Ripper investigation techniques

• They used the evidence of post mortems: for example, a local doctor suggested that the cut marks on one of the victims indicated that the killer was left handed and had experience of dissection. This led the police to make enquiries at slaughter houses and hospitals.
• The police followed up leads from articles by investigative journalists, for example, a report in the Manchester Guardian that suggested the murdered could be a local man nicknamed ‘Leather Apron’.
• They followed up clues in the victims’ possession, such as a fragment of an envelope found near Annie Chapman’s body that contained the seal of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
• They visited lunatic asylums, believing the murderer must be insane.
• They followed up coroners’ reports, such as Dr Wynne Baxter’s report who argued the murderer must have considerable anatomical skill.
• They interviewed key witnesses, such as Elizabeth Long, who claimed to have seen a man talking to Annie Chapman a few minutes before she was discovered dead.
• They set up soup kitchens, to encourage poor people to come forward by offering them a hot meal.
• As criticism mounted, they started conducting house-to-house searches and distributing 80000 handbills.
• However, they had almost no scientific forensic techniques at their disposal.