The story of the Yorkshire Ripper began in 1975 when Peter Sutcliffe attacked a woman near Bradford. She was struck unconscious with a hammer and slashed with a knife before he was disturbed and fled the scene. This attack would form the blueprint for a campaign of violent murders usually of prostitutes that lasted for over five years and cast a shadow of fear over the north of England. Murders that Shocked Britain
The police investigation was bloated, cumbersome and ineffectual. ibid.
In October 2005 West Yorkshire police crossed over into Tyneside and raided a council house … The crimes dating back to the late 1970s when the Yorkshire Ripper was prowling the streets of northern England brutally murdering young women … The mystery of the Yorkshire Ripper hoax has baffled police for over 25 years. Yorkshire Ripper Hoaxer: The Hunt for Wearside Jack, Channel 4 2006
Would change the entire course of the police investigation: it all began with a letter. ibid.
A terrible mistake: not only did the letters provide the police with a completely inaccurate profile of the killer but more significantly detectives would be led away from the real Yorkshire Ripper. ibid.
The Ripper murders and assaults sparked the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. Over the next years it stretched the police to breaking point. There were thousands of potential suspects, but in the spring of 1979 one stood out: the author of letters to the police and the Daily Mirror ... The author called himself Jack the Ripper. Yorkshire Ripper Hoaxer, BBC 2006
Among the bags of mail that arrived daily at the Incident Room was a cassette tape: on it was a personal message for George Oldfield. The voice had an unmistakably Geordie accent. It changed the whole focus of the investigation. Thirty years later police finally came face to face with the man [John Humble] behind the voice: ‘I must have been mad. I feel crap.’ ibid.
Haunted by his own voice played across the nation Humble became severely depressed. Soon after making the call he tried to kill himself. ibid.
The failure to catch the Ripper was becoming a national scandal. ibid.
The public thought the killer could only be a Geordie. ibid.
Over five years of terror Sutcliffe had murdered thirteen women and attacked others. ibid.
Sutcliffe told police the hoax was a diversion that helped him to carry on. ibid.
1977 Leeds: Four women had been murdered in the city by a maniac with a grudge against women. Two others had been slaughtered in nearby towns and at least four more had been badly injured in these insane attacks with a hammer. All of them had either been prostitutes or women walking alone, perhaps mistaken by him for ladies of the night. Great Crimes and Trials s1e26: The Yorkshire Ripper, BBC 1993
A newspaper called him the Yorkshire Ripper because like Jack the Ripper his Victorian predecessor he attacked and disfigured prostitutes. ibid.
A malicious hoaxer had been sending George Oldfield a series of letters signed Jack the Ripper. They were posted in Sunderland. ibid.
The suspect’s name was Peter Sutcliffe. On the third day he broke saying, The Yorkshire Ripper – that’s me. ibid.
Thirteen charges of murder. ibid.
The Yorkshire Ripper slaughtered thirteen women and terrorised whole communities. Revealed: The Yorkshire Ripper – Mind of a Killer, 2007
Was he mentally ill or was he playing games with police? ibid.
7 attempted murders and 13 killings. ibid.
Sutcliffe said he had been hearing voices from God since the mid-sixties. ibid.
Both defence and prosecution medical experts accepted Sutcliffe’s story that the voices from God had made him kill. ibid.
He even had sex with one victim as she lay dying. ibid.
The jury had decided the psychiatrists were wrong. ibid.
The debate about his sanity refused to die. ibid.
By the start of 1976 few people in Leeds remember the murder of prostitute Wilma McCann at the end of the previous October. Crimes that Shook Britain s4e4: The Yorkshire Ripper, CI 2013
The press however were quick to label the killer. ibid.
Some of Jean Jordan’s injuries and the attempted beheading were made days after she'd died. ibid.
But the tape and the letters were a complete hoax. ibid.
In total Peter Sutcliffe would be interviewed nine times before his arrest. ibid.
January 1981: the biggest manhunt in police history comes to an end. The police have arrested thirty-four-year-old Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. In five years Sutcliffe brutally murdered thirteen women. He claimed he was on a divine mission. Crimes that Shook the World: Yorkshire Rippers s/a Serial Killers: Yorkshire Ripper s/a Murder UK with Martin Kemp
Information overload is a problem that will continue to dog the enquiry. ibid.
The failure of the five-pound-note enquiry ends in tragedy. ibid.
In June 1979 the head of the Ripper investigation, George Oldfield, receives a tape-recording from a man claiming to be the Ripper. ibid.
It’s the tenth time he’s [Sutcliffe] been interviewed. ibid.
Sutcliffe is handed twenty life sentences. ibid
In the seventies the Yorkshire Ripper terrorised the north of England. Peter Sutcliffe was the serial killer who seemed unstoppable. He claimed a divine and deadly duty, but was Peter Sutcliffe born to kill? Born to Kill? The Yorkshire Ripper, Channel 5 2014
Police received a tape from Sunderland, apparently from the killer himself. ibid.
Tracey: ‘I hung back to talk to my friends … I saw erm this chap walking towards me … I remember how dark he looked … He was only short … I fell into step with him … He didn’t make me feel uncomfortable … He hung back again … He hit me. He hit me again. And again and again. And I could hear him grunting.’ Left for Dead: Yorkshire Ripper, Channel 5 2016
Britain’s biggest ever manhunt. ibid. commentary
‘I felt this massive blow to the top of my head, and I saw the ground come straight up towards me. And that is all I remember of the attack.’ ibid.
‘And that is when my brain exploded from the inside.’ ibid. early male Ripper victim
‘He wanted to have eye contact with me. He enjoyed it.’ ibid.
All his victims have suffered from the profound emotional fall-out. bid. commentary
‘She hung herself.’ ibid. brother
‘George, it’s Dick. We’ve got the bugger.’ This is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, opening scene, ITV 2000
Jayne McDonald murdered 26th June 1977. ibid. caption
‘What we need is a proper system of record taking.’ ibid. Oldfield
‘I’m getting closer all the time, Margaret.’ ibid.
Jean Jordan murdered 10th October 1977 Manchester. ibid. caption
Helen Rytka murdered 31st January 1978 Huddersfield. ibid.
‘Now we feel an immediate offensive is needed. Now you have heard of the Jimmy Young Show … ibid. head rozzer
Yvonne Pearson murdered 21st January 1978 Bradford. ibid. caption
Vera Millward murdered 16th May 1978 Manchester. ibid.
Josephine Whitaker murdered 4th April 1979 Halifax. ibid.
‘This is personal. It’s me he’s talking to, isn’t it. It’s me he’s taking the piss out of.’ This is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper II, Oldfield
‘We think this tape could be a crucial turning point in the investigation.’ ibid.
Barbara Leach murdered 1st September 1979 Bradford. ibid.
‘The Ripper doesn’t just kill women, he murders families.’ ibid. Oldfield
Jacqueline Hill murdered 17th November 1980, Leeds. ibid.
‘You’re bloody useless.’ ibid. mother of victim to Oldfield