UK UK - Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe

[al66pine]

Netflix "The Ripper" Series

There is a new documentary out now on Netflix called The Ripper.It has 4 episodes..so you can binge it in a day.

@LunaticFringe Thx for posting this. Watched it last week. Interesting to see old news vid clips contrasting w interviews of LE today. The series: The Ripper (TV Mini-Series 2020) - IMDb
And gen info: Peter Sutcliffe - Wikipedia

What is inexplicable is that the police were so convinced the man on the tape was the killer they discounted the testimony of survivors, women who said that the Ripper spoke to them just before he attacked, and that he had a Yorkshire accent (as did Peter Sutcliffe) not a Wearside one.

@Montrealaise Thx for this post. Yes, LE's disbelief re surviving victims' description of perp's accent was perplexing.

The other thing about LE procedure, as video showed and as described by office employee: The Wheel.
Not criticizing LE in any way, because in late 1970s, more sophisticated tech'y was not available,
but holy cow, was that unwieldy & primitive. (Notwithstanding, it was what was avail. at the time). I imagine a system like that could work well for smaller scale investigations in concentrated geographical area, etc.

Even today jurisdictional gaps or jurisdictional blindness still delay or prevent some cases from being solved. my2cts.

 

[Panniniclaus]

The ripper died of COVID of all things in November. I enjoyed the documentary.

 

[Cappuccino]

The ripper died of COVID of all things in November. I enjoyed the documentary.

I hope he died screaming.

The documentary was very good, it focused on the victims and their families. I would recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

 

[AGettler]

The Yorkshire Ripper case was of course a huge case in terms of its scale, the number of years it was over and the impact it had on UK society. It also had a big impact on Yorkshire Police. Wearside Jack and his hoax was of course a big part of the case and he has recently died:

Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer Wearside Jack dies at the age of 63

Wearside Jack

Happy to learn this is dead.

 

[AGettler]

Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died in hospital, a Prison Service spokesman said.

Sutcliffe was serving 20 life terms at Frankland prison in County Durham for murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven more in the late 1970s.

Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe dies aged 74

Can I get an "amen?"

 

[Sonny Crockett]

I was a little kid in the U.S. when these heinous Ripper crimes occurred in the U.K., and don't remember hearing about these at all; I guess they got international attention, but I wasn't paying much attention to the news ATT.

Recently saw the Netflix "The Ripper" true crime mini-series. Superb & very thoroughly researched. Netflix has knocked it out of the park again with this series. Excellent blend of older news footage & new interviews with the people affected by & involved in the case (those who were still alive, that is); there weren't that many re-enactments here, which I felt added to the authenticity of the show.

It's unfortunate that it took the authorities so long to catch this killer. I strongly suspect that if he were killing wealthy women in an "good" area of the UK, they would have caught him a lot sooner. But, of course - he specifically went after women that were on the fringes of society (either prostitutes or poor women), so they were obviously not deemed as "worthy" of attention by the authorities. Very sad, but unfortunately not at all surprising.

 

[Ched]

Yorkshire Ripper will be heard talking about his crimes in new documentary

 

[Grouse]

Yorkshire Ripper will be heard talking about his crimes in new documentary

For those that are not geo-restricted it is here --> My5

Have to say that while I am very familiar with this case over the years it's actually the first time I have heard his voice and it freaked me out a bit, and so unlike what I expected. "Ooh the weather's been lovely here, you know?" "March comes in like a lion and leaves like a lamb, you know". Hard to to connect it with the person who did what he did.

 

[Dotta]

Yorkshire Ripper's ashes are scattered in sea off Lanzarotte

A woman - who had regularly visited Peter Sutcliffe in jail - travelled to the Canary Island with his remains in an urn and tossed them into the Atlantic Ocean.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Pinkizzy]

Joy Sweatman | True Crime Library

When he left the crime scene, the killer of Joy Sweatman was seen to be wearing a fawn coat and flat cap, was wiping a hammer which was undoubtedly the murder weapon, and appeared to have red paint on his face which could have been blood. He was also seen getting into an R

www.truecrimelibrary.com

This one could be one of his victims

 

[Grouse]

It's unfortunate that it took the authorities so long to catch this killer. I strongly suspect that if he were killing wealthy women in an "good" area of the UK, they would have caught him a lot sooner. But, of course - he specifically went after women that were on the fringes of society (either prostitutes or poor women), so they were obviously not deemed as "worthy" of attention by the authorities. Very sad, but unfortunately not at all surprising.

<RSBM>

I take your point but they weren't all on the fringes of society. One of Sutcliffe's earlier victims, who survived, was 14 year old schoolgirl Tracy Browne in 1975. She gave one of the best e-fit descriptions and when George Oldfield interviewed her she was adamant her attacker had a Yorkshire accent (he'd walked up the lane and chatted with her for quite a long time), but Oldfield tried to convince her she'd heard a Wearside accident.

And that was one of the reasons it took longer to catch him - the police were totally convinced by the hoaxer "Wearside Jack".

 

[SimsGuy67]

I have known about this case for a long time. For me, the murders aren't what disturb me the most. It's the way the press treated the murders. I'll show an article from a few days after Jayne MacDonald was murdered. The way the newspaper refers to Wilma McCann, Patricia Atkinson and Irene Richardson is just disgusting. Then they say that Jayne was "killed by mistake". You don't do what he (This man doesn't deserve to be called by name) did to her "by mistake".

Even without a membership, you should be able to see this. Know the language used to refer to these poor women is disturbing.

Yorkshire Ripper

Clipping found in Sunday Mirror published in London, London, England on 7/3/1977. Yorkshire Ripper

www.newspapers.com

On a less grim note, it's interested that one of the names used was "The Shadows Maniac". I'm trying to find articles from the time of these murders to truly see how the case progressed. As they should have, they saw the connection between the murders of Wilma and Emily Jackson before Emily was even identified.

Emily Jackson prior to ID

Clipping found in Huddersfield Daily Examiner published in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England on 1/21/1976. Emily Jackson prior to ID

www.newspapers.com

 

[SimsGuy67]

Every attack/murder that we know of, even those suspected. Post is a work in progress.

Peter Sutcliffe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Date of attack/murder	Details
1969	Female sex worker attacked in Bradford with a sock with a stone inside of it. Weapon broke during attack. Victim didn't want to press charges.
5 July, 1975	Anna Rogulskyj was attacked with a hammer and a knife while walking home alone

 

[SimsGuy67]

This is an update of my previous post. Can a moderator delete that one?

Every attack/murder that we know of.

Peter Sutcliffe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Date	Attack or Murder	Details
1969	Attack	Female sex worker attacked in Bradford with a sock with a stone inside of it. Weapon broke during attack. No charges were pressed.
5 July, 1975	Attack	28-year-old Anna Rogulskyj was attacked with a hammer and a knife while walking home alone in Keighley. Anna survived as the attack was disturbed by a neighbour.
15 August, 1975	Attack	46-year-old Olive Smelt was attacked with a hammer and a knife in Halifax. Olive also survived.
27 August, 1975	Attack	14-year-old Tracy Browne was attacked with a hammer in Silsden. A passing car disturbed attack, leaving Tracy alive. Confession to this attack occurred in 1992, 16 years later.
30 October, 1975	Murder	24-year-old Wilma McCann was murdered in Leeds with a hammer and knife.
20 January 1976	Murder	42-year-old Emily Jackson was murdered in Leeds with a hammer and a screwdriver.
9 May, 1976	Attack	20-year-old Marcella Claxton was attacked with a hammer after a party in Leeds. Marcella was four months pregnant at the time and lost her baby.
5 February, 1977	Murder	28-year-old Irene Richardson was murdered with a hammer and a knife in Leeds.
23 April, 1977	Murder	33-year-old Patricia "Tina" Atkinson was murdered in her Bradford flat.
26 June, 1977	Murder	16-year-old Jayne MacDonald was murdered in Leeds. Unlike the previous victims, she was not a sex worker.
10 July, 1977	Attack	42-year-old Maureen Long was attacked in Bradford. The attack was interrupted, leaving Maureen alive.
1 October, 1977	Murder	20-year-old Jean Jordan was murdered in Manchester.
14 December, 1977	Attack	25-year-old Marilyn Moore was attacked in Leeds. She survived the attack.
c. January 21, 1978	Murder	21-year-old Yvonne Pearson was murdered in Bradford. Her body was not found until April 1978.
3 February, 1978	Murder	18-year-old Helen Rytka was murdered in Huddersfield.
17 May, 1978	Murder	40-year-old Vera Millward was murdered in Manchester.
4 April, 1979	Murder	19-year-old Josephine Whitaker was murdered while walking home in Halifax.
1 September, 1979	Murder	20-year-old Barbara Leach was murdered in Bradford.
20 August, 1980	Murder	47-year-old Marguerite Walls was murdered in Leeds.
24 September, 1980	Attack	Uphadya Bandara was attacked in Leeds. She survived the attack.
25 October, 1980	Attack	20-year-old Maureen "Mo" Lea was attacked in Leeds. She survived her attack.
5 November, 1980	Attack	16-year-old Theresa Sykes was attacked in Huddersfield. She survived her attack.
17 November, 1980	Murder	20-year-old Jacqueline Hill was murdered in Leads.

What scares me here is that there's long gaps between some and only gaps of days between others. This makes me think, are there attacks we don't know about? I didn't hear about Mo Lea for a while. Her case wasn't on Wikipedia until 2013/2014, about 32 year after the cases were solved.

 

[SimsGuy67]

This is an update of my previous post. Can a moderator delete that one?

Every attack/murder that we know of.

Peter Sutcliffe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Date	Attack or Murder	Details
1969	Attack	Female sex worker attacked in Bradford with a sock with a stone inside of it. Weapon broke during attack. No charges were pressed.
5 July, 1975	Attack	28-year-old Anna Rogulskyj was attacked with a hammer and a knife while walking home alone in Keighley. Anna survived as the attack was disturbed by a neighbour.
15 August, 1975	Attack	46-year-old Olive Smelt was attacked with a hammer and a knife in Halifax. Olive also survived.
27 August, 1975	Attack	14-year-old Tracy Browne was attacked with a hammer in Silsden. A passing car disturbed attack, leaving Tracy alive. Confession to this attack occurred in 1992, 16 years later.
30 October, 1975	Murder	24-year-old Wilma McCann was murdered in Leeds with a hammer and knife.
20 January 1976	Murder	42-year-old Emily Jackson was murdered in Leeds with a hammer and a screwdriver.
9 May, 1976	Attack	20-year-old Marcella Claxton was attacked with a hammer after a party in Leeds. Marcella was four months pregnant at the time and lost her baby.
5 February, 1977	Murder	28-year-old Irene Richardson was murdered with a hammer and a knife in Leeds.
23 April, 1977	Murder	33-year-old Patricia "Tina" Atkinson was murdered in her Bradford flat.
26 June, 1977	Murder	16-year-old Jayne MacDonald was murdered in Leeds. Unlike the previous victims, she was not a sex worker.
10 July, 1977	Attack	42-year-old Maureen Long was attacked in Bradford. The attack was interrupted, leaving Maureen alive.
1 October, 1977	Murder	20-year-old Jean Jordan was murdered in Manchester.
14 December, 1977	Attack	25-year-old Marilyn Moore was attacked in Leeds. She survived the attack.
c. January 21, 1978	Murder	21-year-old Yvonne Pearson was murdered in Bradford. Her body was not found until April 1978.
3 February, 1978	Murder	18-year-old Helen Rytka was murdered in Huddersfield.
17 May, 1978	Murder	40-year-old Vera Millward was murdered in Manchester.
4 April, 1979	Murder	19-year-old Josephine Whitaker was murdered while walking home in Halifax.
1 September, 1979	Murder	20-year-old Barbara Leach was murdered in Bradford.
20 August, 1980	Murder	47-year-old Marguerite Walls was murdered in Leeds.
24 September, 1980	Attack	Uphadya Bandara was attacked in Leeds. She survived the attack.
25 October, 1980	Attack	20-year-old Maureen "Mo" Lea was attacked in Leeds. She survived her attack.
5 November, 1980	Attack	16-year-old Theresa Sykes was attacked in Huddersfield. She survived her attack.
17 November, 1980	Murder	20-year-old Jacqueline Hill was murdered in Leads.

What scares me here is that there's long gaps between some and only gaps of days between others. This makes me think, are there attacks we don't know about? I didn't hear about Mo Lea for a while. Her case wasn't on Wikipedia until 2013/2014, about 32 year after the cases were solved.

Apparently in the same confession where he confessed to attacking Tracy Browne, he also confessed to attacking an unnamed Irish woman who was a student in 1975. This woman, like Tracy, survived her assault. Do we know if he was lying? The only other women attacked in 1975 that we know of other than Tracy are Olive Smelt, Anna Rogulskyj and Wilma McCann. Like all clippings, everyone should be able to see this.

Peter Sutcliffe other victim?

Clipping found in The Daily Telegraph published in London, Greater London, England on 11/24/1992. Peter Sutcliffe other victim?

www.newspapers.com

 

[Teche]

I watched a show on him this morning (Sunday) on Court TV.

 

[SimsGuy67]

I feel like it's quite clear why we don't know of some victims. It's probably the same reason Mo Lea gave in the interview for the Netflix documentary. They didn't want to be associated with a killer of sex workers. I'm still be pretty sure that in the back of some undocumented victim's heads, they knew they were attacked by the killer.

 

[Pinkizzy]

He travelled up and down the country in his lorry and must have attacked more women. I wonder whether he knew Joseph Kappen (bus driver + bouncer)

 

[SimsGuy67]

Apparently in the same confession where he confessed to attacking Tracy Browne, he also confessed to attacking an unnamed Irish woman who was a student in 1975. This woman, like Tracy, survived her assault. Do we know if he was lying? The only other women attacked in 1975 that we know of other than Tracy are Olive Smelt, Anna Rogulskyj and Wilma McCann. Like all clippings, everyone should be able to see this.

Peter Sutcliffe other victim?

Clipping found in The Daily Telegraph published in London, Greater London, England on 11/24/1992. Peter Sutcliffe other victim?

www.newspapers.com

The Irish woman was Leeds student Ann Rooney, who was attacked in 1979. This one got past me while looking for attacks. That alone is terrifying, that there's so many attacks I forgot about one... her info is on the Wikipedia.

 

[SimsGuy67]

Based on her FindAGrave, Wilma McCann's birthday just passed...

Wilma Mary Newlands McCann (1947-1975) - Find a...

Murder victim. Died at age 28. Wilma McCann, from Scott Hall in Leeds, was a mother of four children between the ages of 2 and 7. In December 2007, Wilma's eldest daughter Sonia Newlands died by suicide, reportedly after suffering years of anguish and depression over the circumstances of her...

www.findagrave.com