Something I don't get.

[Paul]

This is my first thread I've started and I am very new to the case, but here goes.

When 3am comes around these days if you take a look out of your window, you will be lucky to see even a few people roaming the streets.
What I don't get is that why at 3am in Whitechapel during the times of the murders was Jack allowed to roam around freely?

Surely there wasn't that many people on the streets that with the amount of police on the beat, they couldn't stop maybe 60% of people and question them?

He MUST like the Michael Caine film of Jack the ripper had some kind of way to get about without being stopped or questioned?

[Mike Covell]

These days we can get home and have a cuppa, watch tv, surf the web, listen to digital radio, and remain warm with our central heating, however, back in Victorian England it was a different place.

Thousands lived in Lodging Houses, common or otherwise, and many people had roles that required that they roam the streets at night, such as the police, manure merchants, slaughter men and of course prostitutes.

Other roles, including fish market porters, market traders and street sweepers, would require the worker to be up in the early hours.

Pubs, and other late night amusements didn't have the strict licensing laws we have today, and as such they remained open for lengthy hours.

[Paul]

So, in your opinion, what percentage of people, not including the Police was out and about at around 3am on any normal morning?

[protohistorian]

Hello Paul. This is a fair question. Bear in mind that the proliferation of timepieces to average individuals and the standardization of workdays are contextual features of modern society that were not present in a broad scale in the late Victorian period. From the Bucks row crime ( slaughter men going to work) to the Dorset Street crime ( witnesses coming and going ) it appears that the average denizen of the area could have a multitude of reasons for being on the street at what we consider rather unreasonable hours. The notion of stopping 6 of 10 people would be an anathema at the time. It would be like stopping 6 of 10 new yorkers on the street at 10pm. Respectfully Dave

[perrymason]

This is my first thread I've started and I am very new to the case, but here goes.

When 3am comes around these days if you take a look out of your window, you will be lucky to see even a few people roaming the streets.
What I don't get is that why at 3am in Whitechapel during the times of the murders was Jack allowed to roam around freely?

Surely there wasn't that many people on the streets that with the amount of police on the beat, they couldn't stop maybe 60% of people and question them?

He MUST like the Michael Caine film of Jack the ripper had some kind of way to get about without being stopped or questioned?

Hi Paul,

Welcome aboard first off.

If you bear in mind this was the location within the Metropolis that contained the vast majority of the desperately poor and homeless...and that due to its proximity to the wharves, dockers, travellers and seamen would be bedding down in that area.

Since the east End was essentially the warehouse district, services and goods for most of London would come through there, and you had the many businesses that served the local community and throughout the night prepared for the next business day...butchers, bakers, maybe even candlestick makers .......slaughterhousemen, warehouse workers, market vendors, delivery carts .....all these people were out and about in the wee hours of the morning as the Markets opened by 6am.

Now when Jack surfaces in early September....(he was just the Whitechapel Murderer until a new killer is evidenced by a second unusual death, very similar to the previous victim, Polly)...you can add to those streets Vigilance Committees, a surge of new plainclothed and uniformed officers to add to the existing base there, and the toffs who wanted to get a taste of the dangerous and decadent East End.

The reality is that at 3am, or anytime after midnight until daylight, he would have been among many other people on the streets. Its very probable to me anyway that Jack the Ripper was seen by someone other than the witnesses we know of leaving a crime scene, but its also as probable that a man even with some blood staining on his clothing would not be out of place or even unexpected on those streets.

Plus.......in modern times people with insomnia or those who sleep restlessly have many things to do inside to pass away a sleepless night...but the LVP had "walks".

He had enough "cover" with regular street traffic that if he appeared on those same streets in attire that fit the area...he would be like wallpaper.

Best regards Paul

[Sam Flynn]

Pubs, and other late night amusements didn't have the strict licensing laws we have today, and as such they remained open for lengthy hours.

Not as late as 3AM, Mike - midnight was closing time, I believe. If anything, the period we're interested in saw the East End experience a tightening of enforcement around licensing hours.

[Paul]

And yet it's as if Jack the ripper could move around freely at night without fear of getting 'nabbed'.

[kensei]

Let's also consider "Itchy Park," the cemetery/churchyard next to Christchurch on Commercial Street, which would be opened at around dawn each morning and into which hordes of homeless people would immediately pour to find a place to sleep. That meant that all night those people were basically wandering the streets, living a nocturnal existence and sleeping by day simply because they had no choice.