Friday, April 20, 2012

Jack the Ripper

Jack the Ripper

THE HISTORY OF A MURDER
Jack the Ripper



PRESENTATION

Good Morning, we are Agar, Carla and Cynthia and we’re going to talk about Jack the ripper. Later, we’ll try to answer some questions you may have. At first, I’m going to describe our presentation (read contents).


WHO IS HE?

“Jack the Ripper” is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer. In this photo, we can see how it represents Jack the Ripper. Nobody knew who he was and the police suspect of anyone who had similar characteristics to the person in the photo.


JACK THE RIPPER, NAME OR NICKNAME?

The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax, and may have been written by a journalist in a deliberate attempt to heighten interest in the story. Other nicknames used for the killer at the time were “The Whitechapel Murderer” and “Leather apron”.


WHAT DID HE DO? WHERE? HOW DID HE START?

Where did he do the murders? There were committed around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. In the mid-19th century, England experienced an influx of Irish immigrants, who swelled the populations of England’s major cities, including the East End of London. From 1882, Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and Tsarist Russia moved into the same area. Work and housing conditions worsened, and a significant economic underclass developed. Robbery, violence and alcohol dependency were commonplace and the endemic poverty drove many women to prostitution. The economic problems were accompanied by a steady rise in social tensions. Racism, crime, social disturbance, and real deprivation fed public perceptions when a series of vicious and grotesque murders attributed to “Jack the Ripper” received unprecedented coverage in the media.


MURDERS, MURDERS CONECTION

There are five victims who are given to Jack the Ripper. This canonical five Ripper victims are Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. All the victims were prostitutes. This murder mutilated his victims and these mutilations became severe as the series of murders proceeded, except for Stride, whose attacker may have been interrupted. Nichols was not missing any organs; Chapman's uterus was taken; Eddowes had her uterus and a kidney removed and her face mutilated; Kelly's body was mutilated and only her heart was missing from the crime scene. Speculation that the murders were related to each other intensified from September to October 1888, period when there appeared a large number of letters written by one or more anonymous subjects.


INVESTIGATION

One step in the research was that a large group of police officers conducted a research program around Whitechapel house to house, collected forensic material and then it was examined. They began to identify and trace conjectures, examining some more detailed.The butchers, surgeons and doctors became suspicious because of the nature of the mutilations. These a total of 76 were investigated.


SUSPECTS

Somebody said that the concentration of the killings at the weekend, and within a few streets of Whitechapel, has indicated that the Ripper was employed during the week and lived locally. Others have thought the killer was an educated upper-class man, possibly a doctor or an aristocrat, who ventured into Whitechapel from a more well-to-do area. Despite the many and varied theories about the identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, authorities are not agreed on a single solution and the number of suspects reaches over one hundred.


IMITATORS

The newspaper El Mundo of the 26th of May 2010 was published this piece of news:
British police arrested a man suspected of murdering three prostitutes. The media have named as the new Jack "The Ripper".
El Periodico, said about this murderer:
Griffiths (the name of the murderer) is 40 years old and was study a doctorate in criminology, about serial murderers. He said to a neighbor that his academic research focused on Jack the Ripper. The student apparently decided to move from the theoretical to the practical work.


JACK THE RIPPER TOUR

Jack the Ripper is unknown for us, but we know where he committed his crimes. The district is called Whitechapel. It became in a poor district because the big wave of migration. As well as you know, WC was very famous for alcoholism, prostitution and poverty. So it was the perfect place for the birth of a serial killer. Nowadays, people show a lot of interest in this, so a tour was created to show where he killed his victims. It starts in Tower hill at 19,30, and while you are going deep in WC a tourist guide explains where the murders were committed. You are taken away to small and dark streets. Also you can see old taverns and all these things about the ripperian period. The tour is cantered in Commercial st because, there the last witnesses of this period were bund: the white church, the streets, and two pubs that were frequented by some of the victims. The tourist can see photos taken at the moment related with the victims. Finally, the tour ends in the Victorian pub Ten Bells where the tourist usually drinks a beer.


JACK THE RIPPER EVERYWHERE

Jack the ripper has been very famous in the arts world: there are a lot of films about him and one was recorded by Alfred Hitchcock. There were plays and operas. There are a lot of books about this… there are many things. The last film was recorded 8 years ago, so we can say that it’s “new”. The film is set in 1901; the film is about a young man called Jimmy Palmer, a reporter who was writing some articles about some murders in New York. And soon he will be involved in the mysterious and dangerous Jack the Ripper’s case.


NOWADAYS

We have never known who Jack the Ripper was, but the legend won’t be forgotten. At the end of 1991, James Maybrick’s diary was found, the alleged ripper, where there is information which is just known by the police. We think that the Ripper could be a woman and his or her signature was “from hell”.


CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, there are some websites about more information.


Thanks for your attention.


Agar Q., Cynthia K. and Carla G. 1st BATX.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Commonwealth

The Commonwealth

THE COMMONWEALTH

Didac:

-Good morning everybody. Thank you for your attention. Well, al first of all, I’d like to tell you that if you have any question about de presentation, you can ask at the end of it.

Our group’s composed by Laura, Aina, and me, Dídac.

We will talk about the Commonwealth. You will think ‘’And what’s the Commonwealth?’’, okay, wait for it. I’m going to explain it and I’m going to talk about the Head of the Commonwealth. Laura is going to talk about ‘’why’’ it was created and the Commonwealth games. Aina is going to tell you what countries are part of it and the history of the Commonwealth.

Well, to begin with, the Commonwealth is a voluntary association of different countries around the world independent between them and the objective of this union is to make a better political, social and economic situation in these countries. Great Britain was the country which began this association.

Aina:

-With a funny video I’m going to explain all the countries that take part in the history of the Commonwealth and a little bit of history. Here it is, the world, and right there is England, a country with a big idea: to take over every where else and become very powerful. In 1583 Humphrey Gilbert landed over here and found a new land called Newfoundland. England conquered it so the empire began. Gilbert tried to return but he died on the way home, so it was not a brilliant trip. But, England tried again. They went across the Atlantic and this time conquered Canada, the Caribbean, and the most important, the east coast of America. Which means we finally have the British Empire and everything was going awfully well. Americans fought to be independent, and they won; it was a disaster. So England had to go and try luck somewhere else. Fortunately, Captain Hook found Australia, so England decided to conquer it -that would be the prison of the Empire- and also conquer a bit of Asia. There was a British business in Asia called the East Indian Company which traded with coffee and biscuits. Everybody loved it very much and the company became more and more powerful. Britain won the Napoleonic war against the French Empire and the added more countries. Wait a minute, it seems that Indian people didn’t like being wrapped by the Tea Company. They decided to rebel, but the British army stopped the rebellion and Queen Victoria took over the company as Indian Emperors. Look over here, this is south Africa. British had a couple of wars there, and also in some more countries along the way. The Africans of course were defeated by the British, so Britain won the war, and what happened? Added more countries. Look at the map and what the British Empire have. But they lost Australia, Canada, and India, recognized as independent countries out of the Empire. The Second World War happened. Britain won, but it completely broke poor, and an empire doesn’t work without money. So, people that don’t want to be there, just go out, like Indians. And then Ireland became independent; also Sudan, South Africa, Malta, Singapore, and Fiji, and the Empire lost the importance that had had.

Laura:

-The Commonwealth, as Didac said, is a voluntary association of independent countries but, why do they want to be together in an association? Easy, they have similar ideas to help the world population.

The Commonwealth has a lot of purposes, but they want to work in this one that you can see in the slide. It promotes the international peace and security. It supports Democracy. And it’s against racial discrimination, so it defends equal rights. But it’s main purpose is to look after the economical and social development.

Didac:

-The Head of the Commonwealth, as you can imagine, is the Queen of Great Britain, this is because Great Britain created the Commonwealth, so it’s logical that the British Queen is also the Commonwealth’s.

Every year she has some meetings with the leaders of the other countries to make a better cooperation between them.

Laura:

-The Commonwealth Games are a multi-sports event, which like the Olympic Games, are held every 4 years. In 2010 the games were in Delhi, India. The next ones are going to be in Glasgow, in 2014. Two years later than the Olympic Games London 2012. They are really similar, but in the Commonwealth Games Orly the countries which are inside it can take part. But the United Kingdom does not participate as 1 country, they participate as England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In the games you can find some specific Sports typical of these countries like bowls, netball or rugby sevens.

All the people who live in the Commonwealth countries must drive on the right. Canada’s the only country which is in the Commonwealth where people drive on the left.

Didac:

-To finish, here you have some addresses where you can find more information, if you like to know more about the Commonwealth.

If you have any questions, we will answer them now.

Thank you for you attention.

Aina B, Laura R, Dídac C.

1st BAT.