Michael Bilton - Wicked Beyond Belief

The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

HarperPress

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street,

London SE1 9GF

First published by HarperPress in 2003

The extract from a report of High Court hearing R v Peter Coonan (formally Sutcliffe) before Mr Justice Mitting, on 1 March 2010, published in the Independent, is reproduced with kind permission of The Press Association.

Michael Bilton asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

WICKED BEYOND BELIEF: THE HUNT FOR THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER. Copyright © Michael Bilton 2003, 2006, 2012. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Ebook Edition © MAY 2012 ISBN: 9780007388813

Version: 2020-11-16

For my Father

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Dramatis Personae

Chronology

Preface

1. Contact and Exchange

2. The Diabetic Detective

3. ‘A Man with a Beard’

4. Tracks in the Grass

5. Impressions in Blood

6. A Fresh Start

7. Punter’s Money

8. ‘The Job Is Life; Life Is the Job’

9. A Miserable Place To Die

10. Chinese Walls

11. The Wrong Track

12. Going Covert

13. ‘He Comes from Sunderland’

14. Bad Feelings

15. Swamped by Paper

16. ‘He Lives Somewhere, He Works for Someone’

17. ‘The Beast I Am’

18. Mad or Bad?

19. DNA, DNA, DNA

20. A Suitable Case for Treatment?

21. Unmasked: Leeds, West Yorkshire, 2006

The Final Chapter: Crime and Punishment in 2011

Note on Sources

Text Notes and References

Bibliography

Author’s Note on the Appendices

Appendix A: Statement of Peter William Sutcliffe to West Yorkshire Police, 4 January 1981

Appendix B: Subsequent Police Statements, January-February 1981

Searchable Terms

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Praise

About the Publisher

BOREHAM, LESLIE: High Court judge who presided over the trial of Peter Sutcliffe at the Old Bailey in May 1981.

BOYLE, JOHN: Detective inspector Ripper squad, January 1981. Interrogated Peter Sutcliffe after his arrest.

BYFORD, LAWRENCE: Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, responsible for the West Yorkshire police area. Conducted review of what went wrong with the Ripper investigation. Reported to Home Secretary in December 1981.

CATLOW, GRANGE: Detective superintendent Manchester CID. Jack Ridgway’s deputy.

CRAIG, DONALD: Assistant chief constable (crime) West Yorkshire 1975/76 before he retired.

DOMAILLE, JOHN: Detective chief superintendent, senior investigating officer (SIO) on murder of Patricia Atkinson in Bradford, 1977. Head of Special Homicide Investigation Team (Ripper squad) April 1978–March 1979.

ELLIS, STANLEY: Dialect expert and senior lecturer at University of Leeds. Advised police on ‘Geordie’ tape.

EMMENT, LESLIE: Deputy chief constable, Thames Valley police. Member of Byford advisory/review team.

FINLAY, ALF: Detective superintendent, SIO for Jacqueline Hill murder in Leeds, November 1980.

GEE, DAVID: Professor of forensic pathology at Leeds University and Home Office consultant pathologist. Conducted post-mortems on Ripper victims.

GERTY, DAVID: Assistant chief constable, West Midlands police. Member of Byford advisory/review team.

GILRAIN, PETER: Detective chief superintendent, SIO for Barbara Leach murder in Bradford, September 1979.

GREGG, CHRIS: Detective chief superintendent, head of West Yorkshire Police Homicide and Major Enquiry Team (HMET). Launched the hunt for the hoaxer.

GREGORY, RONALD: Chief constable of West Yorkshire.

HARVEY, RONALD: Commander, New Scotland Yard. Special adviser on crime to Home Office. Member of Byford advisory/review team.

HAVERS, SIR MICHAEL: QC, MP. Attorney General. Led prosecution at Sutcliffe’s trial.

HOBAN, DENNIS: Detective chief superintendent and head of Leeds CID. SIO for first two Ripper murders, Wilma McCann and Emily Jackson, in 1975/76. Died March 1978.

HOBSON, JIM: Detective chief superintendent. Dennis Hoban’s deputy in Leeds. SIO on inquiry into Irene Richardson’s murder. Put in overall charge of the investigation in late November 1980, six weeks before Peter Sutcliffe was arrested.

HOLLAND, DICK: Detective superintendent. Pivotal figure in the Yorkshire Ripper investigation. Drafted in after the murder of Jane MacDonald in 1977 and remained until the killer was arrested.

HYDES, ROBERT: Probationer police constable in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Arrested Peter Sutcliffe, 2 January 1981.

KIND, STUART: Professor of forensic science, head of Home Office Central Research Establishment at Aldermaston, 1980. Member of Byford advisory/ review team.

LAPISH, TREVOR: Detective chief superintendent, SIO on Yvonne Pearson murder in Bradford, January 1978.

LAPTEW, ANDREW: Detective constable on Ripper squad, July 1979, when he interviewed Peter Sutcliffe and named him as a strong suspect.

LEWIS, JACK WINDSOR: Linguistic expert and lecturer at University of Leeds who advised police on tape and letters.

MILNE, HUGO: Psychiatrist who examined Peter Sutcliffe and gave evidence for the defence at his trial.

O’BOYLE, ‘DES’ FINBARR: Detective sergeant, Ripper squad, January 1981. Interrogated Peter Sutcliffe after his arrest.

OLDFIELD, GEORGE: Assistant chief constable (crime) West Yorkshire police. Ran the Yorkshire Ripper investigation 1977–80.

OGNALL, HARRY: QC. Senior member of the prosecution team at Sutcliffe’s trial.

OUTTERIDGE, RON: Forensic scientist. Spent two months with Russell Stockdale advising Ripper squad in 1979.

RIDGWAY, JACK: Detective chief superintendent. SIO on murders of Jean Jordan and Vera Millward in Manchester in 1977/78. Ran five-pound note inquiry.

RING, ROBERT: Police sergeant in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Arrested Peter Sutcliffe, 2 January 1981.

SHAW, GRAHAM: Detective Superintendent, S10 West Yorkshire Police. Led police arrest team in Sunderland in hoaxer case.

SLOAN, ANDREW: National Coordinator of Regional Crime Squads in 1980. Member of Byford advisory/review team.

SMITH, PETER: Detective sergeant, Ripper squad, January 1981. Interrogated Peter Sutcliffe after his arrest and took his confession.

SMITH, STUART: Detective Sergeant, West Yorkshire Police. Conducted interviews with John Samuel Humble.

STOCKDALE, RUSSELL: Forensic scientist on several Ripper murders. Spent two months with Ron Outteridge advising Ripper squad in 1979.