WALGENWITZ Leila

GALAIS Violette
LEFEUVRE Léa

Jack the Ripper

We are going to present the famous serial killer Jack the Ripper. We have chosen that
subject because we wanted to introduce you to a cultural fact related to the British culture.
We found the story of, and around Jack the Ripper interesting. It’s a historical fact. It can be
considered as a myth because of the popular infatuation and the mystery that still remains
around this event.
We will focus on two different points: Jack the Ripper’ murders in the Victorian Era. Then, we
will see the reactions and consequences to this incident at that time.

To contextualize, I will talk about the political, social and economic situation.
At the end of the nineteenth century, during the Victorian era, the United Kingdom was the
world’s leading powerhouse. London was the most populated town in the world. The
metropole was the capital of the first power industrial world. The city also led the largest
empire colonial of the world. However, power, wealth and modernity contrasts with poverty
and immigration. Poverty affects especially Irish and Jewish people. They settled in East
End London, in unhealthy and dangerous neighborhoods. The pollution of the city due to
industrial work causes fog especially in these neighborhoods. People couldn’t see more than
ten meters when it was the case.
The murders began on August 31th 1888. A prostitute, Mary Ann Nichols is found
murdered in the Whitechapel neighborhood. At the beginning, it didn’t seem surprising
because there were a lot of single or widow women who were prostitutes because of the lack
of money and misery. Moreover, Whitechapel was known for its insecurity, poorness and
alcoholism. Consequently, they often suffered misfortunes.
Her missing is surprising because of the extreme violence of her murder. She was
slaughtered and her belly was opened with a long knife. A week later, another woman, Annie
Chapman, is found dead in a place very close to the one where Nichols was murdered. She
was killed by the same process of murder.
On September 30, a double murder was made. Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes were
killed fifteen minutes apart. On November 5th, the last murder known took place. Another wife,
Mary Kelly, is younger than the other women in their forties. She is in her mid-twenties. She was
found dead at home unlike the other women. She was killed with the same process of killing than
the four other victims.
The killer knew the importance of the media and wanted to be known for his actions.
On September, 27 he sent a letter to a Londoner newspaper, it’s written with red ink. Some
people made the hypothesis, the letters were written with blood. In his letters, he gives his
nickname: Jack the Ripper. In his writings, he made fun of the police who had hard times to
catch him. He said that he loves his jobs and will start again his actions soon. The police
encouraged the press to publish the letter. They think it would be an easier way to find him if
anyone knows this writing. From this, the press will begin to create hypotheses about the
murders. For example, the knife used to kill the victims seems to be a doctor knife or coming
from a butcher for the precision of cutting… On October 1st, another letter sent to the same
media was written by Jack. He said that he’s glad of having killed two women the day before.
 He is at the origin of the concept of the “serial killer”. This term appeared at the end
of the nineteenth century with the development of the press. Newspapers are more and
more read. Education has improved and technical progress allows a large diffusion of the
newspapers. The press is always looking for scary stories and these killings are ideals. The
evening magazine the Star multiplied its rates by ten talking about that, The Illustrated
Criminal Crimes mentions the investigations each week with drawing and even the Times is
interested in it. It seems that without the huge influence of the press about that story, it would
have been forgotten by all and we certainly would not know. Press made Jack the Ripper
famous in describing all details of murders. On October 16th, a third letter was sent to the
police but it’s pretty different. The characters aren’t written in the same way and it’s written
that it comes from hell. When the fifth murder is mentioned by the press, Jack the Ripper is
very well-known worldwide. More than a hundred newspapers from all over the world talked
about him.
At the beginning, the police were not very concerned about the murders of prostitutes
in Whitechapel, but the killing processes and the examination of their bodies lead them to
think of a serial killer. The Queen was becoming interested in what happened and couldn’t
stop to ask the police to stop him the earliest time possible. Police have big difficulties to find
the killer. First of all, we don’t know the number of victims precisely. Officially they were the
“five canonical murders” as underlined above. Some newspapers unofficially evoke the
possibility of eleven or thirteen murders. In Whitechapel the violence is daily so it’s very
difficult to establish the number of deaths committed by the serial killer. Two thousand
witnesses were interviewed to help identify the killer but it wasn’t very concluant because the
description of the killer was very different from someone to another.
Regarding experts and DNA expertise on organs, they will wait a century. We still don’t know
if the letters really came from Jack because the grapholophics didn’t get along on that point.
Some evoke the possibility of a journalist who wrote it to increase the tension during
investigations.
People suffer from the waiting of the identification of the killer. They reprimanded the
police for not protecting them. The paranoia makes people feel very scared. In the
neighborhood, a vigilance committee makes rounds at night. They must prevent the police
from every person they find suspicious. Paranoia and scapegoats are becoming more and
more common. British people are convinced it couldn’t be an Englishman who acted in such
a mad and bad way. Immigrant people and especially Jewish people from Central Europe
who escaped repression. They are accused of being at the origin of this murder. Some of
them just avoided from being lynching. Antisemitic drawings have been made on walls.
Medias and the police receive letters in which a neighbor is denounced. Other people ask to
offer their help in the investigation.

To conclude, we will probably never know certainly who he was. He still fascinates a lot of
people because of the character created by the police and the press. He became a genuine
fictional character. He exists in all cultural fields. Today, his identity is still studied. The last
analysis was made in March 2019, on a Polish Jew immigrant: Aaron Krominsky. However,
the scientific results and the coherence with the life of this man remain fragile to determine
him as Jack the Ripper. This recent work underlines the deep willingness and interest of
scholarships and scientific about him. His identity is still wanted over hundred thirty years
later for his crimes.