Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Whitechapel- East End of London (Crime (Migrants - associated with mafias,…
Whitechapel- East End of London
Living Conditions
Housing
Rookeries- slums, overcrowded housing with a lot of alley ways
George Peabody- Philanthropist turned slums into apartments known as the Peabody Estates. 286 Flats provided in1881. The housing was affordable- 3 shillings for a one room flat and the average wage for a labourer was 22 shillings
Over 1m people lived in London's east end
Lodging houses/ Doss hosues
transient population of Whitechapel made it popular for criminals and made it hard to track down JTR
200 doss houses accommodated 8,000 people
It was hard to police the narrow alleys, confined spaces, poor lit streets, multiple exits and entrances
Health
2 out of 10 children died, diseases like tuberculosis, rickets and scarlet fever were common
Wealth
1/3 of the 1m people living in east end lived in poverty
Charles Booth inquiry into the life and labour of people in London- Provides insight into the social livelihood of those in east end
Work
Poverty
1/3 of the east end were living in poverty
Average wage for a labourer was 22 shillings
Workers discontent
Dock strikes 1889- workers successfully mange to raise their wages
Workhouses
South Grove workhouse 1872
Concluded that the sick and destitute needed to be cared for seperately
400 children were removed from a hospital and accommodated
Healthy aged were on the ground floor and the infirm along the upper
Set up as poor relief offering food and shelter for destituttes
Dr Thomas Bornardo set up 100 Bornado orphanage homes many young people who were previously working at workhouses who felt prostitution and alcoholism was better were saved
Hard labour, poor conditions and punishment
Factories
Sweatshops
Tailoring, shoe- making and making matches
small, cramped, dusty, little light and days lasted up to 20 hours
Bell Foundry
Whitechapel's most famous factory
Prostitution
By1888 there were 1,200 prostitutes this reflects how hard life was
Brothels
By 1888 there were 62 brothels this reflects how hard life was
Crime
Migrants - associated with mafias, violence and mobs. They also bought new ideas like Socialism and Anarchism
Jews
refugees fleeing economic hardship and persecution from Russia as Alexander 111 led a crackdown on socialists and Jews in 1881
By 1888 Jewish population grown to 95%
Cultural clashes- the way they dressed and their language as they spoke yaddish
Irish
Irish dockers settled in the area due to the potato famine
Irish fenians were fanatical religious terrorists and the Special branch saw them as terrorists
Anarchists
in 1871 they tried to take over France so they fled to Britain- anyone with an eastern European voice was seen as a terrorist
Murders
Prostitution
Racism against the Irish and Jews led to violence
Rise in socialist views saw and increase in violence known as Bloody Sunday 1887
Petty theft
Alcoholism/ Drinking
Very strong drinks were affordable for everyone. Just one mile of Whitechapel road there were 45 buildings serving as pubs or gin palaces as well as opium dens
Gangs
Protection rackets- gangs would demand money for protection from small business owners and those who would refuse would have their business smashed up
For example Bessarabian Tigers and the Odessians were made up of all eastern europeans
Policing
Social Responses to poor policing
The police were heavily scrutinized for their slow responses
Whitechapel Vigilance Committee 1888- group of civilians organised by the rich to catch JTR.
They organised night searches hoping to catch JTR in the act
Sub-Division Roles
Special Branch
Department of the metropolitan police formed to counter Irish terrorism
Criminal Investigations Department (CID) 1878
Tiny and ineffective
216 officers
Crime detection
Frederick Abberline inspector assigned to JTR case
A beat Constable
They would patrol a particular area in whitechapel (a beat.)They would question people at night to find out what they were up to. They would update what had happened occasionally to the beat seargant. If the constable missed a crime at his beat or was not at his beat he would be dismissed or fined.
Pay was not good and sergeants would follow the constables to ensure they are not sleeping or idly chatting.
Corruption
There was a corruption scandal and people felt the police favoured the middle and upper class against the poor
Sir Charles Warren was appointed metropolitan police commissioner in 1886. He called the army against protestors at Trafalgar square on 'Bloody sunday'.The police action made people feel they favoured the upper class and this made policing poorer districts more difficult
H division
Superintendent and a chief inspector- 27 inspectors and 37 sergeants ran the division with 500 ordinary officers
H division Policed Whitechapel. The metropolitan police was split into 20 divisions each responsible for a distric
Set up 'soup kitchens' they could not offer money rewards as it could attract time wasters . they offered hot meals to witnesses
Jack the ripper
Victims (all alcoholics)
Emma smith, Martha Tabram, Mary Ann, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride(double event) Catherine Edowes, Mary Jane Kelly, Alice McKenzie
Why could the police not identify him?
Authority
Rivalry between forces
A short time after discovering Catherine Eddowes body, PC Alfred Long of H division got rid of important clues: her apron smeared with faeces and blood and a message on the wall "The Jews are the men that are blamed for nothing". He did this in fear of backlash from Jewish community or because he did not want to capture of JTR in his own boundary.
Lack of training- 16 days training and 20% of recruits were drunk on duty
Sir Charles Warren ordered a graffiti mark made by the killer to be washed off when it could have been useful
Press and public
Penny Dreadfuls
false news reports that usually had a foreign suspect, the police had to follow up on all reports
False Confessions
More than 300 letters, postcards, or newspapers sent to Frederick Abberline and his CID team claiming to be the murderer
Radical papers like Star attacked the police
The "From Hell" letter sent to Chairman George Lusk sent half of a human kidney
Techniques
Lack of forensic Techniques
Another 12 years till finger printing was used and DNA only used in 20th century
The "From Hell" letter sent to Chairman George Lusk sent half of a human kidney
East Ends
The east end was a vast open sprawl of alleyways, courts and backstreets which made it hard to patrol and easy for criminals to escape especially with poor street lighting
Many locals were petty criminals and did not co-operate with the police
Investigations done after the murders
Follow up leads - Suspicion that a gang near Bethnal green were to blame
Soup kitchens- hot meals for witneses
Evidence from Post Mortem- local doctor, Rees Llewellyn, suggested that cut marks on one of the victims indicated the killer was left handed and had knowledge of anatomy and dissection. The police made inquiries into Slaughterhouses and Hospitals
Elizabeth Long claimed to see her talking to a man minutes before her death - contradicted the doctors timeline
Following up the coroners report for motives- Dr Baxter proposed theories which were challenged by the CID after investigating later murders
Followed up indirect leads from articles- Manchester Guardian report claimed it was a local nicknames 'Leather Apron'. This was quickly disproved by Piser's alibi (example of anti- Semitism)
Clues- Follow up victims' possessions - near Annie Chapman was a seal of Sussex Regiment which was followed up (it was useless) they also followed up jewellery and rings missing from her fingers by going tot the jewellers and pawnbrokers
Visiting Lunatic asylums- JTR was assumed to be insane due to the savage nature
Chief Inspector Swanson did house to house searches, interviews more than 2,000 lodging house residents and distributed 80,000 handbills
Good Things the police did
Photographic evidence improved during the years 1880-1901
Better record keeping was made by the police which kept descriptions and pics
Sir Charles warren deployed many additional police onto the beat
Beast constables were to walk 2.5 miles/hr and surveyed the east end
CID had expertise in identifying suspects: drawing sketches, witnesses and could generate names of suspects
Improvements to 20th century
Environment
Authorities began to improve health and housing in the district
Street lighting was improved
The Houses of the Working Class Act 1890
Low cost housing development schemes to replace slums
The Public Health Amendment Act 1890
powers to improve toilets, paving, rubbish collection
Technique
Met Bertillon system 1894
Physical measurements- finger prints, photography, record keeping to identify criminals
Communication
Before police could only communicate via whistle but by the end of the century Met benefitted from telephone lines.