Will the myth of the ripper ever end?

The ripper's identity is still unproven; however the name is still regarded with terror, by those who read into the history of London's east end.

The mystery has deepened, as time goes on, because the truth is obscure, due to facts being disturbed into stories, books, plays, films and musicals.

The truth has been less accepted than fiction stories of the ripper.

The name jack is easy to explain, at the time of Victorian Britain, and the word ripper was written along with 'Jack', at the end of a letter, dated on the 25Th September, 1888.

The letter was received by Central news agency, on the 27Th September, then sent to the police on the 29Th September.

The likely hood a the letter being written by central news or someone from the police, is very likely, although, all rippoliogists are aware of the letter ever existing, and can't help to think weather the letter was from the one and only 'jack the ripper'.

A quote from the letter connected the ripper, to the murders: 'i am down on the whores and i shan't quit ripping them till i do get buckled'.

The trade name 'jack the ripper', steamed form the letter and later released to the excited public by the press at the time, thus the creating imagination in pop culture.

Many facts from the investigation of the ripper, keep the myth alive, regardless of there connection with the true killer of the white chapel murders.

It is as though, all facts have to be interpreted the same for the myth to survive all these years, for example, the top hat and clock, and the apron

An image of a well dressed, middle aged man wearing a top hat, long clock, and a doctors bag comes to mind when one speaks of the ripper in Victorian Britain.

The story of the apron began when, someone found an apron in Goulston street after the murders of Catherin Eddowes o the 30TH September.

Written on the wall above the apron was message saying, 'the Jews are the men that will not be blamed for nothing'.

The myth spread within the Jewish, polish and the British residents of London's east end. But who was the ripper....i will post the answer to this question in then next blog.

Have a look at the photos i found on the metropolitan polices history.

The workhouse in victorian times

I have been throughthe articles I picked up on Jack at the start of the module and there is some good stuff in there.
Jack the Ripper As the Threat of Outcast London by Robert F. Haggard is interesting because it deals with some of the social stuff around the situation. It would offer some good information on people, places and environment for D's slide it's accessible on line.

I was just looking for workhouse/doss house images and found something interesting. It's not directly connected, but its an astonishing web site. Very interesting (not to mention distressing. Its well worth a look. The workhouse didn't close down until 1929 or 1930 in Wolverhampton. Well it didn't close down....it became New Cross Hospital. I would really like to use the picture at the top in the talk. I'll work it into the whole culture etc of the time.

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/index.html?Wolverhampton/Wolverhampton.shtml

The site lists lots of workhouses, and the staff and inmate names from the 1881 census.

Polly

Did you know?

East London was successful in the manifacturing of gun powder,rope making,bone processing to produce soap and china.

However, much of the east end was destroyed as a result of world war 2.This encouraged dispersal (people moved to different parts of London)and helped to reduce the overcrowding.

Iam yet to show you a map of East london which represents the different social classes in different areas of East London in 1888.http://www.casebook.org

What was east London like in 1888

I will be covering how the envioronment was in East London and also the population in 1888.This links to the study of Jack The Ripper as it gives us an insight in to who he was,his possible back ground and why he may have commited such deviant murders.

The area East London came about due to:
The Medieval period in which it was situated east of the walled city of London.It was north of the River Thames in London.
The east end habitated imigrants and the poor,this came as a result of the clearanceof slum and down troden areas.Eastlondon was well known for disease poverty and overcrowding.This helped to increse the rate of crime.
The environmental surroundings in the East End
It was originally an area that was surroundedby farm land.This was possible before the industrial period and would suggest that ther was good soil for planting crops and keeping cattle.
It was also useful for its docks which enabled trade imports and exports and supported the Royal Navy.
But also you could imagine that this period is close to the time of the industrial revolution,so when this land was used to produce houses it saw the making of factories and industrial buildings That would cause pollution.East London was full of imigrants such as Jewish people,Irish people and Bungali.This encouraged social reforms which helped to create unions.This enhanced the Labour party and that of the Suffragges movementfor women.
East London was one of the poorest parts of London as did have bany real famous landmarks,it wasn't agreat tourest attraction.The political issues were dealt with in centural or the western part of London such as Westminister.

ripper obssession

Jack ripper 's mutilating style tended to focus on the abdominal cavity and the removal of his victim's sexual organs.

The captivated sexual parts of the prostitutes was a shock to the repressed female society in the Victorian times.

Men could only project their sexual fantasies, anxieties and fears through rumours and detail from the ripper's murders.

The detectives could only enforce a rational ego to catch the murderer and restore society.

Of course, the police weren't successful because, they themselves were involved in the dramatic stories of the ripper.



The frenzy only grew, spreading to rural areas in London.

Although, people lived in a safe neighbourhood they could not forget the danger lurking around the corner.

The ripper obsession resulted in the queen's pardon for the killer to come forward in avoidance of being charged.



Society identified with the crimes so strongly, that people started to protest about how unfit the police were to catch the killer.



Of course, this started to became boring, so new rumor started to circulate the streets of east London, through news papers influences and Chinese whippers.

New speculation focus on prince Edward being involved with a lower class shop girl , so he started killing ever one that might have known about the affair in an effort to silence the black mailer.

News papers started to report on the murders in a more dramatic manner. The ripper was then named as the, 'leather apron', due to the butchering technical.



Victorians didn't advanced technology as we have in the 21st century so so a murder was more entertaining than sitting in front of a black and white television watching how one ought to be a good house wife or a successful business man.

People began to spy on there neighbours and verbal communication increased in effort to catch people as the killer.

doctors were scrutinised due to the fascinating knowledge of the ripper's dissection.



People started to commit copy cat crimes, and others confessed to the crimes to pursue the thrill of killing without committing.

• So why did the obsession of the ripper grew so much without a high media influence?


• Victorian England felt , that immoral actions were not something one should speak of, let alone practice, Jack the ripper murders were the first immoral acts, the public had to deal with.


• Speaking of the ripper actions was a direct approach to understand immoral actions


• The upper class felt they had no part in participating in immoral acts however they were intrigued.


• There views expressed that immoral actions tented to belong to the lower class, although everyone knew that people in the upper class were also indulging in immoral acts.

People took advantage of the situation, expressing unrespectable feelings, towards Jews.

Anti Semites began when rumors circulated and people started to believe the ripper was a Rabi.b The rumor encouraged English rationalism and racism.

Women began to talk about sex openly and wax Muslims made wax representations of the murders so, people have a visual fascination.

The idea of a subbasement Innocent female souls was no longer in forced because women were now met with immoral fantasies, this meant women had a visual participation in sexual violence, therefore women could voluntarily commit crimes men could commit. This introduced the idea, that the ripper could have been a women.

women had never felt such excitement before.

Slides

Heres all the Information for my slides. Sorry Im late sending it but I was working over the weekend.
Slides Information

Slide 1 – Division of Classes/ wealth
Annual Income Aristocrats - £30,000, Labourers, soldiers £25 (http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm)
Before the reform act “The rapidly growing new industrial cities are for the most part unrepresented in parliament” (http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1158&HistoryID=ab07) this meant the Labourers were not represented at parliament which leads to their poor living arrangements.
“In 1832 Joseph Livesey and seven Preston workingmen signed a pledge that they would never again drink alcohol. Other groups of working men followed the example of Livesey and his friends and by 1835 the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance was formed.” (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REtemperance.htm)
George Simms in “How The Poor Live” “The gin-palace is heaven to them compared to the hell of their pestilent homes” (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REtemperance.htm)
The Contagious Diseases Acts were introduced in the 1860s for the compulsory examination of women believed to be common prostitutes for their hospitalization (known as lock hospitals or lock wards) should they be diagnosed suffering from a contagious disease within the meaning of the Acts (http://yourarchives.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php?title=The_Contagious_Diseases_Acts)
«Regulationist» policy attempted to isolate, segregate and domesticate prostitutional activity, resulting in a spatial order with clear class and gender biases. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WJN-45F4X9D-W&_user=1644469&_coverDate=07%2F31%2F2000&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000054077&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=1644469&md5=33e4f8a637715803b67c63a873f59c5c)

Slide 2 – Mortality Rates
101
Gentlemen, Professional Men, and their Families
45
1,258
Mechanics, Servants, Labourers, and their Families
16
· (http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/sanitary-4.htm) The Above table shows that the money that gentlemen and professional men have lead to an average extra 39 years, as well as over 1000 people less dieing
· The poor would receive £25 annual salary (http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm) this was not a guaranteed income and would often be a temporary position, which was the case for most poor people.
· Ripper Victims – Mary Ann Walker age 44, Annie Chapman age 48, Elizabeth Stride age 45, Catherine Eddowes age 46, Mary Jane Kelly age 25. (http://www.casebook.org/)
Slide 3 – Policing
The Metropolitan Police was formed on 29th September 1829 By Sir Robert Peel.
Key to the map of whitechappel show the Large Criminal sections of the area
There were disciplinary problems in 1847 amongst their officers on the 18 divisions, with 238 men being dismissed in the year. (http://www.met.police.uk/history/timeline1829-1849.htm)
Spring-heeled jack was a precursor to Jack the Ripper as it is another case with no known perpertrator “The police investigation was inconclusive alas, official investigators concluded the assailant was a local man who must have known the area and the Alsop family very well, but while suspects were known they could not positively identify any culprits.” (http://www.blackcatpress.co.uk/Spring_Heeled_Jack_Page.htm)
Slide 4 – Divisions of the metrolpolitan police (1857)
· The Chart shows the Divisions of the Metrolpoliton Police are and the number of Brothels in them (www.victorianlondon.org). The Jack the Ripper Killings took place in Divisions H and J.
· In Divion H in 1857 there were 1803 Prostitues.
· Division H was the White chappel Division and Division J was Bethnal Green. (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/hitch/gendocs/police.html)
· Divion J came after this chart. However Bethnal Green was one of the areas surrounding White Chappel and was very much in the same state as White chappel.
· In 1988 there were 548 Police officers in the witechappel divison (Division H) and 617 Officers in the Bethnal Green Division (Division J) (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/hitch/gendocs/police.html)

Disraeli quote

The Disraeli quote for the beginning of the talk

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy;who are as ignorant of each others habits' thoughts' and feelings' as if they were dwellers in different zones' or inhabitants of different panets. The rich and the poor.

Disraeli (1845) Sybil

Polly

Ripping yarns

Hi everyone.

I had originally thought about doing some handouts for people but the class list is enormous and also we don't know how many people will turn up. Next thought was "how about emailing the presentation to people so they can have it if they want to" does that seem reasonable?

I'm putting together the reference list, if anyone uses stuff that needs referencing can they email it to me please.



For the profile slide: (penultimate slide)

Title: Ripping Yarns

• The Usual Suspects.
• The Unusual Suspects
• Profiling The Ripper
• Ripperology

Conclusion slide:

• 1788
• 1888
• 1988

Have also discovered that Henry Mayhews work is online (London Labour and the London Poor) although I wouldn't recomend trying to print it off as there is loads of it.

See you soon

Polly