The hunt for jack the riperr

It’s hard to imagine 19th century London without conjuring up the image of Jack the Ripper and the terror he brought to the East End. His crimes were vicious but surprisingly quick. Even by today’s standards his efforts were shockingly brutal. He came out of nowhere and disappeared just as quickly without leaving behind clues or evidence as to his identity. Even today, over 100 years later, histrue identity isn’t known and experts can only hazard an educated guess as to who he was. There is even debate as to why the murders even occurred. Little is known about his psychological state and the forces that were driving him. The total number of victims is also debated as some feel there may be more or less than the traditional five we know about. All that’s really known is that Jack theRipper struck fear into the citizens of Whitechapel and kept the police guessing during his spree of 1888.
Whitechapel almost made it easy for a killer like Jack the Ripper to take root. Far from the imagery of well to do horse drawn carriages, or the Bobby laden streets is the reality that Whitechapel was nothing more than a square mile ghetto full of impoverished Jewish and Irish immigrants as wellas throngs of prostitutes. 600,000 people crammed the area and survival was a day to day affair with the residents doing whatever they could to get by. Violence and crime were common. It was noisy and the lower forms of work were done here such as butchery. It wasn’t uncommon for men to be seen with blood soaked clothes heading to and from work, further giving concealment to the Ripper’sactivities. Prostitution was common and there was no shortage of workers or customers.
Before the spree actually starts some rather brutal murders take place in Whitechapel. Martha Tabram who some believe to truly be the first Ripper victim was discovered at 3:30am with 40 stabs wounds. While she doesn’t bare the vicious incisions later victims would receive the killer was certainly in a frenzied state.There is also Emma Smith who is beaten to death, although she is not slashed or eviscerated. Are these the early works of Jack the Ripper or just victims of the poor conditions of the area?
But then the real terror starts as Jack gets to work and kills 5 prostitutes in what may be called a rampage. He slashes their throats, rips open their bodies and proceeds to remove and keep organs astrophies. Such brutality like this hadn’t been seen before. Each murder seems to only take a minute or two, no sound is heard, no witnesses are around and Jack is able to slip away without getting caught. Even in this bustling slum, no one sees the murders occur in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, Jack has the prostitutes working in his favor. He doesn’t have to lead them to some place quiet andsecluded, they do that for him. The very nature of their business means they will sneak away where they won’t be disturbed. And of course the idea of a gentleman in black overcoat and top hat is nothing more than glamorized fiction. Considering the squalor that existed in Whitechapel a person dressed like that would stick out. If anything he would look more like a sailor or seaman.
In each casethe victims are brutalized and left out in the open to be discovered. Each crime seems to escalate in violence. Many feel Jack was disturbed during the attach of Elizabeth Stride which is why her body wasn’t cut up like the others. If so, this interruption would have simply left the killer frustrated and unsatisfied, which is why his next victim Catherine Eddowes is so terribly mutilated. While thiscertainly makes sense, some feel that Stride was not a Ripper victim and may have been a copycat. This is also the time where a cryptic message is left on the wall near the first victim. Is this a deranged prank, simple graffiti, or did Jack have time to kill Stride, write a message and then move on for another victim? Is he at the height of a frenzy or is more than one killer at work?
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