Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper Flashcards
Who were the 5 victims 1888?
31 August - Mary Ann Nichols
8 September - Annie Chapman
30 September - Elizabeth Stride
30 September - Catherine Eddowes
9 November - Mary Jane Kelly
What were the problems of the media?
Inspector Abberline and his CID team assigned to the JTR case by Met police received 300+ letters, postcards, newspapers by men claiming to be the murderer
What was the problem of police rivalry?
Commissioner Warren ordered the important evidence that PC Alfred Long had discovered in order that City of London police would not beat them to the capture of JTR
What were the developing techniques to catch JTR?
. Following up direct leads from public
. Using evidence from post mortems
. Following up indirect leads from articles by investigating journalists
. Following up on clues in the victim’s possessions
. Visiting lunatic asylums
. Following up on coroner’s report
. Interviewing key witnesses
. Setting up soup kitchens
. House to house searches
. Questioning over 2000 lodging house residents
. Distributing 80,000 handbills
. Getting help from Thames River police to question sailors in docks and neighbouring divisions of the Met to search opium dens
How did lack of forensics make it harder to catch JTR?
They had almost no scientific methods
It would be another 12 years till fingerprinting was used to detect criminals
Scientists could not yet tell the difference between animal and human blood
Crime scene photographs had only just started to be used to record evidence
What was the Vigilance committee?
A group of whitechapel businesses men set up the VC 10 September 1888. They were annoyed by police’s failure
Home Secretary would not allow financial rewards as it encouraged time wasters
VC took to the streets night after night armed with burning planks of wood, whistles, hob-nail boots to make as much noise as possible in vain hope to catch JTR.
How did the VC affect the police?
They damaged police investigations by their night patrols
The VC supporters were determined to embarrass the police
Sent false leads
Disrupted their work
Encouraged criticism in the ‘penny dreadfuls’
What was the Bertillon system?
It combined physical measurements, photography and record keeping to identify repeat criminals
System adopted by Met police in 1894 - measurements of suspect taken, their mug shots captured and records stored in a central file
How did communication improve?
1888 - police could only communicate from a distance using a whistle
1901 - H division had a telephone line
1907 - installed a telephone exchange in their police station
1909 - H division introduced bicycles
What were the improvements to the environment?
The Houses of the Working Classes Act 1890 (new London county council to begin housing development schemes to replace slums with mass low-cost housing)
The Public Health Amendment Act 1890 (gave more power to local councils to improve toilets, paving and rubbish collections)
What were the attitudes towards H division?
The police were seen in a more negative light and attacks by violent gangs were relatively common
H division seen as up holders of an unpopular government and they soon got a reputation of heavy handedness and violence
How did police deal with the community?
By the 1870s, there were 82 government laws describing what Met police should do when dealing with a wide range of issues including vagrancy, lunatics, pubs, street traffic, sewage, litter, coinage, children, runaway horses, fires, and accidents
