??/??/?? - Peter Sutcliffe,
the Yorkshire Ripper
BBC News Online's Chris Summers
BBC Case Closed
Through the late 1970s and early 80s, women in the north
of England lived in fear of a killer known both as the
Yorkshire Ripper and Wearside Jack. Fuelled by media and
police investigation, the public remained concerned for
friends and family for over five years. That was until
January 1981 and the arrest of Olivia Reivers and her
client. Olivia was supposed to have been the Yorkshire
Ripper's 14th victim. But she was lucky ...
The 24-year old prostitute was plying her trade in Sheffield's
red light district when a punter pulled up in a brown
Rover. They agreed a price, she got into the car, and
the man drove half a mile to a secluded spot in Melbourne
Avenue. Ten minutes later, after a fumbled attempt at
sex, a police car turned into the drive where they were
parked.
Sergeant Robert Ring and Constable Robert Hydes approached
the parked car and the man gave his name as Peter Williams
and told them she was his girlfriend, but when asked what
her name was he said: "I don't know, I haven't known
her that long".
The two officers were naturally suspicious and when they
checked the car's number plates over the radio with the
police national computer they found they belonged to a
Skoda, and not the brown Rover that they were looking
at. Olivia and her client were arrested, but the two police
officers allowed him to wander off and relieve himself
behind a nearby storage tank.
They were taken to a Sheffield police station and Williams
admitted his real name was Peter Sutcliffe. He went to
sleep in a cell, confident he would be charged with no
more than stealing the number plates - worth about 50p
- from a Dewsbury scrapyard.
Acting on instincts
But Sgt Ring decided, on a hunch, to return to the scene
of the arrest and have another look around. Behind the
storage tank he discovered a ball-pein hammer and a knife.
It was 11pm on 3 January 1981. The hunt for the Yorkshire
Ripper was over.
Convinced Sutcliffe was the man he had been looking for,
Detective Inspector John Boyle of the Ripper Squad, said:
"I think you are in serious trouble."
Sutcliffe replied: "I think you have been leading
up to it."
"Leading up to what?" asked Boyle.
"The Yorkshire Ripper," said Sutcliffe.
"What about the Yorkshire Ripper?" asked the
detective.
"Well, it's me. I'm glad it is all over. I would
have killed that girl in Sheffield if I hadn't been caught.
But I want to tell my wife myself. It is her I'm thinking
about - and my family. I am not bothered about myself."
Over the next 15 hours Sutcliffe gave a detailed statement
about his life as the Ripper.
For the past five years the Ripper had spread a reign
of terror over much of northern England and forced thousands
of women to live in fear. It is not known what sparked
his attacks. Sutcliffe claimed at his trial that he had
heard "voices from God" telling him to go on
a mission to rid the streets of prostitutes.
There is no doubt the quietly spoken Yorkshireman hated
streetwalkers, probably stemming from an incident when
he was ripped off by one in Bradford's notorious Manningham
Lane red light district. He began attacking women in the
summer of 1975 - two in Keighley and one in Halifax. All
three survived and police did not notice the similarities
between the attacks.
The first fatality ...
In the early hours of 30 October 1975 Sutcliffe's attacks
turned fatal. Wilma McCann, a 28-year-old prostitute from
the run-down Chapeltown district of Leeds, had kissed
goodnight to her four young children and gone out for
a night on the town.
She spent the night drinking in various Leeds pubs and
clubs and by 1am was touting for business not far from
her Chapeltown home. Sutcliffe picked her up in his lime
green Ford Capri and took her to the nearby Prince Phillip
playing fields. He suggested they have sex on the grass.
She got out, began to take her trousers off and snapped:
"Come on, get it over with." "Don't worry,
I will," Sutcliffe mumbled as he reached for his
hidden hammer and began battering Wilma. As she lay prone
on the grass, he stabbed her in the neck, chest and abdomen
to "make sure she was dead."
Afterwards he drove home to his wife, Sonia, who was a
schoolteacher. Sutcliffe later told police: "I carried
on as normal, living with my wife. After that first time
I developed and played up a hatred for prostitutes in
order to justify within myself a reason why I had attacked
and killed Wilma McCann."
More to come ...
It wouldn't take long for the Ripper to continue his killing
spree. Four months later Emily Jackson from Leeds, was
battered with a hammer and stabbed 52 times with a screwdriver.
Sutcliffe did not strike again until February 1977, when
he killed Irene Richardson, another Leeds hooker.
Two months later he struck for the first time in his hometown,
Bradford, killing 32-year-old Patricia Atkinson. The case
only came to the attention of the national press in June
1977 when Sutcliffe claimed his first "innocent"
victim. Jayne MacDonald, a 16-year-old shop assistant,
was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After a night out in Leeds city centre with some friends
she was walking home along Chapeltown Road. At 2am she
stopped and chatted to two prostitutes. She was probably
asking the time, or seeking directions, but the conversation
convinced the prowling Sutcliffe that she too was a street
girl.
He followed her and attacked her with a hammer and a kitchen
knife, before dumping her in an adventure playground.
The murder, and the fact that a serial killer was on the
loose in Yorkshire, shocked the whole country.
The assailant was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper by the press
and West Yorkshire's Chief Constable Ronald Gregory appointed
his most senior detective, Assistant Chief Constable George
Oldfield, to investigate the murders. Sutcliffe, alarmed
by the sudden increase in police action in Yorkshire,
chose Manchester for his next attack.
Jean Jordan, 20, was murdered in October 1977. Her body
was mutilated - Sutcliffe had tried to cut off her head
- and dumped on allotments. Before killing her Sutcliffe
had paid her £5, which she put in her handbag. After
killing her he threw her the bag into shrubs nearly 200
feet from her body.
Vital clues
The bag was not found by the police's initial search and
Sutcliffe actually returned to the scene of the crime
looking for it, because he feared the £5 note -
which was brand new and was fresh out of his pay packet
- could be traced back to him.
He did not find it but the police eventually did and then
realised the importance of the note. They traced the serial
number back to the payroll of several Yorkshire firms.
One of them was road hauliers T and W H Clark. One of
their employees was a Peter Sutcliffe.
A simple mistake
Sutcliffe was interviewed by police at the time but provided
what seemed like a perfectly good alibi - he and his wife
had been hosting a housewarming party. It was only later
that it had become clear that Sutcliffe had driven to
Manchester after the party. Emboldened by his escape from
arrest, Sutcliffe stepped up his attacks.
Three prostitutes - Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka and Vera
Millward - were killed in the space of four months in
early 1978 in Bradford, Huddersfield and Manchester. Desperate
for results, Mr Oldfield set up a Ripper Squad and was
given large numbers of officers and resources.
But, weighed down with vast amounts of filing and paperwork
and without computers to assist them, they were not getting
anywhere. Women in Yorkshire, Manchester and other parts
of the north of England lived in fear throughout 1978,
1979 and 1980.
Few would venture out alone after dark. Sutcliffe had
even warned his own sister of the dangers of going out
alone at night and would often give her a lift. In some
cities, groups of volunteers and vigilantes roamed the
street to "protect our women".
On occasion men fitting one of the photofits issued by
police were attacked. Shortly after the Ripper struck
again - Halifax Building Society clerk Josephine Whitaker
was killed in the town in April 1979 - Oldfield made a
tragic strategic mistake.
Oldfield decided that a series of handwritten letters,
posted in Sunderland, were the work of the Ripper. In
them the author, dubbing himself Jack The Ripper, bragged
about his handiwork and taunted Oldfield for failing to
catch him.
The wrong suspect
In June 1979, the letter writer upped the ante, by sending
the police an audio cassette in which he continued to
boast and goad Oldfield. Certain aspects of the letter
led Oldfield to believe the author had to be the Ripper,
but it was a disastrous mistake, and arguably cost the
lives of three more women.
Wearside Jack, as he became known, had a distinctive voice.
Softly spoken, with a pronounced lisp, his accent was
pinpointed by experts to the Castletown district of Sunderland.
Oldfield gambled his whole career on the authenticity
of the letters and tape.
He set up Dial-the-Ripper phonelines where the public
could ring in and listen to the tape and devoted a large
proportion of his officers to the task of identifying
Wearside Jack. It was drilled into detectives that they
could discount suspects if they did not have a Wearside
accent.
In July 1979, Sutcliffe was interviewed for the fifth
time. Detective Constables Andrew Laptew and Graham Greenwood
were suspicious but their report was simply marked "to
file" because his voice and handwriting did not fit
the bill. In September 1979, the Ripper struck again -
the victim, Barbara Leach, and this time, in Bradford.
A month earlier Oldfield had suffered a heart attack,
and the following year he was finally forced to retire
after the Ripper claimed two more victims - Marguerite
Walls and Jacqueline Hill. Detective Chief Superintendent
James Hobson, who downgraded the importance of the Wearside
Jack tape and letters, although he never publicly refuted
the link, replaced Oldfield in November 1980.
It was only in January 1981 when the real Ripper was caught,
quite by accident, that West Yorkshire Police were forced
to admit that he did not have a Wearside accent. They
had been wrong all along.
Imprisoned at last
In May 1981 - only five months after his arrest but five
years and thirteen murders later - Sutcliffe was jailed
for life at the Old Bailey, with the judge recommending
a minimum sentence of thirty years.
Sutcliffe was sent to Parkhurst prison on the Isle of
Wight, but was later transferred to Broadmoor secure hospital
in Berkshire in 1984 after a fellow inmate at Parkhurst
jail slashed him with a broken coffee jar. During his
time in prison, Sutcliffe has been attacked a number of
times.
In 1997, he was attacked by a fellow patient at Broadmoor,
Ian Kay, who stabbed him in both eyes with a pen. Sutcliffe
lost the sight in his left eye as a result of the attack.
Wearside Jack has never been identified.
There were several reports that the tape and letters were
the work of a disgruntled police officer with a grudge
against Oldfield, but an investigation by North Yorkshire
Police in 1987 found no evidence to prove that theory.
Sutcliffe remains at Broadmoor secure hospital.
The Ripper's victims
30 Oct 1975: Wilma McCann, 28, Leeds
20 Jan 1976: Emily Jackson, 42, Leeds
5 Feb 1977: Irene Richardson, 28, Leeds
23 Apr 1977: Patricia Atkinson, 32, Bradford
26 Jun 1977: Jayne MacDonald, 16, Leeds
1 Oct 1977: Jean Jordan, 20, Manchester
21 Jan 1978: Yvonne Pearson, 21, Bradford
31 Jan 1978: Helen Rytka, 18, Huddersfield
16 May 1978: Vera Millward, 40, Manchester
4 Apr 1979: Josephine Whitaker, 19, Halifax
2 Sep 1979: Barbara Leach, 20, Bradford
20 Aug 1980: Marguerite Walls, 47, Leeds
17 Nov 1980: Jacqueline Hill, 20, Leeds
This profile of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper,
was written by BBC News Online's Chris Summers. |
