The Whitechapel murders of 1888, perpetrated by the notorious killer known as Jack the Ripper, all occurred within a relatively small area of London’s destitute and crime-ridden East End. The Whitechapel district, together with the East End, was an embarrassment to the elite London society that occupied West End districts like Mayfair and Kensington, described by one author as “a breeding ground for criminals, prostitutes, and layabouts; a center for depravity, degradation and disease.”(Curtis, 12) Whitechapel housed a community largely comprised of poor immigrant families, including many Jews fleeing persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe, most of whom were crammed into squalid tenements with 7-8 occupants per room. Most of the East End population was employed in factory work, with meager earnings and harsh conditions forcing many women into prostitution as a means of survival. The overpopulation of the urban districts, combined with horrific health conditions exacerbated by poor drainage and inadequate sanitation, created an environment in which diseases like typhoid fever and cholera, not to mention the venereal diseases spread by prostitution, claimed many lives and starvation and death were daily realities. The extreme poverty of the area also contributed to the rampant crime that plagued the East End. The scene of Whitechapel at the time of the murders was likely a grim picture of poverty’s worst elements; unlit alleys and drunken vagrants created dangerous conditions for the many prostitutes who walked the streets or worked out of brothels. London itself can be seen as the dual identities of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; the flourishing West End contented itself with blissful ignorance while its East End counterpart manifested the unspeakable horrors of human depravity that are epitomized in the dark, grisly character of Jack the Ripper.
Officially, Jack the Ripper is credited with five murders in a period of ten weeks in the Whitechapel area during the year 1888. Some reports estimate as many as nine murders around that period of time could be contributed to him. Through the haze surrounding the Ripper murders, one aspect about them remains unarguably certain, together they comprise “the greatest murder mystery of all time” (Cullen, 13)
The serial killer’s spree began on August 31, 1888 with the murder of a middle-aged prostitute named Mary Ann Nichols. Called Polly by some, she was a heavy drinking woman, with five children, who was separated from her husband. Her body was found a little after four a.m. by a cart driver. She was on her back “with her skirt pushed up to her waist and a deep cut across the throat” (Curtis, 20). This near-decapitation of his victims would soon become the trademark of the Ripper. In Polly’s case, her abdomen was also slashed and she had been stabbed twice in the genitals.
The Ripper’s second victim was again an older (forty-seven year old) prostitute named Annie Chapman. Also a mother and a heavy drinker, Annie’s husband left her and she prostituted in order to pay for her drinking habit. Her body was found on Saturday, September 8 at approximately six in the morning in the backyard of an old house in Spitalfields. Just like Polly, her throat was cut so deeply there were marks on her spine. Annie’s intestines had been removed and deposited near her head and it was later revealed that her uterus and some parts of her vagina and bladder had been removed (Curtis, 19).
The third and fourth murders occurred within an hour of each other in the early morning of Sunday, September 30. The first was another prostitute, aged forty-five, named Elizabeth Stride and the second was a middle-aged prostitute named Catherine Eddowes. Both women were alcoholics with sordid histories. Elizabeth’s body carried the same deeply cut throat, but lacked any of the disfigurement seen in the previous murders. The police suspected the Ripper was interrupted and so went on to murder again that night. Catherine’s throat was also slashed to the bone and she had been knifed in the face, stomach, and pelvis. Again, the intestines were pulled out and parts of the kidney and uterus had been removed (Curtis, 20-21).
The fifth and, some believe, final victim was Mary Jane Kelly. His first indoor victim, Jack the Ripper showed the extent of his madness in this last, murderous frenzy. Mary’s body was mutilated beyond recognition. Her heart and viscera were removed, parts of her thighs cut off, her breasts were sliced off as well as her nose, and once again the victim was almost decapitated. As if this was not enough, many of Kelly’s abdominal organs were dumped next to the bed and her heart was found to be missing at the autopsy (Curtis, 23).
Such were the grisly acts committed by the man who called himself Jack the Ripper. Repugnant, horrible, and manifesting a deep hatred for the female form, these murders disgust and fascinate with the continuing question about the murderer’s identity.
Jack
the Ripper: Suspects List
Jack the Ripper has gained and maintained notoriety through out history not only because he was the first to be classified as a serial killer, but also because authorities were never able to capture and identify the killer. The killings mysteriously stopped on November 9, 1888, but theories as to who might have perpetrated such heinous crimes were numerous and quick to explain the sudden mysterious disappearance of Jack the Ripper. It is theorized that The Ripper might have been a doctor, a Polish Jew, royalty, a fish porter, a sailor, a barrister, and even a policeman. The police in 1888 had several suspects that were listed as high possibilities but unfortunately no evidence ever surfaced; however they were able to generally theorize that the man specifically targeted prostitutes and women of low social standing, he had a job since the murders took place on weekends, he had a “general knowledge of anatomy and marked skill at dissection” (Odell, pg 140) due to the evisceration of some of the victims, and possibly left handed due to the direction of the knife cuts. During the time of the murders there were three prominent suspects that were questioned or at least highly suspected by British authorities: Aaron Kominski, Francis Tumblety, and Montague John Druitt. Aaron Kominski was a Polish Jew who lived in the White Chapel section and was actually identified by a witness as Jack the Ripper and said to have been insane; however the witness refused to give official testimony against Kominski and authorities released him. Francis Tumblety was a doctor who was a well-known misogynist and arrested on eight counts of homosexual behavior. Chief Inspector Littlechild disclosed in a letter that Tumblety was a chief suspect in his investigation, and the murders do cease after he fled England on November 24th to avoid charges of forcing homosexual behavior. The third most popular suspect is barrister John Montague Druitt whose body was pulled from the Thames River 7 weeks after the last killing. Druitt’s family had a history of mental illness and Inspector McNaghten admitted “I have always held strong opinions regarding him, and the more I think the matter over, the stronger do these opinions become.” (Casebook, suspects)Inspector McNaghten was a chief supporter of the theory that Jack the Ripper (whoever he was), eventually committed suicide due to his obviously depraved nature. The last suspect mentioned is not part of the original suspect list,but is probably one of the more disturbing possibilities. “William Stewart was one of the first to write about the possibility of Jill the Ripper in his book Jack the Ripper: A New Theory, published in 1939.” (Casebook, Suspects) In his book, Stewart suggests the possibility of a deranged midwife as a possible “Jill the Ripper” citing a woman’s ability to navigate the streets of White Chapel and commit murders without arousing suspicion. The suspects mentioned are but a handful that have developed over the past century, and even today the public and the media enjoy theorizing, “Who is Jack the Ripper?”
The "Autumn of Terror" in 1888 not only affected Victorian England, but continues to capture the imagination of modern society. English society in the 1800s was essentially divided between the affluent West End and the destitute East End. The poverty, disease and violence that plagued the working and criminally poor of the East End was largely ignored by those in a position to aid or reform. The Whitechapel Murders, however, changed that mentality and flung the desperate situation of the East Enders into the public eye. No matter what their take on the murders were, no one in London could remain apathetic. There was a general call for reform, it was often thought that if the government ever decided "to suppress disorderly houses, to cleanse and widen the streets, to pave and light the courts and alleys, the chief external conditions which
favor murder will have been removed"(Haggard, 13-14).
Though the murders caused the West End to finally recognize the plight of their neighbors, they also served to further divide an already fractured society. The most visible manifestations of division are the many theories surrounding the identity of the murders. While the more affluent West End clung to the idea that only a lunatic, a member of the poor class or both could be responsible for such violent behavior, the reaction of the destitute East End reflected their suspicion of foreigners (specifically Jews), the police and upper class society. The murders inflamed the already existing hatred and distrust between the classes.
The Ripper case also transformed the face of crime in modern society. Jack the Ripper is the first recorded serial killer. His technique and actions gave rise to countless copycat killers not only in London but in America as well. In fact, the term "Whitechapel Murders" refers not only to those killings attributed to Jack the Ripper, but also the three or more murders that imitated his killing style. The presence of copycat killings in America gave rise to(mainly discounted) theories that the infamous serial killer had traveled the Atlantic to wreak havoc on the U.S. Jack the Ripper also gave birth to a
practice that thrives to this day: tabloid journalism. The fascination with this case owes a lot to the media. There are theories that attribute the creation of The Ripper’s now notorious moniker to the press itself. The media has also been accused of hindering the police investigation by stirring up the general public into a frenzy. The Ripper Case is the origin of the love hate relationship between the public, the press and the police.
"The Autumn of Terror" captured the general public’s imagination and even influenced the way they viewed popular entertainment and vice-versa. At the time of the murders, American actor Richard Mansfield staged a production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Mansfield’s dead on portrayal of the mild mannered doctor by day turned vicious killer by night inspired the still prevalent theory of the identity of "The Ripper." But while the murders may have improved the sales of what had been an only moderately well-received novel two years previous, Mansfield’s performance was purportedly so convincing as to lead the public not only to believe he must be the killer himself, but also to avoid the play; to the actor’s financial ruin(Coville, 15). The question remains why The Whitechapel Murders fascinate the public to this day. The case has been the subject of countless books, movies, and articles. Some believe the appellation itself is responsible for the public’s fascination. The use of the commonplace "Jack" evokes an element of commonality in the killer. The "Ripper" is the everyman’s dark side; not somebody, but everybody. Others attribute its prevailing appeal to the unsolved mystery surrounding the case (Coville, 8-9). If Jack the Ripper
were to be identified beyond a doubt he would lose his allure.
Bibliography:
Begg, Paul, Martin Fido, and Keith Skinner. The Jack the Ripper: A to Z. Headline Book Publishing, London, 1991.
Coville, Gary
and Patrick Luciano, Jack The Ripper: His Life and Crimes in
Popular Entertainment. London: McFarland & Co., Inc., 1999.
Cullen, Tom A. When London Walked in Terror. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1965.
Curtis, L. Perry. Jack the Ripper and the London Press. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2001.
Fairclough, Melvyn. The Ripper and The Royals. London: Duckworth, 1991.
Jones, Elwyn
and John Lloyd. The Ripper File: The Documentary Investigation by
Detective Chief Superintendents Charles Barlow and John Watt. London: Arthur
Baker Ltd. 1975.
Odell, Robin. Jack the Ripper: In Fact and Fiction. London:
George G. Harrap & Co. LTD, 1965
Web Sites
The Casebook. Ed. Stepen P. Ryder, and John A. Piper 1996-2002
Haggard, Robert F. "Jack the Ripper As the Threat of Outcast London." Essays in
History. Vol. 35. 1993. Corcoran Department of History at the University of
Virginia. February 4, 2002. 42 vols.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH35/haggard1.html
The World Wide Serial Killer Homepage. Ed. Raymond Chitolie. 1997
http://hosted.ray.easynet.co.uk/serial_killers/whitecha.html.