Thoughts on Pieter's post

Good post,
I think you’re completely right in thinking that the fabrication of Jack the Ripper was purely just to have someone to blame. I think the police thought up whatever they could to simply enable people to sleep at night. Not only that, but they also did it in a way to disassociate the British public with the crimes in any way they knew how... hence the foreigners.
I personally believe that it was perhaps the falsity and twisting of actual witness accounts (in favour of the police) that probably cost them catching the actual ripper. I reckon that over time, as fear and lack of police awareness began to surface, the growing public anxiety caused the police to leap into every and any fact they could find to keep people from losing their heads and creating national panic.
This could perhaps also explain why there are so many clashing facts about the same suspects.Maybe if we have time you could lightly brush on this subject in the presentation, just in case we end up way under time, I doubt we will, but it’s a good point to make just in case.