History - Whitechapel

H Division

The section of the Met responsible for policing Whitechapel

Challenges for police in Whitechapel

Gangs, The Environment, Prostitution, Alcohol, Protection Rackets, Attacks on Jews, Violent Demonstrations

Metropolitan Police

Government-directed police force patrolling all of London - by 1885 there were 13319 Met Officers policing 5,000,000 people - only 1383 were on duty at any time

Beat Constables

Constables who patrolled a set route to deter criminals from committing crimes.

CID

Criminal Investigations Department - set up in 1878 and was separate from the rest of the police. Quite ineffective at first.

Sir Charles Warren

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police between 1886 and 1888

Bloody Sunday (1887)

A protest in Trafalgar Square when Sir Charles Warren deployed 1000 men from the army along with the police.

Attitudes towards Police

They were quite unpopular, especially with the working class.

Rookeries

Overcrowded slum areas with terrible sanitations

Lodging Houses (Doss Houses)

Places where poor people could pay a nightly fee to sleep in a bed or suspended by a rope - 1/4 of Whitechapel's population lived in doss houses

Peabody Estates

Relatively cheap housing for the poor with better sanitation built by George Peabody in 1881

Workhouses

Last resorts for poor people, offered a bed and food in return for hard labour. Very poor conditions to prevent people from wanting to go there

Barnado's Homes

Accommodation for orphans in Whitechapel set up by Dr Barnado

Employment in Whitechapel

There were very few employment opportunities - economic depression (there were basically no jobs for women, so many turned to prostitution to survive)

Jobs for men in Whitechapel

Long hours at factories/sweatshops, working on railways or dockyards.

Poverty

HIGH LEVELS OF IT!!!

Tensions: Irish Immigrants

Worked as dockers/ navvies. Had a reputation for violence and drunkenness.

Fenians

Irish terrorists who were fighting for independence from Britain

Tensions: Anarchists

Revolutionaries from Europe who ended up in the East End - they opposed organised government and were feared by the Upper Classes and the Government

Tensions: Socialists

Revolutionaries from Europe who ended up in the East End - they opposed capitalism and were feared by the Upper Classes and the Government. (Karl Marx!)

Tensions: Eastern European Immigrants

Mostly Russian and Polish Jews - only able to settle in the cheapest parts of London. They lived close together, leading to segregation - some parts of Whitechapel had a 95% Jewish population

What did tensions between different kinds of people cause?

-A rise in Anti-Semitism and violence against Jews

-Foreigners were blamed for crimes

-Jewish immigrants were prepared to accept lower wages; this angered other workers

Investigative Policing Methods (used during the Ripper investigation)

-House to house searches

-Distributing 80,000 leaflets + adverts in newspapers

-Following up on clues (i.e. two rings were missing from one of the Ripper victims)

-Detailed sketches of crime scenes

-Setting up soup kitchens

-Interviewing Witnesses/Suspects

Improvements in Police Techniques after 1888

-Telephones

-The Bertillion Technique

Whitechapel Vigilance Committee

A group of businessmen in Whitechapel in 1888 who disliked the police's failure to catch the Ripper. They disrupted the investigation by patrolling the streets and offering rewards for information.

Trial of the Detectives

Corruption Scandal involving senior detectives at Scotland Yard in 1877 - lowered public faith in the police and caused the Detective Branch to be reorganised into the CID

Jack the Ripper's victims

The 'Canonical Five' were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddoweson, and Mary Kelly - all prostitutes working in Whitechapel, other than 'Lucky Liz' they were all horribly mutilated

Jack the Ripper

A serial killer who killed at least 5 prostitutes in Whitechapel between 31st August and 9th November 1888. He (or she) was never caught

Suspects in the Ripper Case

Lots, including the Duke of Clarence (Queen Victoria's grandson), Sir Charles Warren, Mary Kelly's boyfriend, and Leather Apron (also maybe Mary Kelly herself?)

The 'Double Event'

Two of the JtR murders happened on the same night: those of Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddoweson. This was also when the apron and the scrawled writing were found in a shop doorway

The scrawled writing in the doorway

Police found 'The Juwes are the ones who will not be blamed for nothing' written in chalk on a shop doorway - Sir Charles Warren had it erased out of fear of Anti-Semitism

Issues with the Ripper Investigation

-The Met Police and the City of London Police refused to work together.

-Evidence such as the scrawled writing was destroyed by police officers

-The media constantly criticised the police, stirred up hysteria, and published letters which may or may not have been from the Ripper

-The Whitechapel Vigilance Committee disrupted the investigation