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The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)

November 19, 2018 / 01:04:12

This episode discusses the Yorkshire Ripper case, focusing on the murders of Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, and others. It covers the investigation led by Detective Dennis Hoban and later Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, detailing the victims' backgrounds, the police's methods, and the public's reaction.

Wilma McCann was the first victim, murdered in October 1975. Her body was discovered by a milkman, leading to a lengthy investigation that revealed her struggles with alcohol and sex work. Detective Hoban appealed for information from the public, emphasizing the need for sympathy towards sex workers.

Emily Jackson, another victim, was found in January 1976. Her murder showed similarities to McCann's, prompting police to link the cases. Hoban's investigation continued, but leads remained scarce, and the public's fear grew.

The episode also covers Irene Richardson's murder in February 1977 and the subsequent investigation, which faced challenges in gathering evidence and witness statements. The police's efforts to connect the murders and identify the killer are highlighted.

As the investigation progressed, more victims emerged, including Jane McDonald and Maureen Long. The episode concludes with the ongoing search for the Yorkshire Ripper and the societal implications of the case.

TLDR

The episode details the Yorkshire Ripper case, focusing on the victims and the police investigation led by Hoban and Oldfield.

Episode

1:04:12
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[Music] West Yorkshire is a county in England that has a population of over 2 million
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people it covers an area of over 2,000 kilometers squared and is formed by five cities Leeds Bradford Wakefield Kirklees
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and Calder Dale each one of these cities has its own history its own identity and
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its own voice during the 1970s they were all United the residents of each city were looking over their shoulders
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praying they wouldn't be the next victim in one man's reign of terror the press named the Yorkshire Ripper
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[Music] at 7:30 p.m. on the 29th of October 1975 Wilma McCann a resident of Leeds told
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her nine-year-old daughter Sonia that she was going to town she said she'd be back later that night she instructed
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Sonia not to let the younger children out of bed Wilma then left the home walking out the
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back door when Sonia woke up the next morning she saw her mother hadn't arrived home she took her younger
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brother to a nearby bus stop and stood there waiting as that was the stop that Wilma used to trouble Sonia and her
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brother remained there waiting for their mum until a neighbor spotted them and returned them home they were wearing
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school coats over their pajamas at 7:41 a.m. that morning a milkman who was making the early rounds with his brother
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stopped in the carpark of the Prince Philip football fields he got out to deliver a crate of milk he spotted what
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he believed was a Halloween costume of some sort he walked closer to have a better look and that's when he realized
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that was the body of a woman terrified he took his brother away from the scene and ran to a nearby phone he called the
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police and said he'd found a woman with her throat cut the woman was Wilma McCann her body was
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found only a few hundred metres away from her home her slacks had been pulled down below her knees her blouse and
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jacket had been ripped apart her bra was pulled up and her handbag was still lived around her left hand a group of
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detectives along with a forensic pathologist arrived and saw that the cut throat that the milkman described was
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actually a deep stab wound there were numerous other stab wounds around her body the forensic pathologist David G
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determined Wilma had been murdered at the exact location she was found there was no sign of sexual assault
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she performed Wilma's postmortem later that afternoon he firstly discovered two lacerations to the scalp of Wilma's head
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these had been mr. the scene as they were covered by her long hair one of the lacerations wasn't severe but the other
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one was 2 inches long and had fractured her skull she concluded that the attack had started Bob Wilma being struck on
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the left side of her head with a blunt object she thought it was possible that the object was a hammer but he initially
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favoured an adjustable spanner he determined the stab wounds came after Wilma had been struck Jay said the
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attack had occurred in the very early hours of the morning most likely just after midnight and that it had lasted
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only minutes dennis Hoban the head of Leeds Criminal Investigation Branch was the officer in charge of the case he
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started by finding out all he could about Wilma McCann Wilma was born in Scotland and had 10 brothers and sisters
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according to her mother she was brought up strictly and had to be in bed by 10:00 p.m. every night in her early
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teens when her father discovered she was wearing makeup he took it from her and buried it in the garden once she
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finished school she travelled to Perth Australia and worked at a hotel at 19 she became pregnant and gave birth to
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her daughter Sonia soon after she met Gerald McCann from Ireland they married on the 7th of October 1968 and later
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moved to Leeds where father Wilma's brothers already lived they had two more daughters and one son in February 1974
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they separated apparently during their marriage Wilma went out at night a lot and slept with other men Gerald found
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out grew tired of her behavior and left the house he met another woman and had another child he still saw his daughters
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and son after school and as time went on he became increasingly worried about the
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situation his children were experiencing at home Wilma needed money to support her children and during the evening she
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left the house to go out and engage in sex work because of this her young children
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home alone for long hours Wilma had also started abusing alcohol when police searched Wilma's house they found it
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filthy and and neglected they also found an address book which contained a large
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number of Wilma's clients detective Hoban made an appeal through the press for the clients to come forward joven
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was very savvy with using the public to help solve crimes he had a great deal of
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experience and had solved over 40 murders throughout his career joven was concerned that Wilma was a sex
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worker the truth of the time was the public was notoriously unsympathetic toward sex workers and Hoban was well
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aware of this he referred to Wilma's clients as boyfriends in the press and when appealing for help
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he showed pictures of Wilma's children in an attempt to strike a chord with the public joven was able to pinpoint
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Wilma's last movements after she left home at 7:30 p.m. on the 29th she visited several city center pubs where
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she stayed until 10:30 p.m. at 11:30 p.m. she was seen on her own at a nightclub called the room her last
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positive sighting was around 1:00 a.m. when two officers in a patrol car spotted her walking along mean wood road
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other witnesses mentioned seeing her in a drunken state staggering and jumping in front of cars to try and stop them
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and get a lift home a lab report confirmed she consumed between 12 and 14 measures of alcohol that night other
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witnesses came forward and said they saw Wilma talking to a truck driver in response to this information
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detective Hoban organized several late-night roadblocks he set up the roadblocks along the route Wilma had
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taken after she left the nightclub and wasn't long before they identified the truck driver the driver admitted to
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stopping and talking to Wilma but he didn't take her home when she asked for a lift
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he said she was well and truly drunk fighting a white plastic container with a curry and chips a few days later
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another witness came forward and said he'd seen Wilma getting into a K registered car the car was either red or
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orange colored and of model similar to a Hillman Avenger AK a registration plate refers to the time
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period the registration plate was issued K plates were issued between August 71 and July 72 the witness had also gotten
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a look at the male driver of the car he was described as possibly West Indian or
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African aged around 35 years old with a full face and a thin droopy mustache he was wearing a donkey jacket which was
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popular amongst construction workers five weeks later 29 of Wilmers former clients had been interviewed and
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eliminated from the inquiry and if the police were still searching for the man in the K registered car over the
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Christmas and New Year period detective Hogan questions sex workers in the chapel town area of Leeds which was the
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red light district where Wilma had lived and worked although Haven didn't find information
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about the driver he was looking for he did receive information about a suspicious man aged around 50 possibly
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Irish who drove a worn-out Land Rover and who often cruised their Chapel town area in order to help jog the memory of
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potential witnesses police came up with the idea of dressing a female police officer in Wilma's clothes and then
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superimposed Wilma's face from another photograph so it would be like they had a picture of her the night she was
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murdered 2000 posters were printed with this image and distributed to shops around
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the area of chapel team unfortunately no useful information came from this by now
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the forensic pathologist David G had processed all of the swabs he had taken from the crime scene he discovered
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traces of semen on the back of Wilma's trousers tests were unable to determine a blood group but the fact that semen
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was discovered there told them that the killer had probably masturbated over her
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after the murder newspapers described Wilma's murder as a Jack the Ripper type of crime eight weeks and five days
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after Wilma's murder 137 officers had put in over 53,000 hours on the case they had visited 5,000 houses and taken
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538 state and it had resulted in basically nothing they were no closer to identifying a
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suspect and it was eight weeks and five days after the murder that a new victim was found at 8 a.m. on Wednesday the
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21st of January 1976 a man on his way to work parked his car opposite an alley in an
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abandoned area of Chapel Tina which had been marked for redevelopment when he got out of his car he glanced to his
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right and saw a pair of a leg he's lying amongst trouble about 15 feet down the alley at first he believed he was
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looking at a shop-window dummy but as he got closer he realized that was the body
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of a woman he called the police and once more detective Hoban and forensic pathologist David gee were at the scene
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they were able to determine her identity from the contents of a handbag which was
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laying near boy 41 year old Emily Jackson the dress she was wearing was pulled up above her waist and some toys
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she was wearing were displaced in order to show her underwear her bra had been lifted a search of the crime scene
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revealed a boot impression left me boy like with Wilma there were two lacerations to Emily's head in Emily's
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case both were very severe this time she favored a hammer being the weapon Emily
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had suffered far more stab wounds than Wilma over 50 there was a considerable pool of blood next to a wall a short
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distance away which proved the killer most likely started his attack there and then dragged Emily to where her body
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light at the time she was found she concluded the killer struck Emily to the head first before stabbing her he wasn't
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sure what weapon could have been used some detectives present at the post-mortem suggested a screwdriver she
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planned to consult with several colleagues to make sure he got the weapon right although there were
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similarities in the attack she wasn't sure if the same man who killed Wilma had killed Emily
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detective Hoeven though had no doubt both Emily and Wilma worked in the same area and visited the same places
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joven got to finding out all he could about Emily Jackson Emily was born in 1933 in
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hemsworth a town 40 minutes away from Leeds she had five brothers and three sisters a couple of years after Emily
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was born her family moved to Leeds when she was 19 she married she'd need Jackson they lived in various places
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around Leeds during the first six years of their marriage they had four children
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three sons and a daughter they lived in north o'clock present in Leeds where they started a roofing
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business together and where they remained until the time of Emily's death their eldest son Derek died at the age
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of 14 after falling from a first-floor window from then on neither sydney nor emily were the same
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they started living more recklessly one day at a time and they went on having what many believed was an unconventional
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marriage sydney described Emily as being sexually insatiable and that she needed
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to go out and be with other men their roofing business started to fail so in order to support their family Emily
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started sex work Sydney helped her and actually drove her around in their van while she was
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working on Tuesday the 20th of January 1976 they'd gone out together to a pub one mile away from Chapel Tim it was a
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known place where strippers danced at lunchtime and sex workers gathered at all hours while Sydney entered the pub
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to have a drink Emily went to work Sydney left the club at 10:30 p.m. and he didn't see Emily on a lot of
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occasions Emily took clients to their van so Sydney assumed that's where she was he took a taxi back to their house
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without checking he only discovered she'd been murdered the next morning when he got a call from the police Hoban
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shared this information in a press conference and appealed for witnesses who are in the area that night to
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comfort the police seized Emily in Sydney's event in for an examination they realized the van was filled with
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supplies for the roofing company so there was essentially no room for Emily to take a client to the van
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still they completed an examination and found four fingerprints inside that could not be eliminated on the 23rd of
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January two days after Emily was found Hoban appealed through the press to all sex workers who worked in the area of
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Chapel town to come forward that same day the Sun newspaper ran an article with the headline Ripper hunted in call
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girl murders police circled the streets talking to all known sex workers a 19 year old worker said she'd been talking
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to Emily around 7:00 p.m. just before she got into a Land Rover she gave a description of the driver
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whose main feature was that he had a bushy beard a photo fit was made of this description and was circulated through
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the press all land rovers registered in West Yorkshire were checked there were over 1,000 police found a man who fit
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the description he'd been staying in Leeds the night Emily was killed and he was known for visiting sex workers
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however he strongly denied being the men who picked up Emily the police couldn't
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find any evidence to suggest otherwise another witness said she saw a dark blue Transit being with old registration
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plates near the murder scene around 3:30 a.m. old registration plates meaning our
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issue between August 72 and July 73 a check revealed there were 329 transit vans registered in Leeds at the time 278
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owners were tracked down interviewed and eliminated the remaining 51 were never traced Hoban didn't give up a Police
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Range Rover with flashing blue lights and a large photograph of Emily drove through Chapel town an officer asked
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through a loudspeaker for witnesses who'd seen Emily to come forward doctors were also asked to come forward with
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names of patients who they believed might be capable of the murders sex workers were encouraged to give up the
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names of any clients they thought were suspicious a cast was made of the boot print they found at Emily's crime scene
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the results of the cast weren't encouraging and didn't reveal a lot of information
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however it led police to believe that the killer might be a manual worker Tobin sent an urgent message to all
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police stations in West Yorkshire with precise instructions if anyone was taken into custody
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wearing similar boots and also had a vehicle with tools then they had to be held for questioning in relation to the
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murders his other instruction was for all police stations to start examining records of people with arrests for
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serious attacks on sex workers as for the weapons used in the attack police visited hardware shops and tried
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different types of tools G checked out screwdrivers which was suggested during the Emily's postmortem
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at first a screwdriver seemed like a good candidate since the stab wounds had a cruciform shape and when he first
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entered the screwdriver during his testing this shape was produced but as he drove the screwdriver
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deeper the cruciform shape vanished and it just became round G's colleagues around England and Ireland suggested
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other tools that could produce this shape none of them convinced G by May 1976 Wilmer McCann and Emily Jackson
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were officially linked as victims from the same killer police were nowhere near closer to catching him and in that same
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month there was a new victim Marcella Claxton was 20 years old and originally from st. Kitts a Caribbean island she
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was the victim of abuse from her father and moved to England at the age of 10 with her mother
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at the time of her attacks she was three months pregnant she had two other children who had been placed into foster
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care on the 9th of May 1976 she went out to a club in Leeds and 5:00 a.m. she left the club drunk as she was walking
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home she saw a white car cruising the area the car pulled up next to her the driver asked if she was doing business
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Marcela said she wasn't the driver got out of the car took micellar by the hand made her get into the car and told her
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they were going to rent a park to have sex once they got to the park he asked her to take off her clothes and gave her
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five pound micellar then told him she needed to go to the toilet she walked to some nearby bushes that were in the park
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in heed Marcela stayed there until she believed the man had gone about ten minutes later she returned to the spot
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she was at with the man to collect her shoes when she bent over to pick them up she received several blows to her head
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she was knocked to the ground Marcela pretended to be unconscious the men stopped hitting her got into his car and
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drove off before he left Marcela said he'd masturbated in front of her and told her don't phone the
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police once she thought he was gone she took off her underwear and held it against
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her head which was bleeding profusely she managed to crawl towards a telephone box that was a hundred metres away where
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she dialed triple Noren after the call she stayed in the telephone box waiting she slumped down to avoid being seen
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luckily she did was only a short time later she saw the driver once again circling around the park with his car at
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one point he stopped and walked over to the place where he had attacked Marcela he looked around in different directions
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then walked back to his car and left Marcela said he came back to see if I was dead he didn't see me so he kept on
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driving Marcela was taken to hospital where she was treated for eight severe lacerations to her scalp needing 52
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stitches she was discharged six days later she lost the child and for years she suffered headaches and blackouts
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since Marcella had seen her attacker and could identify him she was scared he'd come back for her sometime after leaving
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the hospital she went to the Goethe pub which was the same pub where Emily had been the night she was moved Marcella
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said that the man who attacked her walked into the pub that not took a look around and then left the moment she saw
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he was leaving she told the friend she was with and they ran after him but he was already gone the description
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Marcella gave to the police was of white man with dark hair a beard and a moustache Marcella was never included as
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an official victim in the investigation because she had no stab wounds however when another victim appeared in
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the same place they needed her help Irene Richardson was born in Glasgow Scotland she had six sisters and three
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brothers they were rapport but loving family as a small child Irene was shy she enjoyed music and loved to laugh
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when she got to secondary school she took up smoking skipping classes and turned into a bit of a rebel as years
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passed her brothers and sisters moved away and settled in different places Irene waited until she was seventeen and
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then ran off to London she stayed there for five years and didn't communicate with anyone from her family during that
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time her father passed away and because no one knew where Irene was they were unable to tell her Irene had two
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children she was unable to provide for them so they were put into foster care Irene then moved to Blackpool where one
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of her sisters was working in November 1970 she met George Richardson a man who'd worked as a barman and there's a
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plasterer they got married in June 1971 after six months of dating they set up a
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home in Blackpool and had two daughters Irene and Emmie in 1975 when baby Irene was two years
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old and Amanda had only just been born Irene decided to leave her home in Blackpool without saying a word
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George reported her missing he feared the worst however some months later RN contacted
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him and told him she was in South Kensington London working in a hotel George moved to South Kensington to see
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if they could make things work but in April 1976 Irene left again George was unable to cope and their two girls ended
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up in foster care whilst back in London Irene met Steven Brae a man who'd escaped Leicester
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prison without telling Steven she was married to George Irene left with him to Leeds in October 76 they moved from
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boarding house to boarding house in the chapel town area Steven got a job as a doorman in a nightclub and Doreen worked
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as a cleaner at a YMCA hostel she started using Bray's last name and they even organised to get married on the
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22nd of January 77 but near the Steven Noreen turned up they had drifted apart and were no longer seeing each other
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Irene had been failing to turn up to work at the hostel for days she suddenly appeared one day and to request that an
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advance on her wages because she had bills to pay Irene then disappeared for several days again before returning to
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the hostel to get her shoes and her overalls and to apologize for her behavior she said she was in a bad
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situation and had to run away from him in for close to two weeks Irene had no money no job and no place
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to go she lived on the streets and spent some nights sleeping in a public toilet
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some people she knew allowed her to use their bathroom to take a shower in the first days of February 77 a woman
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who are in a boarding house in chapel town and who had rented a room to Irene and Steven previously allowed Irene to
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stay there free of charge just for a few days until she got back on her feet on Saturday the 5th of February 1977 28
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year-old Irene told a friend that you'd planned on going to see Stephen Bray at the nightclub where he worked located
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one mile away from Chapel town she left the boardinghouse at 11:15 p.m. and briefly visited a friend who lived a few
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blocks away she stayed there until 11:30 p.m. just before midnight a car pulled up alongside her the male driver offered
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her money in exchange for sex Irene agreed and got into his car at 7:50 a.m. the next morning Sunday the
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6th of February a 47 year old accountant who was out jogging through Roundhay Park saw Irene's body lying face down he
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approached her slowly and later was quoted as saying I brushed the hair to one side and then I saw the blood on her
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neck her eyes were glazed and staring she was obviously dead and I ran to one of the houses to call the police
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detective Dennis Hoban who was in charge of the first two murders now attended the scene as an assistant
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the new officer in charge was detective Jim Hobson David G remained as the forensic pathologist the scene was
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immediately taped off and a 35 feet long black plastic screen was put up to conceal Irene's body from on lookers
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football matches that had been scheduled to start that morning on the fields in the park had to be cancelled as officers
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were performing a fingertip search throughout the entire park a fingertip search is where officers get on their
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hands and knees and touch everything on the ground with their fingertips to try and find anything useful that could be
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considered evidence police located tire tracks that ran from the roadway and stopped close to Irene's body
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Irene's handbag was lying open a few feet away from her on her right foot her boot had been left on her boot and sock
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were missing from her left foot her clothing was intact from the waist up however her pants are being removed the
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killer had placed a coat on top of her Irene had been stabbed in the post-mortem G found three
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lacerations - Irene's head these blows were extremely severe causing much more damage than just a fracture as had been
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the case with the previous victims again G believed the killer struck Irene with
00:27:01
one blow to the head and immobilized her then he hit her two more times and dragged her from where the tire tracks
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ended to where she was found he then stabbed her she believed the weapons used in this attack were most likely a
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hammer and a very sharp knife G had no doubt that this murder was linked to Wilma McCann's and Emily Jackson's
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although the new detective in charge Jim Hobson wasn't completely sure about this
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and he started several different lines of inquiry as a first step he arranged for George Richardson to come from
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Blackpool so he could positively identify or Irene her late husband the night she was a sex worker or would even
00:27:42
resort to those measures he said she was sick she just couldn't settle down traces of semen were found
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on the inside of Irene's coat this time they were able to determine the blood type
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Type O Hobson's sent a message out requesting all West Yorkshire police divisions and surrounding forces keep a
00:28:05
lookout for anyone coming into custody with blood-stained clothing he also ordered officers to visit local dry
00:28:12
cleaners and to make house-to-house inquiries a hundred officers were assigned this task and in the following
00:28:18
weeks numerous men were questioned in several items of clothing were examined including shoes and raincoats different
00:28:26
tools including hammers and knives were also examined but they found a no matches
00:28:31
a partial fingerprint that was discovered on one of the bus tickets that Irene had inside her purse couldn't
00:28:37
be eliminated Roundhay Park was known as a place that couples visited in their cars to have sex officers started
00:28:45
visiting the park of a night and approaching couples asking if they had seen anything or anyone suspicious the
00:28:52
morning after Irene's body was found one newspaper headline read Jack the Ripper
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horror three days later detective Hobson made an appeal through the media for any information as to the
00:29:05
whereabouts of Marcello Claxton it was now ten months since her attack in Rio de park Marcela had since moved and
00:29:12
police were unable to locate her the media didn't just ask for anyone who'd seen her but they described her attack
00:29:20
as a carbon copy of Irene's and for that reason they said Marcela could hold vital clues that could help
00:29:26
crack our eggs case Hobson's supported this spot saying that both attacks had a lot of similarities like the fact that
00:29:33
both women had been attacked with a blunt object from behind both had been picked up in Chapel Town for sex and
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both of them had been taken to the same place Roundhay Park Marcela came forward
00:29:46
that day and again gave the description of her attacker the next morning Hobson briefed the
00:29:52
media with the description however it wasn't the exact same description that Marcela had given before Thompson said
00:29:59
the man was aged between 25 and 35 years old he was 5 feet 9 inches tall of medium build with dark wavy hair at the
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time of the assault he was wearing a dark suit with a multicolored shirt and tie one more priority Hobson had at this
00:30:15
stage was taking sex workers off the streets over the next few months police arrested and issued cautions to
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more than 100 women in Chapel town before a sex worker was arrested and charged they were entitled to two
00:30:29
cautions so what Hobson hoped was that by giving out cautions that would frighten women from coming out to the
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streets of working he said he wasn't really interested in arresting anyone he was just trying to
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protect people it didn't really work so Hobson encouraged the workers to at least let a friend or someone know where
00:30:48
they were Hobson also placed officers in trouble down to write down the registration
00:30:54
numbers of men that were cruising the area the surprising thing was that Hobson revealed all of this to the media
00:31:00
they knew about all of the wounds Irene suffered they knew about the arrest and courtrand strategy they knew officers
00:31:06
were writing down registration numbers in chapel town and they knew the squad was checking a possible connection with
00:31:12
another murder that happened in Preston Lancashire an hour and a half away from Leeds Jayne Harrison was 26 years old
00:31:23
she'd become addicted to morphine and alcohol and in order to support those habits she turned to sex work Joan was
00:31:31
killed in a garage in Preston after suffering several blows to the head she'd been wearing two bras and these
00:31:37
were both unfastened her trousers had been removed and so had her boots but there were differences between this
00:31:44
murder and the others there were no stab wounds many of Joan's injuries were thought to have been done by kicking and
00:31:51
not with a weapon there were signs of sexual assault and her handbag along with other possessions were missing the
00:31:59
possibility of Joan's murder being related to the others was considered by all Hobson and other detectives however
00:32:06
they eventually ruled it out there were too many differences Hobson believed that the greatest lead
00:32:13
they had in Irene's case with the tire tracks at roundhay park Hobson started what was called a
00:32:19
tracking inquiry the aim was to find out what car was at the park that night and
00:32:24
who it belonged to in order to do this they had to use the tire tracks to identify the car
00:32:30
basically the tracks at the park would have a certain measurement this measurement would then be compared with
00:32:36
all the makes of tires and since not all tires fit all cars they would eventually
00:32:41
narrow down that list of potential cars this tracking inquiry started the day Irene was found and by 5:15 p.m. the
00:32:51
next day they had a list ready of models of cars that could have used the toys the list totaled around one hundred
00:32:58
Hobson then instructed the officers working in chapel town to check all of the parked cars so they drove past that
00:33:05
night the officers were instructed to write down their registration number end of the tire details onto a card he also
00:33:13
instructed for checks to be conducted at scrap yards and auctioneers these checks
00:33:18
lasted for six weeks but after that time it had to be abandoned the amount of cars parked on the street and at
00:33:25
auctioneers and scrap yards was endless and they were getting nowhere with it instead Hobson decided to consult an
00:33:32
expert in the tire industry this had some effect the list of potential models of cars was haft from 100 to 50 Hobson
00:33:42
then got approval to do a math screening within the West Yorkshire police area there were two searches carried out a
00:33:48
computer records search with the police national computer and a manual search with the vehicle licensing officer in
00:33:56
1977 not a lot of data was kept in the government computer so a big part of the search had to be manual
00:34:04
with the math screening they learned that the amount of cars that had to be examined numbered 53,000 a large amount
00:34:11
of officers were assigned to the mammoth task of going through every one of those
00:34:15
cars Patricia Atkinson was born in Thorpe Edge Bradford she had two brothers at the age
00:34:24
of 16 she met Raymond Mitra at a dance hall and after months of dating they got married on the 1st of april 1961 they
00:34:33
stayed with Patricia's parents for a short period of time before moving close by to Manning in which is known as
00:34:39
Bradford's red-light district they had three daughters in Patricia's mid 20s she suddenly felt like she hadn't done
00:34:46
any real living and started going out often in this period she cheated on Raymond numerous times it was for this
00:34:54
reason that they separated and got back together repeatedly before finally one day
00:34:59
Patricia left the house for good Patricia was first convicted for sex work in 1975 in 1976 Raymond divorced
00:35:09
her and kept custody of their daughters Patricia rented a small flat in Oak Avenue Manningham
00:35:16
close by to the red-light district and she started a relationship with Robert Henderson on Saturday the 23rd of April
00:35:24
1977 33 year-old Patricia went yet to the regular bars she always visited she ended up at the Carlyle Hotel Patricia
00:35:34
was an alcoholic and had spent most of that day drinking a stripper had been booked the dance at the Carlyle Hotel
00:35:40
but failed to turn up so Patricia climbed on the stage and stripped herself this resulted in an argument
00:35:47
with the manager and she left the Carlyle at 10:15 p.m. Patricia visited the international club
00:35:54
in Lund Wayne until 11:00 10:00 p.m. after that she was seen staggering drunk through Church Street to st. Mary's Road
00:36:01
in Manning him the next day Robert became concerned that he hadn't heard from his girlfriend at 6:30 p.m. he went
00:36:11
to her flat and knocked on the door he didn't get a response so he forced his way into the flat and
00:36:17
patrícia on the bed robert rented a caretaker of the building and made him call the police at 8:00 p.m. the head of
00:36:27
Bradford's detectives John de Mol was at the scene as soon as he saw Patricia he knew she was a Ripper victim
00:36:34
the blows to Patricia's head had again escalated in force hasn't been the case since Wolman McCann's murder her jeans
00:36:43
were pulled down to below her knees and her underwear had been pulled down her t-shirt had been pulled up and her bra
00:36:49
unfastened there was a boot print in blood on one of the sheets next to her as this murder had happened in a
00:36:58
different jurisdiction to the others a different crime scene examiner was used she believed Patricia was struck in the
00:37:05
head as she entered her room due to the blow she lost consciousness and fell to the floor the killer then moved her body
00:37:13
next to the bed where there probably was another blow to the head after that the killer maneuvered
00:37:19
Patricia's body on top of the unmade bed by climbing on it and dragging her up and this is how a bloody shoe impression
00:37:25
was left on the sheet once Patricia's body was on the bed further blows were delivered and then the stab wounds the
00:37:34
postmortem was carried out by David G who had performed the other post mortems he confirmed a pattern and a link to
00:37:41
Patricia's case to the other attacks similar head injuries similar movement of clothing no signs of sexual assault
00:37:49
and multiple stab wounds caused by different instruments in a search of her flat police found a diary listing 50 of
00:37:57
Patricia's clients DOMA went to the media and requested all of the men to come forward and be interviewed since
00:38:05
Patricia took her clients to her flat the place was filled with different fingerprints many could be eliminated
00:38:11
from the investigation however there were nine different sets that couldn't the boot impression was thought to come
00:38:19
from a Dunlop of Wellington boot since the sheet was crumpled the exact size was hard to determine but there was
00:38:25
a possibility that it could match the boot impression found at Emily Jackson's murder scene when following Patricia's
00:38:32
movements on her last night doe mall found out that she was a frequent user of taxis even for only
00:38:38
short distances so he ordered that every taxi driver in Bradford be interviewed there were 1200 in total other sex
00:38:48
workers were also interviewed it was at this point that Barbara Miller a 36 year
00:38:53
old came forward and said that she'd been attacked two years prior in Bradford it happened in March 1975
00:39:00
around 9:30 p.m. a man in a Land Rover drove her to a quarry in the Bolton Woods area of
00:39:06
Bradford once they got there he told her to get out of the vehicle but she refused so the man dragged her out
00:39:13
punched her in the stomach chest and face then he banged the back of her head against the car he drove off when she
00:39:21
got up and started the flight back the description she gave was of a man aged 35 to 14 years old five feet eight
00:39:29
inches tall blue eyes a stocky build and untidy ginger hair along with a full ginger beard and a moustache he also had
00:39:38
a possible Irish accent with a slight Birmingham dialect he had a scar on his left hand and a blue and red tattoo the
00:39:49
police more than anything were interested in the fact that he had a Land Rover and a ginger beard
00:39:54
already in Emily Jackson's case in Leeds a witness had seen her getting into a Land Rover so for the next three months
00:40:02
90 police officers in Bradford had concentrated on this lead they made 2300 house-to-house inquiries
00:40:09
checked 1920 for cars and took 2161 statements all of that led nowhere at this point the investigation was
00:40:23
making national headlines and was talked about constantly on radio and television
00:40:28
newspapers and media outlets from all around the country sent reporters to get in debt stories of what was happening
00:40:35
after Patricia's murder Georgia Oldfield the assistant Chief Constable meaning the second in charge of the entire West
00:40:43
Yorkshire Police said that if there was a new Ripper murder he would be taking charge as he was the most senior
00:40:50
detective in the force Jane MacDonald was born in Leeds she had three sisters one brother and
00:41:00
two parents who all loved her dearly she left high school at the age of 16 and got work in the shoe department at
00:41:07
Greenway supermarket on Roundhay Road she was sweet cheerful and someone who loved a life in every way she liked
00:41:15
about dancing and rollerskating and the loved clothes shopping her parents kept a close eye on her and
00:41:21
she'd promised them that when she went out at night she wouldn't walk alone she lived only six doors away from Wilma
00:41:28
McCann so her family were well aware about the murders and the closeness of them on Saturday the 25th of June 1977
00:41:36
Jane went to a German themed Harbor located in the centre of Leeds there she met Mike Jones an 18-year old local boy
00:41:45
at 10:30 p.m. the pub closed and Jane left with Mark and his friends they walked through Leeds center and a bit
00:41:53
later Mike's friends left them alone they purchased some food and at midnight Jane realized she'd missed the last bus
00:42:01
to return home mark told her they could go to his sister's house and she would take her home they walked up York Road
00:42:09
towards Chapel town when they got to Mark's sister's house her car wasn't there so it wasn't an option
00:42:17
that continued walking to San James hospital and entered the garden from the nurses home they stayed there for around
00:42:23
45 minutes then they walked back towards hare hills and when they reached Beckett's street they split up mark had
00:42:32
to return home too and it was now 1:30 a.m. that will close the grand waste supermarket where Jane worked so Jane
00:42:39
was familiar with the area and didn't mind being left alone they said their goodbyes and promise to see each other
00:42:46
that Wednesday Jane continued through Becket Street at 1:40 a.m. she was seen walking in the direction of Roundhay
00:42:56
road and at 1:45 a.m. she was seen walking through Chapel town close to her home at 2:00 a.m. a woman who lived in
00:43:05
near an adventure playground in chapel town said she'd heard banging and scuffling followed by what sounded like
00:43:11
a Scotsman mouthing obscenities during the day two young children who were at the playground found a Jane's body as he
00:43:21
had previously stated Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield took charge he attended the scene along with David G
00:43:28
and detective Hobson Jane had been found in abandoned land just in front of the playground surrounded by rubbish
00:43:36
old tin cans and broken bottles her clothes were out of place and she was missing one shoe in the post-mortem she
00:43:46
found three semicircular lacerations to her scalp along with fractures to the skull and
00:43:51
the many stab wounds like in the other murders she determined that Jane had been struck on the back of the head
00:43:58
first then dragged to where she was found death had occurred sometime before 3:00 a.m.
00:44:05
Jane's murder didn't just change the face of the investigation because Oldfield was now leading it it also
00:44:11
changed the response from the public as initially feared by detective Hoban back
00:44:17
when he was leading the investigation of rumen McCann's and Emily Jackson's murders a lot of the public at the time
00:44:23
showed little sympathy for sex workers but Jane was a 16 year old girl who had just left school Jane's father later
00:44:32
described how he'd found out the police came in and said are you the father of Jane McDonald I said yes I'll kill her
00:44:41
when she comes home because she didn't phone last night they said you may not have to and that's
00:44:48
as much as I knew he went on to say that whoever was responsible had basically killed their entire family the day after
00:44:59
Jane's body was found graffiti was sprayed on a nearby wall that red hanging the ripper Oldfield's way of
00:45:05
leading this investigation was with detail he wanted everything written down to the very last minute detectives spent
00:45:13
several days piecing together Jane's last hours they were able to break them down to the minute a large map was
00:45:20
placed in the incident room where they were conducting Jane's investigation Oldfield wanted to identify every single
00:45:27
person who'd been in Janesville sinabi at the time it was estimated that around 200 people were around Jane as she
00:45:34
walked home that night and around 50 were close to her when she was murdered Oldfield one in every single one of
00:45:41
those people interviewed and eliminated in order to do this Oldfield placed a free phone service in
00:45:48
the incident room so that people with any leads or possible sightings could call he spoke publicly in every way he
00:45:54
could he said he needed people to come forward who were there that night he asked local churches and community
00:46:01
leaders for assistance in making people talk after these appeals a woman and her
00:46:07
10 year old boy who lived in Chapel Town contacted the incident room both of them had been riding down
00:46:13
registration numbers from cars the woman started doing this after a man in a car
00:46:18
pestered her there were hundreds of registration numbers that she had written down and they were given to
00:46:24
officers to check out Oldfield thought this was a wonderful idea and he asked the other residents in the area to do
00:46:31
the same at the very least he requested people write down registrations of the cars they thought looked suspicious all
00:46:38
were curb crawling Oldfield also made the decision to bring the documentation and files of all five murders together
00:46:46
into one room up to this point the files of each murder were kept in different rooms and officers were instructed just
00:46:53
to focus on that one murder now they'd be able to see all the information together a Detective Chief Inspector was
00:47:01
placed onto every shift inside the incident room and their role was to check all incoming statements up until
00:47:09
now our officers had mostly been working through action and not so much through paperwork Oldfield aimed to change that
00:47:16
making sure everyone understood his instructions everything was to be written down to the very last detail he
00:47:23
wanted to make sure nothing was missed out of house-to-house inquiries the occupants of 679 homes in 29 streets
00:47:31
were seen and interviewed nearly 3,700 statements were taken and checks were made on all men taken into custody for
00:47:39
offences of violence Oldfield also organized the seminar with 25 psychiatrists from Yorkshire in order to
00:47:47
get assistance from mental health hospitals about patients who could be considered suspects this turned out to
00:47:53
be unsuccessful once again sex workers were questioned about their regular clients and asked
00:48:00
about the violent ones but the police were faced with a problem they persisted with the plan of arresting and
00:48:06
cautioning sex workers to try and get them off the streets they had even charged many of them who had already
00:48:11
received two cautions this didn't create a great environment for the sex workers
00:48:17
to want to talk to police not too many were forthcoming with information detective Hobson who was still working
00:48:24
the investigation but was just no longer in charge started a covert operation in
00:48:29
chapel town he had officers recording registration numbers of cars that were trying to pick up women these lists
00:48:37
could later be revisited if there was another murder Hobson had already tried a similar
00:48:42
operation when he was in charge of Irene Richardson's murder and believed it was
00:48:46
the most useful strategy they had Oldfield made a further appeal through the media he said the public had the
00:48:55
power to decide what sort of society they want if they want murder and violence then they will keep quiet if
00:49:01
they want a law-abiding society in which that woman folk can move freely without
00:49:06
the fear of attack from the likes of the individual we're hunting then they must
00:49:11
give us their help officers were working in average of 13 hours per day arriving
00:49:17
at 9 a.m. and leaving between 10:00 p.m. and midnight they had a 10:00 a.m. briefing every day
00:49:24
to see how the house-to-house inquiries were going while most of the officers were in the big incident room
00:49:31
Oldfield was in another office with detective dick Holland who he appointed second in charge of the investigation
00:49:38
detective Holland reviewed all the paperwork from the other offices and assigned further actions to follow up
00:49:44
he filtered through everything and sent the essential information to Oldfield still the paperwork began to pile up
00:49:52
quickly and on most nights Oldfield stayed up late with a bottle of whisky going over at the remaining paperwork he
00:50:00
slept in the police station so he was ready to go at first hour in the morning in another media address Oldfield said
00:50:07
there is no doubt in my mind that he will strike again the big questions are when where and who is going to be his
00:50:17
next victim marine long was 42 years old she lived in a small town located between Leeds and Bradford she was
00:50:28
separated from her husband but still maintained a good relationship with him and on Saturday the 9th of July 1977
00:50:36
two weeks after Jane's murder she met up with her ex-husband in a pub in Bradford
00:50:41
she had four pints of beer with him and left around 11:00 10:00 p.m. she went on
00:50:47
her own to the mecca Ballroom in Manningham Lane she was a regular at the place marine loved going out dancing she
00:50:56
stayed there until 2:00 a.m. but doesn't remember much from that point on she remembered going to the cloakroom at the
00:51:02
club but nothing further a hot-dog men who had to stand outside the club saw her leave and walked to Bradford Center
00:51:11
at 3:15 a.m. a security guard who worked at a factory on bowling back Lane heard
00:51:16
his dog bark he went to take a look at the direction where the dog was barking and he saw a car without lights driving
00:51:23
off fast out of Mount Street he was sure the car was a Ford Cortina and marked two with a black roof he said it looked
00:51:31
like there was something heavy in the boot of the car at 8:30 a.m. people from a gypsy caravan site near bowling back
00:51:39
Lane heard shouts of help coming from somewhere nearby they caught the police they found
00:51:45
Maureen in an abandoned open land site with rubbish all over marine was struggling to even move marine said all
00:51:55
I remember was trying to pick myself up I kept falling and then I wondered what was wrong with me and I kept falling
00:52:02
back and I was trying to pull myself up falling back again then I was screaming and I heard this dog barking someone
00:52:10
said oh you're all right and that's all I remember when you get hit about the back of the
00:52:17
head you can't remember things if I hadn't had beer that night I'd have died of hypothermia all her clothes were
00:52:27
displaced her bra had been pulled down to her waist her tights and pants pulled to her knees she was rushed to hospital
00:52:34
Angie along with Oldfield and Holland saw her after she was treated Maureen had a
00:52:41
large fracture to her skull five stab wounds to the front and side of her body in her left shoulder one of the stab
00:52:48
wounds had pen traded her liver she also had three broken ribs her hand injuries were so
00:52:55
severe that she required specialists in neurosurgery marine spent nine weeks in hospital before being discharged she
00:53:04
eventually remembered that a man gave her a lift and she gave the following description a fair-haired white male
00:53:10
aged around thirty five years old thick set over six feet tall and he was driving a white car the man police had
00:53:19
in mind was a taxi driver they had already been interviewing taxi drivers after Patricia atkinson's murder
00:53:25
there was one in particular who stood out to police his name was Terrence Hawkshaw and his physical appearance was
00:53:33
similar to all the previous descriptions given he was 36 years old six feet tall
00:53:38
weighed about 95 kilos or 210 pounds had long hair brushed back and a boyish face
00:53:45
on the night Maureen was attacked he'd been seen near the mecca Ballroom and he drove a white Ford Cortina with a black
00:53:54
vinyl roof on top of that he was known for letting sex workers have sex with clients in his taxi police checked his
00:54:02
taxi receipts and they discovered he'd been close to the areas when several of the attacks took place
00:54:08
Oldfield arranged for him to be questioned thoroughly he was kept for 36 hours at the detective training school
00:54:15
in Wakefield a city 20 minutes away from Leeds Terrance lived with his mother and
00:54:21
police searched the home they found he had two hammers both were examined along with his taxi but police found nothing
00:54:30
linking him to the murders during the 36-hour questioning of Terrance Oldfield tried to convince him that he might have
00:54:38
a split personality and for that reason he might have committed the murders but couldn't remember them for a while
00:54:44
Oldfield ordered a team of 12 detectives to follow Terrance's every move Oldfield
00:54:51
liked Hobson's idea of maintaining a covert operation and recording the registration numbers of men that toured
00:54:57
the red-light area of Chapel Tina oldfield enlarged that strategy and ordered officers to do the same thing in
00:55:05
Manningham Bradford's red-light area however Oldfield did order a stop to Hobson's previous operation the tracking
00:55:12
inquiry Hobson had started that when he was leading Irene Richardson's murder there was still 20,000 cars to examine
00:55:20
of the 55,000 that were on the list Oldfield was concentrated on the description that the security guard from
00:55:27
Laureen Long's attack had given he'd mentioned a Ford Cortina mark to this model wasn't on the list of the possible
00:55:34
models that the tracking inquiry had produced that told Oldfield the killer had ever changed cars for the tracking
00:55:41
inquiry method had failed them and he didn't have the manpower to continue it there were too many different lines of
00:55:48
inquiry happening at the same time with too many men dedicated to each of them so the tracking inquiry was the first
00:55:54
thing Oldfield put a stop to officers were already looking at all the Ford Cortina is registered in West Yorkshire
00:56:02
3,000 were located the owners were interviewed and eliminated when they were done interviewing Ford Cortina
00:56:09
owners Oldfield came back to the lead of the ginger bearded men in the Land Rover
00:56:14
that was seen in Wilma McCann's in Emily Jackson's cases the squad received 117 tips of men who looked like that and who
00:56:23
drove that car they were able to trace 56 of them up to this moment 300 officers had worked three hundred and
00:56:32
forty three thousand hours 175 thousand people had been questioned twelve thousand five hundred statements had
00:56:39
been taken and 101 thousand vehicles had been checked still the police were no closer to
00:56:45
identifying the killer and now we're about to have another victim in a new city Manchester is one of the biggest
00:56:54
cities in England it is located about one and a half hours northeast of Leeds just outside West Yorkshire in October
00:57:02
1973 16 year-old gene Jordan ran away from her home in Scotland and moved to Manchester she lived on the streets
00:57:11
until Allen royal a 20 your old chef spotted her on his way home from work he bought her a cup of
00:57:17
tea and something to eat soon after that they started a relationship and Jean moved in with Alan
00:57:25
first they lived in a small flat in South Manchester then they had two sons so they needed somewhere bigger they
00:57:33
moved to a larger flat near Manchester City Centre with time gene and Alan grew tired of each other and they started
00:57:40
going their separate ways although they still lived together the couple ran out of money and Jean turned to sex work she
00:57:48
worked at Mossad Manchester's red-light area and at Cheatham Hill at 9:30 p.m. on Friday the 1st of October 77 20 year
00:57:58
old Jean left her son's aged 3 and 1 with a babysitter while she went out to get cigarettes Jean never returned nine
00:58:10
days later on the 10th of October two men were looking for disused bricks on an abandoned land site when they saw
00:58:17
jeans body two miles away from their home as the murder happened in Manchester Oldfield had no jurisdiction there in
00:58:27
charge of this scene was Jack Ridgeway the Detective Chief Superintendent of central Manchester Jean was found naked
00:58:37
and her clothes were scattered around her there was evidence the killer had returned to the scene to move her at the
00:58:44
post-mortem they determined Jean had eleven injuries on her head and each of them had caused a fracture on her skull
00:58:50
she had several injuries over her entire body thought to be caused by a hammer as
00:58:55
well as many stab wounds it was determined the blows with the hammer had come first and the stab wounds were
00:59:01
inflicted after death marks on Jane's neck indicated the killer had tried the sawed off her head Ridgeway kept this
00:59:10
secret at the time as he thought it was one of those details that only the killer would know again there was no
00:59:17
sign of sexual assault after the post-mortem Ridgway arranged a meeting with Oldfield in Leeds Oldfield
00:59:26
had previously given a presentation about the Ripper murders to all senior detectives in northern England Ridgeway
00:59:33
had seen that presentation and he had no doubt Jean was a ripper victim when Ridgeway met with Oldfield and told him
00:59:40
about genes murder he said - Oldfield looked as though he didn't want to know a thing about it
00:59:45
Oldfield told Ridgeway I think we should keep this thing quiet for the time being
00:59:51
Ridgeway didn't have a problem with that since the Ripper murders were so high-profile and he didn't want to deal
00:59:57
with the media at that particular moment but as Ridgeway was driving back to Manchester he was shocked to hear a
01:00:03
radio announcement that said West Yorkshire Police had linked June Jordans murder with the Ripper murders when he
01:00:11
arrived back in Manchester Ridgeway had to deal with the press immediately unlike the West Yorkshire Police
01:00:17
Ridgeway gave away very little detail about the crime he even refused to confirm the link with the Ripper murders
01:00:24
all he said was that there were similarities that same day Alan royal appeared in the police
01:00:31
station and said his wife had been missing for a week Jean used to disappear for days and hitchhike to
01:00:38
Glasgow so when Alan arrived home on the 1st of October he wasn't surprised that
01:00:43
she wasn't there he actually hadn't been worried at all until he heard about the
01:00:47
murder and saw the description of the woman sounded a lot like Jean police conducted a search of Alan and Janes
01:00:55
house that came up empty handed however Alan told them that a faithful leather handbag was missing the handbag
01:01:03
hadn't been located by police at the crime scene so they printed notices about the murder specifically mentioning
01:01:09
the handbag and requested that people be on the lookout for it on Saturday the 15th of October a man found the handbag
01:01:18
about 50 meters away from where Jane's body was discovered Ridgeway drove in a hurry to the scene
01:01:24
and search through the handbag he found a new five-pound note reader I believed this note was the reason the
01:01:32
killer had returned to the murder scene and moved genes body at the time 5-pound
01:01:37
was the usual fee sex workers charged if the killer had given genius note then it
01:01:43
could incriminate him Ridgeway believed the killer thought about this after the murder and returned
01:01:48
to the scene to try and find it he obviously didn't find jeans handbag so he took off her clothes to see if she
01:01:55
had it on her Ridgeway believed that when the killer couldn't find the note he tried to decapitate her in order to
01:02:02
make the killing look different with this in mind Ridgeway was sure the best shot they had was to find the owner of
01:02:09
the note in order to do this he first had fingerprint specialists examine it they were unable to produce a
01:02:16
fingerprint so the next step was the trace the note using the serial number Ridgeway organized an operation to
01:02:24
follow the note from the moment it came out of a central bank to the moment it landed at a local branch whilst that was
01:02:31
going on other police arranged for a profile to be drawn up at the killer they believed the Ripper was probably
01:02:38
from West Yorkshire certainly had a good knowledge of Leeds and Bradford and had
01:02:43
possibly developed a psychological hang-up about sex workers either at the hands of one or possibly because his
01:02:50
mother was one in Bradford the chairman of the National housewives Register expressed the following opinion I'm sure
01:02:58
we would not have had a Ripper if brothels had been made legal an agreement to this statement came from an
01:03:05
unexpected source Ronald Gregory West Yorkshire is chief constable odd fields boss Gregory said
01:03:14
sex work legalized in some way would eliminate a lot of the vicious attacks in the streets sex workers were warned
01:03:22
to take care and not to stand alone and not to take lifts from people they didn't know unfortunately many women
01:03:31
couldn't afford to take this advice and the Ripper would kill again to be continued next week
01:03:40
I'm Jack I say was the lovely no look at him a I have the greatest respect for you George
01:03:48
good lord the one only of catching me now than four years ago when I started [Music]
01:04:06
you

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most heartbreaking
  • 80
    Most controversial
  • 75
    Most intense
  • 70
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • The Yorkshire Ripper's Reign of Terror
    In the 1970s, West Yorkshire lived in fear as the Yorkshire Ripper targeted women.
    “Praying they wouldn't be the next victim.”
    @ 00m 38s
    November 19, 2018
  • Wilma McCann's Tragic Fate
    Wilma McCann's body was discovered by a milkman, marking the start of a horrific investigation.
    “He spotted what he believed was a Halloween costume.”
    @ 02m 09s
    November 19, 2018
  • Marcela's Narrow Escape
    Marcela Claxton survived a brutal attack, providing a chilling account of her assailant.
    “Marcela said he'd masturbated in front of her and told her not to phone the police.”
    @ 19m 14s
    November 19, 2018
  • Irene's Disappearance
    Irene left her home in Blackpool without saying a word, leading to a missing person report.
    @ 22m 24s
    November 19, 2018
  • Tragic Discovery
    Irene's body was found in Roundhay Park, leading to a police investigation.
    “I brushed the hair to one side and then I saw the blood on her neck.”
    @ 25m 20s
    November 19, 2018
  • Police Investigation Intensifies
    Detectives began a fingertip search of Roundhay Park, looking for evidence.
    @ 26m 01s
    November 19, 2018
  • Patricia's Murder
    Patricia was found dead in her flat, escalating the investigation into the Ripper murders.
    @ 36m 29s
    November 19, 2018
  • Jane's Last Night
    Jane MacDonald was last seen walking home after a night out, becoming a victim.
    @ 42m 51s
    November 19, 2018
  • Jane's Tragic Discovery
    Two children find Jane's body in a playground, sparking a major investigation.
    “Jane had been found surrounded by rubbish.”
    @ 43m 28s
    November 19, 2018
  • Oldfield Takes Charge
    Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield leads the investigation into Jane's murder.
    “Oldfield wanted everything written down to the very last minute.”
    @ 45m 05s
    November 19, 2018
  • Maureen's Narrow Escape
    Maureen survives a brutal attack, recalling her struggle to stay conscious.
    “I remember was trying to pick myself up.”
    @ 51m 55s
    November 19, 2018
  • The Ripper's Pattern
    Police link Jean Jordan's murder to the Ripper case, raising public concern.
    “Oldfield looked as though he didn't want to know a thing about it.”
    @ 59m 42s
    November 19, 2018

Episode Quotes

  • He spotted what he believed was a Halloween costume.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)
  • Eight weeks and five days after Wilma's murder, a new victim was found.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)
  • She just couldn't settle down.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)
  • He was just trying to protect people.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)
  • I kept falling and then I wondered what was wrong with me.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)
  • I'm sure we would not have had a Ripper if brothels had been made legal.
    The Yorkshire Ripper's reign of terror begins (Part 1/3)

Key Moments

  • Marcela's Attack19:14
  • New Beginnings22:07
  • Disappearance22:24
  • Tragic Discovery25:14
  • Police Investigation26:01
  • Final Night42:51
  • Investigation Intensifies44:05
  • Jean's Murder Linked58:24

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown