David Peace - 1980

I take my cue and stand and leave.

I press play:

‘I’m Jack. I see you are still having no luck catching 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 Chapeltown when I was disturbed. Even then it was a uniformed copper not a detective .

‘I warned you in March that I’d strike again. Sorry it wasn’t Bradford. I did promise you that but I couldn’t get there. I’m not quite sure when I’ll strike again but it will be definitely some time this year, maybe September, October, even sooner if I get the chance. I am not sure where, maybe Manchester, I like it there, there’s plenty of them knocking about. They never learn do they George? I bet you’ve warned them, but they never listen.’

Pause -

Thirteen seconds, count them:

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen seconds of hiss, then -

‘Take her in Preston, and I did, didn’t I George? Dirty cow. Come my load up that .

‘At the rate I’m going I should be in the book of records. I think it’s eleven up to now isn’t it? Well, I’ll keep on going for quite a while yet. I can’t see myself being nicked just yet. Even if you do get near I’ll probably top myself first. Well it’s been nice chatting to you George. Yours, Jack the Ripper .

‘No good looking for fingerprints. You should know by now it’s as clean as a whistle. See you soon. Bye .

‘Hope you like the catchy tune at the end. Ha. Ha.’

And then -

‘I’ll say your name

Then once again

Thank you for being a friend.’

Stop.

Silence -

Seconds, minutes of silence in the dark room -

Minutes of silence until -

Until I say: ‘This was received June 20, last year. I’m sure you’re all probably as sick to death of the sound of that voice as I am, – but I want to spend some time on this today because it has had such a bloody bearing on the investigation, both in what came next and what it meant for all that had gone before.’

Murphy, McDonald and Hillman, the three of them nodding along -

Craven in the corner -

No Marshall.

‘Right, as you know, they’d had the letters; four in all: the first three were all in June 77, two addressed to the Yorkshire Post journalist Jack Whitehead,’ I say, eyes on Craven -

No reaction.

‘The third one was to George Oldman, but sent to the Telegraph and Argus offices in Bradford. And the last one was sent in March 1978, again addressed to Oldman, but this time to the Daily Mirror in Manchester.’

Murphy: ‘That’s where they got the call last night?’

I nod: ‘Right, but that call aside for now, the tape and all four letters are without any real doubt the work of the same man. All five items share the same handwriting, blood groupings from saliva tests, and the same traces of oil and minerals. The first three letters and the tape make specific reference to the murder of Clare Strachan in Preston, while the fourth letter talks about the murder of Doreen Pickles in Manchester.’

‘May I?’ interrupts Hillman.

‘Go on.’

‘That fourth letter was also postmarked Preston.’

I nod: ‘And that is?’

‘Scene of the Strachan and Livingston murders.’

‘Good point, Mike,’ I say. ‘So the amount of publicity the recording, the letters generated, the sheer number of leads as you’ve all seen – it’s staggering.’

‘Overwhelming,’ says Alec McDonald.

‘But let’s remember,’ says Murphy. ‘It was a bloody leak that got them into this.’

‘That’s right,’ I say, again with a glance at Craven. ‘They’d made no decision on whether to go public with the tape. In fact, word is George was dead against it, especially since he’d always claimed the June 77 letter to the Argus had been a hoax. But then there was the leak, again to the Argus , and they had no choice.’

‘Bad time for them,’ Murphy continues. ‘They were leaking like a bloody sieve, all them stories about faked overtime, dubious expenses, it was all coming out.’

Craven in the corner has his eyes closed, head forward.

‘And three months later,’ I say, quietly. ‘It got even worse.’

I open the notebook and read:

‘On the morning of Sunday 9 September last year, the body of Dawn Williams was found hidden in a pile of rubbish behind an empty terrace house in Ash Lane, behind the Bradford University at which the deceased was a student.

‘She had been killed by a single blow to the back of her skull. Her clothing had then once again been repositioned and she had been stabbed nine times in the trunk, mostly in the abdominal area.’

I stop and hand them the copies I’ve made of the lists of witnesses, the lists of police officers, the lists of vehicles, lists of the possible tyre widths and so on -

Twenty-three pages of lists.

I continue: ‘It was after this murder that Oldman issued the following information and instructions to all police forces in the North of England -

‘Taken from the introduction to the revised and updated Murders and Assaults upon Women in the North of England it said:

“It is significant that although most of the early victims are prostitutes or women of loose moral character, in the majority of cases no obvious sexual interference has taken place, and the motive for each time is a pathological hatred of women. In the most recent cases, innocent women have been attacked. In the majority of these offences, vicious hammer blows to the back of the head have occurred, and it is generally thought that this precedes the stabbing of the victim. In some cases the clothing of the victim is moved to expose the breasts and lower abdomen, prior to stab wounds being inflicted. No stabbing has occurred through clothing .

“The three common factors in all the crimes are:

a) The use of two weapons: a sharp instrument and a 1 ј pound ballpein hammer .

b) The absence of sexual interference, except in one instance .

c) The clothing moved to expose breasts and pubic region .

“Through evidence gathered, the following five-point list should be used for the purposes of elimination:

1. The man was born before 1924 or after 1959 .

2. The man is an obvious coloured person .

3. The man is a size nine shoe or above .

4. The man has a blood group other than type B .

5. The man does not have a Geordie or North Eastern accent .

“It should be remembered that it may be that the man responsible has come to police attention in the past for assaults on prostitutes and women which did not result in serious injury, and suggestions regarding the identity of the person responsible, or any other information about similar assaults, not necessarily fatal, would be appreciated.”’

I stop.

Silence.

I say: ‘And that brings us to here and Laureen Bell.’

I close the folder and look at my watch:

Noon -

Fuck -

I need another car, need to get back over to Batley, to Marshall -

Murphy, McDonald, and Hillman looking at me -

Craven’s fucking asleep in the corner -

‘OK,’ I say. ‘We need to now start compiling the crosschecks, completing various lists, speaking to the officers involved. We’ll start now and then meet tomorrow morning, first thing, see how far we’ve got.’