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c.d.
Detective Sergeant
Username: Cd
Post Number: 107
Registered: 9-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 8:42 pm: | 
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I would be interested as to whether people think the offer of a reward helped or hindered the police investigation or did it have minimal impact either way. Was any money given out for information received or was it an all or nothing deal meaning that it had to have led to the capture of the Ripper?
In a poverty stricken area like the East End, the reward money would seem a substantial amount. Is it a reasonable assumption that people might have taken just a little more notice of their neighbors or coworkers or those individuals they saw on the street? If that assumption seems reasonable, can we then conlude that Jack must have appeared fairly normal to those around him and not worthy of a trip to the police station to pass on a suspicion with the hope of claiming the reward? |
Leanne Perry
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Leanne
Post Number: 1937
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 10:15 pm: |
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G'day c.d.,
I think alot of people kept informing the police of suspicious behavior, that waisted alot of time and kept leading to 'dead-ends'.
I believe the offer of reward was a much debated topic and that's why they specified that the information should lead to the much sought after arrest of a killer.
LEANNE |
Howard Brown
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Howard
Post Number: 1205
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 - 11:00 pm: |
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C.D.
I'd think that a reward for information was a positive thing. Leanne is correct that it led, just as it would now, to dead ends and goofballs offering up their Mother In Laws as the Ripper just to get rid of them. The latter most men could identify with...
What was positive and likely forced for good reason,was the offer by Lord Swaythling,who had made his bones [ earned respect ] in the East End and wasn't a corner grocer or some loudmouth out for attention.
On the other hand, look at all the people who have been "uncovered" or chronicled in that community that didn't have anything to with these crimes. A.P. Wolf's great list of murders and violent assaults and the names of those people involved additionally make the East End a veritable SRO of available suspects and possibilities...
Leannne is probably right...since they were only prostitutes [whore is such a terrible word ], then the subsequent hoopla over hookers [ thats better,Howie...] may have been deemed too time consuming, by the authorities.... |
AP Wolf
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Apwolf
Post Number: 2890
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 01, 2005 - 3:12 am: |
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This reward business is a funny old thing.
I've been studying corpses found in the Thames, dismembered and otherwise, and find that there were a group of men who specialised in finding these bodies - Dickens even gave them a name which I've forgotten - and for each body found they were rewarded with six shillings by the local coroner.
The rub is that they were also rewarded with the same sum for a body part found... so what did they do?
That is exactly right. Cut up the bodies for more reward money.
It is also thought that these jovial chaps were not shy of actually murdering someone and then chucking them in the river to find them.
I believe that a substantial reward would have had some impact on the case, but a pithy reward would bring nowt but back-biting and head chopping. |
Glenn G. Lauritz Andersson
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Glenna
Post Number: 4287
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, December 01, 2005 - 4:00 am: |
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Hi c.d.,
I would say that the initial reluctancy on the authorities' part to offer rewards in the Ripper case, were all well grounded. They knew rewards would be a dead end and would drown the police, who already were forced to investigate hundreds of suspects and tips from the general public. A reward would only urge people to come up with more or less ridiculous allegations against their neighbours and people they found 'suspicious', and I guess the authorities realized that the police had very little time for time-wasters and were strained enough as it was. So, yes I believe it would hinder the investigation.
In the Ripper case there was no general detailed description of a perpetrator that they could give out to the public anyway, and there was - from what we know so far - no accomplice to the murderer that might be tempted by a reward.
All the best
G. Andersson, writer/historian
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"It's a BEAUTIFUL day - watch some bastard SPOIL IT."
Sign inside the Griffin Inn in Bath
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Caroline Anne Morris
Assistant Commissioner
Username: Caz
Post Number: 2385
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, December 02, 2005 - 5:52 am: |
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Hi AP,
I think the name you are looking for is probably Messrs Snaffleweed.
Love,
Caz
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