviour provide medial consonance. The probability of existence of a pitiful, understandable or likeable serial killer are close to none. The value of continuity of the news is increased by every murder that is committed and reported. By the nature of the serial killers, the media emphasize the momentum of the repeated assaults to extend the value of continuity (Morton, Tillman, Gaines 7). One of the other important terms to be addressed is “moral panic”. It refers to public and political reactions to minority or marginalized individuals and groups who appear to be some kind of threat to consensual values and interests (Jewkes 64). Although the term “moral panic” is usually used to describe a conflict in the society with a certain group of usually young people or movement, the description and the effect can be also applied to the serial killers. The whole concept of a serial killer - an very dangerous individual, who is hard to catch and whose actions can be described and labelled as “horrible” - creates moral panic as the negativity and disgust exceeds the reporting of the “regular” killers. The individual serial killer breaches and disturbs many societal values and interests with a graduating tendency (a murder, a repeated murder, a repeated murder of a woman and on). The accentuated breach of
17 a social contract and social standard usually lead to moral panic, supported by the press message, that the killer is “amongst us”. It is not unusual that the media presume that the killer may belong to a distinctive social group which tends to excluded from the society and labelled as “an outsider” (The person, which by a definition, is different from us all and he is outside of all the society social groups) and then marked as deviant and therefore guilty (e.g. the Jews, the homosexual or the mentally ill). The cause of the creation of the moral panic are usually presumptions and polemics without reasonable factical foundation made by the news reports. The media tend to focus on crimes that have a big tendency to be solved in order to reinforce the reader´s belief, that “justice has been done” and to strengthen the reader´s identity and calming assurance that he is part of a civilized society, where the crime has been crime rightly and severely punished (Jančaříková 17-18). This simplification is described in 1.1 Language of the news, as people are likely to react positively to hearing that they are living in a society, where the killer has been caught and that they are safe as it corresponds with the medial image of their world and the narrative of justice. The short analysis of the medial news value will be included in all three separate cases and the shift in their narrative will be commented accordingly.
1.4 Definition of a serial killer
The definition, set by FBI in 2005 defines a serial killer as a person who commits murder of two or more persons during two or more events, which are separated by a “cool off period”. This can be confused by general public with a mass murder or a spree killer. The mass murderer commits murder of two or more people during one incident. This category incorporates terrorist attacks, cult suicide or genocide, realized by totalitarian regime. Active shooters, eg. Anders Behring Breivik or Ed Harris and Dylan Knebold, are also listed as mass murderers. A spree killer commits murder on two or more people during one or more events, which are connected and lack the ´cool off´ period. Cool down period is a term, describing the delay between two murders, during which the serial killer is emotionally satisfied and does not continue in violent acts and he returns to their regular life (Burgess 154).
18 According to Osborne and Salfati in their article “Re-Conceptualizing “Cooling-Off Periods” in Serial Homicide” the median of this period is 35 days, but it can last even close to a year, as in Sutcliffe´s case, which is described in Part 3 of this thesis (16). These cool off periods are the crucial part of the definition of the serial killers and the trait that makes them appealing for the press. The uncertainty of time of the following attack can be used to target the audience's emotions and to affect the reader's own sense of safety. The serial killers also share a similar psychological profile. Myers et al. state that there are two typical profiles of a serial killer: non-planning asocial culprit and planning non-social culprit (154). Non-planning culprits or disorganized killers are usually socially disadvantaged, they tend to live out of the society, alone. Most of them are from divorced families without the fatherly figure or the fatherly figure is dysfunctional, often alcoholic. They are unable to incorporate into society, they often have problems maintaining a functional job. Their murders are usually not planned and they are the result of the uncontrolled, violent behaviour. They are aware of their misbehaviour and usually suffer from depression or alcoholism after the murder. They also try to run away from the crime scene, changing their job and the way of living. They usually mutilate the body of the victim and they usually suffer from forms of sexual deviations. Among the most famous disorganized killers are Ed Gein or Jeffrey Dahmer. The other type of the serial killer is a planning non-social culprit or organized killer. These people tend to well plan and organize their wrong doing. They are intelligent, from functional families, they understand well the society and the way it works. They also manifest an inclination towards sociopathy. The mutilation and further handling of the victim's body is not driven by a sexual desire, but by methodical and logical steps. The behavior of organized victims can be pedant and systematic in order to avoid justice. They also display self control, proper planning and they target their victims methodically. They also monitor the media and they are fully aware of their medial footprint. They are also very self confident and they prove this by anonymous communication with the officials or with the media. All of the analyzed serial killers in this thesis can be mostly classified as organized killers as they made plans and preparations for their actions and did not act spontaneously (Morton, Tillman, Gaines 4).
19 From the semantic point of view, the term “Ripper” or “The Ripper” should be addressed as it is broadly used by the media, describing the serial killers. This term incorporates following characteristics :
1. The murderer is a man. In the case of the Whitechapel murders we presume the murderer´s gender from the autograph from the letters although he was never caught. There are theories which consider the existence of “Jill the Ripper”, but they have not been proven as valid. All the the murders, later caught by police, shared the same sex - Peter Sutcliffe, Joel Rifkin, Gordon Cummins, Charles Frederick Albright etc. 2. The victim of the serial killer usually works in a sex trade as a prostitute. As discussed later in the thesis the Ripper victims can be from any social structure, but the murderer is convinced, that the victim is connected to the sex industry. 3. The term “the Ripper” incorporates the serialness of the murders as well as the elusive nature of the killer, referring to the inability of the London Police to catch Jack the Ripper despite given maximal effort. 4. The murderer tends to mutilate or disfigure the bodies of the victims. The modus operandi of the separate killers differ, but mostly the mutilations incorporate sexual subtext (Morton, Tillman,Gaines 4). This is in contrast with the definition of the planning non-social culprit or organized killer as “the Ripper” shares traits from the both types of the serial killers. 5. The killer usually shows no remorse or pity about his victims and his behaviour. It is not uncommon that the killer is diagnosed with serious psychical illness, which can be addressed as the reason for the killer's behavior. Considering the medical conditions of the killer the shift of the guilt can be addressed. This leads to the process of demonisation of the murderer as he does not behave as a regular person, allowing the media to use more vivid language as naming and labeling the murderer as “Devil”, “Beast” or by using any other denotative terms.
20 1.5 Binary oppositions
Binary oppositions are tools of media used to simplify the facts and to delegate the message. Jewkes defines it as “the notion that the media (picking up on a human inclination to do the same) presents the world through polarized constructions of difference which are fixed and immutable – man/woman, black/white, good/evil, tragic victim/evil monster and so on.” (222). There are numerous binary oppositions involved in reporting of the serial killers, which are fixed for all the cases - killer/victim, good/evil, police/killer. In the analyzed cases, where serial killers tend to attack specific group of victims, more binary oppositions are included - man/woman and honorable victim/prostitute. One of the use of the binary oppositions is the polarization of the public opinion, usually to invoke sympathy towards the victim. It also incorporates the polarization and exclusion of the killer from the reputable society. “Stories involving crime and criminals are frequently presented within a context that emphasizes good versus evil, folk heroes and folk devils, black against white, guilty or innocent, ‘normal’ as opposed to ‘sick’, ‘deviant’ or ‘dangerous’” (Jewkes 45). The serial killers are viewed by the public with especially negative connotation, fulfilling the news value of negativity, so the polarisation “good vs evil” is obvious. The binary opposition theory faces complications, when two subjects with negative social status interact - the serial killer and the prostitute. We may presume that qualities, invocating positive reaction of the audience - “victim”, “woman”, “alone” - will be predominant, but also excluding qualities from “normal society” will be also included by the press in order to polarize the readers from the “regular” society (“us”) negatively towards the lower status citizens - “them”. The contrast nature of the binary opposition allows the reporters to support one side of the binary contrast and polarize the public opinion towards the support of the public norms of society, so the regular social values are strengthened and the other factor of the binary contrast is excluded and delimited from the social norms and standards which are being strengthened with the process. The simplification using the binary opposition has also a mutually exclusive function for the characteristics of the different spectrum of connotation, eg. parents cannot be viewed as a pedophile (Jewkes 45) and also a prostitute cannot be described as a mother or a murderer as a loving husband or father, regardless of the reality of the case.
21 The use of the contradictory meaning can be viewed as a reporting mistake, devalving the media values of the reports, eg. the correct way of reporting the culprit is by using negatively connotated words (“murder”, “deviant”, “psycho”, “drug addict”), not by the positively connotated words (“father”, “Christian”, “loving husband”). The serial killers can also be viewed as a stereotypical “villain”, so the vocabulary and narrative to describe these killers are chosen accordingly, the emotionally under coloured words are usual in order to fulfill the appropriate news values. The part or features of the killer, which can be described in a positive manner, are usually ignored or muted. It is not common to label them accordingly and maintain the labelled status through the whole reporting. There is one exception when it is appropriate to label the murderer positively - in order to create a contrast between positive denomination that can be omitted (eg. the murder is a child), thus actively muting the positive connotation of the reported. Jewkes describes this situation on the murder of James Bulgur, where the child murderers were described vividly as “monsters” or “Spawn of Satan” (58). Closely connected to the binary oppositions is a construction of person´s profile in the media.This can applied on the victim, where the positive connotation and sympathy are required as an aim of the report. As one of the most common victims of the serial killers, analyzed in this thesis, were prostitutes, who are viewed by society in a rather negative way, the emphatic conflict can arise . The social status and renown of the victim can also be medialy improved by focusing on the positively viewed role in the society, describing the victim as “daughter”, “mother” etc. The mutually exclusive function of the binary opposition is not universally applicable in these cases and its distortion can be found in the analyzed articles.
1.6 Formulation of the research questions
In this part, questions that the thesis will analyze and answer are furthermore defined. Answers for these questions for each case form foundation for the comparative analysis amongst the cases. The medial image of the serial killer is a broad question and narrowing of the topic and separating into subtopics is required.
22 In order to acknowledge or disconfirm the hypothesis the following subsidiary questions, split into different categories, will be answered and commented for the different cases and in the comparative analysis. The five main categories include the following:
1) The medial image of the murderer - how is he described? What specific language is used to invoke feelings in the reader? Is he described as a reasonably acting and calculating killer or is he demonized beyond objective scale? Do the reporters use emotional non-objective language? Are speculations being made?
2) The medial image of the victim - how well is it described? Do the reporters focus on the murder itself or do they describe the victim? What is the main communicative message? Do the news provoke a sympathetic interest in the victim or do they try to subliminally pass another message? Are the reports interested in cultural and social background of the victim? Do they connect previous information with the murder? Is the victim somehow blamed for being murdered?
3) Reporters and police - how do they cooperate? What is the medial image of the investigating policemen? Do the reporters use official information from the official spokesman or are they speculating upon rumors? Do the reporters cooperate with the police or can the news be contra-productive for the police? Are the police using the newspaper as a media to address the local community?
4) Reporters and the local community - how do they cooperate? Is the local community interviewed and questioned? Do the reporters value the opinion plurality of the community or is it one sided? If is, which voices and opinions are being passed by into the news? What is the main message that the reporters want to spread and what is the delivered message to the community itself? Are these the same? Is there any aftermath? Do the reports address security in the local community? Do they convey any warning or can their messages be interpreted to cause panic? The short analysis of the news values is attached, addressing the most fulfilled news values, which were the reason, why media were so successful in reporting on serial killers. The values are addressed and evaluated according to each case. Their fulfillment is put into the
23 perspective of contemporary media.
5) The concept of the news article itself - what is its position in the papers? Is it on the first page? How much space does it occupy? How big and important are the headlines compared to the rest of the newspaper?Are there any photos or illustrations connected with the article? What is the nature of the additional materials? What are they showing to the reader and what is the message relayed? Do they contain violent or other disturbing imagery?What is the overall message from the complete article?
The thesis will answer and analyse these questions. There are three main possible outcomes of the comparative analysis regarding the hypothesis :
1. The message and the aim of the reports hasn't changed in last 100 years. The structure of the news report stays the same. The tabloid reports are trying to shock the reader and their aim is to include as much negative news as possible in order to gain publicity and sales at the expense of objectivity and well-thought out aftermath and impact of the article to the public.
2. The message of the reports has changed and the quality of reportings has improved. Analyzed media provide objective information, which is valuable to the reader. They inform objectively, the medial image of the murderer is not edited or narratively tinted. The newspapers do not try to scandalize the event and they approach the topic in order to inform and to remain respectful to the victims, irrespective of their social status or work. The reports use official sources of information, they do not create their own stories and one of the aims of the reports is raising general awareness and minimizing widespread panic.
3. The message of the reports has changed and the quality of reportings has degraded. Although the reports of the serial killers are headliners, their aim is mainly to shock the reader and to sell the product. The information value is suppressed and the reporters tend to use emotionally biased vocabulary. The murderer is described very vividly, using appropriate, objective language. The role of the victim is minimalized
24 and the guilt is partly passed onto the victim itself. The social status or their source of income (e.g prostitution), although illegal, is emphasized and repeatedly mentioned.
25 2. Practical part
2. 1.1 Resources for the analysis
The contemporary press articles from newspapers were required to provide adequate data and language material for the analysis. The British Newspaper Archive served as a main resource of the contemporary material, although it was not able to provide the full coverage of the contemporary press. Important and reported newspapers that affected the cases and broadly contributed to the medial image of of the serials killers as The Star magazine were retrieved in the form of transcription from the internet pages. Supportive materials, eg. Peter Sutcliffe´s testimony at the trial, were also retrieved as transcription online.
In all three analyzed cases, the following requirements were vital for their inclusion into the corpus :
1) Regionality The analyzed materials were taken from the close proximity of the murderer´s active area. This criterion was important as the newspapers addressed locals as the target audience, fulfilling the most of the available medial values of cultural proximity and regionality. The language used and the descriptive vocabulary used to describe the happenings to the local citizens is different and more vivid than language used in reporting of the incidents in other countries or countries.
2) Temporal proximity The analyzed materials were released closely after the murder, after the murderer was arrested or after the trial with the murderer. The articles closer to the event reflect the emotions of the community and the reporters as well as manipulative aims. The articles written during the cool down period are usually informative and brief and they are not as interesting as fresh, shocking news for the reader.. The medial value of unexpectedness is fulfilled by the articles. Readers are not able to presume when and where the killer would strike again and their insecurity is used to draw their attention.
26 3) Impact of the newspapers The chosen materials for the analysis were mostly chosen from the local mainstream media of given time period. The mainstream media or the main newspaper in the area provide the widest reach and the broadest target audience. The mainstream media also represent the most resonating ideas and views on the problematics. The competition of the other topic is also higher in the main media than in small local newspaper and thus the serial killer articles are utilized to have the biggest impact possible. The articles, that were design to attract and affect the reader as much as possible also commonly use additional material like photos or commentaires.
All the analyzed materials are cited in Appendix 2 - The Corpus and they are divided by case and by the medium of the report - newspaper article or internet article. In the thesis the abbreviations are used as a reference to the analyzed materials (JR for Jack the Ripper, YR for Yorkshire Ripper and SS for Suffolk Strangler) accordingly. One of the other factors to be considered is availability of the articles and resources. The British Newspaper archive does not provide complete range of all the newspapers released thus the range for the choice was limited. The choice of the specific articles was due to the reasons and restrictions listed above. Resources reporting Jack the Ripper case differed from the two other cases as the media and news reporting was in the stage of the development and the subculture of “news reporting” was evolving. But as mentioned in 1.2 News Values theory, the news value theory can be applied to these articles as well. The choice of the analyzed newspaper in Jack the Ripper case was made in order to include both the paper that can be labeled as “tabloid” and as well as the paper which can be labeled as “broadsheets”. Following newspaper were selected : The Star, The Illustrated Police News and The Globe for the tabloid spectrum of the press and Daily Telegraph & Courier, St James's Gazette, Morning Post, Daily News and Pall Mall Gazette for the other. As the topic of the serial killer was popular, the size and position of the reports was appropriate. Articles reporting Peter Sutcliffe were taken from from Liverpool Echo, Newcastle Evening Chronicle and Daily Mirror as tabloid spectrum and Newcastle Journal and Belfast Telegraph as the other, using the same criteria as described. Steve Wright´s case is described by The Evening Herald as a press medium, the other resources were taken from online media (The Guardian, Telegraph and BBC) as no other scanned newspaper were available in the archive.
27 An exemplary article of the analyzed material is also attached in Appendix 3, although due to the size and quality of the articles it is not possible to attach the whole corpus into the Appendix 3.
2.1.2 Methodology of the analysis
The descriptive commentary on the three cases is divided into subparts, which describe the separate parts as commented in 1.6. The descriptive analysis focuses on connotatively coloured vocabulary. The use of mentioned vocabulary is important as it serves as a marker of the stance of the analyzed newspaper towards the reported topics. The thesis analyzes and describes how the specific newspapers described the perpetrator, the victim and the surroundings (including the police) and what was the general message relayed to the public. The representative examples from the news are described and addressed as well as the whole concept of the articles themselves. The aim of these parts is to set the factual foundation for the comparison. The analysis works with the raw text, so only fractions and parts of the text are addressed and evaluated as “flag words” and therefore commented in the descriptive part. The frequential analysis in 2.5.1 focuses on the most common words used to describe the killer and the victim. The most common words are counted and the uncommon ones are sorted according to their connotation and the examples are mentioned in the description of the analysis. The uncommon words are sorted into two categories : negative connotation and positive connotation. The criterion for the negative connotation category was the aim of the reporter to address the object in a particular way to evocate feeling and stances in the reader. The choice of vocabulary corresponds with the binary oppositions theory as described in 1.5, the vocabulary should create negative feelings toward the murderer, sympathy and pitiness towards the victim and it should abide to cooperation with the official forces (eg. police or other investigation). The frequential analysis will address the amount of adequate vocabulary and express the preferential use of those in percentage as the absolute numbers are not suitable for such a statement, due to the different amount and style of the analyzed texts. The findings are subsequently commented and addressed. The outcome of the frequential analysis is incorporated in commentaries of the medial images of the corresponding characters (2.5.2 - 2.5.5).
28
2.2 - The Whitechapel murders / “Jack the Ripper” case
The case of Jack the Ripper is the most known serial murderer case. The culprit has not been detected and caught and even contemporaneous detective science is unable to answer many questions.The press had an important role in the case as it helped to spread panic and misinformation.
Part 2.2.1 A brief history of the case
The first victim, which is credited to an unknown serial killer, was Mary Ann Nicols. Her body was discovered by a car man at 3:40 AM 31st August 1888. The cause of the death was laceration of the throat and few stabs in the abdomen. The brutality of the murder was one of the causes of the rumors that had started to spread. The second victim, Annie Chapman, was found around 6.00 AM by a market porter John Davis on 8th September 1888. The body was described by a police surgeon Dr George Bagster Phillips as “terribly mutilated” (The Times, 14 September 1888, quoted in Evans and Skinner, The Ultimate Jack the Ripper Sourcebook, pp. 85–88). The case of death was similar as in a previous case - a slit throat. According to the police records, the murderer used a sharp knife and the cut resembled the similarities of use of a scalpel or leather-working equipment. Her abdomen was open, she was disembowelled and a part of organs were missing. This murder was also hugely reported by the press, mostly tabloids. The posters and flyers, describing a “ghastly murder” and “dreadful mutilation” were handed with the paper. The Star magazine even spreaded the gossip and nickname of the murderer - “The Leather Apron”. This lead to the arrest of John Pizer, a Polish Jew, who worked as a bootmaker. From today´s point of view, we can declare, that Pizer´s arrest was supported by a level of anti-semitism rather than factual evidence. The impact of the media in this point is recognizable. On the 27th September 1888, Central News Agency of London received a letter, which was labeled “Dear Boss” in lieu of the starting words. The letter was first discarded as another possible hoax, but later it gained validity by describing the following murder. The letter was written with the red ink and it addressed and mocked the police, which is typical for planning serial murderers. Also the letter was the first time ever, where the term “Jack the Ripper” had appeared.
29
The next victim, Elizabeth Stride, was found on 30th September 1888 with a slit throat. The body was not mutilated. In the same night, the second victim was also killed - Catherine Eddowes. Her body was horribly mutilated, including opening abdomen, disembowelment and mutilation of the eyes and the face, her kidney was missing. These murders happened during ongoing atmosphere of panic and the press did not lower the anxiety and paranoia in the londonian society. Another letter was received, labelled as “From Hell". The letter was addressed to George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee. The handwriting was different, also the signature was absent. This letter was sent in a box, which also contained a small piece of kidney, presumably from the body of Catherine Eddowes. The factual evidence could not be, regarding the technologies of the 19th century, solid and the kidney could nt be personally identified. There were also other letters of smaller significance, most of them were discarded as hoaxes. The last victim, ascribabled to Jack the Ripper, was Mary Jane Kelly. Her body was discovered on the 9th November 1888 by a landlord´s assistant in her rented room. She was mutilated beyond recognition and according to the pathologist, the murderer required around 2 hours for finishing the process. The similarity with the previous victims was unimpugnable. All five victims, generally known as “canonical five” shared same modus operandi - the murder was executed by slitting the throat and subsequent mutilation of the body. All five victims were prostitutes or lonely women, making somehow through life. The case of Jack the Ripper had asked many questions, which could not be answered. Criminologists are not sure if there was only one murderer and if the medial portrayal of the murderer could not lead to “copycat” killers. Also the choice of the victims is questioned - did he target prostitutes because of their profession or were the women chosen because of being an “easy target”?
2.2.2 Medial image of the murderer
Analyzed materials JR1-JR12 as listed in the theoretical part due to their stylistic nature of the paper, do not focus on the murderer. Pall Mall Gazette refers to the killer as “an
30 assassin” or “a slayer, …., who meant murder and nothing else but murder” (JR4, p. 7). The rest of the resources shifts the focus to other elements. Illustrated Police News has a major front page illustration, a collage created by artists. The dominant of the page is a grim looking man in a bowler hat, surrounded by many illustration of the case evidence - both letters, a knife and speculated subjects (doctor´s brown bag) are presented as a fact. Also the names and faces of the witnesses are portrayed. The Star magazine, which was later accused of deliberately creating facts and description uses more vivid language in order to press the atmosphere and manipulate the public. The Star uses phrases “the terror of London” and “ghastly butchery”. “epileptical outbreak of homicidal maniac”. There are a few possible descriptions of the wanted subject. Due to the various witnesses and their uncertainties, the final portrait of the suspected murderer had never been created. The Morning Post describes a “..man between 40 and 50 in a dark coat. He had a shabby genteel look, salt and pepper trousers, …, and a dark coat" (JR5). This generic description is enhanced with description of “..eyes wild as hawk´s" (JR5). The same newspaper in the same article also describes “a mysterious being bearing the name the Leather Apron”, giving the different description of a potential killer. The description is vividly detailed, describing even the eyes and lips of the suspect - “His lips are usually parted in a grin, which is not only not reassuring, but excessively repellent" (JR5). These newspaper reports were released the same day as John Pizer was arrested. Pall Mall Gazette printed the interview with Mrs Fiddymont, giving her description of an unusual stranger, “a man whose rough appearance frightened her. He had on a brown stiff hat, a dark coat and no waistcoat", also “there were blood spots on the back of his right hand" The most of the analyzed resources bring only a little viable information about the killer. According to the profile of the press the nature of the information is changed and miscommunicated. The tabloid newspaper (The Star ) describes the killer in fictional way in order to provoke fear. The killer is portrayed as an evil, grim and dark looking person that you can spot on the street just by the looks. Serious newspapers reported the interview by possible witnesses, a few of them added illustrations. Due to the end of the case, the newspaper factually brought zero facts and information about the killer. The serial killer known as “Jack the Ripper” was never caught and there is
31 literally zero information about his motives, whereabouts and life. All the theories that were created by police, newspaper reporters can be considered as fictional.
2.2.3 Medial portrait of the victim
Due to the absence of the information about the killer, the victim was the most exposed person in the analyzed materials. All the newspapers bring as much information as possible about the victims. Pall Mall Gazette informs the readers about the family of Annie Chapman, even her husband and his profession were mentioned at the beginning of the article after the name of the victim - “Annie Chapman, whose husband was a veterinary surgeon at Windsor" (JR4). The sub-headlines ``The sad story of the victim” also create sympathy and sorry feelings for the victim. Even the last known words are used as a subtitle to affect the reader's emotion. There are no signs of blaming the victim, also she is not labeled as a prostitute. The Morning Post only informs us about her appearance and a few details from her life (“..her murdered friend was apparently a sober, steady-going sort of a woman, and one who seldom took any drink") (JR5), which were not based on truth. St James's Gazette described the other victim- Catherine Eddowes - as “a generally good character and was at all events not a member of unhappy class, which the other victims have been selected" (JR2), stating that Eddowes did not share the similar background as the other victims. The paper also mentions briefly about the history of Catherine Eddowes, describing her children and abandonment by her husband. The way of the description leads to a pitiful, unlucky person, who did nothing wrong in her life. Similar description appears in The Daily Telegraph, describing her as “the character of having been a decent woman, doing work whenever she could get it" (JR1). Even The Star newspaper support the image of a decent woman.
In all the analyzed materials, the main source of the information were interviews with locals, acquaintances, landlords and other citizens, not any sort of official police data or interviewed officials. Most of the papers focus on the crime scene and on the state of the body. The statement and detailed description by the coroner appeared in variable resources - The Globe (JR5), London Evening Standard (JR7), The Morning post (JR5) and London Daily News vividly describe the scene and the mutilation caused on the victim. As stated in JR9 “I had no
32 idea of the fearful abdominal wounds…” or “I have seen many horrible cases, but never such a brutal attack as this one", the personal opinion and commentary of the coroner is also added in order to create an image of a brutal lunatic, whose terrible actions shock even the experienced police officer. Although this was the truth, the professional image of the police was not maintained which helped panic to spread. There were also illustrations, portraying the victims, usually in the magazine of Police News or Illustrated Police News. These illustrations were made by engraving, so their accuracy was insufficient. The portraits resembled more caricatures, especially portraying the East end citizens and potential criminal suspects. The illustrations of the victim´s state or mutilation were not portrayed, thought sketches and photographs of the crime scene existed. In all analyzed resources, there are practically no illustrations, only Pall Mall Gazette features a small sketch of “The scene of murder”, which is a plane and empty backyard (JR4). Documentary material, including photographs, from the place of the murder exist, but the photographs were never released in contemporary press due to the violent and disturbing imagery of the mutilated bodies. The medial image of the victims in the Jack the Ripper case is detailed, considering the possibilities of the investigative press of the 19th century. The analyzed media try to describe the victim as human as possible, not stating any moral judgemental conclusion. The prostitution and the social sphere of the most victims is mentioned not directly or briefly. The victims are not objectified or labeled as responsible for the events. Taking social structure of the East End in account, the medial message of analyzed media can be described as a “in a wrong time at a wrong place”. The only message, which can be labelled as inappropriate are detailed description of the mutilation of victims.
2.2.4 Medial image of the police
The medial image of the police has changed during the whole Jack the Ripper incident. Police were heavily criticized for not being able to provide safety or locating the suspect, not even collecting any sample of clues, witnesses or evidence. Letters from the unknown murderer and their publication in the press did not improve the medial situation either. Police was described and portrayed as blind and helpless. Charles Warren, the head of the Metropolitan Police, was under constant press from the side of the newspaper.
33 The publication of the letter “Dear Boss…”, which was received by Central News Agency can be viewed as opening the challenge for the police. The letter and it's content was published by numerous newspaper, eg. The Daily Telegraph (JR1) or Illustrated Police News (JR11). We can presume that this move was predicted by the killer, therefore the letters were sent to the newspaper or Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, not directly to the police. By publishing the letters, the press mediated the murderer´s public challenge and ashamed the police. In the analyzed newspapers, police practically do not figure. The role of the policeman in the text is usually reactive and passive. In the Illustrated Police News, only two images out of seven portray the policemen at work - one is asking questions to lodgers, who are picturesquely caricatured and the second one portrays a detective arresting the suspect. One of the most aggressive was The Star magazine, claiming “It's a War on Warren with a Vengeance. or “ The police did nothing. They lost the bloodhounds at the moment when they wanted them" (JR11). The Illustrated Police news presented police detectives as sleeping fat old people, while outside the murder is committed (“THE LONDON MURDER SCARE”, The Illustrated Police, 3 November 1888 , London, p.1) and The Punch, popular caricatures tabloid, presented policemen as being blinded by a bag. Many speculations, theories or hoaxes, created by the newspaper, did not help the police in their investigation either. One case to mention is the panic around “The Leather Apron”, which was spread by the papers. The amount of the information, conveyed and enlarged by the reporters, slowed and disorganized police work. We can presume that the press was not helping the murderer or acting in his favour, but it was acting by economic motivation. In order to achieve higher sales the objectivity and quality of the news was deteoritated. Signs of cooperation between Metropolitan Police and the newspapers are hard to find in the analyzed materials, with the exception of the statements of the coroner and description of the victim's mutilation. As the murderer had not been caught, there was no possibility to improve the reputation and credibility of the police and the medial image of the police in this case remained negative. During the Whitechapel murders the medial image of the police was negative. The main media message was focused on the inability of the police and it's leaders to stop or catch the murderer. Newspaper reporters did not cooperate with the officials, spreading panic
34 among the citizens and publishing unverified or made-up information, which could lead to the misinformation and complications with the proper police work. There was no trust or cooperation between media and Metropolitan Police in the analyzed materials.
2.2.5 Media and the community
The East End community was the main source of information both for the press and for the Metropolitan Police. The operational doctrine of the police didn't take witness safety and disclosure into account. All the analyzed materials contain dismissals of the witnesses or other citizens, connected to the crime - bartenders, random walkers, family members of the deceased and other. These citizens are displayed as a source of reliable information, connected to the case. Pall Mall Gazette provides detailed information from Timothy Donovan, deputy at the lodging house, sister of Annie Chapman and Mrs. Fiddymont, wife of an owner of a pub. All these persons provide detailed information about the victim and their opinion about the killer and the information are presented without any criticism or commentary, signaling their quality (JR4). St James Gazette shares the opinion of the sister of the deceased and of the deputy of the lodging house Frederick Wilkinson that not only have identified the body, but also discuss the history of the victim and transfer their opinion to the news, as mentioned before (JR2). The Morning Post imprints testimony of “John Davis, who was the first to make the discovery" (JR5), implying the exclusivity of the witness, supporting his testimony. There are three more descriptions (Mrs. Fiddlymont, Mrs. Chapwell and Joseph Taylor) providing their point of view of the incident or their knowledge of the victim. One manipulative technique can be found in the article - “Reference is made to a mysterious being bearing the name of The Leather Apron"(JR5), where the speaker or the witness is not stated or cited. The reporter was able to make this statement without any source or valid information, supporting the panic and the image of a vicious, mysterious killer archetype. The Globe uses a similar practise. In the article “The Whitechapel Murders - Important Medical Evidence” is the first person mentioned Eliza Cooper, a hawker (JR6). The article follows by transcribing the dialogue between a coroner and a witness, which are not connected to Eliza Cooper. The formal and official dialogue between the coroner and the witness are followed by another report based on an interview with a citizen. Elizabeth Stanley
35 states that she had never seen the victim before the event and she continues to provide a vague description about a suspect, which she had seen the victim with. Another witness was Edward Stanley, an old bricklayers labourer. His dialogue with the Coroner brings no new information of any kind. The article is composed predominantly of the interview with people from the local community, the article is misleading. The important medical evidence about the serial killer is not in the article, only a few minor details and suspicions are listed. A different way of communication with the community was selected by The Star magazine, which repeatedly addressed the community, criticising the police work and creating more stress and panic in the community. Their column “What we think…” directly attacks police : “Again he has got away clear; and again the police, with wonderful frankness, confess that they have not a clue" (JR11) or “ The police, of course, are helpless. We expect nothing of them. The metropolitan force is rotten to the core, and it is a mildly farcical comment on the hopeless unfitness of Sir CHARLES WARREN" (JR11). These messages are not supported by any means by the community, which has not been asked for an opinion or there was no reassurance or de-escalating the panic. The Star viewed the community only as the recipient of the negative messages they conveyed. Also there was a pressure on the community to renew the illegalisation of the prostitution, which was not illegal at the time of the murders. (Curtis, p.45). The general appeal to the community through the newspaper is missing in all of the analyzed materials. There is no advice, no messages or recommended behavior in order to prevent any following murder attempts. There were posters and witnesses, providing general description of an archetypical stranger, but the effectiveness of their precautions is doubtful and it probably let to the increasement of the panic and paranoia through the community. The role of the community in the analyzed newspaper is passive. It serves as a provider of information and interviews about details, concerning and describing the victims, or possible suspects. The community acts primarily as a source of information, which is validated by repeatance by several asked citizens. There is no coordination or appealing on the community in the analyzed materials, the news mostly tend to spread and create panic by morbid and detailed description of medical displays and conveying general messages and descriptions, which can cause panic and paranoia among the community. The news values, through which the media address the reader´s population are broadly fulfilled. The frequency of the Whitechapel murders is practically on the daily basis
36 as well as it targets the locals. The Whitechapel murders were a premium topic during their duration and even during the follow-up period of investigations and theoretizing. The familiarity value was also incorporated in the analyzed resources - most of them quoted witnessesses and opinions, said by regular citizens of the East End, creating familiarity and a bond between the reader and the reported person, which was usually described as someone living in the same city, working a regular job. The analyzed materials targeted locals as the main readers, involving them directly by editorials and trying to shape the opinion of the public by blaming the police. There is no reason to dispute the negativity of all the newspaper articles. The topic of the serial killer provides practically no possibility of positive reporting. The murderer was never caught to be analyzed or interrogated, so his motives remain unclear. The press could not blame external factors or any theories that would ease and mitigate the brutality of the murderers, weren't published. The news reporting at the end of the 19th century was far from objective and the negative value of the news in the analyzed materials was extended usually by placing the negative news on the prime spots of the paper and using expressive language, vivid illustrations and other means of reporting. The news value of unambiguity is also broadly fulfilled, the message and the interpretation of the facts is clear and one sided, there are practically no deviations through the analyzed materials. The message about unusual brutality of the murders and danger of the killer resonates through the media and the media intended to describe the situation and the details as detailed as possible, reporting all available details in the most precise way possible. The value of conflict is clearly visible from all the analyzed articles, which describe the major conflict between law and criminality. A serial murder case as significant as Jack the Ripper always causes shock to the law abiding society. The brutality and system of the murderer poses the very threat for the humane way of living and it antagonizes the general order and system of human society. The used vocabulary describes the killer as “a beast” or uses tems “bestiality” or “inhuman”, putting these two values into direct contrast. The reader is emotionally motivated to take stance and self-identify on the side of the humanity and he feels offended and threatened by the news up to the point of self-identification and self-determination as the part of the “human” society, meanwhile the killer is described in order to accent his inhumanity and bestiality.
37 During the process of the case, we can observe the shift in the description of the killer suspects. At the beginning of the case, the media focused on local and antisemitism and paranoia was included in “The Leather Apron” incident. As the case progressed and the police were unable to catch the killer, the message of the media shifted. The media marked many high ranking members of society. One of the suspects by the authors was also Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale or Sir John Williams, 1st Baronet, of the City of London. This shift of suspect to nobility fulfills the value of reference to elite persons, which was able to renew the negative concern about the case years after. There were a few cases of new theories and new suspects even in the 20th century.
2.2.6 Concept of the articles
The serial killer case of the West End murders was one of the most tracked cause in the late 80s of the 19th century in London and the size and proportion of the articles is according. The number of the newspapers which are accenting the importance of these reports is ascendant. Illustrated Police News covers roughly 50% of the first page with the illustrations connected to Whitechapel murders and also the article is second in the newspaper, just after the editorial on the prime spot (JR10). Pall Mall Gazette features a double-page about recent happenings in the case, printing articles on pages 7 and 8, which is directly in the middle of the paper, presumably the big double page. It also featured an engraved illustration of the scene of the murder. The importance of the article can be shown on the fact that the illustration is the only one in the whole newspaper, not taking the illustration for A.C.Doyle´s new story “The Mystery of Cloomber” into account. The advertisement for this story, which is at the end of the papers, was placed in the middle of the double page, which also shows the significance of the article (JR4). Daily Telegraph & Courier shows similar features - the article reporting the Whitechapel murders is in the middle of the papers (on p.5) and also showing engraved illustrations of the postcard and letter “Dear Boss". The size of the illustration is clearly correlated to the significance of the letter. The size of the headlines is significantly bigger than the rest of the headlines in the whole newspaper release (JR1). The other analyzed materials also include the reports about the murders placed on good and expensive positions of the newspapers. Although they do not contain illustrations,
38 the size and language used with the headlines clearly shows the intentions of the editors to focus the reader on these articles. The extreme case is The Star magazine, which communicated with the community directly and appealed to it through its regular “What do we think…” editorial. The language used is usually strong and oppressive, resonating negative messages into the community. Practically for the whole September and half of October The Star was constantly reminding the community the desperate situation with the serial killer. Headlines "THE MORAL OF THE MURDERS" (16. October) or “What the Public May Fairly Expect of Them" (1. October 1888) work clearly as an attention lure, catalyzing the blame and frustration of the community towards the police. Practically all of the analyzed newspapers treated the articles about the Whitechapel murders as exclusive material and they used all available tools to highlight it. The common methods in the analyzed material were front page placement, middle page placement, major headlines and engraved illustrations, which were not common in the rest of the releases. The danger was emphasized, not bagatelized and we can clearly identify the economical reason of using the Whitechapel murder case. The news values of all the analyzed articles are broadly fulfilled, addressing and aiming at the target society of regular citizens. The interest of the targeted community was enormous, as it could have been predicted with the news value theory. All the contemporaneous media were successful in keeping the topic active by grading of the information reported. According to modern news value theories, the articles were remarkably interesting and their success is not a surprise. The important news values are fulfilled and richly included in the analyzed materials, although the theory of the news values was not discovered in the end of the 19th century. It can be stated that successful news reporting integrated this theory regardless of being aware of it, making Jack the Ripper case one of the most famous serial killers of all time and archetypal persona.
2.3 - Peter Sutcliffe /”Yorkshire ripper” case 2.3.1 A brief history of the case
Peter Sutcliffe was an active serial killer from 1975 to 1980, although his criminal record shows that he had assaulted and attacked women before. He was convicted of killing 13 women with a similar profile. Although he is not as famous as similar American serial
39 killers, his long time of activity made a huge impact on atmosphere in Leeds and West Yorkshire. It can be stated, that he had problematic integration into society. Although he was raised by a christian family, he had problems finding a stable job, working for a certain time as a gravedigger, followed by a few unstable jobs (travelling salesman, truck driver). He managed to get a relationship with Sonia Szurma in 1967 and married her afterwards. Sonia was treated for schizophrenia and their marriage can be labeled as disfuncional, Sonia suffered from several miscarriages and wasn't able to have a baby. After the trial, Sonia remained married to him, living in the family house, finally getting divorced in 1994 (Keppel, Birnes. 31). Peter Sutcliffe was said to be fascinated by prostitutes, stalking them and developing a voyeurist obsession (Keppel, Birnes 32) Apart from this, he had minimal recorded problems or criminal records during his youth or growing up, no sexual incidents or harassment during youth wasn't mentioned or blamed for either. The first incident happened in 1969, when Peter Sutcliffe attacked a prostitute with a rock in a sock. The identity of the prostitute is unknown, the motive is said to have been a revenge for a money scam. The prostitute was hit with a rock to the cranium, but the rock subsequently flew away from the sock and the victim ran away. He was subsequently found by the police, as the prostitute marked the licence plate of his friend's Trevor Birdsail minivan, but no charges were pressed (Keppel, Birnes 32). The first attempted murder was committed on 4th July 1975. The victim was Anna Patricia Rogulskyj, a by-walker. Sutcliffe attacked her with a hammer and after she fell unconscious, he removed her clothes and slashed her a few times with a knife. His attack was interrupted by a by-walker, who believed him, that everything is in order. Sutcliff subsequently fled the crime scene and Rogulskyj was found and transferred to emergency, where she survived after 12 hours long operation and subsequent rehabilitation. Rogulskyj suffered severe psychological trauma and was unable to live a normal life for the rest of her life (Steel). The police weren't able to find the killer as the assault lacked any connection between the culprit and the victim. The second attack happened next month, when Sutcliffe attacked 46-years-old Olivia Smelt in Halifax. Smelt was also a by-goer, she was returning during the night from a party with a few friends. Sutcliffe used the same modus operandi as in the previous case - a hammer blow into the head and subsequent slashing with the knife, in this case of the lower back. As in the first case, he was not able to commit murder and he fled the scene. Smelt was
40 found a few moments later and she was transported into Halifax Infirmary, followed up by transport to Leeds hospital, where she fully recovered. Olivia Smelt also suffered from depression and paranoia, as well as her family was struck by this event. Again, there was no connection between the victim and the assailant. (Steel). The first victim of murder was Wilomena “Wilma” McCann. a well known prostitute (Keppel, Birnes 34). She was also a mother of four children, whom she left alone, when she went partying. Her body was found on 30th October 1975. She was hit with a hammer into head twice, naked her and subsequently stabbed for 15 times, while she was unconscious. The police were able to recover some DNA and they looked for a suspicious car, but without any success. The police started a massive action, interviewed around 7.500 people, but without any success (Steel). The second body was found 23th November 1975 in a garage. Joan Harrison was found in a garage. According to the coroner, she was hit in the head with a shoe heel and then violently kicked to death. After this murder, the murder was proven to have a blood group B. The police also knew that he had a gap between his front teeth, thanks to the bitemarks on the victim. This murder was not linked with previous cases due to slightly different modus operandi. The third murder of the Yorkshire ripper happened next year, after nearly half a year. Next victim, Emily Monica Jackson, was also a prostitute whose husband was responsible for her security. She was found mutilated in the forest on 20th January 1976. She was also hit by a hammer and then stabbed 51 times with a Phillips screwdriver. Sutcliffe left a food stamp of his boot on her thigh and his boots were identified. The police linked the cases together and realized that they have to deal with a serial killer. The police started to receive letters and notes, where people claimed to be the Yorkshire ripper. One of them was the start of the series of the letters, but it was dismissed as false. Next victim was Marcella Claxton, a 20 years old prostitute. She was coming home from party at approximately 4 AM on 9 May 1976. She got into a car with him and later on they stopped and after a while he assaulted her with a hammer. He knocked her unconscious, but he did not continue the attack as usual. She survived the attack and she managed to crawl into a telephone box, calling for help. She also recovered physically, but suffered from severe depressions and psychosis for many years. She was one of the witnesses during the trial. Although the modus operandi was similar, the crime was treated as a separate assault and
41 wasn't officially linked to the Ripper case at the beginning (Keppel, Birnes 35). The activity started to become hectic even between the prostitutes and fear, which was supported by newspapers, started to spread. The police were unable to make a serious move although having many clues, which sadly were not linked together. Irene Richardson was next victim. On 5th February 1977, Sutcliffe followed the same modus operandi. Richardson was also a prostitute and an easy target. She was attacked in the same way - with a hammer into the cranium and then stabbed. The only clue which was left behind, were tyre tracks. The police had to manually check over 10.000 cars, which was literally “looking for needle in a haysack” (Steele). The profile of the murderer was becoming detailed, but with no real chance of catching Sutcliffe. Next victim followed after a few months, on 23th April 1977. Patricia “Tina” Atkinson was also a prostitute and she was murdered in her flat in the same manner as the rest of the victims. It was late in night and she was drunk, as other victims. The only clue left was the footprint of the boot, the same as in Jackson´s case and the police instantly connected the murders, sadly with no real outcome. The medial hysteria was starting and the other victim caused wide medial coverage. Jayne MacDonald was out of the system of the victim - she was 16 years old and she was a student and she didn't have a lower social status as the previous victims. She was killed and hidden near the playground in Leeds. During his confession, Sutcliff admitted that he mistook the girl for a prostitute and that he was shocked by the identity of the victim. “The next one I did I still feel terrible about, it was the young girl JAYNE McDONALD. I read recently about her father dying of a broken heart and it brought it all back to me. I realised what sort of a monster I had become" said Sutcliffe in his confession statement in 1981. After the murder, police again tried hard to find the killer, house searches, suspect checking and other processes. The next attack was shortly after, on 9th July 1977. Sutcliffe picked up Maureen Long, who was only waiting for the bus. He offered her a lift and drove her to Bowling Black Lane, where he hit her with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times. She was left to die. Sutcliffe´s car was seen by a nightwatchman, which later identified the vehicle as white Ford Cortina Mark II, and Maureen survived. She helped the police by providing the description of an assailant, sadly it was again quite vague, due to the suffered shock. The police started a massive search. According to Steele, “The investigation into the attack on Maureen Long would involve 304 officers working full-time. They interviewed 175,000 people, took 12,500
42 statements and checked 10,000 vehicles", which was a huge task without computers. Although the police had the description and car description, they still weren't able to trace Peter Sutcliffe. The police had one suspect, a taxi driver Terry Hawkshaw, but it was the false lead. In the meantime Peter Sutcliffe moved and sold his old car, which also affected the police chase. On the 1st October 1976, Jean Bernardette, a prostitute, was killed by Sutcliffe near Southern Cemetery, Manchester near his car. Sutcliffe then killed the body near the graveyard in undergrowth. As he became nervous about the possible evidence, he returned later to the place of the morder and subsequently mutilated the remains of the victim. The identity of the body was unrecognizable and was later on identified by using the fingerprints. The fingerprints were also present on a five pound note that Sutcliffe gave to Bernadette. Her handbag was found around 100 metres from the body (Steele). The identified banknote started a huge operation, involving 5000 interviews from the area, that the banknotes were released. Peter Sutcliffe was one of the interviewed, but there was no reason for any suspicion. Next assault happened on 14th December, when Marilyn Moore was attacked by Sutcliffe in his car. She was hit by a hammer in the head a few times, but as she was screaming and the barking of a dog forced Sutcliff to stop the attack and leave the scene. She was left unconscious and she managed to receive help and get to the ambulance. Moore provided police with further description of the killer and his car, which was confirmed to belong to the Ripper by the tyre marks check. Sadly this evidence did not provide enough clues to the success of the police. Next victim was attacked in a similar manner - she was struck in the head with a hammer, while moving to the backseat of the car. Helen Rytka was a prostitute, who didn't keep her regular checkups with her sister, who was also a prostitute. Rytka entered Sutcliffe´s car on 31st January and she was attacked when moving to the back seat. She nearly managed to escape and get help, but Sutcliffe managed to hit her with a hammer in the head a few times and then he stabbed her in front of his car. Her body was found on 3rd February 1978. The body of Yvonne Pearson was found on 26th March 1978, although she was killed two month ago. Sutcliffe used his regular modus operandi and then mutilated the body by kicking and stomping, hiding the body subsequently near Lumb Lane in wasteland, which
43 were deserted during winter. In his statement, Sutcliffe admits, that he was surprised, that the body was not found for quite a long time. Peter Sutcliffe struck for next, 17th time after more than 3 months in Manchester. His victim was 40-years-old Vera Millward. She suffered from a few serious health problems - she is reported to have a one lung (Steele), but she was still working as a prostitute. Peter Sutcliffe picked her up and attacked her in his regular manner, stabbing and mutilating the victim in the quiet parking lot near the hospital. The connection between murders in Leeds and in Manchester was made by the analysis and confirmation of the tyres on the crime scene. Next attack happened after nearly eleven months. Sutcliffe killed 19-years-old society clerk Josephine Whitaker in Halifax. On 4th April 1979 he attacked her using his modus operandi in the park. He subsequently stabbed her with a screwdriver, terribly mutilating the body. In his confession, Sutcliff admitted that he had known that she was not a prostitute, but that the urge to kill someone was great. The most important clue from this case, that police found, was a footprint of the shoe and traces of the mineral oil, that police used to analyze the potential profession of the murderer. Sutcliffe struck again on 1st September 1979. Barbara Janine Leach was a student at Bradford University, who went for a celebration party with her friends. She stayed later than her friends and she was assaulted by Sutcliffe as she was returning home alone. The body was dragged to the yard of Back Ash Grove, where it was mutilated and left, covered with an old carpet. As she did not return home, her boyfriend called her parents and the police and the search for her body began. Barbara Leach was found a day after. As the two victims of the Ripper were not working or killed in the red light district, the public started to question the police methods and the inability to prevent these crimes by any means. Although police was able to profile the murder quite accurately (Steel), without the help of modern technologies the amount of data to process was practically impossible to analyze properly. One of the factors that was evaluated improperly was the tape sent to the police. The speaker had a thick Geordie accent, which was sadly misleading as the tape was fake. Next victim followed nearly after a year, when attention of the police and civilians settled down. On 20th August 1980, Sutcliffe assaulted and strangled Margueritte Walls, 47 in Leeds. She was working as a civil servant at the Department of Education and Science office in Pudsey and Sutcliffe mistook her for a prostitute as she was alone at night, returning
44 home. He attacked her with a hammer, but subsequently he did not mutilate her body as he had forgotten his knife at home. He strangled her and covered the half naked body with leaves and straw. The body was found the day after by two gardeners. The absence of the mutilation of the body and strangulation as a secondary cause of death led to misinterpretation and this murder was connected with Sutcliffe later, but during the trial and his testimony he admitted killing Margueritte Walls. Next month Peter Sutcliffe tried to strangle Dr. Upadaya Bothima, as she was returning home from a visit of her friends. Sutcliffe did not finish the attack as he fled from the police, which was called to a suspicious sounds in the alley. The changed modus operandi led to misclassification. although the description of the assailant provided by Dr. Bothima was similar to the description of the Yorkshire Ripper. The police connected the case with the death of Margueritte Walls, presuming the activity of another killer. After 42 days, Sutcliffe tried to murder Theresa Sykes, 16 as she was coming back home from shopping. He hit her with a hammer, but her screams attracted locals and Sutcliffe retreated from the crime scene. The last victim of the Yorkshire Ripper was Jacqueline Hall, 20 years old student. She was returning from the probation seminar to her hall in Headingley, Leeds. Sutcliffe followed her and attacked her as she walked past his car. He dragged her on a clear land behind Arndale shops car park and mutilated her body using a screwdriver and knife. At around 10:00 PM, circa 30 minutes after the assault, Jacqueline´s handbag was found by two students, which immediately called the police. The body was found in the morning and it was clearly identified as the victim of the Yorkshire Ripper. After 46 days, Sutcliffe hired a prostitute Olivia Reivers and drove away to the driveway at Melbourne Avenue, that was not illuminated and served as a regular spot for prostitutes and their customers. The random police check basically saved Reivers life as the police marked the lone car as suspicious and went to investigate. Reivers was a well-known prostitute, so there was practically no chance in lying to the police about the activities in the car. Sergeant Robert Ring and Probationary Constable Robert Hydes started asking simple questions as the names of the people present and checked the licence plate by the radio. The check discovered the licence plate was not matching the name of the driver and the type of the car. Marked as suspicious, Peter Sutcliffe and Olivia Reivers were taken in and transported to the police. During this procedure, Sutcliffe asked the policeman, if he could urinate near the abandoned house. This was a failure of the policemen and Sutcliffe managed
45 to hide the murder weapons - a ball-point hammer and a knife - in the old oil cistern. Sutcliffe managed to hide another knife even in the police station, again on the toilet. As Sutcliffe was interrogated, he produced a well-thought story, which had included stealing the licence plate on the scrapyard, a divorce and problematic family life. The Ripper Squad, a special team for the case of the Yorkshire Ripper was contacted and the interrogations continued. Sutcliffe corresponded to the description of the Ripper and his car had also been seen in the red light districts. The police also run the blood test to confirm that Sutcliffe had the same blood group as the killer. The crucial moment in the case was when Sergeant Robert Spring remembered letting Sutcliffe go away to urinate and that he might heard a metal noise. The police immediately investigated the place and discovered the hidden murder weapons. In that moment there was no doubt that the Yorkshire Ripper had been caught. Police committed a house search, finding many tools suitable for the crimes that Sutcliffe committed and interrogated Sonnia Sutcliffe, who had not had any idea that her husband was the Yorkshire Ripper all the time. At 2:40 PM, Sutcliffe confessed to being the Yorkshire Ripper after the police told him about findings of the weapons. “"No, I don't need one. I just want to tell you what I've done. I'm glad it's all over. I would have killed that girl in Sheffield if I hadn't been caught, but I'd like to tell my wife myself. I don't want her to hear about it from anyone else. It's her I'm thinking about, and my family. I'm not bothered about myself" said Sutcliffe as recorded in trial case. During next day, he made his detailed testimony and confessed to all the crimes. He did not show any pity or emotional with the victims except the murder of young Jayne MacDonald (Steele, Sutcliffe). The following trial lasted for three weeks, from 5th May to 22 May 1981 and Sutcliffe accepted the verdict of the court to be sentenced to 20 concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, although through the trial the possibility of lowering the sentence due to paranoid schizophrenia was mentioned repeatedly as Sutcliffe described himself as a “..on a mission from God" or “..hearing voices" (Sutcliffe). By the vote ten of twelve the jury did not consider a mental illness as reason for lowering the sentence and for incapacitation as Sutcliffe´s crimes showed planning and preparation in order to murder. Sutcliffe began his sentence in HMP Parkhurt in May 1981. Sutcliffe was repeatedly attacked during his imprisonment - in 1983, 1996, 1997 and 2007. He lost vision on one eye and is practically blind on the other. He also suffers from diabetes, breathing difficulties and
46 high blood pressure. As The Sun states, “Yorkshire Ripper only has "weeks to live" (Hall). All the appeals and pleads for adjusting the sentence or for moving Sutcliffe into hospital ward were dismissed and as Royal Court stated in 2009 “the appropriate minimum term is a whole life term” and the speculation about his mental state are still discussed at it is believed, that he tried to avoid the sentence (Barrett).
2.3.2 Medial image of the murderer
The image of the murderer and news reflection of the events can be separated into two parts - before and after the arrest. Before the arrest the murderer is often described as Yorkshire killer or just The Ripper even in the headlines (YR6, YR7, YR9), which is an obvious connection to the case previously described, embodying the murderer with the similar features as Jack the Ripper had - elusiveness, brutality and nearly inhuman ability to vanish without trace. Daily Mirror event releases an article “Copycat killer”, where the well-known serial killer, who was never caught, is reminded to public, which leads to mythification of the current killer The use of the term “The Ripper'' causes medial scandalization and generates more attention to the title than the use of “a serial killer”. The killer is described as dangerous, but he's not demonized in any way. The killer is described as “intelligent and very crafty” and “very mentally ill" by Assistant Chief Constable Mr. George Oldfield, who was interviewed for Liverpool Echo (YR9). The similarity and inspiration between two serial killers is also empowered by reports about the tape that The Ripper sent to police officer, copying original letters in the form of a voice tape. Daily Mirror uses vivid, nearly poetic language, when describing the content of the tape. “Monsters ought to shout and bluster, not murmur with a lover´s intimacy. The Ripper sounds almost sorry for George and his victims'' (YR12). The emphasis of the chief inspector listening to the tape creates an image of a duel between the policeman and the murderer, adding to the pseudovictorian archetype. As same as in the Jack the Ripper case, newspaper quoted the text of the message, spreading it amongst the people. Sadly, the tape wasn't recorded by Sutcliffe and it was a false lead in the case. The tape was made by John Samuel Humble, nicknamed “The Wearside Jack” due to the accent. He was caught after and arrested after 25 year, in 2006 and sentenced for 8 years for perverting the course of justice.
47 After the arrest, Peter Sutcliffe was willing to confess and the reporting aim of the media shifted focus from victims to the killer. Sutcliffe was usually described as a psychically corrupted man, who was responsible for his doings, although he couldn't help himself. Liverpool Echo uses headlines “MANHUNT”, “INEVITABLE” and “DEPRESSED”, which do not have the most negative connotation and they suggest inner psychical problems of the murderer (YR1). They are often quoting Sir Michael Havers, the Attorney General, responsible for the trial. Sutcliffe is described as an intelligent and counting, cold man. “He insisted he was normal and he was highly amused, that doctors considered him disturbed” (YR1). All the analyzed materials about Peter Sutcliffe also focus on the details of the victims and the murderer's point of view and motivation. Answers from the murderer are short, strict and to the point, Sutcliffe doesn't enjoy himself in detailed descriptions or other unappropriate form of communication. Liverpool Echo uses major title on the front page of the papers, which states “GOD ORDERED ME TO KILL THESE WOMEN”, which is an excerpt from the trial, where Peter Sutcliffe stated, that he heard messages from God to punish the prostitutes and the he was the solution, etc. Sutcliffe was diagnosed with form a paranoid schizophrenia and his jury wanted to reclassify the case from murder to manslaughter because of the diminished responsibility of Sutcliffe. This plea wasn't received well, as the murderer showed decent awareness of the wrongdoing by hiding the bodies and planning his actions. “He insisted he was normal and he was highly amused. Does that seem to be part of a pattern of what happened on January 8, when he said if could persuade the doctors he was mad, he would get away with a loony bin" said Sir Michael for Liverpool Echo. In all the analyzed materials, Sutcliffe does not show pity or remorse with killings of the prostitutes. He shows pity for the killing of Jayne MacDonald and other women, who he mistook for prostitutes. This clearly shows Sutcliffe as a psychopath with emotional and emphatical problems, considering those women as lower value citizens. The attached pictures show Sutcliffe as an unkempt, unshaved bearded man with darker subtones and a vicious look. The language used in the analyzed materials after capturing Sutcliffe is usually taken from quoting the trial, Sutcliffe´s testimony and other official resources, stating official court language. Because of the validity of the quoted statements and the nature of the language used, Sutcliffe is not described by emotional distinctive language, he is usually referred as a
48 killer or by plain surname - Sutcliffe, in contrast with the official representatives of the states, who are entitled - Mr. Oldfield (YR09), Mr. Boyle and Mr. Chadwin (YR02) and Sir Michael (YR1). In the analyzed materials, Peter Sutcliffe is described as an intelligent and dangerous murderer. Newspaper reporters used decent, objective language for reporting of the killer. He is not demonized nor excused, but he is described as responsible for his own actions, although he was diagnosed with paranoia and schizophrenia. Peter Sutcliffe´s name and nicknames (Usually “The Ripper”) were regularly in the headlines, fulfilling the value of reference to elite persons and negativity as the most of the serial killers tend to be in the focus of the media and their headlines.
2.3.3 Medial image of the victims
The medial image of the victims was affected by their social status and the profession of the victims. As the first victims were usually prostitutes, the press tended to bagatelize and denounce the victims (as seen in the analysis). The mutilation of the bodies and violence of the materials from the crime scene were probably not considered suitable for the release, all of the analyzed materials are not showing scenes of murder or they do not provide the detailed description of the victim or her injuries. The victims are usually shown in a form of a portrait photo with added age and basic information (Age, marital state). The similarity with Jack the Ripper, which was brought up by the newspaper for many times, also declassed the victims as the citizens of the low value, due to their activities in sex trade. The change of the description and medial exposure followed after murder of Jayne MacDonald, a young student. This victim did not suit the typical archetype of The Ripper's victim, both Jack the Ripper and the Yorkshire one. Many newspapers stated, that “an innocent young woman has been slaughtered” (Steele), implying that the previous victims were not innocent or that they were morally guilty of endangering themselves by participation in the sex business. Also the police tablo in the campaign, stating “Some were completely respectable" (Youngs) implies that some were not. The newspaper reporters tried to contrast the victims, using a young student on one side and the prostitutes on the other, suggesting that the other victims were lower quality citizens and provoking more sympathy for the young victims.
49 In the analyzed materials, detailed background checks or description of the victims are not provided, the language of the reports is rather simple and strict. Newcastle journal states, after the 13th victim Jacqueline Hill, small table labeled “Ripper´s Calendar of death”, where the names, age and location of the murder are mentioned, not providing detailed or sensible information. In the same magazine, in the article headlined “Ripper´s 13th victim a quiet Sunday school teacher”, the reader is provided a few information about Jacqueline Hall, whose name is not mentioned in the headline. The reporter emphasizes that she was a teacher, therefore morally clean. The other small headline states “BOYFRIEND” and the rest of the article provides us with a basic reaction of her surroundings. No detailed information of the murder is provided in the analyzed article (YR7). The article about the same event in the Liverpool Echo uses the headline “THE RIPPER CLAIMS VICTIM NUMBER 13”. This headline clearly focuses on two major things - the serial killer and his similarity to Jack the Ripper and his “kill-streak”, moving the victim to tertiary position. The only information, provided by headlines, is that the victim was a student and that she was 20 years old. In the rest of the article we are provided the name, the age and basic data of the victim, although the way of the attack or other details are not stated. There are public appeals and warnings in the article, asking for help and emphasizing the danger of other attacks (YR9). Both newspapers describe Jacqueline Hill in the best light possible, making no statements or suggestions about her responsibility for her own safety or putting herself into danger. The victims are described briefly, the focus of the media is on the unknown killer than on the known victim. As many victims were prostitutes, they were not considered “good citizens”, fulfilling the value of conflict between a regular citizen and between prostitutes. A few exceptions (Jayne MacDonald) were described and praised for being young and innocent, which fulfilled values of conflict (The prostitutes vs innocent student) and familiarity. The value of frequency is amplified by labeling the victims by numbers in the headlines prior to their names. The meaningfulness and familiarity values are fulfilled as the victims are usually from the surrounding area and regular working classes.
2.3.4 Medial image of the police
The police and their communication through the media played a very important role in the Yorkshire Ripper case, which is usual with the serial, long active murderers. The
50 cooperation between the press and the police can be seen and analyzed as the newspaper often quotes police officials and addresses the communities. Police were criticized after the case for questioning Sutcliffe and letting him go, because there was no reason for him to be identified as a suspect. As the Yorkshire´s Ripeer activity span was long and continuous, the police was also criticized for not being able to stop or limit his activities. Police tried to warn and address the responsible communities via press, but this didn't prove successful. The amount of required police work was massive and without the proper technologies, it was destined to be nearly impossible to fulfill the required tasks as Sutcliffe was in no registered databases, eg. of the blood types. The analyzed materials provide little information about the police. The reporters focus more on victims and the murder, depending if Sutcliffe was or wasn't caught in the moment of the reporting. Daily Mirror only briefly describes the policemen, listening to the tape or mentioning that police is working on the case, while the rest of the page is dedicated to description of the victims and similarities between Jack the Ripper and Yorkshire Ripper (YR12). Liverpool Echo reflects the words of West Yorkshire´s Assistant Chief Constable Mr. George Oldfield, who warns the public and assures them, that the policemen are “working like hell to catch the Ripper. (YR9)”. The other analyzed materials provide a similar, semi-neutral message of the police work, not criticizing them or making any attack on the police force, usually repeating the official statements and police stances. The details of the case were not published and there were no theories or rumors in the analyzed media, so a certain level of cooperation between media and police was existent. The description of the police in the analyzed material is brief and the police are mostly used as a referred authority that provides explanation or warning to the reader, fulfilling news value of reference to elite persons. This message was given by an official, pathologist or leader of the police force, low ranking policemen did not provide any information for the analyzed materials. Although in other resources the police are criticized, the medial image of the police is positive to neutral in the analyzed resources. Also the news value of meaningfulness is fulfilled as the authors of the newspaper presume, that the given message from the police will be read by citizens in potential danger.
2.3.5 Media and the community
51 The reporters were broadly addressing local communities thanks to the long span of Sutcliffe´s activities as well as cooperation with the press during safety campaigns. The community and its opinions or commentaries are not included much in the analyzed materials. The role of the spokesperson of the community was transferred to the police speakers. The impact on the local communities and effectivity of these attempts to address the communities is questionable. Due to the illegal activities of many victims, the lack of cooperation with authorities and the awareness, the danger of the serial killer was usually lowered due to the long intervals between the murders. In the analyzed materials, Liverpool Echo describes the situation in the article “Where students fear to tread” (YR8). This article uses emotive language, fulfilling the value of negativity. The second headline “Terror as the Ripper stalks the campus” contains only one emotionally neutral noun - the campus. The quotations of the students contain vocabulary including the word “curfew”, “prison”, “virtually the prisoner for two years”. The author also gives certain credit to University of Leeds - he describes the rerouting of the buses or opening self-defense classes and also reinforcing the police patrols. The mentioning of the work of the official is mentioned briefly compared to the negative quotes of the students. The Newcastle Journal informs the audience that Jaqueline Hall, the 13th victim, was afraid of the killer and as a precaution she switched her lodgings with the big headline “Girl afraid of maniac killer”. The interview with the parents tells the public that the precautions that Jacqueline had made were useless and counterproductive. The reporter also described the surroundings of the campus as “Ripper´s favourite killing fields'', emphasizing the danger in a negative way, resonating with despair. The quote of the Chief Constable Mr George Oldfield ``No woman is safe until he is caught" does not improve the overall message of the article nor does it provide any help for the potential victims. The Journal also makes a difference between “well, educated students” and “other murdered women - many of them prostitutes'' and suggesst praying for the police to find new clues. Also claiming that “police believes that they will never catch him until whoever is shielding him comes forward” is not a positive nor motivating message to the community as the reporter suggests the practically police blaming someone anonymous for the murders and not only the murderer. The analyzed materials do not focus on the stance of communities or on their addressing. If they do so, the articles usually have a negative, fearful meaning. The analyzed newspaper focuses on students and on the university. There are no mentioning the endangered
52 community of the typical victim of the killer - the illegal sex workers are usually briefly mentioned as victims. The appeals on the community are usually missing or they are insignificant. In the part after catching the murderer, the community is present only as a witness to confirm the murderer's confession.
The most common and the most fulfilled medial values in the analyzed materials are value of negativity and frequency. The value of frequency is emphasized by simplifying the reports of the victims only to numbers. The familiarity and cultural proximity of the news is also undisputable as the news are intended for a certain region as the analysis was focused on the contemporary news from the region, which reported about the Yorkshire Ripper. The references to elite persons or nations is also not present as only the part of the nation is the target audience as the celebrities or politicians were not included in any way in either case.
2.3.6 Concept of the articles
The concept of the analyzed materials corresponds to the presumed negative appeal of the topic. As proven by Jack the Ripper´s case, All the newspapers use aggressive language in the headlines to attract the reader. After the police restrained, interrogated and declassified Sutcliffe´s confession, the Yorkshire Ripper case re-appeared on the top pages of the newspaper. Liverpool Echo dedicated two full pages to the topic of the trial and confession, Daily mirror also uses whole page to be filled with the reporting after murder of Josephine Whitaker. The coverage of the case was directly proportional to the time after the murder. As the murders were connected with the serial killer. the medical demand was high, but it usually faded after the cool-off period between the murders. The news about the murder and relayed messages about safety precautions were muted, labelled as not important and not published in the time between the murders. The long activity of Peter Sutcliffe has contributed to the tendency of prolonging the articles and to the growth of notoriety, leading to replacing the description or the name of the murderer only to “The Ripper”. There are three types of additional materials that extend the reporting article - portrait photos of the victims, portrait of Peter Sutcliffe or portraits of police chief or representatives. The most used photo in the analyzed materials is a portrait of Jacqueline Hill. The portrait of a young student is in the contrast of the murderer, published in order to emphasize the
53 brutality of choices of the killer. This photo was published in YR5, YR7 and YR9. The portrait of Peter Sutcliffe after arrest was published also in three of the analyzed newspaper - YR1, YR5 and YR4. YR5 published both photos for the direct contrast, suggesting the conflict between Good and Evil, using and fulfilling the news value of conflict. Liverpool Echo (YR1) also publishes the portrait of Jayne MacDonald in the text, reminding the reader of the youngest victim of Peter Sutcliffe. These articles create a great moral difference between the victims and to side and sorry Jayna MacDonald, who was clearly used as an archetype of an innocent, young victim. None of the analyzed materials published the violent or disturbing illustrations or photos of the crime scenes or bodies of the victims. The newspapers also do not detailly describe the murder scene or important clues so that we can presume that the police did not share or published the details with the reporters in order not to spread panic among the citizens and not to pass any information to the killer through newspapers. The description of the killer was not published in any of the analyzed materials consequently the warnings released were general and no message was accented, therefore the impact of the warning had questionable effect.
2.4 The Suffolk Strangler case - Steve Wright
2.4.1 A brief history of the case
Steve Wright is the serial killer active in 2006 and he is responsible for murdering five victims, usually prostitutes and drug addicts. Steven Gerald James Wright was born in the Norfolk village of Erpingham in April 1958. His parents divorced, when he was eight and he grew up with his father, his siblings and step-mother. There are no reports of child abuse or any abnormalities during his growth, no criminal records or school records suggesting tendencies to violence or sexual deviancy. He was married in 1978 and had a son Michael. He divorced his wife and later in 1987 married again, but the marriage did not last. Wright admitted using the services of the prostitutes or brothels regularly in his life (McVeigh). He also tried to commit suicide twice (first in 1994 by carbon monoxide poisoning, second time in 2000 by medical overdose (McVeigh))
54 As the investigation proceeded, details about Wright´s life were discovered and he is reported to suffer from many behavioral abnormalities like cross-dressing, domestic violence and addiction to sexual services. He was also able to successfully hide these deviations from his co-workers and family. The first victim was Tania Nicol, a 19 years old prostitute and a drug addict. She disappeared on 30th October 2006 and her body was found six weeks later. It was discovered by police divers after the case of the second murder. Due to the state of the body and decomposition in the river, the post mortem analysis was unable to identify the cause of death or other details. Tania´s murder and the discovery of her second life as a prostitute was a huge shock for her family, which had no suspicion about the life of their daughter. The first body found belonged to Gemma Addams, aged 25, who was working as a prostitute and was also addicted to heroin. Her body was found in Belstead Brook near Ipswitch and police was unable to identify the cause of death as in the second case. Her body was found naked, but without any proof of the sexual assault. Addams also lived a double life and she was hiding her addiction from her family. On 10th December 2006 the body of Anneli Anderton was found near Amberfield school in Nacton. Anderton has been reported as missing since 3rd December. Anderton was a regular drug user and prostitute and in the time of murder she was pregnant. She was found in a cruciform position and naked (Kirby). On the same day the third victim went missing, Paula Clennell´s body was found two days after. She was 26 years old and as other victims, Paula was a drug addict and prostitute. The autopsy reported that she was killed by the throat compression. On 12th December 2006, the same day as Clennell´s body was discovered, another victim was found - Annette Nicholls, 29. She belonged into the practically same social group, a drug addict and a prostitute. Her body was found naked and in a crucified position as Andreston. After a few days two men were arrested as suspects for the murders. One of them was Steve Wright, a 48 years old forklift operator. . The police analyzed 11 000 hours of CCTV recordings and committed over 1500 door-to-door inquiries. One of the major pieces of evidence were DNA sample and scanning, which marked Wright positive (Addley). The single carpet fibre from Wright´s car was found in the hair of Tania Nicols. The trial lasted for six weeks and despite presented evidence, Wright insisted on his innocence. He admitted having sex with the prostitutes, but denied killing them. During the
55 interrogations before the trial he was simply replying “No comment" to many questions from the police. As Wright did not make any statement or confession, the details about each murder are unknown. Wright was sentenced to life imprisonment never with a recommendation never to be released. At the time of writing the thesis, Steve Wright is serving his life sentence in HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire. Although his father Conrad made an appeal to Steven to confess to his crimes, Wright remains silent about his crimes.
2.4.2 - The medial image of the murderer
As the case was solved generally quickly the media did not have much time and space to report about the killer during the case. As there were no sightings or witnesses, the newspaper did not have chance to interview the locals and police was also very reserved with the information about the case and its investigations. Although the Evening Herald dedicated full page to the case, there are no mentions about the killer. According to Plunkett, many newspapers created hype, typical for serial killers. The murderer was nicknamed Suffolk Strangler by the press and he was described as “the most brazen - and chilling - serial killer in British history” or “A Killing Machine”. All the analyzed articles from the period of the murders mostly focus on the victims and their demise, not the murderer himself. The reports after arresting the suspects provide more information about the two possible suspects and provide basic background of the suspects, although the information are usually short and simple. The names were not officially confirmed by the police, so Evening Herald quotes “...sources close to the investigations” or describes the suspect as “The man thought to be Tom Stephens” and other phrases of uncertainty. There are few other remarks about the suspect, but the most important is the statement of the police, that “..Suffolk police will not be issuing any further comments or appeals at this stage” (SS2). Two days after, the same magazine uses the headlines “QUIET LONER IN BLACKED CHARGED WITH FIVE KILLINGS” (SS5). Considering the little amount of time, when the killer was able to commit five murders and the previous descriptions, the headline itself is rather sober and anti-climatic. The fact that Steve Wright was dressed in black or preferred black colour seems pointless and just as a filler, which is highly unusual for a headline of such importance. The rest of the article describes Wright as a quiet, compliant man, who refuses to provide any
56 details of the murders. Wright is described to be a quiet man even during golf, from which his affinity to color black is taken from. The article does not provide the reader with any specific information about the background of the killer or motive and the provided information seem not to be connected with the criminal case in any way as wearing black or playing golf does not automatically lower your social status. The same newspaper printed on 20th December 2006 published the interview with Wright´s father. The headline “My son´s just not clever enough to be the Suffolk Strangler”(SS4) is the message of the reporters to the reader. This narrative is the direct opposite of the narrative of the serial killer, whose archetype is described as intelligent, brutal, cunning and elusive. Wright´s wife, Pam, is also mentioned as “shattered and tired” as she is interrogated by the police. The whole communicative message of the article is that Wright is unreliable as a murderer. None of the typical attributes is assigned to Wright in the most of the analyzed materials. In the later reports, as details of Wright´s life were discovered, he was described as having anger issues or as “Real Jekyll and Hyde” (SS2). As he remained silent and non-communicative about his feelings, motive or any details about the murders, there were no speculations or theories other than sexual deviations in the analyzed materials.
2.4.3 Medial image of the victim
As the murders happened in a short period of time, the reporters did not have much time to react and also the police ban on the information resulted into brief descriptions of the victims. The analyzed media provided name, age and a small photo (SS3) of the victims. The most repeated and accented information is that the victims were drug addicts and prostitutes. The rest of the information can be described as scarce. The Guardian blames drug addiction and heroin as a main cause of the victimization, the desperate need for money for the drugs forcing the prostitutes into risk. The prostitution is described in better tone - “They are just friendly, pleasant girls doing their job, a strange job, but a job nevertheless" quotes Evening Herald an anonymous bus driver (SS3). BBC News even released article “Cycle of drugs and prostitution” by Lucy Rodgers, who comments this topic as a never ending cycle. The analyzed materials do not provide enough commentary or social analysis of the victims, their medial image is negative, but the message accented is about harmfulness of the
57 drugs. Any connection between victims and the murderer is not described or commented on, even in articles published after arresting Wright.
2.4.4 Medial image of the police
Compared with the other analyzed cases, Wright was caught in a small extent of time thanks to the modern technologies including DNA analysis and CCT. There was no “reign of terror” as in other cases, so the police were not criticized for inactivity or inability to act. Suffolk police made a few statements through the press, but they were general and non-specific, mostly brief appeals on safety and stating the successful activities of the police. Police is also not glorified or heroified for the successful arresting of the killer as the case was short. Due to these circumstances, this case also lacks the typical conflict between the police detective, hunting the murderer. No specific police officer is repeatedly mentioned and also the newspaper does not mention policemen responsible for catching Wright. The information about the murders, investigation and trial were classified and police officially made a small number of commentaries due to the confidential nature of the information. In the analyzed materials there were no leaks or commentaires from sources near the officials, the information embargo was successful.
2.4.5 Media and the community
As in all the other cases reporters try to provide an insight to the communities affected by the murders. The typical community to answer the questions of the reporters were the prostitutes. The Evening Herald even published the article headlined “Prostitutes leap to defence of their protector” (SS4) where the opinion of the community on the second suspect Tom Stephens is expressed. The relayed message is positive and supportive towards the suspect and also the prostitutes community is also described in a positive way.
2.4.6 The concept of the articles
The aftermath of the case in the press addressed the problem of the drug addiction and prostitution in many articles and this social problem became a main topic for the news. The
58 focus shifted from the killer and the victims to the social aspect of the crime, putting pressure on the cause of it, not the consequences and results. Fulfilled medial values are also different in this case. The fulfillment of the value of negativity is lowered as nor the murderer or the victims are described by negative, emotional or vividly expressive vocabulary. The analyzed materials use sober, strict language in description of the murders and following events. As mentioned, the case of the Suffolk Strangler was short and the media did not have enough time to build proper momentum for the case and the uproar in the beginning faded quickly.
Part 3.5 The concept of the articles
The analyzed articles are given appropriate space in the newspapers according to the importance of the case. Shortly after the findings of the bodies the press reported in usual manner, using great headlines and the readers were reminded of the crimes of Jack the Ripper and Steve Sutcliffe. The portraits of suspects and victims are also attached as usual. As Plunkett states in his article, many mainstream newspapers including The Express and The Daily Telegraph did not prioritize the story to the top priority. Articles describing Wright´s life in prison are also scarce and simple. As Wright did not confess to his crimes or any new facts were found, the press did not have new sources for its articles. The only appearance was made by Wright´s father, who made several appeals to his son to confess.
2.5 Comparative analysis
The following comparative analysis consists of two parts - first is the methodical quantitative analysis of nouns describing the murder and the victim and second is commentary and comparison of the medial image of the specific cases as described in parts 2.2 - 2.4 of the thesis.
59 2.5.1 Frequency analysis of the vocabulary used to describe the killer and the victims
The aim of the analytical part is to conduct the frequency analysis of the nouns, used by the analyzed press to describe the murderer and the victims. In the first part, the partial analyses are described and addressed and in the second part they are compared to each other, leading into a conclusion. The author of the thesis is aware that the amount of the resource materials is not broad enough for in-depth medial analysis, it is however sufficient for the demonstration of the evolution of the medial means of communication as well as trends in the reporting of the serial killers.
2.5.1.1 Frequency analysis of “Jack the Ripper” case
The resources for the analysis were the same as described in Appendix 2 - The Corpus. The results are presented in the following graphs :
Graph 1 : The vocabulary used to describe the murderer
60 The most used term in the defined corpus is “mur derer”, which was used in every analyzed resource. The term “mur derer” is considered neutral, non-threatening and objective. It was used by the reporters, officials and witnesses alike. Another two words used the most frequently - “miscr eant” and “perpatrator” can be viewed as archaic and literary from isochronal point of view, but their usage suggests their commonnes in the time of the release of the articles. The word “assassin” is also used, which implyfies that the murder was planned and certain level of professionality of the murder itself as the term carries slightly different and negative connotation apart from “mur derer.” The term “Jack the Ripper” was not used in every analyzed article, the use of this term was dependant on the bulvarity of the paper. The terms “Jack” or “Jack the Ripper” was used in JR1, JR2 and JR10. The most common use is in the headlines in order to attract attention of the reader. The most evaluative and strongest vocabulary to describe the murderer was used in JR3. The newspaper used terms “homocidal maniac”, “religious fanatic” or “homocidal lunatic” in their articles. These terms are highly emotional and their aim is to invoke fear and panic in the reader, fulfilling many news value as described in Part1.2. The positive words - in this case “fellow” and “gentleman” were used by witnesses to describe a potential suspect and they are reflecting the low social status of the interviewed, thus not revoking any sympathy or tolerance with the murderer.
Graph 2 : The vocabulary used to describe the victim
61
The most commonly used word to describe the victims was “woman”, sometimes with a combination of name - “woman Conway” JR2 or “woman Chapman” JR3 . As the murder of a woman can be viewed in a more negative way as it is more appealing, the gender neutral term “victim” is used less commonly. The second most used term is neutral “deceased” which can be viewed as diminishing. The term “deceased” is usually used for natural cause of death, not for the brutal act of murder as committed in this case. It also does not provide additional information about the victim, not the gender nor social status. The term is used to calm the audience and not to remind the reader the brutality of the incident thus the term can be found in more serious newspaper as JR1. The term “mur dered” is factically more accurate.
2.5.1.2 - Frequency analysis of the Yorkshire Ripper case
The quantitative analysis of the resources provided the following results :
Graph 3 : Vocabulary used to describe Peter Sutcliffe
The results are different from the first case as the culprit was caught and identified by the police.. The most used term was the name of the killer - Sutcliffe or Peter Sutcliffe. His name appeared practically in all the analyzed media from the point of his capture, predominantly in the form of only the surname, which communicates lower social status, thus
62 creating negativity toward the adressed. The term “Ripper” was used nearly five times more than the neutral “Killer ” as the term “Ripper ” is more appealing for the reader than the rather neutral term “killer ”. The term “Ripper ” contains more specific information - the serialness of the murders, the choice of the victims and the brutality of the killer as well as elusiveness of the murderer. It also contains a serious negative connotation as the reference to one of the most infamous serial killers. The following use of the name demasks the Ripper and mitigates secrecy, stating that even the killer is just a regular man with a name. The terms with the negative connotations used by the press are “monster ” (YR5), “maniac killer” (YR7), “sadistic killer” (YR9). The term “mentally ill” (YR9) is also used, but Sutcliffe´s case wasn't classified as incapacitation. Mental status of Peter Sutcliffe was highly speculative during the trials, but it brought negativity and distrust towards mentally ill. There are practically no terms in the analyzed materials with positive connotations or articles sympathizing or apologizing the murderer. Articles referring to Sutcliffe´s mental state are highly suspicious towards the murderer as they question the authenticity of his mental illness.
Graph 4 : Vocabulary used to describe the victims of the Yorkshire Ripper
The most common way to address the victim is by a full name, although articles focusing on Jacqueline Hill tend to prefer only the first name, creating an image of familiarity
63 with the victim and accenting the young age of the said victim. The name is used for the simplest and quickest identification of the victim. The second most frequent term is “prostitute”, which is used twice more in the analyzed material than the term “woman” or “victim”. As the prostitutes were the most common and popular target of Sutcliffe´s attacks, the newspaper reminded the reader the usual status of the victims, partly blaming them for exposing themselves to danger by prostitution. The situation has changed after the murder of students, who could not been described as a people of low social status or blamed for immoral behavior. All the positive vocabulary used in the analyzed materials emphasises this stance. Jacqueline Hill was described mostly as a “girl” or “student”. YR7 used the term “model student” to further emphasise the archetype of innocent young student as well as YR9 described Hill as “”young and respectable”. In all the analyzed materials there are no negative mentions about the victims. The most negative denomination of the victims is “pr ostitute” as the profession of the first victims was in the focus not only of the killer, but also of the press.
2.5.1.3 Frequency analysis of “Suffolk Strangler” case
Graph 5 : Vocabulary used to describe Steve Wright
The outcome of the analysis was affected by the short-timed period of activity of the killer. Two nicknames were given to the suspect by the analyzed materials : “Suffolk Strangler”, which referred to the modus operandi of the murders and “Ipswich Ripper”,
64 which addressed the profession of Wright´s victims as he targeted mostly prostitutes. There was no coordinated consistent denomination of the murderer between analyzed materials, so both terms can be found. This can lead to confusion of the reader, who is not familiar with the case. The use of the name was the most commonly used by all the analyzed materials. The neutral term “killer” was used with the same frequency as the case specific nicknames. The most correct denomination “serial killer” is also used, e.g. in SS6. Vocabulary involving positive connotation as “chap” is usually used by the murderer´s acquaintance or father, who are referring to Wright´s guilt with disbelief as Steve Wright was able to maintain his role of the part of the society in a solid way. SS7 describes him as “r eal Jekyll and Hyde” and “Enigma”. W right´s deviation for cross-dressing is also mentioned in several sources to disrupt the image of a proper citizen.
Graph 6 : Vocabulary used to describe the victims of Steve Wright
In this case the most common denomination of the victim is the word “pr ostitute”, which is used more often than the name or “woman”. Neutral words like “victim” or “murdered” which were broadly used in the previous analyzed cases, are not used anymore, suggesting that these terms are in contradiction with the profession of the victims, partly blaming them for putting themselves into danger by their involvement in partly illegal sex industry.
65 In this case vocabulary with the positive connotation prevails over negative one, partly because of the percentage given to the word “pr ostitute”. SS1 addresses the victims as “vice girls” which can be described as archaism, in SS3 the questioned citizen refers to the prostitutes as “friendly pleasant girls” and the newspaper use girlishly sounding nicknames of the prostitutes like “Lou” or “Katie” in order to imply the young age and sympathy from the reader as well as using the title Miss in the same manor. The most common negative word and attribute used is “her oin addict” , which is used to combine two socially negative features - prostitution and drug addiction.
2.5.1.4 Commentary on the change of the analyzed vocabulary
In all the analyzed cases one of the main focuses was on the profession of the victim. The term “pr ostitute” seems to incline towards including the potential chance of being assaulted by a serial killer. Also the term “pr ostitute” seems to automatically address women. Both analyzed cases from the 20th tend to refer to the murderer as “the Ripper”, clearly referring to Jack the Ripper and strengthening the archetype of the 19th century murderer. It can also be assumed, that rising level of the positive connotation towards both victim and the murderer through chronological order of the cases is a result of rising level of knowledge about the methodology of this type of the serial killers and general awareness about these cases.
2.5.2 Changes in the medial image of the killer
The data gathered in 2.5.1, when represented graphically, form a following graph :
66
Graph 7 : Nouns used to refer to the serial killers
From this graph we can see a decreasement in the negative connotation in the analyzed material. Peter Sutcliffe was named and labeled usually as The Ripper, which implies the negative connotation. The positive connotation of Jack the Ripper´s case, as described in 2.5.1.1, can be viewed more as a matter of speech than labelling, practically downsizing the positive connotation of the murderer to 0, same as the second case. The third described case contains 10% of positively connotated words. Comparing these three the shift towards neutral labeling and naming can also be declared. The major change in the narrative of the serial killers through the analyzed materials can be proclaimed. The change can be identified not only in the vocabulary used to describe serial killers in the press, but also in the questions that the newspapers pose. The trend that can be seen in the analyzed newspaper is lowering the status and nearly inhuman traits of the killer. Although the vocabulary used to describe Jack the Ripper, as described in Part 2.2.2, fulfills media values and attracts the reader, the subsequent damage in creating fear, panic and paranoia is unwanted. The killers nowadays tend to be described as normal people, not elusive, unbeatable demons. In the analyzed materials the murderer is often described as neutral murderer, the percentage of addressing by name has also significantly lowered, thus not contributing into creating a status of “modern celebrity”. The modern press tends to ask questions about reasons, why the killers act in such a violent way and what precautions could have been made in order to prevent the killings. Medical and psychological background is
67 generally provided by the newspaper in search of the reason for murderous behavior. The murderers are still described as very dangerous and the appeals on the security of local communities or potential target groups are still made and they are given more space and more insistence. The analyzed newspaper focuses even on the aftermath, the trials and details from the case in order to describe the murderer in the most complex way, not only as a “raging lunatic” or “ravening madman”. Sadly, as can be read in many newspapers in all the analyzed cases, the motives and the targeting of the victims were usually random, thus making them hard to avoid. Serial killers, mentioned and analyzed in this thesis, were not reported to make any preparation or complex choice of the target, although all the victims shared similar traits. Reports of the trials and post-sentence life of the murderers are usually brief and their message is simple : They will not ever leave prison cells, under any circumstances. Although there are cases of serial killers being released from the prison, these do not happen in the United Kingdom. This message serves as a warning and also as an assurance for the readers that justice has been done. These reports also often include interviews with the survivors of the attacks or with family members, enhancing the ongoing damage that the killers had done. The tabloid magazines sometimes publish typical bulvar reports as “'Lovesick' Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 'wants IVF baby with his pen pal'” (Dreschl), which contain basically zero valid information and serve only as a filler. The description of the murderers has improved in the terms of objectivity through the analyzed articles. The language used is more sober, more objective and less fantastical. The reporters tend to quote the proper sources ( official statements of the police speakers, officially released factography) and the amount of speculations, predictions and fiction has rapidly decreased, probably in order to prevent panic, minimize the potential glorification of the violence and the inspiration for potencial “copycat” killers. The press still tends to give the serial killers drastic nicknames in order to make them easier to remember, thus fulfilling the value of familiarity in the following issues. This tradition can be directly linked to Jack the Ripper as the newspaper still labels serial killers, who target prostitutes, as “a ripper”. Both other cases were dubbed as “The ripper cases” by the analyzed newspapers. The amount of speculation surrounding the case has also lowered significantly. In the Jack Ripper case, false accusations done by the newspaper led to arresting innocent people (“Leather Apron scare” as described in Part 2.1.1). The analyzed newspaper tends to be more
68 cautious and precise in making any suggestion or releasing non-approved data. The newspaper was also careful with speculation about the potential killer apart from the victorian era, where many famous citizens became targets of these accusations and needed to explain themselves to the public.
2.5.3 Changes in the medial image of the victim
The data gathered in 2.5.1, when represented graphically, form a following graph :
Graph 8 : Nouns used to describe the killers victims
In the graph we can clearly see a decline in the vague term “woman/girl” and the uprise of labelling the victim as “prostitute”. This naming and labelling process is connected to the “Ripper” narrative as described in 1.4. We can see a slight incline of possively connotated descriptions of the victims and increase of the mentions of the victim´s name. It can be stated that the major shift in the narrative of description of the victim can be observed. During the Jack the Ripper case, the victims - or their bodies- were vividly and gruesomely described, the focus was on the way, that victim was killed and mutilated. This was enhanced by official reports of the coroner, engravings of the findings of the bodies and other supportive materials as described in Part 2.2.3. The newspaper also provided additional materials and information about the victims, but the negativity of the gory details is more
69 attractive than basic information about the life of the victims, which were not special or important in any other way than being the victim of the serial killer. During the course of the time the approach of the newspapers to violence and disturbing imagery changed also. The analyzed materials reporting later cases do not mention medical details of the mutilations nor do they provide us with vivid illustrations of the bodies. The graphical attachments are also non-offensive and the aim is not to attract by explicit graphic or verbal violence. On contrary the vocabulary used to attract the reader's attention did not change, the headlines can still be described as “shocking” and “panic inducing” as the authors uses phrases “Town seized by fear…", “Madman gripped by murder lust” or “Ripper Rampage Latest” (SS6) in the latest analyzed case. The main communicative message relayed remained similar : “There is a dangerous murderer outside, beware!". As the killers occasionally killed victims that were not belonging to the primary target community, the message was edited into “No one is safe even in well-known area.” or “No woman is safe." This message has stayed in all the analyzed media due to the nature of the crime. As the focus on the details of the case shifted towards the greater picture, the message about security is accented and repeated into order to prevent another attacks. The major change can be observed in emotional attitude towards the victims. The analyzed newspaper from the 19th century tried to improve the medial image of the victims, not focusing on their alcoholism or prostitution. Although the background of the victims was never the main focus of the reports, the newspaper tried to provide as much information as possible in order to evoke sympathy for the victim in the reader. The victims of all three murderers shared similar features (mostly prostitution and substance abuse), the reports from the Sutcliffe´s case can be described as the most negative towards the victims who are divided into two categories, which are attributed specific traits. As stated in Part 2.2, the separation between “drug addicted prostitutes” and “innocent students” caused major negative feedback from the community and the readers. The negativity of the serial murderers and the lack of the direct motive cannot be mitigated by the background of the victims as the bagatelisation of deserving such fate proved ineffective to affect the reader´s community. In the latest of the analyzed cases, the information about the victims is really short and simplified, also practically no social commentary was made about them. The commentary on wider situation about social position and dangers of the outcast society of prostitutes was
70 made instead, implying that even sex workers and drug addicts are parts of the society and should be taken care of instead blaming them for their exposure to the murderers. In any of the analyzed materials, the victims were not directly blamed for being murdered, but as described in Part 3.2 in the case of Steve Wright, the desperate situation of drug addicts, who are forced to prostitution and exposure, was described and mentioned many times.
2.5.4 Media and the police
The role of the police in the media has also undergone a major change. This change can be described as improvement of the public and press opinion towards the police forces. During the Jack the Ripper case, police were limited by technologies of the era as well as during Sutcliffe´s case. Jack the Ripper was one of the first cases, where police had to deal with this type of murderer and they did know what to expect or have to react appropriately. They were heavily criticized and their activities were partly undermined by the press, which caused panic and paranoia to spread among the population and interfering with the investigation of the police. The release of the information about the case can potentially lead to complications including copycat killers, hoax messages or pretenders as during Sutcliffe´s case, where the audiotape sent to the police, was a false lead. Sadly, this tape led to confusion of the police and corrupting the investigations. As Jack the Ripper was never caught, the newspaper attributed elusiveness to this type of serial killer and Sutcliffe´s case strengthened this view of the public. During the case, the newspaper reported the actions and manpower of the police searching for the killer, but without result and the readers were led to understand the futility and sense of helplessness of the police. In the second analyzed case the police was not describe as ineffective or powerless, but still the outcome was close to zero as Sutcliffe continued to murder victims for many years. The last analyzed case pictures the police force as effective. Although during the case, the information released by police officials were brief and much of the information was classified or confidential, the outcome is reported in a positive manner as the police force was able to quickly catch and close the case. The cooperation between police and the newspaper has definitely changed during the years. During Jack the Ripper´s case there was practically an open conflict between particular newspaper and police. The editors openly criticized the police officers and proceedings. Later
71 the reporters started to cooperate with the police force and publish the information that were not in contradiction with the police investigations. The newspaper became a valuable resource for police to address a wider range of the community as their reach is broader than reach of police´s official communication channels.
2.5.5 Media and the community
The role of the community as a vital source of the information has also changed. The most important change in the analyzed materials can be seen in the reliability and the quality of the provided information from the community. During the first analyzed case, the newspaper tends to print every information available and the outcome can be described as chaotic and counterproductive. The verification of the information from locals or witnesses has improved, thus the published information gains more credibility when compared with the previous newspaper reports. In all the analyzed cases, members of the communities were questioned and their opinion and reporters were noted and published by the newspaper in order to increase credibility of the stories and to broaden the reports about the killings. In all the analyzed cases the choice of the interviewed speakers was similar - family members, owners of the pubs, neighbours and friends of the victims. Most of the speakers tend to describe the victims in a positive way and their primary reaction about the identity of the killer is a surprise, as both Sutcliffe and Wright were able to maintain an image of a regular worker and husband, successfully hiding their murderous intentions. The message from the local community members can be interpreted as a warning and surprise about the identity of the killer. In all the analyzed materials no witness stated or declared the awareness of the potential identity of the real killer. In the last analyzed case, interviewed family members and acquaintances of the victims also stated the surprise and disillusion about the hidden source of income for the drug addiction of the young victims. Apart from Steve Wright´s father, there was no declaration of pity or understanding with the murders. The fulfillment of the most important news values was maintained in all of the analyzed materials as well as the targeted values. Negativity, familiarity and frequency are the most common and the most fulfilled in all the analyzed articles. News reporting of the serial killers is specific to the reporting of the negative news and all of the analyzed cases follow
72 similar patterns. These patterns change a little in the last case, which was described briefly and restrainedly. The lowering of the values can be noted in this case in order to maintain objective and brief reporting. The medial image of Steve Wright is not as negative as the other analyzed cases as the criminal evidence is not presented as solid and Wright never confessed.
73 Conclusion
The aim of the thesis was to analyze the medial image of the serial killers in the British press. The hypothesis was concerning the change, presuming the inclination towards the more objective stance of the media. In the theoretical part the basic information about media and serial killers are presented. The specifics of the news reporting were presented as well as news value theory, from which derive the general appeal of the negative news which is strongly connected to the reporting of the serial killers. The theoretical part addresses the binary oppositions, which are also common in the reporting of the serial killers. The definition of the serial killer from criminology is also presented. The meaning and associated values of the nickname “The Ripper” are also described and explained. In the practical part, the corpus and the methodology of the analysis are described, followed by three major parts, each for each case analyzed. Each part presents a brief history of the case and forms a foundation for the final analysis by the answering research questions, which focus on five main issues explored (The killer, the victim, the police, the community and the media itself). This descriptive part is followed by a frequental analysis, focusing on description of the killer and the victim. The results of the conducted frequential analysis as well as descriptive part of the cases show that the hypothesis is confirmed as we can describe the change in the media. The analysis shows that medial image of the serial killers and their victims has become more objective and balanced through the analyzed material. The media tend to describe the killer more as a human, often questioning the motive and the psychological state of the murderer rather than simply stating that he is evil. Although tabloid newspapers still tend to use the similar phrases to describe the the killer, the press in general seems more decent. We can also state that the term “The Ripper”, which originates in 1888, is still actively used in the serial killer reporting. The fact- checking of the information is still more and more consistent and newspapers seems to be aware about the panic or damage that they can cause. The Jack the Ripper reporting includes higher amount of speculations and unconfirmed resources compared to the more recent cases. The victims are reported in a more tolerant and respected way other than simplifying them only as found bodies. The main source of income of the victims - the prostitution - is
74 mentioned and reported, but the focus of the media lies usually elsewhere - to describe the victim as a human being and a citizen of our society, who suffered a terrible fate. In the later analyzed media the victims are not blamed for being murdered, but for voluntary endangering themselves. The negative image of the victims´ lifestyle is lowered in order to create and communicate the contrast between the victims and the killers. This can point towards the change in the media, which tend to be more objective, but they still want to appeal to certain social values. The two later cases started a social debate, in which the prostitution as a form of work was not tabooized and the prostitutes were viewed also as the citizens, not the outcasts. We may presume that these changes correspond with the evolution of the society and the more experienced knowledge base concerning the phenomena of the serial killers. The most important limitations of the thesis are resource materials. As for the purpose of the analysis in the thesis, the corpus can be viewed as sufficient and balanced, for further research it would need enlargement in a proper way, maintaining balance in the corpus. As the further research of the topic the comparison between reporting in the United Kingdom and the United States of America can be suggested.
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78
Appendices
79 Appendix 1 : The Corpus
“Jack the Ripper” case
JR1 “FACSIMILES OF "JACK THE RIPPER'S" LETTER AND POST CARD" Daily
Telegraph & Courier (London), 04 October 1888, p. 5.
JR2 “THE MURDERS AT THE EAST END" St James's Gazette, 04 October 1888, p. 8.
JR3 “THE EAST END MURDERS" Morning Post, 02 October 1888, p.2
JR4 “THE RECENT MURDERS IN WHITECHAPEL" Pall Mall Gazette, 10 September
1888, p. 7.
JR5 “ANOTHER WOMAN MURDERED IN WHITECHAPEL" Morning Post, 10
September 1888, p. 6.
JR6 “THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS - INQUEST ON ANNIE CHAPMAN -
IMPORTANT MEDICAL EVIDENCE - STARTLING DISCLOSURES" Globe, 19
September 1888, p. 5.
JR7 “THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS" London Evening Standart, 24 September 1888,
p.3.
JR8 “THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER - THE CORONER´S INQUEST" St. James´s
Gazette, 03 September 1888
JR9 “BRUTAL MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL" London Daily News, 01 September 1888,
p. 6.
JR10 “Illustrated Police News”, Illustrated Police News, 27 October 1888, p. 1-2
JR11 “Murderes in the East End”, Daily Telegraph and Courier, 1 October 1888, p.3
JR12 “What we think”, The Star, 1 October 1888, p.1
80 “Yorkshire ripper” case
YR1 “MANHUNT" Liverpool Echo, 05 May 1981, p. 9.
YR2 “RIPPER´S URGE TO KILL ANY WOMAN" Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 08 May
1981, p.15
YR3 “JURY TOLD OF SUTCLIFFE RIPPER CONFESSION" Belfast Telegraph, 06 May
1981, p. 1.
YR4 “THE OTHER VICTIMS OF THE RIPPER" Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 28 May
1981, p. 12.
YR5 “DRAMA AS SUTCLIFFE TOLD POLICE:IT'S ME" Newcastle Journal, 07 May
1981, p. 4.
YR6 “GIRL STUDENT IS FOUND MURDERED" Newcastle Journal, 19 November 1980,
p. 1.
YR7 “RIPPER´S 13TH VICTIM A QUIET SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER" Newcastle
Journal, 20 November 1980, p. 1.
YR8 “WHERE STUDENTS FEAR TO THREAD" Liverpool Echo, 21 November 1980, p.
19.
YR9 “THE RIPPER CLAIMS VICTIM NR 13" Liverpool Echo, 19 November 1980, p. 1.
YR10 “NINE LIVES OF THE RIPPER" Newcastle Journal, 06 May 1981, p. 1.
YR11 “RIPPER´S VOICE TAUNTS POLICE" Newcastle Journal, 26 June 1979, p. 5.
YR12 “OW, CAN YOU CATCH ME NOW?” Daily Mirror, 28 June 1979, p. 17.
81 “Suffolk Strangler” case
SS1 “RIPPER SUSPECT WORKED WITH SUZY LAMPLAUGH" Evening Herald 21
December 2006, p. 5.
SS2 “SUSPECT ARRESTED IN RIPPER CASE" Evening Herald, 18 December 2006, p. 6.
SS3 “THE IPSWITCH RIPPER: TOWN GRIPPED BY FEAR OF SERIAL KILLER"
Evening Herald, 12 December 2006 p.13-14
SS4 “MY SON´S NOT CLEVER ENOUGH TO BE THE SUFFOLK STRANGLER"
Evening Herald, 20 December 20016, p. 15
SS5 “QUIET LONER IN BLACK CHARGED WITH 5 KILLINGS" Evening Herald, 22
December 20016, p. 20
Internet resources
SS6 - Plunkett, John. “Analysis of the Papers' Coverage of the Suffolk Murders" The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 13 Dec. 2006,
www.theguardian.com/media/2006/dec/13/pressandpublishing.suffolkmurders.
Accessed 14.12.2019
SS7 - Rayner, Nick Allen; Gordon. “The Story behind Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright: A
Real Jekyll and Hyde" The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 6 Dec. 2017,
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/story-behind-suffolk-strangler-steve-wright-real-jekyll-h
yde/ . Accessed 14.12.2019
SS-8 “Suffolk - History - Profile of a Serial Killer" BBC, BBC,
www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2008/02/21/steve_wright_guilty_profile_featu
re.shtml. Accessed 14.12.2019
82 Appendix 2 : Samples of the newspaper reports
Picture 2.1 JR1 Daily Telegraph and Courier
83
Picture 2.2 The Morning Post
84
Picture 2.3 The Illustrated Police News
85 Picture 2.4 Newcastle Journal
86 Picture 2.5 Liverpool Echo
Picture 2.6 The Evening Chronicle
87 Picture 2.7 Evening Herald
88 Picture 3.8 Evening Herald
89