23/01/03 - Ripper and hoaxer
'were friends'
BBC News
The Yorkshire Ripper and the infamous hoaxer Wearside
Jack were friends who were both present at the unsolved
murder of a prostitute in 1975, according to new claims.
Peter Sutcliffe, who killed 13 women, has always denied
murdering Joan Harrison in Preston 27 years ago.
Investigative journalist Patrick Lavelle claims Sutcliffe
killed Ms Harrison but denied the murder to protect his
friend who was with him at the time. Mr Lavelle has spent
five years investigating the identity of Wearside Jack,
whose tapes and letters claiming to be the Ripper disrupted
the hunt for the real killer.
Mr Lavelle claims Sutcliffe denied the 1975 murder to
protect his friend Wearside Jack, who then repaid him
by sending the "I'm Jack" hoax tape to detectives
to divert attention from Sutcliffe. Two other murders,
for which lorry-driver Sutcliffe was convicted, bore striking
similarities to the Ms Harrison killing.
Mr Lavelle believes Wearside Jack then went on to kill
and that he is responsible for the death of Sunderland
prostitute Julie Perigo in 1986.
New evidence
He said: "Peter Sutcliffe... did not wish to reveal
that he had a mate or accomplice who travelled with him
in his cab to Preston, who witnessed the murder and had
sex with Joan Harrison before she was killed. "That
mate was Wearside Jack."
Northumbria Police said one man had been questioned last
September over the Perigo murder but had been released
without charge. A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police
said the claims did not reveal any new "hard evidence".
Sutcliffe was jailed for life in 1981 but later ruled
to be criminally insane and was committed to Broadmoor.
Mr Lavelle claims have been published in his new book
Shadow of the Ripper. |
