Jack The Ripper
Mason Wilmot
In London, 1888 a series of murders had happened. These five known murders had become to be associated as the work of Jack the ripper. All of the victims of these murders were all prostitutes and all of them were more then just a robbery. This was clear by the way he had cut and butchered his victims. To this day there is still questions regarding who was jack the ripper. These strings of murders became to be one of the most famous unsolved real life murder mysteries. Even to this day people still try to crack and solve who jack the ripper was.
There are many different perspectives of these series of murders. Depending on what perspective people believe is their bias of them. One of the first perspectives of Jack the ripper happened in news papers all around White chapel England. Previous to the 'first' initial murder from jack the ripper two other prostitutes had been murdered a couple weeks before. Although not connected by the police, newspapers had started to connect these murders stating that it was all jack the ripper. Many men were arrested but all set free as none of them could be completely tied to the murders. One of these men were known as 'leather apron' he was a suspect because he was known to threaten prostitutes for their money by using a knife to threaten but not kill. They had taken him in and then released him as he had a credible alibi.
As the murders continued one after another more theories popped up one of which was the jack the ripper would have to be a doctor or a butcher. One of the suspects was a Mad Swedish butcher. People suspected that jack the ripper would have to be a doctor or a butcher because of the way he had mutilated the women's bodies and how he had cut the throat to the bone. Which would be a skill that a butcher would have. Another reason they had thought this was that one of his victims Annie Chapman had her uterus missing. This made some people believe even more that Jack the ripper had to have some type of medical or anatomical knowledge. Some thought that he had possessed the skill of a slaughterer or one of a doctor while others thought he had no skills at all.
To this day the number of different theories continues to grow. As that list continues getting bigger certain bias's start to show up in different articles, books and, documentaries. More often then not the different articles and books focus on one or two theories instead of focusing on the whole event. They start choosing the sides they wish to support and find as true. Which is creating the media bias. Because of this media bias the knowledge of these murders seem to get lost in translation for some people who had only seen one idea. For now they believe the idea they had learned is the only and true option of what had happened in the 1888 murders.
If someone were analyzing these murders through the eyes of a Marxist they would notice and have different ideas then if they were looking at it through the eyes of a historical point of view. A Marxist would note that these murders had happened in one of the poorest districts in London- the white chapel district. They would also note that since this happened in one of the poorest districts that already had trouble with small gangs and violence.
Meanwhile if someone were to look at the murders through the lens of historical criticism they would notice similar things about how White Chapel was one of the poorest districts in London and Note about the different street gangs and previous violence/murders that had gone out throughout that district. Something else they would also notice is why exactly they weren't able to catch the killer. At the time of the murders the expanse of science was very minimal especially with forensics. Even though throughout the murders they had collected different clues such a blood stains and pieces of cloth only mere assumptions could be made about them. Now a days some artifacts of these murders are being reanalyzed with current day forensics because people are still interested in trying to solve this case.
BBC documentary: Jack the Ripper Re investigating the Evidence and Suspects