20/10/05 - How bogus tape allowed Ripper to murder three more women
By Sean O’Neill and Russell Jenkins
The Times
More than 26 years later, man is arrested after hunt for hoaxer leads police to a house on an estate in Sunderland.
THE white envelope arrived in the Yorkshire Ripper incident room at Millgarth police station, Leeds, in the middle of June 1979, addressed to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield.
Under the flap was the signature, Jack the Ripper, and inside was a cassette tape that purported to come from the serial killer who had murdered ten women. “I’m Jack,” the recording began in a soft, heavily accented voice. The chilling message convinced senior officers that it had come from the killer. It led to the Ripper inquiry being sidetracked, allowing Peter Sutcliffe to remain free to kill three more times. More than 26 years later, the hunt for the hoaxer who became known as Wearside Jack has led police to a redbrick semi-detached house on an estate in Sunderland.
Scenes of crime teams were still searching the property yesterday as one of its occupants, John Humble, sat in a police cell in Leeds waiting to be interviewed. The arrest of Mr Humble, 49, a heavy drinker who separated from his wife three years ago, followed a cold case review into an inquiry that has long been regarded by West Yorkshire Police as unfinished business.
Mr Humble, who lives with his brother in Flodden Road on Sunderland’s Ford Estate, was arrested on Tuesday and is being held on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Mr Oldfield, who led the hunt for the Ripper, had been convinced that the tape came from his prey. Like three taunting letters sent to him and the Daily Mirror, the tape had been posted in Sunderland.
Senior officers shifted the focus of the hunt from West Yorkshire to the North East. Analysis of the recording suggested that the voice was that of a man from Sunderland. In July 1979, two West Yorkshire detectives interviewed Sutcliffe, from Bradford, for the fifth time in the course of the investigation. DCs Andrew Laptew and Graham Greenwood were suspicious but their report was filed away because Sutcliffe’s voice and handwriting did not fit the new profile of the suspect.
Sutcliffe was to kill on three more occasions — murdering Barbara Leach, Marguerite Walls and Jacqueline Hill — before he was finally arrested in January 1981.
Mr Oldfield took the failings personally and his health deteriorated. He resigned in 1983 and died two years later, aged 61. Since then, several attempts have been made to identify Wearside Jack. For years the leading theory was that the hoaxer was a former police officer with a grudge.
Later there were claims that Jack was an accomplice of Sutcliffe and may have participated in one of his murders and killed again after the Ripper was jailed. Sutcliffe never admitted the 1975 murder in Preston of Joan Harrison. This week’s apparent breakthrough comes after a review of the evidence begun four months ago by West Yorkshire’s homicide and major inquiry team under Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg.
In June, officers discovered that the original cassette tape and the letters had been misplaced. A trawl of police storage facilities and Crown Prosecution Service archives was ordered. It was discovered that the three letters had been destroyed under repeated chemical testing. But some of the original material from 1979 was rediscovered.
West Yorkshire Police have declined to say what that material is, but the tape itself is no longer likely to be of crucial evidential value in court as experts agree that the speaker’s voice pattern will have changed in the intervening 26 years.
However, sources have indicated that, using new techniques, sufficient DNA material was recovered to lead police to seek further tests.
Mr Humble has lived with his younger brother, Harry, since 2002. The brothers are believed to have moved in together after John’s 12-year marriage broke down. They are known to neighbours as the “smelly brothers” and are seen at the local wine shop most mornings buying cheap cider. A workman who was recently in their house said: “It’s in a bit of a state. There were no carpets and loads of stains on the floorboards.”
Mr Humble is believed to have been unemployed for five years since quitting his job as a security guard. A friend of his ex-wife, Anne, who now lives in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said that she was “horrified” when she heard of the arrest. Sutcliffe, 59, was jailed for life in May 1981. He is held in Broadmoor Special Hospital.
THE WEARSIDE JACK TAPE
"I’m Jack. I see you are still having no luck catching me. I have the greatest respect for you George, but Lord, you are no nearer catching me now than four years ago when I started. I reckon your boys are letting you down, George. They can’t be much good, can they?
"The only time they came near catching me was a few months back in Chapeltown when I was disturbed. Even then it was a uniform copper not a detective.
"I warned you in March that I’d strike again. Sorry it wasn’t Bradford. I did promise you that but I couldn’t get there. I’m not quite sure when I will strike again but it will definitely be sometime this year, maybe September, October, even sooner if I get the chance. I am not sure where, maybe Manchester, I like it there, there’s plenty of them knocking about. They never learn, do they George? I bet you’ve warned them, but they never listen.
"At the rate I’m going I should be in the book of records. I think it’s eleven up to now isn’t it? Well, I’ll keep on going for quite a while yet. I can’t see meself being nicked just yet. Even if you do get near I’ll probably top myself first. Well, it’s been nice chatting to you George. Yours, Jack the Ripper.
"No good looking for fingerprints. You should know by now it’s as clean as a whistle. See you soon. Bye.”
FOOLING THE DETECTIVES
October 30, 1975 Yorkshire Ripper kills first victim, Wilma McCann, in Leeds
March 1978 Letters claiming to be from Ripper posted from Sunderland to Asst Chief Constable George Oldfield and Daily Mirror
March 23, 1979 third letter, postmarked Sunderland, sent to Oldfield
June 11, 1979 Wearside Jack tape reaches Oldfield
June 26, 1979 Oldfield plays tape at press conference
July 1979 Peter Sutcliffe interrogated for fifth time but eliminated because his voice did not fit profile
September 2, 1979 Ripper suspected of 11th murder
November 17, 1980 Jacquleine Hill murdered at Leeds University, Ripper’s 13th victim
January 2, 1981 Peter Sutcliffe arrested; confesses to 13 murders
May 22, 1981 Sutcliffe is convicted and jailed for life |
