Whitechapel

Question 1

Manpower:

Answer 1

1. By 1885 the Met was made up by 13,319 men with a population of 5 million
2. Only 1,383 were available at any one time

Question 2

Media:

Answer 2

1. ‘penny dreadfuls’ were very anti-police
2. They were designed to sell a ‘good story’ not the truth
3. Became so negative from the 1860s police newspapers like the Police Review to challenge negative views

Question 3

Criminal Investigation Department:

Answer 3

1. A small detective department was added in 1842
2. Small and ineffective confusion about whether it was intended to prevent to detect crime
3. After a police scandal in 1877, barrister Howard Vincent set up the CID in 1878 with 216 officers
4. Did not improve

Question 4

Commissioner Warren:

Answer 4

1. Appointed in 1886
2. Warning to troublemakers-added to the impression that the police were government in uniform
3. Called in the army to control protesters in Trafalgar Square on Bloody Sunday
4. Added to the growing feeling that the police favoured the middle and upper classes.

Question 5

Context:

Answer 5

1. One of the capital’s poorest districts with gangs ruling its streets
2. Out of 30,000 and 1,000 were homeless
3. Long-established Londoners shared the district with more recent Irish and Jewish immigrants

Question 6

What was the housing like?

Answer 6

1. In overcrowded slum areas known as ‘rookeries’
2. Characterised by dirt, disease and crime
3. There could be up to 30 people in one apartment

Question 7

Evidence for overcrowding:

Answer 7

1. In 1877, one rookery contained 123 rooms with accommodation for 757
2. 1881 census showed the population as 30,709 and there were only 4,069 occupied houses

Question 8

Lodging houses:

Answer 8

1. Offered little more than a bed in squalid conditions
2. Some has 3 eight hour shifts for max number
3. Over 2oo lodging houses in Whitechapel where more than 8,000 a quarter of the local population lived

Question 9

Peabody Estate:

Answer 9

1. As part of the slum clearing, they were replaced by 11 new blocks of flats
2. Designed by Henry Darbishire and paid for by George Peabody, a wealthy American
3. Opened in 1881 and provided 286 flats for 3 shillings for a one room flat and 6 shillings for three rooms

Question 10

Work in Whitechapel:

Answer 10

1. Most famous factory was the Bell Foundry
2. Most worked in ‘sweated trades’ like tailoring and shoe-making

Question 11

Workhouses:

Answer 11

1. Set up in the early 19th century as part of the poor relief system
2. Offered food and shelter to those too poor to survive
3. Tough manual labour and wear a uniform
4. Families were spilt up, separate yard for boys, girls, men and women

Question 12

Dr Thomas Barnardo:

Answer 12

1. First project was a school for children whose parents had died in an outbreak of infectious disease
2. One pupil called Jim Jarvis, wanted him to see what conditions were really like took him to a secret rooftop where hundreds of children gathered to avoid the workhouse
3. 1870, orphanage for boys later opened a girls home
4. When he died in 1905, nearly 100 homes taking care of 85 children each

Question 13

Irish immigrants:

Answer 13

1. Expanded rapidly in the East End from the 1840s
2. Made their living as navigators doing labouring jobs on canals
3. Violence against them was commonplace and they were not well-liked

Question 14

Fenians:

Answer 14

1. In the mid and late 19th century Irish nationalists were demanding freedom from the UK
2. Led by the Fenians, a mainly Catholic group
3. December 1867, a bomb attack on Clerkenwell Prison huge surge of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic
4. In press, they were all seen as probable Fenians and traitors

Question 15

Eastern European Jewish Immigrants:

Answer 15

1. Wave of immigration in the 1880s
2. 1881, Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated and a Jew was to blame
3. A wave of violence and abuse against Russian Jews
4. Jews fled pogroms in Russia
5. By 1888, 95% of the total were Jewish

Question 16

Why were Jewish settlers resented?

Answer 16

1. Seemed to quickly find employment-resented success
2. Had their holy day on Saturday, so unlike locals they were free to work on Sundays-thought they were trying to drive them out of business
3. Ran their tailoring business on the sweatshop model-couldn’t compete with low prices

Question 17

Anarchists:

Answer 17

1. Social problems caused growth of revolutionary political movements in the 19th century
2. Anarchy was one of the most prominent movements
3. 1871, anarchists briefly took control of Paris
4. 1893, Special Branch began an undercover operation to monitor Eastern European revolutionaries

Question 18

Socialists:

Answer 18

1. Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was founded in 1881
2. Involved in the Trafalgar Square demonstration of 1887

Question 19

Discrimination:

Answer 19

1. Anti-Jewish features in sensationalist newspapers led to further harassment
2. Local newspapers like Lloyd’s Weekly News showed stereotyped caricatures of Jews
3. Believed no Englishman could have committed the Ripper murders-must have been a Jew or Irish man

Question 20

H Division:

Answer 20

1. Whitechapel division
2. Ran by superintendent and a chief inspector with 27 inspectors and 37 sergeants
3. 5oo constables

Question 21

Patrol:

Answer 21

1. Marched out into Whitechapel and he reached his beat he began to work
2. At night, stopping and questioning people
3. If a beat constable was found away from the beat without a good crime, he could be fined or dismissed

Question 22

Prostitution:

Answer 22

1. Vulnerable to assault and rape
2. No contraception so abortions were common
3. Died from the operations, police turned a blind eye
4. By 1888, 62 brothels and 1200 prostitutes

Question 23

Alcohol:

Answer 23

1. In one mile of Whitechapel road there was no less than 45 buildings serving as pubs

Question 24

Protection rackets:

Answer 24

1. Gangs demanded protection money from small business owners
2. Anyone who refused to pay would have their shop or market stall smashes to pieces
3. Almost impossible to gather enough evidence to put them on trial

Question 25

Jack the Ripper:

Answer 25

1. In 1888, 5 women were murdered in and around Whitechapel

Question 26

Media JTR:

Answer 26

1. Inspector Frederic Abberline were assigned to the Jack the Ripper case
2. Made harder by 300 letters and postcards claiming to be the murderer

Question 27

Police rivalry:

Answer 27

1. Catherine Eddowes’s body PC Long of H division found an important clue
2. Eddowes’ apron smeared with blood and faeces
3. Message with chalk ‘The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing’
4. Commissioner Warren ordered the message to be removed- didn’t want it to be solved by rival

Question 28

Investigative Policing:

Answer 28

1. Following up on direct leads
2. Following up journalists’ theories
3. Visit lunatic asylums
4. Interviewing witnesses
5. Following up on clues found with the victims