Casefile True Crime - Case 37: The Yorkshire Ripper (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 29, 2016

[Part 2 of 3] With the Yorkshire Ripper showing no sign of slowing down, police appealed directly to the killer himself in the hopes of putting an end to the crime spree. --- Research for this episode by Victoria Dieffenbacher. Co-written by Victoria Dieffenbacher and the Anonymous Host. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/yorkshire-ripper-part-2

Marilyn Moore ran away from home when she was 15 years old. She married at 16, divorced at 19, and then started sex work. She worked around London and Bradford before moving to Leeds. Marilyn lived in her town only about one mile away from the red light district of Chapeltown. At 8pm on Wednesday the 14th of December 1977, 25 year old Marilyn was working in Chapeltown. She saw a man in a car circling the area. In order to get noticed Marilyn walked towards him. As soon as she was in his line of sight he got out of the car and started talking to it. They agreed on the standard price of £5. Marilyn jumped into the front passenger seat of his car. Before the man got in she noticed him waving

to someone on the street. Once inside the man told Marilyn he knew a quiet place. He started to talk about himself. He said his name was David, but that he preferred Dave. Marilyn asked him who he was waving at before he got into the car and he said it was his girlfriend. Dave then told Marilyn about two sex workers from Chapeltown who he was good friends with, Gloria and Hillary. Marilyn had never met or heard of any women named Gloria or Hillary that worked in Chapeltown. They only drove about one and a half miles. Dave stopped the car behind the Browns factory in bustling Thorblane. It was an abandoned lot. Dave got out of the car and asked Marilyn to get in the back seat. Marilyn agreed and

opened the front door and then walked to the rear door. As soon as Marilyn opened the rear door she was clubbed from behind. She immediately fell to the ground. Marilyn screamed and put her arms over her head to try and protect herself. The attack continued until Marilyn was knocked unconscious. A nearby dog started barking at the commotion and it's thought this is what frightened the ripper off. He got back into his car and took off at high speed. Marilyn came to and managed to stagger the Scott Hall Road which was nearby. She approached a young couple who were chatting there. Her head was bleeding badly and she asked them to call an ambulance. Marilyn was rushed to hospital where she was seen by a neurological

surgeon. The surgeon determined that Marilyn required immediate surgery. Soon after being admitted to hospital David G, the forensic pathologist who had been working on the ripper case since the very beginning, attended to examine her. Marilyn had eight wounds on her head. One had sunk the skull into the brain so deeply that the neurosurgeon had to elevate the skull bone to relieve the pressure. All of the wounds were oval in shape and G believed they'd been caused by a hammer. The wounds were very similar to those found on the other ripper victims. The next day two officers went to the hospital to question Marilyn. She was still recovering and in a very weak condition but she was able to describe her attacker in astonishing detail. He was a white

male late 20s about five feet six inches tall with a stocky build. He had long dark curly hair, a short full beard and what Marilyn referred to as a Jason King mustache. Jason King was a fictional character from a TV crime series that aired in the UK at the time. He had a droopy looking full mustache that ran down past the mouth. Marilyn also said the ripper had brown eyes, bushy eyebrows and a suntanned complexion. He was wearing a yellow shirt, blue jeans and a dark coloured zip up lightweight coat. Marilyn described him as being softly spoken. Furthermore she said he was good looking and he seemed to know it. He was driving a maroon or dark coloured car. Detective Jim Hobson gave those details to the press. The Jason King description along with a photo fit

image of the suspect was highly publicised. Hobson also added that the ripper was well acquainted with the back streets of Chapeltown given the route he took after picking Marilyn up. The ripper had told Marilyn that his name was David and the police believed this might actually be his real name. They went back through all of the index cards listing the details of people that had been checked out throughout the entire investigation. That was over 175,000 people at this point. They found 1,037 men named David that had come up in one way or another and had already been interviewed and eliminated. They were all interviewed again and asked to provide alibis for the night Marilyn was attacked. Nothing further came out of these interviews. It was more than likely Dave

wasn't the attacker's real name anyway. Sex workers were also questioned about Gloria and Hillary who the ripper had told Marilyn he was friends with but they didn't seem to exist either. So the police focused on the car. Marilyn was able to provide a decent description, maroon or dark coloured four doors with two interior review mirrors. At the crime scene where Marilyn was attacked police located tire tracks which they made plaster casts of. The tire tracks were very similar to those left at Irene Richardson's murder scene and after further analysis and taking into account Marilyn's description police reduced the list of possible cars to eight. Five of those eight were different models of the BMC

Farina. Marilyn discharged herself from hospital 10 days after her attack, Christmas Eve. Police asked her if she could come with them and sit in different cars to see if she could recognise the one she was in. She didn't recognise the exact car but she was able to eliminate three of that list of eight. A few months later a senior lecturer in psychiatry at Leeds University was called in to perform hypnosis on both Marilyn and Maureen Long. Maureen also survived a ripper attack which we covered in part one. They had several sessions of hypnosis. Maureen was never able to remember anything more however Marilyn did. She provided a second photo fit. Most of the previous features were still there but this time she described their ripper as having longer hair.

Marilyn also recalled seeing a cardboard box on the car's dashboard with the letters T-R-I. The problem was that after these hypnosis sessions Marilyn called the police numerous times to tell the officers that she'd seen her attacker. The police actually arrested two men based on different sightings Marilyn reported. Both bore similarities to the photo fit however they were eventually eliminated from the investigation. George Oldfield and Jim Hobson now started to doubt how good her memory and description of the ripper was. Although no attack had happened in Huddersfield which was 30 minutes away from Leeds Oldfield ordered officers to start a covert operation there to record registration numbers.

Oldfield had now put in place 33 different observation points. There were about 100 officers in total across all the points working each night to record every registration plate they saw. There were 14 points in Chapel Town, Leeds, 12 in Manningham, Bradford and now seven in Huddersfield 30 minutes south of Leeds. The officers would dictate the plates they saw onto a tape recorder. The tapes were then stored and kept for three months. The idea being the idea being that if a murder happened they would go back to that night and go through all of the tapes to see what registrations were out and about. It was common knowledge amongst the public this was going on and sex workers tried to use it to their advantage telling clients

that they were being clocked by the police and that they had better return them safely. Oldfield was a big believer in this operation however it was in place in Chapel Town the night Marilyn was attacked. It didn't help prevent her attack and it didn't help catch who did. Helen Ricker had a Jamaican mother and a Polish father. She was a twin and her parents also had another set of twins four kids in total who were all eventually sent to foster homes. The sets of twins were separated however Helen remained with her twin sister Rita throughout the years. They lived in various different homes in that time. At the age of 18 Rita and Helen moved into a flat together in Huddersfield. Rita had been attending art school but dropped out in her

second year as she could no longer afford the fees. Helen had been working in a sweet factory in another town but left her job behind to move in with Rita. Both started sex work around Huddersfield. At 9 p.m. on the 31st of January 1978 Helen and Rita were working near a toilet block on Great Northern Street. It was a popular place for sex workers. Two limousines approached them and the drivers negotiated a price. Once they agreed the drivers asked them to wait while they went to the toilet. When they got back Rita entered one limousine and Helen entered the other. At 9 at 9 25 p.m. Helen was dropped off back at the toilet block. Five minutes later Rita was dropped off but she couldn't see Helen anywhere. Soon after a man in a white sports car picked up Rita.

Rita directed him back to her and Helen's flat in the hope that Helen had gone back there but she wasn't. Rita remained in the flat hoping Helen would return but she never did. Two days later Rita decided to report Helen missing. When she first made the report Rita didn't tell the police their occupation or that they were on Great Northern Street but later that night Rita ended up telling the police everything and this completely changed the way the police handled the case. The report was escalated to urgent. At 2 p.m. the following day a police dog handler was searching Gerard's timber yard which was only 80 meters away from the toilet block on Great Northern Street. The timber yard was actually a common place where sex workers took clients.

The dog handler was greeted by the foreman who helped him search the yard. As I walking along the rear fence the police dog got excited and started pulling hard at the leash. The dog wanted to get a closer look at a stack of timber next to a shed. As the officer got closer he looked at the foreman and said I think this is it. Helen's body was found behind the stack of timber covered by a sheet of asbestos and pieces of timber. The dog handler radioed for assistance and taped off the entire timber yard. While they were waiting the foreman told the dog handler that a few days prior some workers in the yard had found black lace panties with dried blood on them.

They didn't think too much of it and nailed them to a packing case as a joke. They had also found a handbag with a lighter which they had thrown out. Helen's scene became the most attended during the investigation so far. All of the lead detectives from all jurisdictions were in attendance. Oldfield of course along with his second in charge Detective Dick Holland. Detective Jim Hobson was there as well. As was Detective Jack Ridgway the officer in charge from Manchester and Detective John Domahl the officer in charge from Bradford.

Helen's jumper had been pulled up to expose her body. She had six wounds on her head most of which caused fractures. She also had multiple stab wounds to her chest. Helen's body had actually been well concealed by the ripper and they had difficulty in removing her from the scene. Gee concluded that Helen had actually been killed somewhere else and then her body had been left at that location for some time. The ripper then moved Helen's body to the timber yard and concealed it after that.

The ripper had returned to a crime scene and moved a victim's body before but he had never tried to conceal her body. It was after Helen's murder that the media first referred to him as the Yorkshire Ripper. Oldfield attended a press conference and pleaded with the public. He said, the ripper is someone's neighbour and he is someone's husband or son. Someone has to know him. The police focused on men who had attended the toilet block on Great Northern Street. The night Helen was killed.

Oldfield made an appeal for any man who was there that night to come forward. He insisted that he wasn't worried about anyone's morals. All he wanted was to find the killer. They did learn of a peeping Tom who used to follow sex workers and watch them work from a distance in his van. That turns out the peeping Tom was there that night. He followed Rita, not Helen. And Helen was already gone when they returned.

The two limousine drivers ended up coming forward. They said that when they went to use the toilet there was a man loitering in there. He said to the drivers, they tell me you can find birds down here, girls on the game. One of the drivers answered, yes, but those two outside have booked. They're waiting for us. You'll have to wait your turn until we come back. The drivers noted there was a two tonne Ford Granada parked at the block and they assumed that vehicle belonged to the man.

Police were convinced this strange man was the killer and made house to house inquiries around the area. In one of the houses, a 14 year old girl explained that around 9pm on the night Helen was killed, she'd gone to buy cigarettes for her mother from a nearby store. While she was out, a man in a two tonne Ford Granada stopped next to her and said, how much for a short time life? To which she replied, fuck off.

The driver left, but before he did, the girl wrote down his registration number on the pack of cigarettes she had just bought. The problem was by the time police knocked on their door, her mother had already smoked them and burnt the pack. The officers pressed them hard to try and remember the registration. Between mother and daughter, they were able to come up with a series of numbers. The officers ran these numbers through the police national computer,

but they didn't get a match. They tried flipping the numbers and tried different combinations until they eventually got a hit for a two tonne Ford Granada. Oldfield held a press conference and asked the driver to come forward. The appeal appeared in afternoon papers and on local TV news programs. The driver responded almost immediately. He called into the police and said, I'm the driver of the Ford Granada you're looking for.

I was down there that night, but I'm not the murderer. I left when I couldn't find a woman. The call was being traced and the officers did their best to keep him talking. They were trying to convince him to come to the police station to give a statement, but the driver was having none of it. He said, look, I'm not the murderer and I'm not coming to see you. You'll have to fuck and find me. And then hung up and find him.

They did. He was in Sheffield about 30 minutes south of Huddersfield. They entered his house and arrested him in front of his wife, who had no idea what was happening. He was questioned extensively, but eventually eliminated from the investigation. He had a solid alibi for nights of the other murders. The police were sure that someone out there had to know more,

so they announced a £10,000 reward for information that led to the capture and conviction of the Yorkshire Ripper. Additional money was put forward by local paper and other individuals, and the reward was eventually doubled to 20,000. A large amount of calls came in once the reward was announced. Detective Dick Holland was able to cover two walls with a large map of Great Northern Street and Gerard's timber yard. He divided the map into 15-minute periods from 9pm to 11pm,

with all the witnesses marked on there. 20 officers were in charge of this map, and they cross-checked every response from every witness throughout every minute of those two hours. From this, they got a description of a man seen standing at the entrance of the timber yard. He was described as 30 years old, well-built, five feet eight inches tall, wearing dark clothes.

Police made a public appeal for him to come forward. When he didn't, Oldfield was sure he was the killer. He appealed to him directly in a TV address. He said, We are getting nearer and nearer to you, and it's only a matter of time before you are caught. In your own interests, in the interests of the relatives and friends of past victims, in the interests of your own relatives and friends,

and in the interests of any potential future victims, it is now time for you to come forward and give yourself up. The net is closing. I'm anxious that we catch you before your time to add another death to the appalling catalogue that you've already got to your credit. Unknown to Oldfield and everyone else, the Ripper had already struck again. Yvonne Pearson was a 21-year-old mother of two young children.

In 1977, she'd been arrested while working on the streets of Manningham, Radford. It was now the 21st of January, 1978. Yvonne was still on bail for this arrest, and was due to appear in the magistrates' court in a few days. That evening, Yvonne left her children with a babysitter while she had drinks at the flowing Dutchman pub, situated on Leeds Road. At 9.30pm, she told a friend she was going off to earn some money. Yvonne was never seen again, and was reported as a missing person.

A neighbour reported that Yvonne hadn't been looking very well lately and hadn't been eating because she was so worried about her court appearance. She suggested that maybe Yvonne had harmed herself or run away. Others said that Yvonne might have gone to London to work. But those who knew her best said Yvonne idolised her children and would never just leave them. Plus, she hadn't taken any of her belongings with her. All she had was a small handbag and enough money for two drinks.

On Easter Sunday, March 26th, 1978, two months after her disappearance, a boy called police after he saw a human arm sticking out of a sofa in an abandoned area of Bradford. John Domoyle was no longer in charge at Bradford. That role now belonged to Andrew Lappish. The first thing he did was call forensic pathologist David G to the scene. Lappish had no doubt Yvonne was a ripper victim, and he wanted to maintain continuity in the investigation.

The first thing they noticed was that Yvonne had a copy of the Daily Mirror newspaper under her right hand. The paper was dated the 21st of February, 1978, one month after her disappearance. They believed the ripper had returned to the scene and placed the newspaper on purpose. One fact that they kept secret was that Yvonne had a ball of horse hair placed in her throat to stop her from screaming. Lappish believed that was a fact that only the killer would know,

so they kept it to themselves. G wrote in his report, So badly damaged was the head that in order to reconstruct the actual pattern of the fractures, we had to rebuild the skull around a large ball of modelling clay so that it could be photographed in roughly the form it must have been at death. G didn't find any stab wounds or gross internal bleeding like he did with the other victims. G concluded that their head injuries were so severe that they couldn't have been performed with a hammer, but it had to be something heavier.

He wasn't immediately sure whether to classify Yvonne as a ripper victim, but the detectives working the case had no doubts whatsoever. Police searched Yvonne's home and found her client book. They appealed for the men to come forward, but not too many did. Sex workers in Bradford were interviewed. One of them said she's seen Yvonne getting into a light coloured minivan that night she disappeared. All vehicles registered in Bradford that fitted that description were checked and were eventually eliminated.

Another sex worker said that Yvonne was very careful before getting into any car, so what happened was strange. She added, By now, the ripper investigation had been going for two and a half years. It had cost around £1.5 million just in overtime payments, facilities and transport. Also, crime in general had gone up 17% because of the amount of manpower and resources that were dedicated to the ripper case. And it wasn't over yet.

Vera Milwood was born in Spain. She moved to Manchester in her teens and soon met a man whom she had five children with. Vera later left the family home and started work as a sex worker in Mossside, Manchester's red light district. She formed a new relationship and had two children with a new partner. They lived together in a flat south of Manchester. The Vera was described as quiet and reserved. It was the evening of May 16th, 1978.

Vera was suffering from stomach pains. She said she was going to the pub to buy cigarettes and then she would go to Manchester Hospital to get some tablets for the pain. When Vera hadn't returned home after 90 minutes, her partner went out to look for her. He couldn't stay out too long though as their children were alone in the flat. At 11.15pm, a man heard two screams for help and then a third scream that was cut off halfway through. The man was taking his son to Manchester Hospital to get checked out and heard the screams in the ground somewhere.

He assumed it was just a patient carrying on and he didn't think too much more of it. At 8am the next morning, May 7th, six gardeners arrived at the private wing of Manchester Hospital. One of them saw what he thought was a store dummy lying on the ground. As he got closer, he realised it was the body of a woman, Vera Milwood. Jack Ridgway, who worked at the previous Manchester murder of Jean Jordan, was in charge of the scene. The first thing they found were tire tracks close by to Vera's body. Vera had suffered three blows to the head, most likely from a hammer. These blows were extremely severe and would have caused death.

The wound on her chest was very extensive and was from a very large weapon, approximately 8 inches long. Vera had said she was no longer involved in sex work and hadn't been for around two years prior to her death. However, Ridgway had his doubts. The place where Vera was found, despite being private grounds of a hospital, was actually a common place where sex workers took clients overnight. Plaster casts were made of the tire tracks located at the scene and they were later matched to the tracks found at the crime scenes of Marilyn Moore and Irene Richardson. The Yorkshire police were still convinced those tires belonged to a Farina style of car,

based on their expert studies of the tires and based on Marilyn's description. But Manchester experts conclusively ruled out the Farina. The tires weren't available in that size for Farinas at the time of Irene Richardson's murder. Yorkshire police were looking for the wrong type of car. A few months after Vera's murder, Ridgway went to Leeds and told Oldfield about this discovery. Ridgway was quoted as saying, I was convinced that George Oldfield was on the wrong track and I told him, but he would not have it at any price.

The only concession Oldfield made was to have the tire evidence re-examined. I told him we were not going to pursue the Farina inquiry, but the West Yorkshire team continued to believe the killer had probably been using a Farina style of car. The problem Oldfield had was that at this point he was already invested heavily on the fact that the ripper was using a Farina car. They had a master index of all Farina vehicles registered in the area. Every time an officer spotted a Farina it was pulled over and checked. The tires were examined and any man driving the car who didn't have a strong alibi for one of the ripper murder dates was considered a possible suspect. Once the car had been checked it was

crossed off the master index, but the Manchester police conclusively ruled out the Farina. There was a lot of wasted time going into that Farina inquiry. After Vera's murder police had linked two other attacks to the ripper. Both of these attacks occurred before the first murder of Wilma McCann. Anna Rogulski was born in 1941 in Ireland. She had three brothers and eight sisters. At the age of 15 she left school and moved to Bradford to live with her oldest sister. She got married when she was 16 and divorced when she was 32. On Friday the 4th of July 1975 Anna had a fight with her new partner Jeff.

Anna left her flat in Kealy Bradford and went to a club for drinks. She returned home about midnight and saw that Jeff had packed up his belongings and left. Jeff had his own flat in Kealy's town centre. At 2 a.m Anna went to Jeff's flat and started banging on his door but he refused to open it. Anna then took off one of her shoes and threw it at his window. At 2 20 a.m Anna was found in an alley only 20 meters away from Jeff's flat. She was lying on her back with severe head injuries. Part of her clothing was disturbed and nothing was stolen. Anna required neurosurgery but was able to recover from the attack. Another attack occurred only six weeks after this.

Olive's smelt was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire. She lived with her mother until she married at the age of 21. Olive moved only a short distance away to live with her husband in the town of Ovenden. In 1975 46 year old Olive was working as a cleaner. She enjoyed going out for drinks with friends on Friday night after work. On Friday the 15th of August she went to a pub called The White Horse. From there they went to another pub, The Royal Oak. They finished there about 11 30 p.m. Two friends gave Olive a lift from the pub. They dropped her about 400 meters away from her home. She walked down Woodville Road and when she turned into a narrow lane she noticed a man walking just behind her. He spoke to her and said

weather's letting us down isn't it? Olive didn't respond. The man hit Olive to the back of her head knocking her to the ground. Only moments later a car approached. The driver saw Olive lying face down with her skirt pulled up. The ripper was nowhere to be seen. The headlights of the car had scared him off and saved Olive's life. The driver alerted authorities and Olive was rushed to Leeds Hospital. Olive suffered two depressed fractures on her skull. She also had two stab wounds on her lower back. Like the other ripper attacks there were no signs of sexual assault and nothing was stolen. Although at one point Olive wasn't expected to live she did survive. Anna and Olive's attacks were officially added to the ripper investigation three years later in August 1978.

For the rest of 78 and the early months of 79 there were no new attacks. Had the ripper moved away? Had he been arrested on another charge? Was he dead? People started to wonder if the ripper attacks were over. They weren't. Josephine Whitaker was born in December 1959. Until the age of four Josephine lived with her mother and grandparents. Her mother remarried and had two sons with her new husband. However they later divorced before Josephine's mother settled with a new man and they moved into a place together on Ivy Street in Halifax. At the age of 18 Josephine finished school and started working as a clerk at the head office of the Halifax Building Society. She also had a part-time job behind the bar at a hotel. Josephine was kind,

thoughtful and considerate. She loved horses and dreamed of getting married and starting a family. She was briefly engaged at one point but it didn't work out. More than anything Josephine loved her grandparents and visited them every Sunday without fail. On Wednesday evening the 4th of April 1979 19 year old Josephine finished work and headed home. When she arrived home she had an argument with her mother. The argument was over a fish tank Josephine owned and to the cost of electricity to maintain it. Ten minutes into the fight Josephine stormed off to her bedroom and after an hour she put on a code and left the house to walk to her grandparents. Her grandparents place was located about one mile away. When Josephine arrived only her

grandfather was home. They chatted and watched television together. At 9pm the news came on. The Prime Minister of Pakistan had just been executed. Josephine got sad and told her grandfather nobody deserved to die like that no matter what they'd done. No one had the right to kill someone else even if they were murderers. Her grandfather then asked her what about the Yorkshire Ripper. Josephine replied not even he should be killed when he was caught. Josephine's grandmother arrived home about 11pm. They chatted briefly before Josephine said she was heading home. Her grandparents told her she should stay with them as it was getting late. Josephine declined their offer and promised to see them that Sunday before heading out the door.

At 6.30am the next morning a woman on her way to work was waiting for a bus in Free School Lane next to Seville Park in Halifax. She first saw a brown leather shoe then she noticed what she thought was a pile of clothes but as she walked over to investigate she realized it was the body of a woman. Josephine Whitaker. The first officer who arrived noticed drag marks going from the end of Seville Park to where Josephine's body was found. Josephine's clothing had been disarranged and her injuries led the officer to have no doubt Josephine was a ripper victim. He immediately called Oldfield to alert him. Oldfield sent his second in charge Dick Holland and forensic pathologist David G. Josephine's 13 year old brother was out delivering newspapers

that morning. He rode past the crime scene and recognized Josephine's shoes on the ground. He immediately raced home to raise the alarm. Josephine's mother didn't believe it and raced upstairs to check if Josephine was in her bed. When she wasn't she frantically caught the police. Josephine had several fractures on her skull which again G believed were caused by a hammer. Josephine had also suffered multiple stab wounds. G determined these wounds had been caused by a new weapon that hadn't been used before. The weapon had caused triangular wounds with rounded corners. G found a tiny flecks of material from the weapon in some of the wounds. After a microscopic examination he saw these flecks were traces of a kind of emery powder

which suggested the killer might be some kind of engineer. They also found another boot print next to Josephine's body an industrial size seven boot. The print was very similar to the prints found at the crime scenes of Emily Jackson and Patricia Atkinson but on this particular print the sole was worn. Experts were consulted and they determined that the ripper operated machinery of some kind. Further investigation revealed that this particular type of boot was issued to the army air force and to miners. Josephine also had a bite mark on her breast. The mark suggested to G that the man had a one-eighth of an inch gap in his upper

front teeth. We need to go back to part one here. We talked about a woman named Joan Harrison. She was murdered in a garage in Preston. Police at the time considered the possibility she was a ripper victim but ruled it out as there were too many inconsistencies. No stab wounds being the main one. Well they had since reviewed that decision and had now changed their minds. Joan Harrison was now officially listed as a ripper victim and she had suffered a very similar bite mark on her breast. G tried to discover the different weapon that had been used in Josephine's murder. He visited many different towns in West Yorkshire and collected different types of tools from small engineering factories and from slaughterhouses. The closest he got to reproducing the stab wounds

was with an engineer's scraper but not even that was an exact match. Witnesses started to come forward with information about Josephine's murder. One man said he'd been out walking his dog shortly before midnight. He saw a woman walking in the direction of Seville Road with a man by her side. Man hadn't shaven for four or five days and had stubble on his chin. Police believed this was the ripper. Another witness said he heard an unusual voice that night either a laugh or wail. The type of noise that makes your hair stand on end. He followed this noise and looked over to where Josephine's body was later found. He saw a figure or figures. 30 seconds later he heard the sound again. The figure was still there but the witness eventually decided not to make

anything of it and went home to bed. A woman came forward who was walking to a bus stop in the city center about 9 p.m. A man pulled up next to her out of nowhere driving a forward escort. He offered her a lift but quickly drove away when he saw her reaction. The woman provided the following description of the man. Aged around 30, greasy collar length hair curled at the ends with a square face and jaw and most importantly she said he had a droopy Jason King style mustache. The exact same description Marilyn Moore gave after her attack. Police began searching for the forward escort but at the same time Oldfield was downplaying the description. At a press conference he said don't jump to the conclusion that this is the ripper.

There was a lot more information that came in from the public as well. 1000 calls offering information were registered within the first few days. This was a significant change from most of the other attacks. Oldfield held another press conference and gave the following profile of the ripper. He said he was white between 30 to 35 years of age at least average to above average height. A manual worker either skilled or semi-skilled with an engineering or mechanical connection. Possibly a skilled machine tool fitter, electrical or maintenance engineer. He lives or works in West Yorkshire or in close proximity to that area and in all probability

lives alone or with aged parents and he has some connections with the North East. Apart from giving out this description detectives started contacting engineering companies in Yorkshire and the North East wanting to know of any employees who were in Sunderland two hours north of Leeds on specific dates. The 7th, 8th, 12th and 13th of March 1978 and the 22nd and 23rd of March 1979. The reason they wanted to know these specific dates was because a man claiming to be the ripper had been sending letters. This was a fact that hadn't been made public yet. The police decided to keep the information very guarded. The letters were sent from Sunderland. The first one was addressed to George Oldfield.

It read, Dear sir, I am sorry I cannot give you my name for obvious reasons. I am the ripper. I've been dubbed the maniac by the press but not by you. You call me clever and I am. You and your mates haven't a clue. The letter went on to say that his sole purpose was to rid the streets of who he called sluts and that his only regret was 16 year old Jane McDonald since he changed his routine that night. He also teased Oldfield saying that they had forgotten to include Preston 75 which was referencing Joan Harrison's murder. He told Oldfield not to bother to look for him in Sunderland because that was where the letter was postmarked. He wasn't that stupid and he wouldn't send the letter from where he was. He finished with

a last paragraph that read, Warn whores to keep off streets because I'll feel it coming on again. Sorry about young lassie. Yours respectfully Jack the Ripper. The second letter was sent a few days later to the Daily Mirror newspaper and it was addressed to the editor. In essence it said more or less the same things and I'm using words that he used in his letter here. He said he'd already written to Oldfield and warned him to tell the sluts to get off the streets. He also mentioned how whores never learn and is still out there even after all the murders and since there were so many young girls he might go for an older one next time perhaps in Manchester or Liverpool. After these letters Oldfield was interested in two references

one made in each. In the first letter it was the reference to Jane Harrison's murder since he was positive that nobody had publicly linked to Joan to the Ripper murders. In the second letter it was the reference of killing an older victim in Manchester or Liverpool. The letters were sent in early March 1978 and the next victim murdered after these letters was 40-year-old Vera Millwood in Manchester. Still even though Oldfield considered these references important he didn't see many other clues at the time so he put them aside and they were never made public. It wasn't until the third letter sent a year later in late March 79 that Oldfield decided to get to the bottom of them. The third letter arrived 12 days before Josephine's murder and it was again

addressed to Oldfield. It was also sent from Sunderland. The writer of the letter said that when he mentioned he'd strike in Manchester next and kill an older woman they should have listened. He also said that before he killed Vera she mentioned to him that she had previously been treated at the Manchester hospital. This line was what struck a chord with Oldfield. He believed only the killer could have known that Vera had medical treatment at the hospital where she was killed and Oldfield also thought back to the reference of Joan Harrison in the first letter. These two things combined with the fact that the author of the letter predicted a killing in Manchester of an older woman led Oldfield to believe the letters were actually authentic

and sent from the Yorkshire Ripper. The envelope was sent for forensic testing and traces of saliva showed that the envelope had been leaked by a man who was Blood Group B. Blood Group B was found at the crime scene of Joan Harrison. The letter also said he would strike again soon and Josephine Whittaker was murdered only 12 days later. A bite mark was found on her body that was very similar to a bite mark found on Joan Harrison. This was all Oldfield needed. He was now convinced the letters were authentic and were sent by the Yorkshire Ripper. In May 79 Oldfield announced they were close to catching him. When Sunderland police heard that Oldfield now believed the Ripper had been in Sunderland because

of the letters they sent detectives to West Yorkshire to be briefed. Oldfield explained to them the discoveries they had made with the Blood Group and the predictions that appeared in the letters. Sunderland officers were given the task of checking local firms for employees based in Yorkshire who were in Sunderland when the letters were posted. For each employee that was traced a handwriting sample had to be obtained. The sample was then sent off for analysis to be compared to the letters received by the Ripper. In a matter of weeks 200 employees had been traced about one third of them provided a statement and an alibi. Sunderland police tried their best to pinpoint the exact location in Sunderland where the letters were posted but this proved to be an

impossible task. Oldfield steered the Ripper investigation full swing into the letters and it wasn't long before he got another package. In mid-June 1979 a tape arrived and was signed Jack the Ripper. I'm Jack. I say you are still having no look at 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 Chabletown when I was disturbed. I warned you in March that I'd stress again. Sorry it wasn't right but I'm not quite sure when I'd stress again

but it will be definitely soon down this year. I'm not sure where. Maybe Manchester and I did there. There's plenty of them knocking about. They never learn. Do they George? I bet you've warned them but they never listen. Well it's been nice talking to you George. George Jack the Ripper. The tape had also been sent from Sunderland and the handwriting on the envelope was a match to the letters. The envelope had again been leaked by a B group secreter. One curious detail found on the tape was that it had faint scratches on the outer plastic surface which indicated the label had been scraped off. The cassette had a small hole on one edge and on the inside of this hole there were more scratches which indicated the cassette was opened and reassembled.

There were gaps of silence during the talking and further analysis showed these gaps were because the tape had been stopped and started on many occasions. There was a chance that it had been produced on more than one tape recorder. At the very end of the recording there was a song for George Oldfield called Thank You for Being a Friend by Andrew Gold. On the 26th of June 1979 a press conference was held. Oldfield played the tape for everyone in the room and after it he announced this was the breakthrough they'd been looking for. He was so confident the tape was from the Ripper that he said, I hope he sends his photograph next time with his address on the back. Reporters commented that the man on the tape had a Geordie sounding accent. That evening the tape

was played across the country on radio and TV and a free phone number allowed people to call in and hear it again. In less than 24 hours 700 people had called hotlines in Halifax, Leeds and Sunderland claiming they knew who the voice belonged to and as time went on the number of people that called in only grew. This took up a large amount of police time as every person that was named had to be checked out. Police toured local pubs, offices, factories and social clubs playing the tape in the hope someone would recognise the voice. Oldfield also released brief extracts from the letters in the hope someone would recognise the handwriting. The tape and letters were played and displayed all over the north of England. When the letters were released Detective Zacherson

from Sunderland read a newspaper report where the journalist claimed these letters from the Yorkshire Ripper copied the style and wording of the Jack the Ripper letters from the late 1800s. Zacherson arranged to get copies of the Jack the Ripper letters and upon studying them he realised the journalist was onto something so Zacherson did a little more digging. Meanwhile a specialist team of 15 officers with training in handwriting analysis screened more than 100,000 written applications for local council houses and 7,500 letters from men on probation. If any writing was considered suspect then the samples were sent away for more expert analysis. Other officers were placed in the main postal sorting officers of Sunderland. They had to

check every letter in case they found a new ripper letter. This way they would be able to catch it before it was sent so they would be able to determine where exactly it had been posted from. They would end up checking a total of around 15 million letters. Sunderland police and West Yorkshire police were taking different approaches during this phase of the investigation. West Yorkshire completely eliminated suspects from the investigation on the grounds that their voice and handwriting didn't match whereas Sunderland police didn't eliminate them completely from the investigation. They had the view that just because somebody's handwriting didn't match the letters or the voice on the tape didn't mean that person wasn't the

ripper. Sunderland police weren't convinced the letters or the tape were authentic especially when they discovered the similarities to the Jack the Ripper letters from the 1800s. Oldfield though was certain and he continued full steam ahead eliminating people based solely on the letters and tape. Oldfield sought the help of Stanley Ellis who worked for the MI5 British Security Service. He was an expert in phonetics and dialect. He toured the north of England with two tape recorders one he used to play people the ripper tape the other he used to record different dialects. They went through small towns and villages until they reached two particular towns where the residents recognised the dialect on the tape as their own. These towns were Southwick

and Castle Town about one hour and 40 minutes north of Leeds. Sunderland police began making house-to-house inquiries in those two towns. By an hour, Zacharison had done some more digging into the letters. He found two alarming pieces of information. The first were numerous newspaper reports that had published the fact Vera Millwood had previously had an operation at Manchester Hospital where she was killed. This was a fact Oldfield believed only the killer could know but it was actually common knowledge. Zacharison also found newspaper reports that had publicly discussed the possibility of Joan Harrison being a victim of the ripper. These reports were published one year before the letters were sent.

Again this was a piece of information that Oldfield said hadn't been made public yet and only the killer could know. And finally Zacharison realised something that Oldfield and Dick Holland and everybody else on their team had missed. The first letter was sent in early March 78. It teased Oldfield saying that he was wrong about there being seven ripper murders. There were actually eight because they had forgotten Preston 75, Joan Harrison. Well what had been missed by everyone up to this point was that if you included Joan Harrison's murder then there were actually nine. Evonne Pearson was killed in January 78 but her body wasn't found until two months later after the first two letters had already been sent. If the letter writer really was the ripper

he would have known about Evonne's murder and he would have included her murder onto his tally but he didn't mention it at all proving he had no knowledge of Evonne's murder until she was found. Zacharison couldn't believe what he had found. The letters, the tape, they were hoaxes. The problem was that Zacharison wasn't sure what to do with this information. He didn't want to make Oldfield or West Yorkshire police seem like fools. They had made the letters and tape the primary focus of the investigation at this point. He ended up deciding to write a report for his bosses and leave it up to them to decide what to do. Other Sunderland officers were convinced Zacharison was right. They started having friendly informal chats with their colleagues from West Yorkshire

in the hope they could make them see what was glaringly obvious and that it would in turn filter back to Oldfield. They preferred this approach than coming out publicly and humiliating Oldfield. Sunderland police had by now searched around 5000 homes in the area where they believed the dialect on the tape came from. Around 130,000 names had been checked on birth registers and school registers. With all these names they ran further checks to see any of those men had later moved to Yorkshire and all that work had been for nothing. It was based on a hoax. In late August 79 George Oldfield suffered a heart attack and had to be hospitalised. The investigation was wearing on him. He survived but two weeks later another victim was dead.

Barbara Leitch was born in Northamptonshire. Barbara was a dedicated student who strived to earn the best grade she could to qualify her for a good university. She ended up being accepted to Bradford University where she studied humanities and economics. She also had a job she worked on weekends and through uni holidays. She enjoyed horse riding, dancing and having fun with her close circle of friends. On Saturday night the first of September 1979 20-year-old Barbara went to the Manville Arms pub with a group of friends. It was located only around the corner from where she lived. They finished up at the pub around 12 40 a.m. It started raining outside and one of Barbara's friends offered her a ride home. Barbara thanked her but

said she felt like walking. Her friends waved goodbye and promised to catch up again soon. Barbara never made it home and was reported missing the next afternoon. At 3.55 p.m. on Monday the 3rd of September a police officer who was searching an open yard behind a house opposite Bradford University found a Barbara's body under an old carpet covered by stones. She'd been deliberately hidden by the ribber. The alarm was raised and when David G arrived he had difficulty moving Barbara's body due to the way she had been hidden. Her clothes and bra had been pulled up and her jeans had been undone. Like the other victims Barbara suffered fractures to her head and multiple stab wounds. G found black material in some of Barbara's wounds which he

believed was grease. G concluded that Barbara had been hidden the head from behind with a hammer. After that she was stabbed and then dragged to the place where her body was found. As Oldfield was still recovering from his heart attack Dick Holland now became the man in charge. Another senior detective was brought in to assist Holland Peter Gilrain from Wakefield. Gilrain believed that someone must have seen the killer either approaching or leaving the area and he wanted to concentrate on identifying witnesses and encouraging them to come forward. The main witness for this murder reported seeing a man putting some kind of bundle into a green hillmen avenger that was parked near the crime scene. He was described as white in his early 30s

with an athletic build short dark hair and a thin dark mustache. Barbara's investigation then went down the same path as the others. Police concentrated on the car but had no luck identifying it. They made numerous house to house visits interviewed a lot of people took a lot of statements and it all led nowhere. People started to doubt if the Yorkshire Ripper would ever be caught. Newspapers started a campaign to have Scotland Yard called in to take over the investigation. Scotland Yard being the Metropolitan Police Service one of the largest police forces in the English speaking world and the police force that covers most of London. One Yorkshire detective replied to this campaign saying Scotland Yard haven't caught Jack the

Ripper yet. What makes you think they will come up here and catch our Yorkshire Ripper? Another newspaper donated a further £5,000 to the reward for the capture of the Ripper. The total reward now being £25,000. Self-defence classes for women were now taking off. Many carried knives and other weapons for protection and many businesses made arrangements to transport female workers at night. People were terrified. The Ripper was no longer solely targeting sex workers. The worrying thing now is that he's pulled out of the red light areas where he's operated in the past which makes it now that any woman is at risk.

Dick Holland released a report to all police forces in England. It included detailed information on all Ripper attacks which now totaled 16. The report focused heavily on the tyre tracks, the letters and the tape recording. Yorkshire Police were still running with the theory that the letters and tape were authentic. The report also gave clear instructions as to when a suspect could be eliminated. If he wasn't born between the years 1924 and 1959, if his shoe size was nine or higher, if his blood group wasn't B, if he didn't have a northern accent or if his handwriting didn't match the Ripper letters. Many police disagreed with Dick Holland and considered it a disastrous tactic to eliminate people just because their handwriting didn't match or

because they didn't have the right accent, especially considering what had been uncovered by Zachrison. And it was only the day after Holland released this report that the tape and the letters would finally fall apart once and for all. A man with the same voice as the one on the tape called Sunderland Police and said, tell him it's a fake. When he was asked what's a fake, he replied, the tape recording. The call was then ended. And it was at this time that Zachrison completed his nine page report titled commentary on the Ripper letters and tape. And it was also at this time that forensic officers 100% ruled out Joan Harrison as being a victim of the Yorkshire Ripper. So the evidence found at her crime scene from her killer that identified him as being Blood

Group B was no longer relevant to the Ripper. She had a different killer. After all this, Detective Gilrain acted fast and issued instructions that suspects now could no longer be eliminated because of their accent or the fact they weren't Blood Group B or because their handwriting didn't match. But the damage had already been done. It was a complete disaster. And unbelievably, Ronald Gregory, the chief constable of the West Yorkshire Police, Oldfield's boss, remained at the fine. He launched a massive publicity campaign which cost around one million pounds. The campaign ran across newspapers, TV and radio and focused heavily on the letters and tape. During this campaign that ran until the end of 79,

300 newspapers ran stories featuring the letters. 5,500 billboards were displayed featuring the writing on the letters and the tape was played nearly on a continuous cycle on radio and TV. Gregory even organised their own four-page newspaper to be printed featuring the information on the tape and letters. Two million copies of the paper were distributed all over the north of England. And of course, all this new publicity created a massive response from the public. Over 19,000 calls were registered in total and the information from all those calls had to be checked out. All this while other police were still trying to track down cars, others were still out recording registrations, others were participating in the thousands

of house-to-house door knocks and checking birth records and running other checks. The different police jurisdictions were eliminating suspects based on different criteria was at the Barclay. Two forensic scientists who had assisted in most of the murders up to this point were trying to help centralise the investigation again and get it back on track. They put a chart up on the wall in the main incident room. The chart had two columns. The first was titled What We Know About The Ripper. The second was titled What We Think We Know About The Ripper. In the first column, there was nothing. In the second column, there was very little. At different times, detectives would walk in,

see the chart on the wall and say, bloody hell, you're right. After his failed publicity campaign with the letters and tape, Ronald Gregory went to Scotland Yard in London and met with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. The Commissioner offered to send two of his top detectives to Leeds to give an objective opinion on the investigation. The first thing the two Scotland Yard detectives pointed out was that everyone was dealing with too much paperwork. That had been a direction of Oldfield when he first took charge of the investigation. Scotland Yard recommended to streamline the whole paperwork process. They said detectives needed to be focused on the case, not filing paperwork.

They also said that suspects definitely should not be eliminated from the investigation just because their handwriting didn't match the letters or their voice didn't match the tape. Finally, they recommended that Oldfield be removed from the case completely. Removing Oldfield was the only recommendation the Yorkshire Police took on board. They still continued to eliminate suspects because their handwriting or voice didn't match. Peter Gilrain, who had been called into assist Dick Holland while Oldfield was in hospital, was now put in overall command of the investigation. Oldfield returned to his Assistant Chief Constable's office in the new year 1980.

He no longer had anything to do with the Ripper investigation. His only hope being that he would see the Ripper court before he retired. Meanwhile, back in Manchester, Detective Jack Ridgway was still investigating the Manchester murders. He was still of the belief that the best way to catch the Ripper was to follow the new £5 note that was found at Jean Jordan's crime scene. There were 6,000 people that could have potentially been in possession of this new note. Ridgway appealed to Gilrain to provide manpower to help him interview these people, but Gilrain had no men left to offer. He told Ridgway that if he could narrow down the list from 6,000 to something more manageable, then he might be able to help.

Ridgway had a meeting with a senior official from the Bank of England. He wanted to understand the process through which the money was produced and then distributed. He had been able to work out that £25,000 was distributed to the Midland Bank in Shipley, and it was from that £25,000 that the killer got the £5 note left at Jean Jordan's murder. That £25,000 was then sent to various businesses which was used for payroll. But Ridgway could only narrow it down to 6,000 employees from over 100 companies. So senior bank officials agreed to do something extraordinary to help the investigation. They did an exact reprinting of the bundle of £5 notes that was sent to Midland Bank in Shipley

two years prior. This would allow Ridgway to follow the money from the very beginning. Ridgway met up with the chief cashier of the Midland Bank at Shipley. The cashier explained the process of how money in the bank was handled. Ridgway then spent weeks working in secret from 5pm until 11pm every night, reproducing the movements every cashier in the bank made with the money. When they got to the point where the reprint of Jean Jordan's £5 note came out of the bank, Ridgway followed the note and his plan paid off. He was able to narrow the list down from 6,000 people to 241. A new line of inquiry was set up to interview these 241 people.

Gilray now agreed to provide manpower and Manchester detectives worked in pairs with West Yorkshire detectives. Ridgway instructed that houses, garages and vehicles had to be thoroughly searched and if anyone didn't satisfy them they could take them in for questioning. People could only be eliminated if they had a verifiable alibi and Ridgway was very clear on the fact that no suspect could be eliminated on the basis of handwriting or accent. It was a promising lead. Ridgway had high hopes it would pay off, but nothing came of it and the ripper struck again. Margaret Walls was born in 1943 in Lincolnshire. A few years later she moved with her family to

Northern Ireland. After school she had a few jobs before joining the women's Royal Army Corps. She reached the rank of sergeant and left after five years. At 25 she joined the civil service in Northern Ireland and then transferred to London. From London she moved to Leicester. She was in a long-term relationship with a man but never married. From Leicester Marguerite moved to Pudsey, a town located between Leeds and Bradford. On Wednesday the 20th of August 1980 47-year-old Marguerite stayed back late at work. She didn't leave her office until 10.45pm. Marguerite's home was a one and a half mile walk away from her office, but she never made it. At 9am the next morning a couple in charge of the Claremont

Gardens in New Street, Pudsey, entered the grounds. Ten metres from the entrance they found a pair of women's shoes. Scattered throughout the grounds they also found a torn skirt, a leather shopping bag and a checkbook. Alarmed the couple called the police. The police found Marguerite next to a garage. She was lying face down and virtually naked with more clothes lying by her side. She also had a ligature mark around her neck. Marguerite had bruising on her knuckles from punching her attacker. She suffered two wounds to the head and three of her ribs were fractured, but there were no stab wounds. Marguerite had been strangled. As a result of this murder a decision was made to abandon the covert operations that

were still running in Chapeltown and Manningham. The ripper was clearly no longer looking for victims there. Much like the other murders the police came up empty and one month later the ripper struck again. Epagia Bendara was a doctor from Singapore that was attending Leeds University for a postgraduate course in health service studies after she won a scholarship from the World Health Organization. At about 11 p.m. on the 24th of September 1980 34-year-old Epagia left a friend's house to make the walk back home. As she was turning into Chapel Lane she heard footsteps behind her. She moved over to let the person walk by and as she was doing so she got a glance of a man with a beard. Suddenly she felt a thick rope around her neck and then

lost consciousness. When she woke up there was a policeman bending over her. The headlights from the officer's car had scared the ripper off and saved Epagia's life although the officer never actually saw the attack or the ripper as he was too far away. Epagia's head was bleeding and the cardigan she was wearing had been pulled up around her head. She was taken to Leeds Hospital. There was an arch shaped laceration to the back of her head caused by a hammer, injuries to her face and bruising around her neck. Police came up empty and five weeks later the ripper struck again. At 8 p.m. on the 5th of November 1980 16-year-old Teresa Sykes left her house to buy cigarettes at a store close to her home in Huddersfield. As she was walking past

the police station she noticed a man in a telephone box who wasn't using the phone. She found it odd but didn't make too much more of it. She bought the cigarettes and on her way back home she heard someone walking behind her. When she turned around she saw it was the man she had seen in the telephone box. The man quickly veered onto a different path and walked off when he noticed Teresa looking at him. Teresa kept heading for home but it wasn't long until she noticed the shadow creeping up behind her. Teresa was only just outside her house when she was struck in the head from behind. Teresa's boyfriend James actually saw the attack. He was looking out of the window at fireworks. He ran out of the house and screamed Teresa. The ripper ran off but James gave chase.

When they reached the junction of streets James yelled out I'll fucking kill you but he lost him not long after that. Meanwhile a neighbour heard the screams and walked outside to see what was going on. When they found Teresa they picked her up and carried her inside. The police were then called. Teresa's head was covered in blood. She was rushed to hospital and required brain surgery. She remained in hospital for five weeks but survived. Dick Holland went to the scene and together with local officers and a police dog they conducted a search. They picked up a bit of a scent but found nothing useful. They refused to link Teresa's attack to the ripper at that time. Detectives stating it was a local incident and a local

man was involved and all the talk that Teresa was attacked by the ripper was just making it more difficult to catch her assailant. But other detectives on the ripper investigation had no doubt it was the work of the ripper. They even told Teresa's parents this but told them not to go to the media with the information. And 12 days later the ripper struck again. Jaclyn Hill was from Middlesbrough, one hour and 20 minutes north of Leeds. She was a Sunday school teacher and was interested in pursuing a career in social work. She was engaged to be married to an RAF technician and was thought of as kind-hearted. Someone who thought the best of everyone and had nothing but love to give. On Monday the 17th of November 1980 20 year old

Jaclyn was returning home from a seminar. She was on the number one bus which left her outside the Arndale Center in Headingley close by to where she lived but she never made it home. At 10 p.m that night a man found a Jaclyn's handbag inside with some money and Jaclyn's university card. The student tried to hand her handbag into the university office but no one was there so he took it home with him. When he got home he had another look inside the bag and this time he found blood. He immediately called the police. The call was logged at 12.03 a.m. The sergeant on duty made a comment this will be the ripper's 13th victim. At 12 12 a.m two officers inspected the area where Jaclyn's handbag had been found. They didn't find anything and at 12.30

a.m they were called away to another job. At 10 a.m later that morning a shop manager who was entering the car park behind the shopping complex at the Arndale Center found Jaclyn lying on her back with her jeans pulled down and a coat covering her. When David G arrived at the crime scene he saw her bra had been pulled up and a silver heart shaped locket was in her hair. He found several lacerations to her head made with a hammer and numerous stab wounds believed to be either from a chisel or a screwdriver. G believed the actual place she was killed was 30 meters away. The ripper had then dragged her into the car park. The sergeant on duty who answered the call that night was right. Jaclyn was the ripper's 13th murder victim. Witnesses came forward and police chased

more leads this time looking for a square shaped car and a man wearing a black jacket with a mustache but nothing ever came of those leads. The media heavily criticized the police with this one. The place where the two officers were searching where Jaclyn's handbag was found was very close to where her body was later found. The public joined in on the criticism and there were actually protests begging Scotland Yard to take over the case. Ronald Gregory came out and said these protests were only undermining the morale of the force. Doreen Hill, Jaclyn's mother, made a television appeal. She said, I want to ask everyone not just in leads or around leads but all over the country to help us find the person who killed my daughter.

Please think, perhaps he lives in your house. He could live in a mansion, in a block of flats or down the street. He lives somewhere. He works for someone. Please think. The biggest reaction to this appeal came from Margaret Thatcher, England's prime minister. She called the home secretary and offered to go to leads and take over the investigation because it was clear nobody else cared about these murders. The home secretary is a senior member of government responsible for crime. He tried to calm her down and ended up making some calls. As a result, there was another change. Detective Jim Hobson, who had been in charge much earlier on in the investigation, was now officially back in charge. Four of the best

detectives in England were handpicked and sent to leads to assist Hobson, along with the leading forensic scientist in England. This new team were referred to as the best brains in the police service. Hobson also consulted with Scotland Yard again and this time he took on board their recommendations. Information was prioritized and the dedication to paperwork collecting was cut back. The first thing the new team of detectives did was to officially declare the letters and the tape a hoax. But because the letters and the voice were so deeply ingrained into people, it was actually hard to convince them that it was a hoax. They had to try and work out a way to convince people to stop looking for that voice. The next thing they did was a tour through all of

the crime scenes. From this, they came to the conclusion that the ripper was from Bradford. They believed Barbara Leitch's murder was an opportunistic attack. While he was standing at the scene, one of the detectives said, the ripper lives in Bradford and he did it going home. The forensic scientist then drew up a map which he believed show geographically the ripper was from Bradford. Bradford was at the centre of all of the attacks, what they referred to as the centre of gravity. At that time it wasn't a common tool used by investigators, but today it is widely used. It's something the police did back in the Frankston serial killing case we covered.

The idea is that killers use a certain distance to move from one killing to another, and the more they kill, the closer to home they tend to get. Their house tends to be at the centre of gravity, right in the middle. Another thing they noticed was that the attacks that happened near Bradford were done later at night, whereas the attacks that happened further away were committed earlier, establishing that the ripper did them earlier because he knew he needed the time to return home in order not to raise any suspicions. The team presented this theory to Ronald Gregory just before Christmas, December 1980. They also made 14 other key recommendations for the entire investigation.

They were right, the ripper was from Bradford. But would Gregory listen? Would the ripper be stopped before he had a chance to kill again? At the rate I'm going to, I should be in the Google Reynolds. Well, I think the time had come. You might say the time had come a few murders ago, but it's certainly come for a rethink about the whole investigation. I can't see myself being nicked just yet. you