On BBC iPlayer. 3 1 hour episodes. Very interesting especially if you remember living through that time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/ ... rime-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I watched it and it was interesting to see how poorly organised the Police were to deal with Sutcliffe after interviewing him about nine times. He used to frequent the cafe on Todmorden Road near to the Turf apparently when out on his deliveries.

mikeS wrote:I watched it and it was interesting to see how poorly organised the Police were to deal with Sutcliffe after interviewing him about nine times. He used to frequent the cafe on Todmorden Road near to the Turf apparently when out on his deliveries.

My dad said he’d heard at the time that Sutcliffe would toy with the police and let them know he’d been in a certain cafe hours after he’d left in Burnley. He said there was another place near the centre he’d go too.

I lived in Chapeltown, Leeds, near to Spencer Place from 1984-1990.Even though he had been recently caught and convicted, there was a lingering fear around the area, a wall nearby had 'kill the ripper " sprayed on in huge letters, it was never removed. Also the Uni still ran free mini buses home for women at night. Very interesting to watch this again, granted with hindsight, but there's no doubt the investigation overall was very badly run.

I worked with a geordie guy from Bacup at the time. He got a knock at the door and had no alibi for the first three dates they threw at him. He was getting quite concerned as he could see their demeanour changing. Finally he got a date where he had irrefutable proof of his being at work. Big relief.
He was more annoyed that some wind up merchant had given them his name.

Tricky Trevor wrote:I worked with a geordie guy from Bacup at the time. He got a knock at the door and had no alibi for the first three dates they threw at him. He was getting quite concerned as he could see their demeanour changing. Finally he got a date where he had irrefutable proof of his being at work. Big relief.
He was more annoyed that some wind up merchant had given them his name.

I don’t know what he was worried about. It’s not like the Police and Crown Prosecution Service, at that time, had a bad reputation for locking up the wrong people in order to get any conviction they could, is it?

I watched it and quite a few things stood out, mainly the way the police almost showed disregard for the early victims, because they were sex workers.

When the ripper killed a 16 year old student, they literally ran a campaign addressing him in the press and asking him if he felt bad that he'd 'made a mistake' by killing an 'innocent' girl. Only 40 odd years ago and a completely different time.

Should have been put to death years ago. He’s been attacked a few times in prison. Unfortunately when he was being strangled in one attempt others stepped in otherwise the world would be rid of this evil waste of space.

mikeS wrote:I watched it and it was interesting to see how poorly organised the Police were to deal with Sutcliffe after interviewing him about nine times. He used to frequent the cafe on Todmorden Road near to the Turf apparently when out on his deliveries.

Jeans Cafe. I use to frequent there when out on my deliveries!! Excellent cafe.
Must’ve crossed paths at some point.

dushanbe wrote:I watched it and quite a few things stood out, mainly the way the police almost showed disregard for the early victims, because they were sex workers.

When the ripper killed a 16 year old student, they literally ran a campaign addressing him in the press and asking him if he felt bad that he'd 'made a mistake' by killing an 'innocent' girl. Only 40 odd years ago and a completely different time.

But this was the Good Old Days, remember? No namby pamby Nanny State; no Political Correctness(gone mad or not); everyone knew their place, showed respect to their Elders and Betters, deferred to the Authority of the Police Force, and Arch Criminals were Good Lads who knew never to steal from their own.

mikeS wrote:I watched it and it was interesting to see how poorly organised the Police were to deal with Sutcliffe after interviewing him about nine times. He used to frequent the cafe on Todmorden Road near to the Turf apparently when out on his deliveries.

I was working at Kirkstall gears on Rossendale road at the time, he used to deliver/pickup from there I remember when it came out he was arrested the then forklift truck driver was quite shocked as he regularly chatted with him as he loaded his wagon.

His brothers are still around Bingley - neither the most upstanding characters, to put it nicely.

He got his apparent message whilst working in the graveyard next to our school.

The programme was interesting, being too young to remember the worry on the streets at the time. The woman marching has a very valid point, I thought!

Got interviewed in 79/80 in the Hare and Hounds pub Heaton about half a mile from his house during a liquid lunch . As there was several cop cars in the car park we decided to walk back a mile or so to work. The police were desperate in those days my boss at the time was pulled up on 3 days picking his wife up from work in Bradford, they had no record of him being pulled up before !

Another thing that stood out - the police could tracked a note found on a victim back to his pay packet from work. They didnt investigate that enough.

Well actually they did, everyone in the workplace was interviewed. The problem is they were obsessed with the Mackem accent tape and some obvious connections with Sutcliffe were missed.
It was a very sad state of affairs, the arrogance of the people in charge prevented proper police work taking place.

The photofits were very like him. That Mackey prankster totally sent the investigation off the rails !

TheOriginalLongsider wrote:The photofits were very like him. That Mackey prankster totally sent the investigation off the rails !

Yes he did, and he got eight years for it in 2006.

It still amazes me that the leader of the investigation, George Oldfield, convinced himself that Wearside Jack was the Ripper, despite almost all the experts he consulted telling him he wasn't.

lakedistrictclaret wrote:Yes he did, and he got eight years for it in 2006.

It still amazes me that the leader of the investigation, George Oldfield, convinced himself that Wearside Jack was the Ripper, despite almost all the experts he consulted telling him he wasn't.

George Oldfield was absolutely clueless. It should have been obvious to everybody that anybody could ring up and pretend he was the ripper. You surely make a note of it - not treat it as gospel and rule people out because they aren't a Geordie. And that's nothing to do with hindsight, it's just common sense.

was that the tranny cafe on tod road burnley

WOW how times have changed, as an apprentice at the printers on parliament st I was sent to get breakfasts on Saturday /Sunday mornings at 6:30 am to the tranny cafe or Trany cafe on Todmorden road I used to walk in and The lady of the transport cafe used to have names for regulars that were not there own. I just looked up on line what it may have been called and apparently its a porn site or a place for Shemales ( but no bacon or egg butties)

pureclaret wrote:WOW how times have changed, as an apprentice at the printers on parliament st I was sent to get breakfasts on Saturday /Sunday mornings at 6:30 am to the tranny cafe or Trany cafe on Todmorden road I used to walk in and The lady of the transport cafe used to have names for regulars that were not there own. I just looked up on line what it may have been called and apparently its a porn site or a place for Shemales ( but no bacon or egg butties)

Just sausage?

Just sausage
Thank god i never tried them !! I may have liked them ?

TheOriginalLongsider wrote:On BBC iPlayer. 3 1 hour episodes. Very interesting especially if you remember living through that time

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/ ... rime-story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Firstly, thanks to TheOriginalLongsider for starting this thread. I wasn't aware of the programmes but have now seen all three episodes since yesterday. It's hard to believe it is as long ago as it is, approaching 38 years since he was sentenced. We all knew at the time how the police fell for the tapes which cost more lives but this programme seriously highlighted the bungling effort by the police who had absolutely shocking attitudes. Even in court it was said that one of the victims was 'respectable' because she wasn't a sex worker.

Thought it was quite moving at the end when Wilma McCann's son said that it was not about him losing his mum but his mum losing her life and missing out on her kids growing up and ever seeing her grandchildren. He had clearly gone off the rails for a time, and no wonder, but good to see he now appears to have a very good life. Too often, no one thinks of those relatives left behind.

Not all police though Tony. I was interviewed a few times (job, locality) by some very professional officers.
The men at the top were a disgrace.

dougcollins wrote:Not all police though Tony. I was interviewed a few times (job, locality) by some very professional officers.
The men at the top were a disgrace.

Very much at the top. All departed too within a short time. A friend of mine’s dad was interviewed because he was a Geordie.

I was once interviewed following a murder because of my job location and car. I was grilled for two hours and it was very unnerving.

Our next door neighbor, Roger, was a dead ringer for the police drawing of the ripper! He was always on the road for his job too.........weird times.

Taffy on the wing wrote:Our next door neighbor, Roger, was a dead ringer for the police drawing of the ripper! He was always on the road for his job too.........weird times.

It's a good job Russel Brand wasn't around at the time - he was a dead ringer for the Yorkshire Ripper.

FactualFrank wrote:It's a good job Russel Brand wasn't around at the time - he was a dead ringer for the Yorkshire Ripper.

And probably just about as funny.

ClaretTony wrote:Very much at the top. All departed too within a short time. A friend of mine’s dad was interviewed because he was a Geordie.

I was once interviewed following a murder because of my job location and car. I was grilled for two hours and it was very unnerving.

I'd be more than unnerved being "grilled" for two hours...did you Admit it? Gimme the punch line CT.

My mum was followed by Peter Sutcliffe on Parker Lane one evening at 11pm after a night out. (Not sure if the Police Station is still on Parker Lane?) but Sutcliffe would have known it was the Cop Shop and it clearly didn't bother him. He played games with the Police at the time.

He caught up with her and tried to strike up a conversation. Luckily she headed up towards Manchester Road from Parker Lane and saw a friend of the family (male) who told Sutcliffe to do one and saw that she got home safely. Two weeks later his face was front page on all the newspapers. He had been caught but my mum swore it was him who had followed her that night. Thanks for the reminder. Will definitely watch it on catch up.

I also agree that the police sketches were incredibly accurate, and I can't believe he wasn't rumbled based on that. I'd like to think if I'd been one of Sutcliffe's colleagues at the time, and was reading the paper on my break, I'd have thought "bloody hell, that's Pete".

It’s an odd fact that Coronation Street’s Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) found one of the victims. The victim was the lady where Sutcliffe had realised his error with the new £5 note. After killing her he returned to the undiscovered body realising his mistake and mutilated her in frustration at not being able to find the note.

The lady had hidden the note in a secret compartment in her handbag. Jones always blamed his alcoholism on the horror on what he found.

Also when Thatcher got involved she offered the support of the Metropolitan Police but West Yorks Police responded ‘No thanks, we don’t need their help, they haven’t caught their Ripper yet’.

SammyBoy wrote:I also agree that the police sketches were incredibly accurate, and I can't believe he wasn't rumbled based on that. I'd like to think if I'd been one of Sutcliffe's colleagues at the time, and was reading the paper on my break, I'd have thought "bloody hell, that's Pete".

Wouldn't have mattered, how many times was it that he was interviewed by the police ? it was their system that let them down, he was in it, several times over but the dots were never joined up.

I found the program a little disappointing, like most documentaries these days very repetitive

tim_noone wrote:I'd be more than unnerved being "grilled" for two hours...did you Admit it? Gimme the punch line CT.

It was a horrible experience I can tell you. It was in 1986 that I was questioned and it was because of the fact that I worked in Preston at the time and because of the car I drove. It wasn't resolved until 2009 through DNA but the murderer was then eight years dead.