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Jack the ripper source studying

From source A, we learn many things about the murders of Tabram and Nicholls, it starts by saying they have ‘startled’ London, the public would not have been expecting these murders conducted with such ‘extraordinary violence.’ The two victims are also said to have been the ‘poorest of the poor’ and the murder is said to have had no adequate motive, although the fact the killer had no motive is an assumption made by the newspaper. The Observer also states that an ‘excess of effort’ went into the murders. This is also not the first article written about the murders as it begins with ‘have so startled London.’ This implies the newspaper has already written an article on it before; the newspaper refers (rather subjectively) to the Ripper as a demented being, but provides no real information about the circumstances of the murder, a profile of the killer or any other useful information, just objective opinions on the murders

Sources A, B and C are all very different accounts of the murders, source A is an account in a newspaper with no detail about what happened, source B is a coroners report and provides information about how the victim has been murdered and a small insight into the way

By studying sources F and G I can gain some knowledge about how the police tried to capture jack the ripper. Firstly the police organized a vigilance committee named the “Mile End Vigilance Committee.” I do not think this was a good idea as a group of armed, angry people grouped together like a mob would have done ‘more harm than good’ I think the Home Secretary recognized this and turned down their request for a reward for whomever caught the ripper. I think the vigilance committee was a good idea as it has the people who know the neighbourhood the best on the case as well. Secondly, when I think they got a bit desperate, they issued flyers requesting anyone with any knowledge on the murders come forward at once, they encouraged this by making what appears to be a threat “someone residing in the immediate neighbourhood.” This gives people the idea that if they don’t come forward now then they are next! Judging from both of these sources I think it is safe to say the police at committed a lot of their power in the struggle to capture this murderer. Although they had murders every day in whitechapel, none were causing as much of a media stir as this one so it was important that the police found the murderer as quickly as possible. The police also had to try and distinguish between copycat murders and the real ripper murders, if they were investigating what looked like a ripper murder but turned out to be a copycat murder I imagine they would have disregarded it as their is no point in wasting resources on someone who is of no importance. The police could have done more, censored media content, have undercover officers, but for their time I think they were doing quite well.