One of the questions we frequently get asked on our Jack the Ripper London walks is “would Jack the Ripper be caught if he were murdering today?”
The consensus amongst the participants on our London walks is that modern forensics and detecting methods would most certainly result in his apprehension.
It has to be said that if he were to murder in the same district (i.e. the relatively small geographic area of Spitalfields and Whitechapel) then the chances are that he would be caught.
However, changes to the streets and layout of the district would probably play a more prominent role in his apprehension than any modern innovations in forensics or detection.
The streets have changed a great deal. On our Jack the Ripper London walks we take participants through some of the old backstreets that have remained relatively unchanged since Jack the Ripper stalked them.
It was these unlit, narrow alleyways that provided the perfect location for Jack the Ripper to carry out his murderous reign of terror.
In 1888 there were hundreds of these tiny alleyways and passageways snaking through the district. Each one of them was well known to the local prostitutes that Jack the Ripper chose as his victims. These ladies knew the perfect places to take their clients to where they would be safe from interruption. In other words it was they, not their killer who, inadvertently, chose their murder sites. As one senior detective put it “it’s not as if he has to wait for his chance, those woman make that chance for him.”
Furthermore, Jack the Ripper only ever left one clue behind, a piece of bloody apron taken from the body of one of his victims that he used to clean his hands and then discarded in a doorway.
It has to be said that this wasn’t much of a clue. Even today, if the police had no clues to go on they would be hard pushed to find a killer who was not known to his victims and who was working alone.
It could be argued that DNA or fingerprinting would lead the police to him today. But in order for that to happen they would have to have his DNA or his fingerprints on record to match them.
If not the modern police would be in, more or less, the same situation as their Victorian counterparts.
All that they could do in 1888 was flood the area with police officers and hope that, the next time Jack the Ripper struck, their would be a policeman around to catch him. But the killer’s luck held, that never happened and, in consequence, Jack the Ripper evaded capture.
All this makes a great deal of sense when you explore the streets where the murders took place on our Jack the Ripper London walks.
Tags: 1888, DNA, Jack the Ripper, Jack the Ripper Tour, london walk, London walks, Spitalfields, Walks of London, Whitechapel, Would the Police Catch Jack the Ripper Today
