REVIEW
By D HILL
Columnist
As a lover of all things true crime, I jumped for joy when I saw that Netflix dropped more true crime documentaries recently.
Netflix just released their documentary “The Ripper.” I know what you are thinking – No, this is not about the original Jack the Ripper. This is about the case of a copycat, The Yorkshire Ripper; Britain’s most notorious serial killer.
Although, this documentary wasn’t about the original Ripper, I was still excited to learn about a case I didn’t know much about.
It was irritating to watch how disgustingly the police handled this case. The police created the narrative that the Ripper only killed sex workers because the majority of the women he killed were, but this is not completely true. The police assumed this because of the area in which the women were last seen or found in.
Furthermore, saying they were sex workers gave an excuse for them to not care. The cases were considered NHI (no human involved) and weren’t important to the police or the public.
Wilma McCann, the first victim, was last seen in the red light district, so when it came to investigating her murder, it was not the top priority for police.
The case only became important when 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald was killed. She was not a known sex worker so the police and public were more willing to help.
Even journalists did not want to write about this case until the McDonald’s death. Police barely even took the live victims seriously. Two of the women were laughed at after coming to the police and explaining what happened. Because the police didn’t listen to everyone, valuable information that might have led to the conviction of the killer went undisclosed.
I believe the reason why the Ripper was able to kill for as long as he did was because of how poorly the police handled this case.
Instead of the police waiting for someone that they considered human (Macdonald), they should have tried harder to solve the murders of McCann and Emily Jackson.
With proper police work, the Ripper wouldn’t have killed as many people as he did, leaving 13 bodies, 13 lives that mattered, 13 family members are all gone because police and the public believed that these women didn’t matter.
Instead of police and the public remembering the man who was behind it all, they should’ve remembered the women who suffered at the hands of that man.
The murders were crimes against women, not just sex workers. Women had finally freed themselves from the shackles men put them in, but because of the Ripper, they were put right back into those shackles.
Women were told not to dress a certain way, not to be in a certain area and not to go out at night. Most women felt vulnerable again because men were once again saying what women could and couldn’t do.
I would only recommend this documentary if you need something to be mad at. I rate this documentary a two out of five stars because the cinematography was good and you see the story from many different points of view.
This documentary gives people who are victims, less fortunate people and people who didn’t live a picture-perfect lifestyle every reason not to go to the police.
This documentary shows just how disgusting the public and police can be when dealing with cases that involve people who they consider unimportant.
If things like this interest you, I highly recommend this, but if not, it’s not worth the anger you will feel after watching this.
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