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Essay about The Ripper's Next Victim

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Alistair Thomas Hargreaves had been new to the Whitechapel Police Force in 1888, when the infamous Whitechapel murders had begun. He was young, enthusiastic and recently married to beautiful Mary Moorehead. They lived in a small flat near Whitechapel, where she stayed and kept house while he left for work each morning and arrived home each evening. It was the perfect life for a young couple just starting out. All of that would change on August 31st, 1888. Friday dawned with a late summer mugginess hanging in the air. It was an ominous sign of what the day would bring. By early evening, London would sink into an ever-present feeling of fear that would hang over the city long after the final murder almost three months later. Alistair had …show more content…

Media coverage of murders changed dramatically with Jack the Ripper. In little more than a decade before the Whitechapel Murders began, the number of newspapers in and around London had grown from just over a dozen to a staggering 168 publications. During the last few months of 1888, many of these papers would not only cover the murders with fervor but become increasingly skeptical of those investigating them. Mary Ann Nichols, the ripper’s first victim, would be one of the first murder victims to be photographed, and Mary Jane Kelly, his last victim, would be the first photographed crime scene, showing the horrific details of her severely mutilated body. The ferocity and frequency of his murders would gain attention, but the way the killer taunted the police and their inability to identify him would make him a legend. The murders would also lead to the first true crime book published in December of 1888, just a month after the final victim, Mary Kelley was killed. “Leather Apron; Or, the Horrors of Whitechapel, London” by Sam’l E. Hudson discussed the all the aspects of the case; victims, correspondence allegedly sent by the killer and the extensive media coverage that the case received. It also outlined many possible theories surrounding the murders. The killer also set a precedent by giving himself a moniker that the papers loved and held the press and public sway with his bloody antics. Four more

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