Exploiting The Ripper

I think some very interesting points have been raised in the last two posts. I agree with what Charlene discusses, in particular I think that it is interesting that people at the time took the "not on our soil" attitude. It raises many arguments as to how accurate the policing was at the time of the murders. Earlier in the module when Mark gave the lecture on crime and policing he highlighted that it was an early establishment and that it was mainly private policing. This leads me into contemplating how accurate the evidence actually is. It seems that at the time a lot of finger pointing was done yet no actual suspect was charged. Do you think that at the time it was maybe used to peoples advantage? i.e. the media. Even today people use it to their advantage in the world of consumerism(films/books/tv). It seems to occur with lots of crimes in modern society today, one of the main examples that comes to mind is 9/11 and how that was exploited in films such as World Trade Centre...and all of the documentaries/tv programmes that have been made.

As Kiri points out, it is interesting to find out just how many ways that Jack the Ripper as a name has been exploited through consumerism. The My Chemical Romance T-shirt is a great example as to how popular bands can use such a terrible subject, although as I have previously discussed is it so horrific these days? I think that in modern society people may accept it as just a name rather than a murderer.

I found a very interesting book that will be useful to everyone for our presentation 'Jack the Ripper: A Bibliography and Review of the Literature' by Alexander Kelly. This book covers almost all of the topics that we are covering, not just literature. It raises some great points about each topic so I will bring this to our group work session on Thursday.