"Not even during the riots of 1886 have I seen London so thoroughly excited as it is tonight,” wrote one breathless reporter following the murder of Annie Chapman on September 8, 1888. “The Whitechapel fiend murdered his fourth victim this morning and still continues undetected, unseen, and unknown.” The attentive reader will note that—unlike the consensus view of the Ripper case, in which Annie was the second victim—the writer here is attributing previous murders in the district to the killer. It is one insight into the way in which the press drew its own muddled conclusions and whipped up panic. Here, a newspaper poster announces the arrest of a suspect, February 1889.
Photograph by Bridgeman, ACI
The 1880s were a boom period for the sensationalist press. Publications like the 'Illustrated Police News' (above) seized on the Ripper case to feed public hunger for gory crimes while reveling in the shortcomings of the police. Ethnic tensions were also ratcheted up by the press, which laid much emphasis on the 'foreignness' of the killer’s appearance.
Photograph by Look And Learn, Bridgeman, ACI
'Blind-man's buff', an engraving by John Tenniel, satirised Scotland Yard's perceived incompetence in the Jack the Ripper investigation, ran in 'Punch', September 1888.
Photograph by Alamy, ACI
An engraving in 'Punch', "The Nemesis of Neglect," ran in September 1888. The Ripper murders exposed conditions in Whitechapel that sparked calls for reform.
Photograph by Look And Learn, Bridgeman, ACI
