Jack the Ripper

Few cases of murder have puzzled police as much as the Whitechapel murders of 1888 puzzled the Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard did. There was little evidence of who the killer could have been, and the killer worked quickly and quietly as to never get noticed. There is only one name we know the killer by, and that is Jack the Ripper. “Jack” gained an immense amount of infamy, and to this day is extensively studied by so-called “Ripperologists”. His legend is based upon research, rumors, fictional accounts, and outright lies, and discriminating between them is very difficult due to the time barriers between today and 1888.

Whitechapel is a portion of the London East End, a notorious slum full of despondent people and the dregs of society. Immigrants, women of ill-fame, struggling artists, and hard-working men and women filled the massive housing buildings. Many of the buildings were dilapidated, and were often condemned. Even so, people still lived in them; it was better than living on the foul streets. The streets were full of garbage, and were filthy due to the increasing amount of industry that was spawning at the time and the pollution it created.

There were about three classes of people who resided in the East End; they were the homeless, the very poor, and the poor. Homeless people were considered to be at the absolute bottom of society’s hierarchy, with no source of income and a completely repulsive system of hygiene. They took no baths, never groomed

themselves, or any actions that would refine their appearance. The very poor had a very small income, which amounted to just enough to pay for a place to stay. They typically had no continuous job and did occasional work for people who needed physical labor done. The poor members of society had a steady job, and were slightly better off than the very poor, with enough money to have a place to stay and possibly support a small family.

The East End proved to be the perfect place for the Ripper to carry out his gruesome murders, since no one cared at all about the people who lived there. The police presence was somewhat elevated due to the massive number of immigrants that resided there, but usually either had their hands full with petty criminals or simply turned their head. The police presence was often criticized, being called incompetent by most citizens.

The first victim of the Ripper was a woman by the name of Mary Ann Nichols. She was five feet two inches tall, with a dark complexion and brown hair that was turning grey. She was around forty-four years of age at the time. The interesting thing about her, the thing that made her an incredibly easy target, was the fact that she was a prostitute. She was murdered in a secluded alley roughly twenty-five minutes after a police officer walked his route through it. Her body was discovered by Charles Cross and Robert Paul, and when they find her they thought she was alive. When the police arrived, she was dead. A very interesting thing to note was that she was found underneath the window of a very light sleeper, who noticed nothing out of the ordinary during the period of time that Mary Ann Nichols was murdered; therfore she must have

been killed quite discreetly.

The method in which Mrs. Nichols was murdered was unorthodox in its time, being one of the most graphic killings yet to occur. She had a bruise on the right side of her jaw, likely caused by the killer’s grip. She had two deep cuts on her neck, one ceasing midway through the neck and the other spanning the entire width of the neck. She had several deep cuts in various locations on her abdomen. Due to the direction of the cuts inflicted, it seemed that the killer would have been left-handed. One of the most disturbing facts about her homicide is that all of the injuries were inflicted with an incredible amount of violence, and it is obvious that the killer took great pleasure in the mutilation of his victims.

The next victim of the Ripper was Annie Chapman, a short, stout, moderately unattractive woman. She, like Mary Ann Nichols, was a prostitute, though she did bear some distinction. While most ladies of the night had serious drinking problems, Annie was described as being a women who “seldom took any drink” (casebook.org) by her friends. She was a rather bold woman, who, just days before being murdered, got into a brawl with another woman, who punched Annie hard in the face and breast, bruising her in both places. Both of these bruises were noticeable on Annie at the time of her death. Mrs. Chapman was murdered outside, in the public, against a fence that denoted the boundaries of Albert Cadoch’s backyard. The only person who might have any clue that she was being murdered was Cadoch himself, who said that he had heard someone say, “No,” and then he heard a thud of something