Jack the Ripper

The Jack the Ripper murders occurred in the East End of London in 1888, although the Whitechapel Murderer was only a threat to a very small section of the community. In a relatively small part of London, the crimes had a huge impact on society as a whole.

The police were unable to catch Jack the Ripper for many reasons however one important factor was the mistakes of the police force. At the time of the Ripper case many people seemed to not come forward with information if they had any due to police mistakes such as lack of reward. The police committed various mistakes such as dressing as prostitutes due to the fact that the Ripper had studied his victims, which gave the police no luck in catching the killer. The police however did many foolish mistakes as one would call by believing false stories from the public and press which contributed to letting Jack the Ripper escape. The police did many other mistakes in addition to a lack of rewards and listen to the public as well as dress as prostitutes, they also Didn’t assign much police officers in the area of

Other people that were believed to be Jack the Rippers like Seweryn Klosowski, Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, the Duke of Clarence and many others. These people were all believed to be Jack the Ripper, but we either killed or not tried because of lack of evidence, or they did not have the same rage that Jack the rippers was believed to have. In today’s day in age Jack the ripper could have been caught. But because the lack of materials and police training in the 1800s jack the rippers got

When Jack the Ripper’s murders suddenly stopped, in the Fall of 1888, London citizens wanted answers that would not come, even more than a century later. The ongoing case-which has spawned an industry of books, films, TV series, and historical tours-has met with a number of hindrances, including lack of evidence, a gamut of misinformation and false testimony, and tight regulations by the Scotland Yard. Jack the Ripper has been the topic of news stories for more than 120 years, and will likely continue to be for decades to come. More recently, in 2011, British detective Trevor Marriott, who has long been investigating the Jack the Ripper murders, made headlines when was denied access to uncensored documents surrounding the case by Metropolitan police. According to a 2011 ABC News article, London officers had refused to give Marriot the files because they included protected information about police informants, and that handing over the documents could impede on the possibility of future testimony by modern-day

After five related prostitute murders in the East End of London in 1888, many theories and conspiracies arose about who the murderer could be. Many suspects were thrown around, but nobody was ever convicted. While there was an extensive investigation, the case was eventually closed. The ending to the story was left to each newspaper and media outlet, all writing their own version of the mysterious “Jack the Ripper” legend. Although there was proof to verify and negate many names thrown into the large pool of suspects, it is clear that there is one person who can be pinned to these killings. Based on a significant amount of evidence, it is clear that Jack the Ripper can be identified as Aaron Kosminski.

Prostitution flourished in nineteenth century London. By 1875 there were more than 75,000 full-time prostitutes. Whitechapel, a district in the East of London, was one of the most crowded places on earth with over 30,000 people in a square mile. Because of overpopulation, people did whatever they could do to make money. Synagogues, kosher butchers, barbers and tailors’ shops were abandoned because of lack of customers and income. Burglary, fencing, illicit liquor and other underworld activities flourished, but prostitution and white sex slavery were rampant. Serial homicide became an indicator for the clash of industrialization and human alienation which made it easier for the first modern day serial killer, Jack the Ripper, to maneuver around

The newspaper article, “Jack the Ripper was a Polish immigrant Aaron Kosminski”, published by the Guardian on September 8th, 2014 suggests a self-confessed “armchair detective” has solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper utilizing a blood stained shall to obtain DNA evidence which led him to discover the notorious killer. This article professes that the blood stained shawl Russell Edwards bought in 2007 at an auction in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk was the key to uncovering the identity of Jack the Ripper; Edwards stated, “I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case…I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.” However, Edwards claim is arguably unreliable and although the conclusions are written in a persuasive manner they lack guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

For how long the true identity of Jack the Ripper will remain a mystery is uncertain. All the witness with first-hand accounts have long passed away into death. Much of the minimal evidence still surviving has been mishandled, contaminated, destroyed, or even gone missing. Without much DNA or physical evidence left behind by the murderer or his unfortunate victims, it’s likely this remains a permeant cold case. The blight and menace that gruesomely stole the life of Mary Jane Kelly and several other women have disappointingly descended into myth and legend status. In Eugene H. Methvin article he mentions, “… [the] mystery about the killer’s identity, a darkly glamorous legend has flourished … he is more a Gothic monster than a real person”

The Whitechapel Murders and those of Jack the Ripper are not generally one and the same. Over a period of three years towards the end of the nineteenth century a number of prostitutes were murdered under different circumstances – the murder of prostitutes was not an especially unique occurrence during those times but several of the murders drew particular attention on account of the savagery with which the victim’s bodies were mutilated. Within the Whitechapel Murders was a cluster of murders that demonstrated sufficient similarities as to suggest that they were committed by the same person. One of the first instances of serial murder was thus identified and sensationalised in the media as the work of ‘Jack the Ripper’, nicknamed on the

Jack the Ripper, a notorious murderer during 1888 in the districts of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Aldgate, and also the city of London, responsible for the gruesome deaths of five prostitutes. The identity of the murderer has been a mystery to this day making him one of the most infamous killers in England, along with the world. The origin of the moniker “Jack the Ripper” comes from a letter supposedly written by the Whitechapel butcher that was published around the same time of the attacks. Mystery shrouded the affair due to the fact that many letters were sent to the London Metropolitan Police Service also known as Scotland Yard. These letters was a way to taunt the officers about the gruesome deaths speculating for another to come.

That would be an understandable misconception – his name is, after all, in the title, and multiple books claiming to be about the victims or other surrounding topics do indeed end up focusing on the Ripper himself. The Ripper’s identity is, after all, one of the great historical mysteries and the focus of over one hundred books. This is not one of them.

Why is Jack the Ripper seen as one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers of all time? Evidence suggest that he simply could have been a scapegoat for the overcrowded parish of Whitechapel which had vast amounts of crime including burglary and high levels of alcohol dependency which lead to many brothels opening and the number of prostitutes in Whitechapel rising dramatically. So was Jack the Ripper even a real serial killer? Or does theory explain that his murders could have been cover ups put in place to create a moral panic to reduce the number of working prostitutes as they had become scared of being murdered. If Jack the Ripper was not a scapegoat the New Right would argue that it is likely he made a rational calculation of the consequences of his crimes and carried them out because the benefit to society was greater than the cost to him, the New Right would have blamed Jack the Rippers criminal activities on poor socialisation from his family. Postmodernist authors Levin and McDevitt would argue he was a criminal but he only committed these crimes because he needed variation from his daily routine and killing the prostitutes was giving him the thrills and excitement that he needed in his life. A combination of all these different arguments and possible explanations creates debates that draw me into the study of Sociology and Criminology.

The ongoing case—which has spawned an industry of books, films, TV series and historical tours—has met with a number of hindrances, including lack of evidence, a gamut of misinformation and false testimony, and tight regulations by the Scotland Yard. Jack the Ripper has been the topic of news stories for more than 120 years, and will likely continue to be for decades to come. More recently, in 2011, British detective Trevor Marriott, who has long been investigating the Jack the Ripper murders, made headlines when he was denied access to uncensored documents surrounding the case by the Metropolitan Police.

In the dark early morning hours on the streets of London’s East End between the months of August and November in 1888, a deranged and depraved person would roam the streets to murder at least five women participating in prostitution in the Whitechapel district. On November 9, 1888, fate would have Mary Jane Kelly brutally attacked at her place of residence and subsequently murdered and mutilated beyond imagination. The most likely suspect was the increasingly bloodthirsty and still anonymous killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. Nearly 130 years later, forensic science and criminology experts have failed to agree on the true identity of Jack the Ripper. Hopefully, through psychological, geographical and genetic profiling, a better perspective of who

In August 1888, the dwellers of London’s East End arose from sleep to find their lives a little darker than before. Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute, had been viciously murdered, nearly decapitated by two cuts to the throat, her abdomen displaying multiple cuts (Begg 46). Over the next three years, ten other women would be murdered in the Whitechapel area. While there is no definitive proof linking these murders to one killer, analysis reveals that six of them display similarly rare crime characteristics: mutilation of genitalia, prostitute victims, and posing of bodies (Keppel, et al. 18-9). Five are commonly attributed to Jack the Ripper (1-2).