Jack the Ripper
Autumn Herbert
Who? What? When? Where? Why?
The year of 1888 was a terrible year for London. They had 5 killings within the span of 2-3 months. All were prostitutes. They all had their neck slit and possibly strangled before hand. Most were mutilated, ripped from the inside out. The murderer was never found from lack of DNA testing and motive and witnesses. Some say that Jack the ripper was a serial killer and some say that he just acted out from anger. Either way his shortly lived but his crimes live on.
Media
In the year 1888, no one had the internet that we have today. The way the word and news traveled was through the paper, which is now practically non existent. He made front page daily news for a short while. Wanted signs were posted all around London looking for Jack the Ripper. Word spread just as fast back then as it does now, also. Although there was a sketch of his appearance, there were too many men who also dressed like that to be able to tell. Once the killings stopped the case became less and less of a priority.
Bias
When I was researching about Jack the Ripper I noticed a couple different biases. One being bias by omission. In most of the articles you read or even shows you watched, they all really only had one side. That Jack the Ripper was a terrible genius. I also saw bias by selection of sources. There were not very many people questioned other than the police and experts. Any information that was said to stand out came about because a girl said she had seen him or because later they looked into certain individuals backgrounds in depth.
Criticism
Through out Jack the Ripper's case, I noticed that there was mostly historical criticism. Even though there was a side of feminist criticism. Historical and Feminist criticism were the most valid because no one ever figured out who killed those women and why. It has been more than 125 years and the case was still never solved. There was also the hint of feminist because he directed his killings at prostitutes on a certain street. The way he killed them, and the removing of uterus's had a hit towards women.