David Peace - 1980

Alderman: ‘This one, this one here with the sharpened point?’

‘Yes. I used it on Joanne Thornton and on Dawn Williams.’

Noble: ‘Tell us about Dawn Williams?’

‘I took her to the back of the house before I stabbed her, that’s all. Before doing it, with any of them I had to go through a terrible stage each time. I was in absolute turmoil. I was doing everything I could to fight it off, and I kept asking why it should be me, until I eventually reached the stage where it was as if I was primed to do it.’

Alderman: ‘Twenty-eight times?’

‘I honestly can’t remember.’

‘I’m telling you, you stabbed her twenty-eight times.’

‘I believe you.’

Noble: ‘Tessa Smith?’

‘I attacked her because she was the first person I saw. I think something clicked because she had on a straight skirt with a slit in it.’

Noble: ‘Prudence Banks?’

‘I changed my methods here because the press and the media had attached a stigma to me. I had been known for some time as the Yorkshire Ripper and I didn’t like it. It isn’t me. It didn’t ring true. I had been on my way to Leeds to kill a prostitute when I saw Prudence Banks. It was just unfortunate for her that she happened to be walking by. I don’t like the method of strangulation. It takes them even longer to die.’

Noble: ‘Laureen Bell?’

‘The last one I did. I sat in the car eating some Kentucky Fried Chicken, then I saw Miss Bell. I decided she was a likely victim. I drove just past her and parked up and waited for her to pass. I got out of the car and followed about three yards behind her. As she drew level with an opening I took the hammer out of my pocket and struck her on the head. By this time I was in a world of my own, out of touch with reality. I dragged her on to some waste ground. A car appeared and I threw myself to the ground, but the car passed by. I can’t imagine why I was not seen. She was moving about, so I hit her again. Then I dragged her further on to the waste ground as a girl was passing by. I pulled most of her clothes off. I had the screwdriver with the yellow handle and I stabbed her in the lungs. Her eyes were open and she seemed to be looking at me with an accusing stare. This shook me up a bit so I stabbed her in the eye. I just put it to her lid and with the handle in my palm I just jerked it in.’

Sixteen hours of this in the dark room -

The dark room on our side of the glass -

Our side of the mirror -

Drowning, we’re drowning here -

Drowning in here in his bloody sea -

The bloody tide in -

His bloody tide high -

The things he’s said, the things he’s done -

Sixteen hours in the dark room -

Sixteen hours and six years -

In dark rooms -

In silence -

Silence and tears.

Up the stairs -

Sleeping coppers on every desk -

On every desk, face down -

Faces down in ash and cans -

Snoring, farting, belching -

The cans, the dog ends, the wretched smell -

We’re all back in the upstairs office -

Sergeant Ellis in full flight, swing whatever -

Me all ears -

Only me -

‘Took one bloody look at him, didn’t I. And I said to lads, he’s an odd one this one, I did.’

Me: ‘Time? What time?’

‘Minute they bloody brought him in; nine o’clock.’

Me: ‘So what’d you do?’

‘Called Ripper Room, didn’t I? Bloke nicked with false plates and prossie in a red-light area - I’m straight on him. Dialled Millgarth before his arse even touched a seat.’

Me: ‘Who’d you get at Millgarth?’

‘Bob Craven,’ he says -

‘Where is Bob?’ I ask.

‘Fuck knows,’ says Ellis. ‘Anyway, I says to Bob, you want to clock this one and Bob’s like, keep him sweet and Jim Prentice’ll be down for a butchers.’

Me: ‘Kept him sweet did you?’

‘As bloody sugar – talking ten to dozen, he was: telling us how he’s always up Sunderland, over Preston way, how he takes a size eight Welly, all the different passion wagons he’s had - Corsairs and Rovers and Escorts and you-bloody-name-it he’s had it.’

Me: ‘Mention Ripper did you?’

‘Just what Bob said to tell him, routine when a bloke gets pulled with a slag.’

Me: ‘What did he say?’

‘Fine. No sweat. Said he’d been seen half a dozen times already.’

Me: ‘What’d you say to that?’

‘I’m rubbing my bleeding hands, aren’t I? But I say, is that right? You’ve got nowt to bloody worry about then, have you? And he says, only bloody missus. But I tell him she’s already phoned and she thinks it’s just about some dodgy plates and you’ll be right.’

Me: ‘What time she phone?’

‘About ten minutes after he got here.’

Me: ‘Then what?’

‘Jim Prentice gets here after lunch, been up Bradford way for some funeral or something. Takes one look at our man and he’s like: know him, seen by John Murphy about that fiver, clocked in Bradford, Leeds, and Manchester, and last time they did all local engineering firms. So Jim goes in and has a bit of a chat and he’s in there twenty, thirty minutes, and he comes back out and he says, Mike I’m not happy. And I’m like, fuck we’ve screwed up and I say, why – what’s up? But Jim’s like, not happy about Peter David Williams and he goes gets Millgarth on blower.’

Me: ‘What time’s this?’

‘Be about three o’clock.’

Me: ‘And what did Dick Alderman say?’

‘Test him.’

Me: ‘And what did Williams say when you went down to test him?’

‘Wasn’t me, it was Jim Prentice, – but apparently he goes, what if it’s same one you’re wanting? And Jim says, calm as can be like, you Ripper are you? And feller he just says, no. Then you’re all right then, aren’t you laughs Jim.’

Me: ‘So he’s in the frame by now?’

‘Oh aye. And then when test comes back and it’s B – well then it was pints all round, wasn’t it?’

Me: ‘What time was that?’

‘Test results? Actually I can’t remember which was first: Chainey finding hammer and knife back in Sheffield or blood type. Any road, must have been gone twelve.’

Me: ‘Midnight?’

‘Yeah, cos then Dick Alderman turns up, Pete Noble – and I mean no-one’s going home, we’re all just hanging around.’

Me: ‘All night?’

Ellis nodding: ‘Once in a lifetime thing, this. I mean, all night they’re having top-level meetings, planning it all out.’

Me: ‘Who?’

‘Brass: Noble, Alderman, Prentice – and phone never bloody stopped.’

Me: ‘And what they doing with the suspect?’

‘Suspect? He’s bloody sleeping like a baby, isn’t he? First thing though when he woke – he must have noticed something was up.’

Me: ‘Why’s that?’

‘Well minute he’s had his breakfast – there’s Alderman and Prentice and me sat there.’

Me: ‘You?’

‘Oh aye, first interview today I was taking it all down.’

Me: ‘What’d he say?’

‘Nowt much, they were just trying to get him relaxed, you know.’

Me: ‘How?’

‘Talking about cars, sex.’

Me: ‘Sex?’

‘Aye, Alderman was asking him all about him and his missus – how often they have a bit, because he’d been on to them saying like she was always nagging him and stuff like that. But he reckoned they were at it regular – nowt kinky mind. Said they forgot about rows and all that minute they went to bed.’

Me: ‘Getting a bit personal then?’

‘Oh aye, but he didn’t seem to mind. Dead relaxed, he was. Best bit was when, this was lunchtime, – just before you and George Oldman got here. Jim Prentice says why don’t we send out for some fish and chips and Ripper, he’s a cocky bastard, he grins at him and says, I’ll go if you want – but I reckon they might be a bit cold by time I get back.’