Whitechapel

• What were the sniffer dogs called that where going to be used in the hunt for the ripper?

  Barnaby and Burgho
• why weren’t sniffer dogs actually used in Whitechapel?

  the metropolitan police refused to pay
• what were the names of the five victims of Jack the Ripper?

  1. Mary Ann Nicholas
  2. Annie Chapman
  3. Elizabeth Stride
  4. Catherine Eddowes
  5. Mary Jane Kelly
• Who was Charles Warren and why was he significant?

  He was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner
• What was the Bertillon system and what was it used for?

  it was the first method of centralised record keeping, taking suspects physical measurements and then a ’mugshot’ .This information was then shared between different divisions to improve eye witnesses and catch repeat criminals.
• Who was Thomas Bernardo and why was he significant?

  He opened orphanages for children in Whitechapel and other parts of the East End
• Who was George Peabody and why was he significant?

  He was a wealthy American who moved to England to improve conditions for the poor. He built The Peabody Estate, providing 286 flats for a reasonable rent
• Who was Frederic Abberline and why was he significant?

  Him and his CID team were placed in charge of the Jack the Ripper case. He was an experienced officer with knowledge of the area.
• Who was George lusk and why was he significant?

  He was the leader of the Whitechapel ‘vigilance’ group who were a group of business men and traders.
• What are vigilantes?

  Groups of people who take responsibility of tackling crime themselves as they believe the official police force are not able to do so.
• What problems did the newspapers pose to the investigation?

  The newspapers ,especially the well known penny dreadfulls, mocked police methods bringing the public image of them down. The newspapers also wide spread the story of Jack the Ripper resulting in the creation of a lot of fake letters supposedly from the Ripper himself.
• Why did the police set up soup kitchens in the Whitechapel area?

  As an attempt to find out more from witnesses by offering food in a less tense environment than an interview room.
• What were some methods used by the police to catch the Ripper?

  1. visiting insane asylums
  2. sniffer dogs
  3. public info+eye witnesses
  4. post mortem
  5. disguising officers as women
  6. soup kitchens
  7. info from journalists
  8. evidence from victims possessions
• What was the public health act (1890) and how was it an improvement by the police?

  The government gave more power and money to local councils to improve toilets, paving, rubbish collection and other sanitation services in poorer areas such as Whitechapel.
• What was the Houses of the Working Classes Act and how was it an improvement?

  This law removed the slum areas ands replaced them with newer housing developments which would be low cost for the poor. These houses had better sanitation and hygiene with improved living conditions.
• A lack of forensic scientific methods made it very hard for police to catch The Ripper, their only hope was to catch the killer in the act.
• What was ‘walking the beat’?

  When officers would patrol their areas in pairs, acting as a deterrent.
• Why were gangs an issue for policing in Whitechapel?

  Gangs made deals with local businesses to protect them from crime as long as the owners didn’t report them to the police. There was rivalry between gangs and people were scared of reporting gang violence because of consequences.
• What were opium dens and why were they a problem for policing?

  Opium dens were grimy places set up by Chinese immigrants where opiums could be sold and smoked. People often stole money to feed their habit.
• why was alcoholism a problem for policing?

  Alcoholism was common among the poor as their only escape, alcohol was strong and cheap. Drunken behaviour made people hard to deal with even resulting in theft and violent crimes.
• Which division was Whitechapel covered by?

  H Division
• What is a brothel?

  A house were prostitutes worked from
• Many women turned to prostitution in order to survive. Some would work in Brothels others walked the streets, vulnerable to rape and assault. Prostitution was not illegal but was seen as a social problem. Due to no contraception unsafe “backstreet abortions“ were common, often with women dying of shock or infection. It’s estimated there were 62 Brothels in Whitechapel with around 1,200 prostitutes. Women rarely wanted to help the police as they feared the consequences.
• Both immigrants and locals were often without work and in ‘lodging houses’, tensions between different nationalities would be at their height and policing this was difficult. The rookeries, narrow alleyways and courtyards posed another problem with poor lighting and maze like entrances and exits. Many Whitechapel streets were poorly lit. Whitechapel was known for suffering with a terrible ‘smog’ resulting in very poor visibility.
• Why did housing and streets pose a problem to policing?

  . poor lighting

  . maze like entrances and exits to alleyways

  . the rookeries

  . tensions between nationalities in lodging houses
• What were workhouses?

  They were set up but the government in the early 1800s to manage the increasing number of poor in Britain’s growing cities. They were a way of providing ‘poor relief‘ for those that could not work. They provide basic food, shelter and water in return for work.
• what type of people lived in the Workhouse?

  . those too old or sick to work

  . person with physical disability unable to be looked after by family

  . orphaned children

  . unmarried mothers who had been disowned by their families
• What sort of work did inmates do at workhouses?

  Break up rocks, make matches, picking Oakum
• Due to the high poverty rates in the East End of London, Whitechapel had a high need for the workhouse
• Conditions in workhouses were made purposefully tough to deter more people from using the workhouse and encouraging as many as possible to seek work
• Who were the Irish ‘fenians’

  A Catholic terrorist group from Ireland, they lead an attack on Clerkenwell prison resulting in a surge of Anti-Irish and Anti-catholic attitudes.
• What was ‘Dynamite Saturday‘?

  On January 24th 1885 the Fenians organised an attack on famous London landmarks such as the House of Commons and the Tower of London.
• What was the Special Branch set up by the police in response to?

  The fenians, it was set up to keep watch on them
• There were greater numbers of Irish in London since the 1840s. Many were young men who planned to raise enough money to migrate to America, however many could not raise the money so stayed in the East end or Whitechapel instead. The Irish were not well liked and were known for their violent and drunken behaviour.
• What were the Irish not liked for and know for?

  They were not liked and known for their drunken behaviour
• What were the Anarchist?

  People who opposed having the government, anyone with an eastern European accent was treated suspiciously due to anarchists fleeing to England from Eastern Europe.
• Who were the socialists?

  Socialists wanted more equality and better pay for the working class.
• What was the first British socialist party called?

  The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1881
• What did the SDF do?

  It organised protests and demonstrations in London such as The Trafalgar Square demonstration in 1887 and Bloody Sunday.
• What were the main features of immigrant tensions in Whitechapel?

  . Competition between immigrants and locals for housing and jobs

  . Overcrowded areas brought immigrants closer and they struggled to mix

  . Racist attitudes towards the Jews, Irish and Eastern Europeans existed in the police force itself

  . Easy for residents of Whitechapel to blame ‘foreigners’ for crimes

  . The local newspapers spread fear of ‘foreigners’ as they created stereotypical images of Jewish people as Jack the Ripper