{"id":2293,"date":"2021-05-04T12:01:32","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T11:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2021-12-16T15:32:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:32:44","slug":"the-whitechapel-horrors-victorian-newspapers-report-jack-the-ripper-as-gothic-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/?p=2293","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018Whitechapel Horrors\u2019 \u2013 Victorian newspapers report Jack the Ripper as gothic fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u2018Jack the Ripper\u2019 murders in East London in the late Victorian period have become infamous. In this piece, first year UoP history student Seamus McLoughlin looks at how an article in a Victorian newspaper was of its time in choosing to ignore known facts about the case, or any compassion towards the victims, in favour of speculation, sensation and gothic horror.\u00a0 This piece was originally written for the first year \u2018Fragments\u2019 module, which looks at primary sources, and is taught by Dr Maria Cannon and Dr Katy Gibbons.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over a hundred and thirty years later, Jack the Ripper\u2019s murders are still regarded as some of the most infamous acts of \u2018horrific brutality\u2019 in British history. [1]<\/a> The serial killer\u2019s relevance in popular culture, described as \u2018Ripperature\u2019 by L. P. Curtis, is evident from at least thirty books and countless articles published since 1960 dealing with the Ripper\u2019s exploits and identity, as well as recent adaptations and parodies of the Ripper\u2019s crimes for television, such as ITV\u2019s \u201cWhitechapel\u201d or BBC Two\u2019s \u201cThe Fall\u201d. [2]<\/a>\u00a0 While the crimes were gruesome; Jack the Ripper\u2019s infamy and terror was largely perpetuated by the Victorian press.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>

Illustration of discovery of the first Jack the Ripper, as published Famous Crimes Past and Present, 1903<\/p><\/div>\n

As described by Beth Fisher, the lack of evidence surrounding the Whitechapel case led to \u2018more potential than normal for speculation and sensationalism\u2019.[3]<\/a> This is especially evident in The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0an article from 1894 (six years after the murders) which explores the Ripper\u2019s identity with very little if any factual information. [4]<\/a>\u00a0 The article reflects the sensationalised nature of Victorian newspapers, the \u2018irresistible\u2019 fascination surrounding Jack the Ripper\u2019s true identity which newspapers capitalised on to sell copies, as well as the lack of sympathy the Victorian press had for Jack\u2019s victims: women; specifically prostitutes.[5]<\/a> Ultimately, this gives us an insight into the limited factual merit and objectivity of newspapers, illustrating Stephen Valla\u2019s view that newspapers as a medium have \u2018influenced\u2019 society just as much as they have \u2018recorded\u2019 it.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Within the pamphlet the article was published in, The<\/em> \u201cJack the Ripper\u201c Story<\/em> is far from the front page, occupying the fourth and final page of the pamphlet.[7]<\/a> While this could imply that, six years after the murders, Jack the Ripper isn\u2019t as notorious as he once was, this is ultimately undermined by two key aspects: this is a pamphlet from Huddersfield citing The London Sun<\/em>, implying nationwide interest in the case, and the article positioned within the page to occupy a majority of one of the two central columns. [8]<\/a> Visually, the title is very apparent to any reader as The \u201cJack The Ripper\u201c Story<\/em> is displayed in large bold font, and placed very near the centre of the page.[9]<\/a> The centrality of the article implies importance, suggesting that this particular placement was deliberate, which demonstrates to us the cultural relevance of Jack the Ripper and how this was likely recognized by the editors as an article that would catch readers\u2019 attention. The placement of certain articles within pamphlets and newspapers throughout history are \u2018(done) so with intent\u2019, as described by historian Stephen Valla\u2019s study of newspapers, further supporting this interpretation.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Mock-up<\/a>

\u00a9 Pierre Andr\u00e9, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

The unnamed author makes several admissions throughout that readers should \u2018read between the lines\u2019; and that most of the alleged evidence has either been \u2018soften(ed)\u2019 or has \u2018not (been) mention(ed) at all.[11]<\/a> In addition, all names of people and specific streets involved have been redacted; the lack of any factual evidence creates a highly speculative tone which greatly reduces the article\u2019s factual merit, limiting its overall use as a news source.[12]<\/a> The lack of any evidence, however, is very useful at demonstrating the sensational values of Victorian newspapers surrounding the \u2018myth\u2019 of Jack the Ripper, which is further illustrated by the article\u2019s content. [13]<\/a><\/p>\n

The sensationalist tone is exemplified by how the author dubs the murders \u2018The Whitechapel Horrors\u2019, which sounds like the title of a gothic novel and illustrates an attempt to fictionalise real life events.[14]<\/a>\u00a0 This is consolidated by the use of \u2018story\u2019 in the article\u2019s title which further adds to the fictional tone.[15]<\/a> The tone is then perpetuated throughout the article by the use of hyperbole; words such as \u2018loathsome\u2019, \u2018diseased\u2019 and \u2018mutilated\u2019 create an exaggerative and suspenseful tone, allowing the description of the alleged criminal to be read more like a horror story. [16]<\/a> The fictional nature of the article is evocative of the \u2018sensation-horror\u2019 used in New Journalism; a methodology described by Rachel Matthews as \u2018a bid to attract as many readers as possible\u2019 by creating compelling stories as oppose to straightforward news reporting. [17]<\/a> She notes how reporting on Jack the Ripper \u2018contributed to the creation of an appetite for more salacious content in the reader \u2013 something which was largely exploited\u2019 by newspapers.[18]<\/a> This is made most apparent when the author deems the Jack the Ripper case as \u2018irresistible\u2019, which conveys how the \u2018hunger for sensation-horror\u2019 in the Victorian press overcame any repulsion over the murders,[19]<\/a> almost as if journalists and readers were infatuated with these types of crimes. [20]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The conscious decision to prioritise fiction over facts within the article is further evident by what\u2019s been omitted: any details surrounding the five victims. The victims are only referred to as \u2018mutilated women\u2019 and \u2018homicidal offences\u2019; thus depriving them of their identities, which is reflective of the dismissive and unsympathetic attitudes the Victorian press had towards the victims because they were prostitutes. [21]<\/a> L. P. Curtis notes how deliberately gory descriptions of the bodies found in news articles \u2018reinforced (the victims\u2019) utter lack of power and also their objectification by the male gaze\u2019.[22]<\/a> Examples of objectification are also evident in other newspapers, like how The Telegraph<\/em> labelled Polly Nichols (the first victim), despite having little information on the victim at this point, as degenerate, noting how she was \u2018the worse for drink\u2019 on the night of her murder, essentially blaming Polly for her own death. [23]<\/a> The fact that many articles, including The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story<\/em>, deliberately chose to speculate details while ignoring and disrespecting the victims illustrates the Victorian press\u2019 desire for spectacle and sensationalism. [24]<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s also ironic, as the victims\u2019 identities were some of the only factual information available about the case, yet these are ignored by the article as it fantasises about the unknown identity of the killer; reflecting the larger issues of how newspapers were more focused on \u2018amplify(ing) Jack the Ripper\u2019s terror\u2019 instead of reporting the news. [25]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Wedding photograph of one of the victims, Annie Chapman, 1869<\/p><\/div>\n

The article\u2019s closing remark is also ironic. The author hopes that the article will contribute to \u2018the most rigid investigation\u2019 into the murders\u2019, yet the article is a speculation piece with redacted names \/ locations and is deliberately sensationalist in parts. [26]<\/a> As Stephen Valla describes, newspapers are themselves a \u2018commodity\u2019.[27]<\/a> By prioritising \u2018story\u2019 and sensationalising the gory details of the case, we can identify how this was The Huddersfield Chronicle\u2019s<\/em> (and by proxy The London Sun<\/em>) attempt at creating a compelling, \u2018irresistible\u2019narrative in order to sell newspaper copies; reflective of how \u2018newspapers are, above all things, human institutions: fallible, imperfect, with material or ideological interests of their own\u2019. [28]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Paul Begg, Jack the Ripper:<\/em><\/span> The Definitive History<\/em> (Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group, 2005), IX.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> L. P. Curtis, Jack the Ripper and the London Press<\/em> (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 127.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Beth Fisher, \u201cReporting on The Ripper,\u201d History Today <\/em>68, no. 9, September 2018, 9.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story: His Antecedents and Characteristics\u2019, Huddersfield Chronicle<\/em>, 19th February 1894, 4.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Stephen Valla, \u201cNewspapers\u201d in Reading Primary Sources: The Interpretation of Texts from Nineteenth and Twentieth Century History<\/em>, ed. Miriam Dobson and Benjamin Ziemann, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2020), 217.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Stephen Valla, \u201cNewspapers\u201d,\u00a0 226<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[13]<\/a> Fisher, \u201cReporting on The Ripper\u201d, 9.<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[15]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[17]<\/a> Curtis, Jack the Ripper<\/em>, 154; Rachel Matthews, The History of the Provincial Press in England<\/em> (New York: Bloomsbury Academic and Professional, 2017), 92.<\/p>\n

[18]<\/a> Matthews, The History of the Provincial Press<\/em>, 95.<\/p>\n

[19]<\/a> Curtis, Jack the Ripper, <\/em>216.<\/p>\n

[20]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[21]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[22]<\/a> Curtis, Jack the Ripper<\/em>, 213.<\/p>\n

[23]<\/a> Beth Fisher, \u201cReporting on The Ripper,\u201d History Today <\/em>68, no. 9, September 2018, 11.<\/p>\n

[24]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story’, 4.<\/p>\n

[25]<\/a> Beth Fisher, \u201cReporting on The Ripper,\u201d History Today <\/em>68, no. 9, September 2018, 9.<\/p>\n

[26]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4.<\/p>\n

[27]<\/a> Valla, \u201cNewspapers\u201d, 219.<\/p>\n

[28]<\/a> \u2018The \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d Story\u2019, 4; Valla, \u201cNewspapers\u201d, 226<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u2018Jack the Ripper\u2019 murders in East London in the late Victorian period have become infamous. In this piece, first year UoP history student Seamus McLoughlin looks at how an article in a Victorian newspaper was of its time in choosing to ignore known facts about the case, or any compassion towards the victims, in favour of speculation, sensation and gothic horror.\u00a0 This piece was originally written for the first year \u2018Fragments\u2019 module, which looks at primary sources, and is taught by Dr Maria Cannon and Dr Katy Gibbons. Over a hundred and thirty years later, Jack the Ripper\u2019s murders are still regarded as some of the most infamous acts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,18],"tags":[554,711,660,411,670,549,17,11,406],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learning_in_focus","category-public-history","tag-crime","tag-fragments-module","tag-gothic","tag-jack-the-ripper","tag-murder","tag-newspapers","tag-nineteenth-century","tag-slider","tag-victorian-britain"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/history.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/PC_Jonas_Mizen_Discovers_Mary_Ann_Nichols_31_August_1888A-cropped.jpg?fit=620%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p91PlX-AZ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2293"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2293\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/history.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}