Street Gangs: Suspects For The Whitechapel Murders
At the start of the Whitechapel murders the police suspected they were the work of one of London’s street gangs.
In the late 19 century there had been a massive increase in gangs in many of Britain’s cities. In Birmingham there were the Peaky Blinders. In Liverpool there were the Cornermen and the High Rip. These gangs revelled in violence.
The Gangs of Liverpool by Michael Macilwee
The author of 'The Gangs of Liverpool: From the Cornermen to the High Rip - The Mobs That Terrorised a City’, Micheal Macilwee said:
"The High Rip were often portrayed as having some level of organisation, which they used to plan criminal activities. However, one of the most terrifying features of the gang was their willingness to engage in random acts of violence. There was often no attempt at theft. It seems that nobody could innocently walk past them without falling prey to some sort of abuse or violence.”
Liverpool suffered from extreme levels of poverty and unemployment and its many slum streets were a breeding ground for crime and violence. Gangs like the Cornermen appeared in the 1880s and the in the mid 1880s the High Rip took over the streets.
Their first major crime was the Blackstone Street Murder in January 1884. A gang of five aged between 18 and 20 set on two Spanish sailors. They were beaten with belts before attempting to escape. Rodriguez Nuniez was caught by the gang as they shouted "Knives, boys, knives!”. He died bleeding out after being slashed in the neck.
Of course London had its gangs. There was The Blind Beggar Gang, centred around The Blind Beggar Pub very close to where my Jack the Ripper walk starts. The Hoxton High Rips, the Limehouse Forty Thieves, The Green Gate Gang, a Jewish gang called The Coons. And just a 15 minute walk north up Brick Lane from Osborn Street where the first victim of the Whitechapel murders, Emma Elizabeth Smith, was attacked was Old Nichol Street. This was the centre of one of London’s blackest slums known as ‘the Old Nichol’ and the notorious young cut throats from that area gloried in the same name. They were known as the ‘Old Nichol’.
Murder in Regent’s Park
In the summer of 1888 the newspapers were full of updates on the murder of a young man called Joseph Rumold. He was strolling with his girlfriend and another young couple through Regent’s Park on the evening of 24th of May 1888. A gang of young men aged between 15 and 17 attacked them.
According to The Globe newspaper:
“Before the attack was made, one of the eight roughs said to Rumbold, “Are you Macy?” And then, without waiting for an answer, he was grappled and twice stabbed. No sooner was the crime perpetrated than the whole of the assailants ran away, as if their object had been accomplished; they made no attempt, apparently, to molest any of Rumbold’s companions.
“All this resembles very closely the doings of the murderous gangs in some Lancashire cities who set forth after dark for the express purpose of stabbing miscellaneously.”
Thugs of Victorian London
There was obviously no shortage of young thugs wandering London’s streets eager at any moment ‘to engage in random acts of violence’ on any convenient and easy target.
Emma Elizabeth Smith the 45-year-old woman who was brutally attacked in the early hours of April 3rd said that three men had attacked her. One of her attackers she thought was only about 18. This homeless woman quite obviously was not worth robbing. It would appear from her injuries that her attackers were solely bent on torture and humiliation. She’d been brutally beaten and a blunt instrument had been thrust in side her. It was that appalling act that brought about her death the following day from peritonitis.
On August the 7th 39 year old Martha Tabram was discovered on a first floor landing she had been stabbed 39 times. The police surgeon who examined her believed that the wounds were inflicted by two different weapons.
One theory among the police was that these gangs were targeting these women to rob them. It was even suggested that the gang collected protection money from local prostitutes and that these brutal attacks were meant to send out a clear signal that it was a good policy to be on time with payments.
But these homeless women were hardly worth robbing so it is equally possible that these women simply offered cheap entertainment for gang members. It’s been suggested that members of the Liverpudlian “High-Rip Gang” may have been involved in the Whitechapel murders. The name “Jack the Ripper” is possibly an attempt to make such a connection with the “high rip” gangs, known for their random acts of extreme violence with belts and knives.
The police may have suspected that a gang was involved in the murders of Emma Elizabeth Smith and Martha Tabram, but they didn’t manage to get a conviction. Given the nature of gang culture, that would have been difficult to achieve.
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