The present museum occupies two rooms and it is closed to members of the public. There was no official opening of the museum, and only after two years the first visitors came into the place.
The museum is now used as a lecture theatre for the curator to lecture police. The first room contains an extensive collection of weapons, all of which have been used in murders or serious assaults in London. The second room contains cabinets under categories like Famous Murders, Notorious Poisoners, or Bank Robberies.
The museum came into existence sometime in 1874, although unofficially. It grew from the collection of prisoners’ property gathered under the authority of the Prisoners Property Act of 1869. The act was intended to help the police in their study of crime and criminals.
The Whitechapel murders were a horrific blow for the whole of London. People of all classes were terrified, shocked, and frightened. The killings and the investigation created a worldwide media frenzy, which in many ways lasts to this day, as evidenced by many works of fiction and true-crime projects labelled under the general term of “ripperology”. Moreover, as dreadful as it sounds, Jack the Ripper was the founding hero of the modern crime investigation and public approach to murder.
The investigation into the Whitechapel murders necessitated the use of some innovative police techniques, such as profiling, and required a coordinated effort from the officers. What is more, Jack the Ripper was the first serial killer to make the news with such grisly flourish. The public, while horrified by the extent of the killer’s brutality, also revelled in the gruesome details described in the press. To the contemporary eye, as well as from today’s perspective, Jack the Ripper introduced a new way of thinking of murders: in a morbid way, true crime became entertainment, both for the killer who committed it and the public who thrilled with the horror.
The killings had also more of an immediate influence on London society and her living conditions. The nature of the murders and of the victims drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End, and galvanised public opinion against the overcrowded, unsanitary slums. In the two decades after the murders, the worst of the slums were cleared and demolished.
The lack of success in apprehending the murderer severely undermined the confidence that Londoners had previously begun to have in their police. For years each brutal murder committed in London rekindled the fear of Saucy Jack, though no further crimes were ultimately attributed to him.
Nonetheless, Jack the Ripper became a metaphorical bogey man and the epitome of all evil that inflicts the modern, industrial city.