Jack the Ripper: The Simple Truth by Bruce Paley

Author:Bruce Paley [Paley, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Cox & Wyman Ltd
Published: 2016-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

14

'The very fact that you may be unaware of what the Detective Department is doing is only the stronger proof that it is doing its work with secrecy and efficiency'

News of the double murder spread rapidly through the East End, and by Sunday morning, 30 September, thousands of people had gathered at the scenes of the two crimes. 'Never did ill news travel faster than yesterday,' the Star noted, 'while dwellers in other parts of the metropolis were enjoying a Sunday morning's licence for laying abed, the entire East End was in a furore of excitement ... streams of all sorts and conditions of men poured incessantly in the direction of Berner Street and Mitre Square.' The fact that the police had cordoned off the murder sites and had obliterated any traces of a crime having been committed, were no deterrent to 'the sensation seeking crowds [who] seem to gather some satisfaction from mere proximity to the spot where the curtain had last been raised on the terrible series of tragedies.'[1] 'Down to as late an hour as ten o'clock on Monday night,' the People reported, 'large crowds of people continued to assemble around the spots where the murders of Sunday were perpetrated, and so great was the crush at Mitre Square, that it was found requisite to keep a considerable number of extra constables on duty.'[2] As the Star wryly noted, 'no one could say that there were not enough police in the East End today'.[3]

It was an apt remark, one reflective of the growing lack of faith on the part of most East Enders in the concern and abilities of the authorities to protect them and look after their interests. In Victoria Park around a thousand people rallied to call for the resignations of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren and Home Secretary Henry Matthews, while a similar gathering took place in Mile End Waste. The Vigilance Committee organized nightly volunteer patrols of its own, equipping their men with truncheons and whistles and issuing them with galoshes to soften their footsteps, as many people thought the police should have done. The Committee also appealed again to the Home Office to break with protocol and offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Whitechapel Murderer. These were special circumstances, they argued, and as all other methods had thus far failed, it was hoped that the lure of financial gain might prompt someone with useful information to come forward, who would have otherwise been fearful or reluctant to do so. But if for no other reason, the Committee pleaded, a reward should be offered as a gesture of good faith, to demonstrate that the government was indeed equally concerned with the welfare of all of its citizens, regardless of their socio-economic status. Once again, the Home Office stubbornly refused to alter its policy, while further refusing the Committee's request to present their petition to the Queen. Hoping to circumvent the red tape that seemed to be inhibiting

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