Whitechapel Vigilance Commitee

• When local residents became frustrated by the police’s failure to solve the Jack the Ripper murders, a group of Whitechapel businessmen and traders set up the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee on 10 September 1888.
• They were particularly frustrated by the refusal of the Home Secretary, Henry Matthews, to offer financial rewards for the murderer’s arrest. So they organised their own reward system.
• They also took to the streets at night, armed with burning planks for woods, whistles, and hob nailed boots, trying to make as much noise as possible.
• Some historians think the Committee secretly supported the SDF, and were deliberately trying to undermine the police.