What is Persuasive Writing?
1. Also know as an Argument Essay
2. Uses logic and reason to show that one idea is more
legitimate than another
3. Persuades readers to your side of the argument
4. Uses sound reasoning
5. Uses evidence
What are types of Evidence?
1. Facts – something that can be proven
2. Statistics
3. Quotes
4. Examples
Where do you start for your Final Project?
1. Pick a case
2. Write down everything you know about the case. What are
the facts?
3. Research your case. Look at three different sources
(websites, newspapers, journals, books, etc). What did
those sources tell you about your case? Remember, WHO,
WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW are great places to
start.
4. How did your research change what you know?
5. What is your stance on the case? Was the verdict right?
Why or why not? If it is not solved, who did it? Why?
6. Remember, your research will validate and support your
point of view.
How do you write a thesis statement for a Persuasive paper?
1. It is a declarative statement.
2. It has a debatable point.
3. It has an idea that can be proven.
4. It addresses an audience (it is in third person).
What would it look like?!?
Case – Jack the Ripper
What do I know?
Prostitutes were murdered in London in 1888
Serial Killer
Possibly a doctor
Never solved
Source #1 http://www.casebook.org/intro.html
One mile area of Whitechapel
Police received a letter signed Jack the Ripper, so that was the name
given to the killer
“He was not the first serial killer, but he was probably the first to
Note that I
appear in a large metropolis at a time when the general
add chunks
populace had become literate and the press was a force for
of quoted
material? I
social change.”
can go back
“Every day the activities of the Ripper were chronicled in the
later and
newspapers as were the results of the inquiries and the actions
decide what
taken by the police.”
to use and
“The press was also partly responsible for creating many myths
have all the
surrounding the Ripper and ended up turning a sad killer of
information.
women into a "bogey man", who has now become one of the
most romantic figures in history.”
Unclear how many victims (4 – 8 is the estimate)
“The Whitechapel murderer and his victim stood facing each other.
When she lifted her skirts, the victim's hands were women by
their throats and strangled them until they were unconscious if
not dead. The autopsies constantly revealed clear indications
that the victims had been strangled.”
“No bruising on the back of the heads shows that he lowered the
bodies to the ground rather than throwing or letting them fall.
Given the inclement weather and filth in the streets it is
unacceptable that the prostitutes or their client would have
attempted intercourse on the ground. He cut the throats when
the women were on the ground. Splatter stains show that the
blood pooled beside or under the neck and head of the victim
rather than the front which is where the blood would flow if they
had been standing up.”
“In the opinion of most of the surgeons who examined the bodies,
most believed that the killer had to have some degree of
anatomical knowledge to do what he did. In one case he
removed a kidney from the front rather than from the side, and
did not damage any of the surrounding organs while doing so. In
another case he removed the sexual organs with one clean
stroke of the knife. Given the time circumstances of the crimes
(outside, often in near total darkness, keeping one eye out for
the approach of others, and under extremely tight time
constraints), the Ripper almost certainly would have had some
experience in using his knife.”
Scotland Yard and the City of London investigated
No modern CSI – generally, you had to catch the killer in the act or
get them to confess
Autopsies
Crime Scene Drawings
Photos of Victims
“In 1894, Sir Melville Macnaghten, then Chief Constable -Macnaghten's suspect was M.J. Druitt, a barrister turned teacher
who committed suicide in December 1888.”
“According to the Chief Constable, Druitt was a doctor, 41 years of
age, and committed suicide immediately after the Kelly murder.
In actuality Druitt was 31, not a doctor, and killed himself nearly
a month after the last official murder.”
“In 1903, Frederick Abberline, a retired crack detective who had been
in charge of the Ripper investigation at the ground level stated
that he thought that multiple wife poisoner Severin Klosowski,
alias George Chapman, might be Jack the Ripper”
“The name of Macnaghten's second suspect was confirmed as Aaron
Kosminiski in the early 1980s when a researcher came upon
Donald Swanson's personal copy of Robert Anderson's book of
memoirs. Both Swanson and Anderson were officers who
participated in the Ripper investigation; indeed, they were the
ones given the responsibility of being in charge of the case.
Anderson had written in his memoirs that appeared for the first
time in 1910 that the police knew who the Ripper was. According
to Anderson the Ripper was a Polish Jew who was put away in an
insane asylum after the crimes, and then died soon after.”
“Aaron Kosminski was a real person and was placed in an insane
asylum. His records show him to be a docile and harmless lunatic
that heard voices in his head and would only eat food from the
gutter. The dates of his incarceration are wrong, and he did not
die soon after his committal but lived on until 1919. Some
researchers have tried to explain the problems by saying that
the name Kosminski' was confused with another insane Polish
Jew, who really was dangerous.”
“The search continues. The third Macnaghten suspect, Michael Ostrog,
has been investigated and there is nothing to indicate that he
was nothing more than a demented con man. “
“Dr. Francis Tumblety, the latest serious suspect, only became known
to students of the Jack the Ripper murders in 1993. A collector
Put quotes
of crime memorabilia obtained a cache of letters belonging to a
around the text
crime journalist named G.R. Sims. Among the letters was one
that you copy
from John Littlechild, who had been in charge of the Secret
and paste over.
Department in Scotland Yard at the time of the murders. Dated
That will tell you
1913, Littlechild writes to Sims: "I never heard of a Dr. D.
that it is exact
(which many assume is a reference to Druitt as Macnaghten
words. A huge
thought Druitt was a doctor and Sims was a confident of the
help to make
sure you are
Chief Constable), in connection with the Whitechapel Murders
documenting and
but amongst the suspects, and to my mind a very likely one,
not plagiarizing!
was a Dr. T . . . He was an American quack named Tumblety . . .
"”
Source #2
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/suspects_11.ht
ml
“The following is a list of probabilities about the Ripper:










A white male
Average or below average height
Between 20 and 40 years of age in 1888
Did not dress as laborer or indigent poor
Had lodgings in the East End
Did have medical expertise, despite 1-2 opinions to contrary
May have been foreigner
Right-handed
Had a regular job since the murders all occurred on weekends
Was single so that he could roam streets at all hours”
“Sir Melville Macnaghten succeeded Sir Charles Warren as the Chief
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in June of 1889, after the Ripper
murders had officially ended. However, the investigation was ongoing and
Macnaghten had complete access to police files. His final report addresses
his thoughts on why the murders came to an end with the monstrous
destruction of Mary Kelly, and with the identity of the three key suspects he
believed could be Jack the Ripper:
A much more rational theory is that the murderer's brain gave way
altogether after his awful glut in Miller's Court, and that he immediately
committed suicide, or, as a possible alternative, was found to be so
hopelessly mad by his relations, that he was by them confined in some
asylum.
No one ever saw the Whitechapel murderer: many homicidal maniacs were
suspected, but no shadow of proof could be thrown on any one. I may
mention the cases of 3 men, any one of whom would have been...(likely) to
have committed this series of murders:
(1) A Mr. M. J. Druitt, said to be a doctor & of good family, who disappeared
at the time of the Miller's Court murder, & whose body was found in the
Thames on 31st December — or about seven weeks after that murder. He
was sexually insane and from private information I have little doubt but that
his own family believed him to have been the murderer.
(2) Kosminski, a Polish Jew, & resident in Whitechapel. This man became
insane owing to many years' indulgence in solitary vices. He had a great
hatred of women, specially of the prostitute class, & had strong homicidal
tendencies; he was removed to a lunatic asylum about March 1889. There
were many circumstances connected with this man which made him a strong
'suspect.'
(3) Michael Ostrog, a Russian doctor, and a convict, who was subsequently
detained in a lunatic asylum as a homicidal maniac. This man's antecedents
were of the worst possible type, and his whereabouts at the time of the
Note where
murders could never be ascertained.”
the
information
came from.
Source #3: http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm
This will
help with
“Suspects
citations
Suffice to say genuine suspects are far fewer than the prolific authors
of the genre would have us believe. In fact, to reduce them to only
those with a genuine claim having been nominated by contemporary
police officers, we are left with a mere four. They are:




Kosminski, a poor Polish Jew resident in Whitechapel;
Montague John Druitt, a 31 year old barrister and school teacher who
committed suicide in December 1888;
Michael Ostrog, a Russian-born multi-pseudonymous thief and
confidence trickster, believed to be 55 years old in 1888, and detained
in asylums on several occasions;
Dr Francis J. Tumblety, 56 Years old, an American 'quack' doctor, who
was arrested in November 1888 for offences of gross indecency, and
fled the country later the same month, having obtained bail at a very
high price.”
These are from a search on KU Library’s EBSCHOST
Title: The Evil Deeds of Dr. Cream. (cover story)
Authors: Foran, Jill
Source: Beaver; Aug/Sep2006, Vol. 86 Issue 4, p16-22, 7p, 3c
Subject Terms:
*SERIAL murderers
Notice that you get key
*CHLOROFORM
terms? That helps to
*ABORTION
change/add to your research
*SERIAL murders
*PROSTITUTES
Crimes against
Geographic Terms:
ENGLAND
The article features Thomas Neill Cream, a medical school graduate
from McGill University in Quebec and a convicted serial killer, and his
connection to a murderer named Jack the Ripper who was deemed the
world's first serial killer in 1888. Cream had written his thesis on the
effects of chloroform and established a practice in London, England
where he became an illegal abortionist. Jack the Ripper and Cream
both possess a sense of moral superiority, killing prostitutes to get rid
of them and liked to write letters. INSET: History of Chloroform.
Full Text
Title: The Monster of Whitechapel: The Continuing Mystery of Jack the
Ripper.
Authors: Goldman, David
Source: Biography; Oct2001, Vol. 5 Issue 10, p24, 1p, 1bw
Details the crimes committed by the mysterious Jack the Ripper in
England. Murder of several prostitutes; Difficulty of discovering the
killer's identity; Presentation of several viable suspects.
Title:The Jack the Ripper Murders: A Modus Operandi and Signature
Analysis of the 1888–1891 Whitechapel Murders.
Authors: Keppel, Robert D.1 icc_rdk@exchange.shsu.edu
Weis, Joseph G.2
Brown, Katherine M.1
Welch, Kristen1
Source: Journal of Investigative Psychology & Offender Profiling;
Jan2005, Vol. 2 Issue 1, p1-21, 21p, 3 charts
A number of females, commonly recognized as 11 victims, were
murdered in separate events in Whitechapel, London between 1888
and 1891. An evaluation of the murders revealed that six of those
murders were linked by a number of distinct, personal signature
characteristics, including picquerism, overkill, incapacitation,
domination and control, open and displayed, unusual body position,
sexual degradation, mutilation, organ harvesting, specific areas of
attack, preplanning and organization, and a combination of signature
features. The signature characteristics observed in these infamous
Jack the Ripper murders were compared to a 1981–1995
cohort of 3359 homicide cases from Washington State's HITS
database. The analysis revealed that the signature displayed in six of
the Whitechapel murders was extremely rare. There were only six
records of female victims, one a prostitute, with probed, explored, or
mutilated body cavities. There were only two cases, both females who
were not prostitutes, where the body was left in an unusual position
and body cavities were explored, probed, or mutilated. Copyright
© 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
How would I cite my sources?
Keep a running list of sources on a
Reference page. This will save you
time and frustrations. Make your
full citation when you take notes.
Then, you will have all information
available. You can always delete
the sources you do not use.
Barbee, L.S. (2006). Introduction to the Case. Casebook: Jack the Ripper.
Retrieved from http://www.casebook.org/intro.html
Foran, J. The Evil Deeds of Dr. Cream. Beaver, 86 (4), 16-22. Retrieved 9
March 2008, from Academic Search Premier database.
Goldman, D. The Monster of Whitechapel: The Continuing Mystery of Jack
the Ripper. Biography, 5 (10), 24. Retrieved from Academic Search
Premier database.
Keppel, R. D, et al. Jack the Ripper Murders: A Modus Operandi and
Signature Analysis of the 1888-1891 Whitechapel Murders. Journal of
Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2 (1), 1-21. Retrieved
from Academic Search Premier database.
Major Suspects. (2007). truTV: Crime Library. Retrieved from
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/ripper/suspects_
11.html
Metropolitan Police. (n.d.). The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper.
Retrieved from http://www.met.police.uk/history/ripper.htm