1 .What Was the Peabody Estate?

1 .What was the Peabody Estate?

It used to be a particularly poor, overcrowded portion of Whitechapel with an annual death rate of 50 people in every 1000 (which was double the average for London). Then the government bought the area so that the housing could be demolished and new housing built in its place. They built blocks of flats with shared bathrooms and kitchens that were more pleasant to live in than the previous housing and the idea was that they would be affordable to the people who used to live there. However, the rents were not affordable for the very poor and the result was that the people who used to live there, just moved to other areas and thus made those areas even more overcrowded.

2. What key features were you likely to see if you walked through 19th century Whitechapel?

You could see drunk people (alcohol was a big problem) you would see people who were clearly poor (poverty big problem), but you would also see well-dressed people as there were well-to-do parts of Whitechapel too. At night time you would see lots of prostitutes, lots of pubs and there would be a lot of people who spoke languages other than English (high proportion of immigrants). The streets would be dirty, the housing poor quality and lots of overcrowding.

3. Write about immigration and Whitechapel

Because Whitechapel was near the docks and because it had some of the cheapest (and poorest) housing, including crowded lodging houses, it was an obvious place for immigrants to settle in. There was a large population of Irish immigrants who often came to work on the docks and there was also a large population of Jewish immigrants, many from Russia after the Russian Tsar had persecuted the Jewish population. It was harder for the Eastern European Jewish immigrants to integrate than it was for the Irish because of issues with language and culture so they often ended up more segregated and less mixed in with the general population, living together and working together in established Jewish businesses. The result was a high degree of anti-Semitism (anti-Jewishness) in Whitechapel.

4. What branches of the police were in charge of policing Whitechapel?

All the London police force was divided into sections labelled by letters of the alphabet. The area including Whitechapel was known as H Division but one of the Ripper murders happened on the border of the boundary with the City of London police force area and so they were also involved. There was one man employed as a police officer for every 300 people in Whitechapel. Is this enough for a place that had so many problems with tension with immigrants, alcohol, prostitutes and crime in general?

5. What techniques did the police have to investigate murder at the time of the Ripper?

• Careful observations written down without moving anything (though it wasn’t always possible e.g. the doctor ordered one victim to be removed to the hospital).
• Photography and labelled sketches of the crime scene.
• Autopsy (looking at the bodies) e.g. Ripper victim autopsies of the cuts he made suggested the Ripper was left-handed.
• Interviews with potential witnesses/suspects.
• Handing out leaflets/posters asking people to come forward with information.
• Identification parades (which are now proven to be flawed, remember the video with the man shouting ‘Come on Arsenal?’).
• Body temperature at time of death, could give some idea how long a victim had been dead.

6. What impact did the media have on police handling of the Ripper case?

They made it more difficult because they constantly criticised the police, printed stories that were exaggerated or made up and published a number of so-called ‘Ripper Letters’ most of and probably all of them were faked. Made up stories e.g. one headline was ‘Interview with the man who spoke to the murderer’ made it seem like the police were incompetent, adding further pressure.

7. Who was Sir Charles Warren?

He was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1886-88 and was criticised for the police not catching the killer. He resigned the night before the last murder. He had been an army general and tried to bring military discipline to the police, as well as improve recruitment standards. He did recruit a lot of ex-soldiers. This worried people that the police was becoming another army to control people, rather than protect the law. The was the police violently dealt with riots - such as at Trafalgar Square 1887 – seemed to confirm the fears about Warren.

8. Name 10 types of sources that you might come across on this unit

Housing and employment records, council records, census records, Charles’ Booth’s survey which led to the creation of a poverty map of London, workhouse records, local police records, coroner’s reports (the people who record deaths and how they happened) photographs, local newspapers, national newspapers, cartoons, Old Bailey records of trials.  There are 12 types to choose from here.

9. What did the police NOT use in the Ripper case perhaps because of press ridicule?

Bloodhounds. Sir Charles Warren did order some and held trials with them to see if they would be useful. The dogs passed the trials but the press got hold of the information and wrote articles about Charles Warren and his dogs as though poking fun at him. The police did not use the bloodhounds in the end, though without any items of the Ripper’s and in such a busy area, it is not certain the bloodhounds would have been useful.