One aspect of the Jack the Ripper case, and one which, over the years, has come in for an awful lot of comment and criticism, was the idea that bloodhounds might be used to track the killer in the wake of another Whitechapel murder occurring.
There have been all manner of stories in circulation about this aspect of the case. many of them centering on Sir Charles Warren, the much-maligned Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
WOULD BLOODHOUNDS HAVE CAUGHT HIM?
In fairness to Warren, the initial idea that dogs might be of use in trying to catch the killer didn’t originate from him, but rather it came from several letters to newspapers that were then picked up by the Home Office who then suggested their use to Sir Charles Warren.
Warren, it must be said, was extremely skeptical that bloodhounds could be of any use in such a densely populated area in which hundreds, if not thousands, of people were walking up and down on the pavements at all hours of the day and night.
HE GAVE THE BLOODHOUNDS A TRY
However, he did agree to conduct trials in order to ascertain how effective dogs could be, and he also agreed that he would act as the fleeing man in order to carry out the tests.
As it happened, he was, in fact, quite impressed with the results, and, in early October, he gave instructions that, in the event of another atrocity, nobody was to disturb the crime scene until bloodhounds could be sent for.
This was the main reason that there was a delay in the finding of Mary Kelly’s body in her room at number 13 Miller’s Court and the police actually entering the room.
WATCH OUR VIDEO ON THE BLOODHOUNDS
One of the videos on our YouTube Channel tells the full story of what the press dubbed “the detective bloodhounds” and the Jack the Ripper case.
WAS IT FAIR?
Sir Charles Warren soon found himself the subject of a great deal of mirth in the newspapers as journalists found the prospect of him being hunted by the bloodhounds an irresistible one.
Several stories began to circulate;- that the bloodhounds had hunted down none other than Sir Charles Warren; that the dogs had run off and that they had got lost in a London fog, were typical of the falsehoods that were circulating when the press found out about the bloodhounds.
THE STORIES ARE UNTRUE
Several of these stories are still in circulation today, and they often appear in books on Jack the Ripper where they are repeated as ascertained facts.
But, to be honest, the stories are either exaggerations of what actually happened, or they are completely untrue.
But, when it comes to the Whitechapel murders, sadly you will find that much of what you read was and is either exaggerated, untrue, or both.