This leaves Dr. Bond's image, encapsulating the police’s overall interpretation of Jack the Ripper as a gentleman. A man of the middle or upper class, well off enough to not work, but with access to resources with which to conduct his homicidal habits.
II. The Press
As discussed previously, when the press covered the Ripper killings they used cultural fantasies and Victorian anxieties to their advantage by challenging the police and fascinating the public. They weaved a tale of sex, blood, and murder, which would forever change murder in the news. Although Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer, he was the first to gain such notoriety before he was caught. The press made it their mission to publish anything and everything related to
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The swiftness and secrecy of the murders, and the success of the perpetrator in destroying all traces of his presence, rather support the theory…dissatisfaction [from the press and public] arises from the fact that the police, as they have become militarized [using military tactics and standards], seem to have lost the art of detecting murders.” The press was continually dissatisfied with the work of the police as each new body appeared, and still no suspect was apprehended. By September 10th, “although occasion was taken to preach sermons upon the subject [Whitechapel murders], and to deliver speeches condemnatory of the police, the perturbation had visibly calmed down.” The press’ vocalization of their dissatisfaction with police efforts encouraged the public’s outrage, further contributing to the condemnation of the police force and to the interaction between these three groups. Many newspapers frequently published whole articles on what they thought about the police’s conduct regarding the murders and the lack of a suspect or their leads to find one. They pointed their fingers predominately at the police and cried for …show more content…
The press cast the Ripper as a demon in human form; a Victorian superstition that paints Jack as an uncatchable, immortal phantom. Jack the Ripper appeared less and less in the news by 1889, as it became apparent that the police still had no leads over a month after the last murder. The horror seemed to have left Whitechapel, although everyone remained on guard. Several false Ripper murders were commented on in London newspapers for several decades, but nothing revealed enough evidence to connect it to the Ripper killings in Whitechapel. The press’ image of Jack as a supernatural creature stood out next to the police’s theory that Jack was a gentleman with a desire to kill. This, when combined with the ‘mad doctor’ theory, takes the shape of a real-life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was performed as a play in London around the same year as the murders. A man with two personalities, mentally insane, and torn between a lust for blood and his respectable