20/10/05 - DNA tests on 'Ripper hoax' letters led to police swoop
Yorkshire Post

Drinking lifestyle of separated loner revealed by neighbours

Kate O'Hara, Paul Jeeves and Andrew Robinson DNA tests on letters and tapes sent by the Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer led detectives to the man arrested in Sunderland, it was revealed last night.

Sources identified the man as John Humble, an unemployed 49-year-old, said by neighbours to be a heavy drinker. Last night, he was still being questioned by West Yorkshire Police over the hoax by the man dubbed "Wearside Jack" who threw detectives off the trail of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 25 years ago – giving him the chance to murder three more women.

Humble lives with his brother in a council house in Flodden Road in the run-down Ford area of Sunderland. A white police tent yesterday covered the front garden of the house as forensic tests were carried out. Senior police sources say that Humble has no links to Yorkshire.

It had been suggested the hoaxer may have been an ex-West Yorkshire police officer with an axe to grind, but Humble has never served in the police force and is not thought to have any connection with the original investigation team.

Instead, it is believed he was arrested after officers in West Yorkshire Police's newly-formed Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET) revisited the case alongside a number of other high-profile unsolved crimes.

It had been thought that the hoax tapes had been lost, and the letters sent by "Wearside Jack" are now illegible after being blackened by a series of chemical tests. But the Yorkshire Post understands that the tapes, as well as other important items from the time, were found after senior officers ordered an extensive audit.

It is thought that it is these other items which gave detectives the crucial forensic evidence that led to the arrest. Officers also discovered good quality photographs of the original letters which have provided them with a hand-writing sample from the hoaxer.

Police sources last night refused to say whether DNA had been gleaned from saliva traces on the envelopes which the hoax tapes were sent in, or from the back of the stamps. A senior source in West Yorkshire Police said that there had been a determination to solve the mystery once and for all.

Humble, who is separated from his wife, lives in the two-bedroom house with his brother, Harry, who is in his mid-40s. John Humble moved in with his brother after their mother, Violet, died. Neighbours say both men are heavy drinkers and had been seen fighting in the street, sometimes over the television remote control.

Humble rarely spoke to anybody apart from his brother, and had been dubbed "John the Bag" because he was so often seen carrying bags of beer home from an off-licence. Peter Henry, 44, who works for Stagecoach saw the Humble brothers two days before the arrest.

Mr Henry drank with Humble in the nearby Round Robin pub and had known him for over 25 years. He said: "I used to see him every few days when I was going to work. He's a good lad, he would do anything for anyone. It is just a shame what has happened to the family since the mother died. "John and Harry have just begun to drink more and more.

But they always used to come out and have a laugh. We used to play pool with them in the pub. But John never mentioned the Yorkshire Ripper. He was just a normal lad, his voice doesn't sound anything like the tapes." Up until 10 years ago Humble worked as a labourer and a security guard, while his brother was a hospital porter.

The arrest was greeted with shock by the son of the Ripper's first murder victim Wilma McCann, and one of the original manhunt's most senior detectives. Richard McCann said: "I realise this arrest is a positive thing. I'm happy to see that finally the police may have made some progress with this side of the investigation.

Three other people may have lost their lives because of this massive red herring – Peter Sutcliffe went on to kill again." And retired detective superintendent Dick Holland said: "I'm pleased an arrest has been made. I lost all hope of an arrest ever being made. I thought this day would never come.

"At the time, we accepted the tape and letters as being genuine because it had information we felt was only privy to the genuine murderer. The tape and letters only made us keener to get to the bottom of things."