Hi Everyone, there has been a mix up with trying to get on the blog, if anyone still has any problems getting in please send me your email address on that note, lets discuss whos going to do what as a group, and it will be best if we can decide this in class to.
See you all soon!
Waqar
18 comments:
Hello,
Just figured out how to use this blog.
I was browsing the net and came across the BBC website which noted the five most likely suspects who have been accused of being Jack the Ripper. As we need ideas for our presentation maybe we could include this information; basing it on the top suspects.
Reading through some of Mark's handouts I have found that there are alot of suspects! Several people have been suspected then released within a short space of time.
We just need to think of a plan so we know exactly what to reserch.
Amandeep
Hi Aman
I’ve seen some links that are in the Jack the Ripper folder which are:
Casebook: Jack the Ripper – http://www.casebook.org/index.html
Jack the Ripper – http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/museum/item.asp?item_id=39
and there’s plenty more there, I am going to have a look at some of them today but we should try getting as much information we can from these websites we should then meet up and try looking for some journals in the library. I am going to look in my local library, they probably will have some books relating to the people that might be the Jack the Ripper and we can try relating it to what Mark Jones said about Upper class and later Middle Class people being chosen as the suspects, Ideology in other words.
Waqar
According to Evans and Rumbelow's 'Jack the Ripper', up to 1,8876000 prostitutes were arrested in the Metropolitan Police District each year, around the time of the murders. The Whitechapel murders began in April 1888. Seperate from the actual Ripper Murders, although they contain them, the first was that of Emma Elizabeth Smith, a 45-year old prostitute.
She has been seen at 12:15 am on the 3rd of April, talking to a man with dark clothes in Farrance Street, Limehouse. Between 4 and 5am, she walked to the lodging house in George Street and claimed assault and robbery at Osborn Street, speaking of her "private parts had been injured." She was made to go to the London Hospital for treatment and at 9am on the 4th April, she was dead - the police were not informed until the 6th.
The Ripper Murders began in August - but, who's to say that Emma Elizabeth Smith wasn't the first victim of the serial killer?
For one to believe that Emma Smith was a victim of the Jack the Ripper killings we would need to accept that Jack the Ripper was part of a gang at the time, or previous to the murders. After the attack Emma managed to remain conscious long enough to describe her vicious attack; it is therefore believed that her killing was a result of one of many gangs whom raided the streets of Whitechapal searching for prostitutes to steal from. One reason this murder was not identified with the Jack the Ripper killings was due to her being raped, unlike the Jack the Ripper cases. For that reason there is no motive to disbelieve Emma Smith’s story that she was attacked by more than one man, quite possibly the Old Nichol gang.
Hi everyone,
In relation to Sethveer's response, i found there's further research that is questionable; however, in this case it's a suspect.
I’ve been looking at some research on the Polish Jew, Aaron Kosminski. I found more arguments proving that he wasn't the original Jack the Ripper than evidence showing he was.
Kosminski was classed as a possible suspect for simple facts as him being a barber and carrying a razor (which wasn't even the weapon that The Ripper used), having a history of brutal crimes (although had no link to the Ripper murders)and, probably the strongest point, the bloodstained apron being found by his home.
As part of the group presentation task, I’m going to continue my research on Aaron Kosminski and see whether i find any other theories about him being a suspect.
That's the issue with the Jack the Ripper murders, though - everything's left to theories and guesswork. See, another possible suspect in the murders was Lewis Carrol. The possibility of him, to me, to be the murderer is extremely narrow, especially since a lot of the ideas stem from the anagrams of his work. Is that really enough to base it on?
Or there's Dr Thomas Barnado? In September 1888, the editer of the Pall Mall Gazette proposed this theory, saying how the murders would have been carried out by a scientific humanitarian - as if to say that Barnado would have committed thse killings to open the eyes of people to the suffering of the poor in the East End. No doubt the public were awakened by the killings. and furthermore, Barnado was dobbed in a scandal by two of his critics, the Reverend George Reynolds and Frederic Charrington when he was accused of 'walking arm in arm with prostitutes' although he was said to be happily married.
It was also revealed that he'd gone and identified the body of Elizabeth Stride - having met with her and four other prostitutes in a lodging house.
There seems to be some identification and reasoning behind each suspect, but they aren't exactly easily fathomable.
A lot of the work is theory and assumptions. I have done further research on my suspect Kosminski and have found further information in relation to him being a suspect. Even though he has no criminal convictions, the police at the time had still decided to place him as a suspect. There is only one account that I have come across where onlty one witness was supposedly bought forward placing Kosminski at the scene of the crime. However, the witnesses name is unknown, and I also found that the witness had claimed that it was out of Kosminski and another suspect (who is also unknown due to lack of sources) that they were sure of. Further into my research I am beginning to getting even more interested and keen on finding out for what particular reason and why was Aaron Kominski pinpointed for possibly being Jack The Ripper?
I have found some basic facts about the suspect whom I am researching; this suspect being Jill the Ripper. As everyone was out looking for a man ‘Jack the Ripper’ it apparently gave females the chance to roam the streets and perform their attacks without suspicion. The idea of a midwife being the ripper was aroused; having the ability to remove human organs, being seen with blood on herself without suspicion and being of a middle class fit into the description enabling someone to do such damage to bodies. Would a woman have the ability to hide her image of a ripper more than a man would?
All these theories just seem to feel like ever deciding which one could actually be the killer seems further out of reach. You have everyone ranging from Queen Victoria to some poor Polish delinquent.
And who is to actually say the description of Jack the Ripper is right. He may never have worn a cloak, or a hat...did he honestly need to carry a doctor's bag? He could have been lucky and managed to scarper before any concern was raised. You have these theories, and to say that it could be any of them because of their occupation, or how it wouldn't raise suspicion to carry a knife for a butcher just seems like a cheap option to point the finger at someone. It doesn't actually have to be any of these, which is what is amusing, because most of the conspiracies single out people to that effect...and there's not even any evidence, that I have seen yet, to say that anyone saw someone running from any scene of crime covered in blood in a butcher's apron.
Out of all the celebrity suspects that I've been looking out, I'm instantly ruling out some: Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, Rasputin, Lewis Carroll, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - they either don't seem plausible, or the evidence behind them is simply fabrication or a blind searching for someone to point the finger at. One of the Jill the Ripper suspects was Madame Helen Blavatsky.
I'm completely for it being a man - simply because I don't think it being alright for a midwife to walk the streets stained with blood is a fair enough reason for it to be a woman. Although, it would be easier to say that the last murder would have been easier to carry out by a woman in a room, but then again, these were prostitutes, so it wouldn't be odd for her to have gone with him to her death.
Unless it was a woman she knew?
It's just too open, especially since there's not much hard evidence for the type of person it could possible be.
I’ve been looking at some of the letters that were found and supposedly sent by Jack The Ripper himself. When I read the first letter, dated from 27th September 1888 (also known as the ‘Dear Boss Letter’), I had found references made to killings made, although talking about it in a sarcastic and almost breezy manner. Furthermore I noticed how it was written with colloquial language, with comments such as “I saved some of the proper red stuff” and writing “ha. ha.” after commenting on the murder. However, as looked at more of the letters that had been established, the language skills and techniques had changed. There were many mistakes in some of the spellings of words in the ‘From Hell’ letter dated from 16th October 1888, such as “kidne” and “knif”. Looking at the ‘Dear Boss Letter” in comparison with the ‘From Hell’ letter, it may be possible that Kosminski could have been the killer as he was Polish and perhaps not fluent in speaking, therefore writing, in English. On the other hand it could also suggest that the any of the writers as well as the letters may be bogus. This is because the fluent English in the ‘Dear Boss’ letter was clearly written by a fluent English speaker, whereas the letters that were sent later had some grammatical and spelling errors, possibly meaning there was a different writer for each letter.
Some of my research that I have carried out on Aaron Kosminski has been taken from Trevor Marriot’s Jack the Ripper: The 21st Century Investigation. In this, Marriot provides the readers with is perception of many of the issues related to Jack the Ripper, who he was, his killings and his motivations. There have been accusations that Kosminski was a suspect because of he was possibly classed as insane. For instance, when a kidney was found, (found at link http://www.accomodata.co.uk/suspects.htm) it was seen as a disturbing action, the implication of him being deranged fitted.
Although there were these accusations, Marriott investigates further. There is a brief section based around Aaron Kosminski, which was helpful in providing further information on Kosminski’s background. It is explained how he was admitted into an “infirmary for the insane” towards the end of 1890. Marriott briefly explains how he wasn’t considered as dangerous and never put in a straightjacket. This could overrule the idea that Kosminksi was the killer due to him supposedly being insane.
As we all know many accusations were made about several people as being Jack the Ripper. It is also true to say that no one will ever know whom was actually Jack the Ripper, although the story will continue for years to come. As there are so many suspects with so little evidence something which needs to be thought about are the reasons for people suspecting the certain suspects. For instance; Jill the Ripper, Madame Helena Blavatsky was said to have a loathing for physical relationships, accusations were made saying she could have killed the women as they made their living from sex. However, she was suffering from chronic liver disease at the time of the murders. Though, she was still recognised as a suspect even though evidence showed otherwise. Could the reasons for her being accused be related to her teachings of voodoo and supernatural manifestations? They could also be due to her being a woman; whoever pointed the finger at Blavatsky may have had other reasons, other than catching the actual killer.
A group of suspects which were singled out were the Jews, there are various individuals; Jewsish individuals, who have been accused of the Ripper murders. Why, is the question? The Jews were immigrants; therefore, ‘…it is not surprising that crimes of such an alien nature should be blamed upon an alien community.’ As everyone was looking for a scapegoat for the murders, the Jews were conveniently available as a choice. On September 1888 it was reported by the East London observer that there was an increase in the threatening attitude towards the Hebrew population. The Jewish population increased over the years, they were seen as being filthy, with a life status of low wages and having long periods of unemployment. As their population extended others of the community looked down upon the Jews. Thus being another means for them to take the blame for the murders, the large Christian population in London could use this situation as an excuse to lower the Jewish status further.
In response to Sethveers case about Jill the Ripper, I have done some research and have found out that there are some possible links to her murder. Their is a witness by the name of Mrs.Maxwell, who says she saw the victim Mary Kelly not once, but twice. The first time was before the murder and the second time was several hours after the murder. It could have been the killer wearing the victim’s clothes to disguise herself from being noticed. Mary Pearcey who was suspected also new anatomy so she did have some sort of skill to remove organs from the body, she also knew the pressure points to make them go to sleep. This can be an advantage as people would hear no screaming. Jill the Rippers reason behind why she would kill her own sex would be that she had been betrayed by a woman that she had tried to help and ended up in jail.
After the presentation was over, I felt that we had touched upon the right suspects for the Suspects case on Jack the Ripper. Also I think me and the group had researched well on finding out why those certain people were being picked on as suspects. I feel that whilst me and the group had done the presetation we had got a little nervous and that made us stutter or I would repeat myself. The projector also went off halfway on our presentation and that made me lose focus for a couple of minutes on my discussion about Jill the ripper.
If I had to do that presentation again I would put more information about the inlfuence it has caused and for the 20th and 21st century and touch upon many other things because I think me and the group had focused on why the people we had talked about in our presentation were a danger to society on the 1880's.
I agree with your comment Waqar, I think that if we had focused on the impact that the suspects have on a contemporary society it would have been much more interesting and much more different than researching what the views were of the people at that time. By exploring the information as to why certain people were made suspects around the period of the Ripper killings, the results seemed to be repetitive because many of the people would have shared the same views about lower class, foreign people within London, and other reason linking to the suspects. I think that a slightly more modern approach may have been better, with more up to date findings on what affect Jack the Ripper and some of the suspect’s have on today’s society.
After completing the presentation, I feel, there were a few ideas which we missed out due to lack of confidence. I agree with both Raj and Waqar, although, we had some information about society at the time of the event, more was definitely needed. I also think we should have mentioned more about the celebrity suspects and reasons behind the accusations against them. We had some in our PowerPoint; however, I do not think we spoke about it in the presentation. I also believe we may have had too much background information of the suspects, rather than analysing their situation, we just told it. Though, it was difficult to find societal issues based around each of the suspect we discussed.
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