藥一 莊賢業 B303096212 5/7 Draft.02
Jack The Ripper
-A product of the times-At that time, and on the impact of
modern
Abstract
There are many cases which are similar to what the Jack The Ripper had
Committed crimes around the world. But why the Jack The Ripper‟s case is so
famous to the world? It‟s influences have still affected deeply the life we live.
During the mid-1800s, England experienced a rapid influx of primarily Irish
immigrants , swelling the populations of both the largely poor English
countryside and England's major cities. London, and in particular the East End
and the civil parish of 1Whitechapel , became increasingly overcrowded
resulting in the development of a massive economic underclass.
Jack the Ripper is an alias given to an unidentified serial killer (or killers)
active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area and adjacent districts of
London , England in the late 19th century.The name is taken from a letter sent
to the Central News Agency by someone claiming to be the murderer. The
victims were women allegedly earning income as prostitutes.The murders
were perpetrated in public or semi-public places at night or towards the early
1
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets,
England. It is located 3.4 miles (5.5 km) east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the
Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Hanbury Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell
Street on the east and Commercial Road on the south
morning .The victim's throat was cut, after which the body was mutilated.
The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in modern British life.
While not the first serial killer, Jack the Ripper's case was the first to create a
worldwide media frenzy. Reforms to the Stamp Act in 1855 had enabled the
publication of inexpensive newspapers with wider circulation. These
mushroomed later in the Victorian era to include mass-circulation newspapers
as cheap as a halfpenny, along with popular magazines such as the Illustrated
Police News , making the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled
publicity. This, combined with the fact that no one was ever convicted of the
murders, created a legend that cast a shadow over later serial killers.
Moreover, Jack the Ripper has been featured in a number of works of fiction
and in popular culture, either as the central character or in a more peripheral
role.
Jack the Ripper’s fame background
Jack the Ripper has remained popular for a lot of reasons. He was not the
first serial killer, but he was probably the first to appear in a large metropolis at
a time when the general populace had become literate and the press was a
force for social change. Every day the activities of the Ripper were recorded in
the newspapers as were the results of the inquiries and the actions taken by
the police. It was the press coverage that made this series of murders a "new
thing", something that the world had never known before. The press was also
partly responsible for creating many myths surrounding the Ripper and ended
up turning a sad killer of women into a "2bogeyman", who has now become
one of the most romantic figures in history. Therefore, The spread of popular
newspapers have a crucial impact on The visibility of the Jack the Ripper.
The London Times
THE MURDER IN WHITECHAPEL
Yesterday afternoon Mr. G. Collier, Deputy Coroner for the South-Eastern
Division of Middlesex, opened an inquiry at the Working Lads‟ Institute,
Whitechapel-road, respecting the death of the woman who was found on
Tuesday last, with 39 stabs on her body,at eorge-yard-buildings,Whitechapel.
Detective-Inspector Reid, H Division, watched the case on behalf of the
Criminal Investigation Department.~~ The CORONER said he was in hopes
that the body would be identified, but three women had identified it under three
different names. He therefore proposed to leave the question open until the
next occasion. The case would be left in the hands of Detective-Inspector
Reid, who would endeavour to discover the perpetrator of this (illegible)
2
鬼怪,嚇人的東西
murder. It was one of the most dreadful murders any one could imagine. The
man must have been a perfect savage to inflict such a number of wounds on a
defenceless woman in such a way. The inquiry would be adjourned for a
fortnight.
The London Times - August 10, 1888
The Inquest
Yesterday morning Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, the Coroner for the
North-Eastern Division of Middlesex, who was accompanied by Mr. George
Collier, the Deputy Coroner, opened his inquiry in the Alexandra room of the
Working Lads' Institute, White chapel Road, respecting the death of Annie
Chapman, who was found murdered in the back yard of 29, Hanbury Street,
Spitalfields, on Saturday morning.~~ Witness had never heard any person
threaten the deceased, and she had never stated she was afraid of any one.
He did not see the deceased leave the lodginghouse with the pensioner on
Sunday week. On Thursday the deceased and a woman called Eliza had a
fight in the kitchen, during which she got a blow on the chest and a black eye.
The coroner here intimated that that was as far as he proposed to carry the
inquiry at present, and it was adjourned until tomorrow afternoon.
Jack the Ripper’s letter to the police
Dear Boss,
I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they wont fix me just yet. I
have laughed when they look so clever and talk about being on the right track.
That joke about Leather Apron gave me real fits. I am down on whores and I
shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled. Grand work the last job was. I gave
the lady no time to squeal. How can they catch me now. I love my work and
want to start again. You will soon hear of me with my funny little games. I
saved some of the proper red stuff in a ginger beer bottle over the last job to
write with but it went thick like glue and I cant use it. Red ink is fit enough I
hope ha. ha. The next job I do I shall clip the ladys ears off and send to the
police officers just for jolly wouldn't you. Keep this letter back till I do a bit more
work, then give it out straight. My knife's so nice and sharp I want to get to
work right away if I get a chance. Good Luck.
Yours truly
Jack the Ripper
Dont mind me giving the trade name
PS Wasnt good enough to post this before I got all the red ink off my hands
curse it No luck yet. They say I'm a doctor now. ha ha
The Media Environment At That Time
We should understand the media development first. The 3Gutenberg
printing press used for the first time quantified the printing and design firms
Bible 42, which leads a great change to our human‟s history. Only a few
hundred years, from the spoken language, printed text into the era of the times,
and 19, the 20th century photography, electronics, network technology, such
as intervention, and then pooled into "the mass media" era. In the
post-Gutenberg era in Europe, the press release was mainly controlled by the
people who was rich and powerful. European media culture was controlled
seriously by religion and politics in the 17th-century. The newspaper content of
the news was mainly about to his trend of the times, and avoided the issue of
the sensitive role. After centuries protest, in July 1881 by the French
publication of the freedom of the press law stated at the outset is the first
sentence: "La press est libre (Press freedom)", carried out before a new era of
European media culture. Owing to the press freedom .Hence, dissemination of
knowledge contributed to that people could know a lot of news and knowledge,
3
In 1455 Gutenberg published his 42-line Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible.
About 180 were printed, most on paper and some on vellum
so the Ripper case was unheard for the pubic at that time and caught People's
attention. Besides, its influence throughout the literature, art , and popular
culture at that time and the modern tome.
Jack the Ripper Literature
4
Donald Rumbelow speculates that the Ripper's enduring appeal as a
character may stem from the fact that he was never caught. Therefore, authors
are free to speculate and imagine whatever they like. Not surprisingly, many
writers have taken this challenge to either interpret Jack's crimes or write him
into other, more bizarre scripts.
One of the earliest fiction interpretations of the Ripper occurred in Marie
Belloc Lowndes' THE LODGER which first appeared in 1911. The legend
behind this story maintains that Lowndes overheard someone at a dinner party
(shortly after the time of the murders) mention that their mother and father
believed their border to have been the Ripper. This was not uncommon as
almost everyone was suspecting friends and relatives during the reign of terror
and the Scotland Yard files contain many letters of accusation. Something in
the story stuck with Lowndes and she quickly wrote out the novel.
4
There's a considerable buzz around its "Jack the Ripper Haunts" tour, especially regarding
one of the guides, Donald Rumbelow, who is "internationally recognised as the leading
authority on Jack the Ripper."
One of the most famous Ripper stories is Robert Bloch's "Yours Truly,
Jack the Ripper" which has been reprinted hundreds of times since its first
appearance in 1943. This seminal story brings Jack into the twentieth century
as the narrator is swept into a wild search for the Ripper in present day.
While Conan Doyle never addressed the problem of the Ripper in any of
his Sherlock Holmes stories (despite many letters asking him to do so), his
followers have done it several times. For example, Ellery Queen's A STUDY
IN TERROR.
The Art Of Jack the Ripper
Yet another suggestion made is that Walter Sickert, the painter, was Jack
the Ripper. The reason for Sickert being suspected is that he was believed to
have made sketches and paintings of the Ripper crimes.
This quote from Donald McCormick‟s The Identity of Jack the Ripper is the
earliest suggestion in a book dealing with the Whitechapel murders that Walter
Sickert had been suspected of being the Whitechapel murderer. That is of
secondary importance here. This article is not so much a look at Walter
Sickert‟s candidacy for being the Whitechapel murderer, as it is a look at the
suggestion that Sickert had made sketches and paintings of the Ripper crimes
and what this might mean.
Part of Ms Cornwell‟s investigation has centered on the Impressionist
style of Sickert‟s art, and it is her contention that several of his paintings seem
to show an inside knowledge of the Whitechapel killer and the murders. Indeed,
so important is the art of Walter Sickert to Ms Cornwell‟s theory that in
response to the question „What is the first thing that you spot that makes you
go, “Walter Sickert”‟, Ms Cornwell answered, „His paintings.
Jack the Ripper in popular culture
Jack the Ripper has been featured in a number of works of fiction and in
popular culture, either as the central character or in a more peripheral role.
At the time of the murders, a theatrical version of Robert Louis
Stevenson's book Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was being
performed. The subject matter of horrific murder in the London streets drew
much attention, even leading the star of the show to be accused by some
members of the public of being the Ripper himself, although this theory was
never taken seriously by the police.
In 2006, Jack the Ripper was selected by the BBC History Magazine and
its readers as the worst Briton in history. To date more than 200 works of
non-fiction have been published which deal exclusively with the Jack the
Ripper murders, making it one of the most written-about true-crime subjects of
the past century.
Conclusion
The environment of the British went through a big change whether
Material or spiritual dimensions in 18th century. Industrial Revolution happened
to the very that time, and substitution of the old and new contributed to social
chaos. England experienced a rapid influx of primarily Irish immigrants ,
swelling the populations of both the largely poor English countryside and
England's major cities. London, and in particular the East End and the civil
parish of Whitechapel , became increasingly overcrowded resulting in the
development of a massive economic underclass.
Above all, the press freedom rose up, which made everyone be able to get
a lot of information from newspapers. So the Ripper‟s case became famous to
us in the modern life. Moreover, it let people create many novels and arts
about the Jack the Ripper. The Jack the Ripper case have being to a legend
forever.
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