2 (a) Study Sources A and B in the Sources

Booklet.
How useful are Sources A and B for an
enquiry into the effectiveness of the
police in Whitechapel in 1888?

Explain your answer, using Sources A and B

and your knowledge of the historical
context. (8)
How useful are sources A & B for an enquiry
of…? (8 marks)
• Content - what useful info does it contain?

• Provenance – Nature Origin Purpose

• Own knowledge
– Comprehensive
– Accurate – does it ‘match’ your own knowledge?
– Typical – is the view common or unusual?
Source A: An artist’s impression of a scene in the
Whitechapel district of London in 1888.
It was printed in the Penny Illustrated Paper, a cheap
weekly newspaper. The police constable is from H
Division. The building behind him is a police station.
A mob in Spitalfields
Source B: From an article in The Times newspaper,
October 1888. The Times was a national newspaper,
mainly read by the upper classes.
Many critical comments have been made about
police failures in connection with the
Whitechapel murders. However, it should be
remembered that this type of woman
chooses to go alone to the place where she has
agreed to meet a man.
Some weeks ago, plain-clothes policemen were
ordered to patrol this crime-ridden
area of Whitechapel and to watch any man or
woman seen together in suspicious
circumstances.
At about the time when the Mitre Square murder
was being committed two of the
extra men who had been put on duty were nearby.
They would have seen any man
and woman going together to Mitre Square.
Therefore the police suspect that the murderer had
made an appointment with his
female victim and they went to the place separately.
 Writing frame
• Source A is useful for telling us about the
problems the police faced as it says that
………………… It is supported by…
(quote)… It is also useful as it
mentions/refers to…… which I can see
from……(quote)…….
• However, it is limited as it doesn’t mention
other reasons/ features that led to
ineffectiveness in the force such as………...
• The source is a picture/report/newspaper
article therefore
 Possible knowledge could be used to support source work

•Lots of murders in the period.  1888-89 was the period of the Whitechapel Murders of which 5 were
thought to be the work of Jack the Ripper who was never caught. This failure made them seem
incompetent.
•It was not until 1895 that there were rules for recruitment to the police that made it compulsory that
officers could read and write. Policemen had only two weeks of training – ill-equipped to deal with
crowds and many crimes.
•1886 there was a major protest in Trafalgar Square which got out of hand causing the Police
Commissioner Henderson to resign. Under him the police had been at the centre of a number of
scandals showing corruption in the police force.  For example in 1877 ‘the Trial of the Detectives’ and
the police involvement in the case of Thomas Titley, 1880 which was said to be a set-up by the police
•There was another riot in Trafalgar Square in 1887.  The next police commissioner, Sir Charles Warren
•Charles Booth’s map of poverty in London in 1889 clearly shows areas of extreme poverty
•Newspapers often exaggerated criminality to shock but at the same time still provide an idea of the
problems faced by the police and why many believed that the police were incapable of keeping law
and order. Other pictures in papers at the time show criminals running rings round the police who
looked incapable of catching anyone.  There was fierce competition between the many London
newspapers to sell copies so they tended to sensationalise and even made things up speaking to
witnesses who claimed to know about the crime scenes. Sometimes newspapers concentrated on
demonstrations making them out to be worse than they were to put pressure on the Home Secretary
to remove the head of head of the police.
•Crime was big news and that this interest became a frenzy in 1888 during the Ripper crisis.
 Exam practice
How useful are sources A and B for an
enquiry into the problems encountered by
the police investigating the Whitechapel
murders?

• Whitechapel revision book page 40