Wicked Beyond Belief. Michael Bilton

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.

      SUMMERSKILL, SHIRLEY: MP and former Home Office minister who vetoed a public inquiry into the Black Panther case in 1976 and argued that the police had learned lessons from any errors made.

      SUTCLIFFE, SONIA: Peter Sutcliffe’s wife. They married in 1974 and divorced some time after his arrest.

      THATCHER, MARGARET: Prime Minister in 1980 at the time of the killing of the Yorkshire Ripper’s final victim in November 1980. Ordered William Whitelaw to beef up the Ripper investigation.

      WHITELAW, WILLIAM: Home Secretary, 1979/80.

      ZACKRISSON, DAVID: Detective inspector in Northumbria police. Wrote report in 1979 warning the ‘Geordie’ tape was an elaborate hoax.

      CHRONOLOGY

      1969

      30 SEPTEMBER: Bradford, West Yorkshire. Peter Sutcliffe arrested in the red-light area and charged with going equipped for theft ‘with a hammer’.

      1975

      5 JULY: Keighley, West Yorkshire. Anna Rogulskyj attacked. Senior investigating officer (SIO): Detective Superintendent P. J. Perry.

      15 AUGUST: Halifax, West Yorkshire. Olive Smelt attacked. SIO: Detective Chief Inspector Dick Holland.

      28 AUGUST: Silsden, near Keighley. Tracey Browne attacked. SIO: Detective Superintendent Jim Hobson. Unacknowledged Ripper attack.

      30 OCTOBER: Leeds, West Yorkshire. Wilma McCann murdered a hundred yards from her home. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban.

      20 NOVEMBER: Preston, Lancashire. Joan Harrison murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Wilf Brooks, Lancashire CID.

      1976

      20 JANUARY: Leeds. Emily Jackson murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban.

      9 MAY: Leeds. Marcella Claxton attacked at Roundhay Park. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson. Unacknowledged Ripper attack.

      1977

      5 FEBRUARY: Leeds. Irene Richardson murdered in Roundhay Park. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson.

      23 APRIL: Bradford. Patricia Atkinson murdered in her flat. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent John Domaille.

      26 JUNE: Leeds. Jayne MacDonald murdered. SIO: Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) (Crime) George Oldfield.

      10 JULY: Bradford. Maureen Long attacked. SIO: ACC (Crime) George Oldfield.

      1 OCTOBER: Manchester. Jean Jordan murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Ridgway, Manchester CID.

      14 DECEMBER: Leeds. Marilyn Moore attacked. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson.

      1978

      21 JANUARY: Bradford. Yvonne Pearson murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Trevor Lapish.

      31 JANUARY: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Helen Rytka murdered. SIO: ACC (Crime) George Oldfield.

      25 APRIL: Special Homicide Investigation Team (Ripper squad) set up at Millgarth police station, Leeds, under Detective Chief Superintendent John Domaille, with Detective Superintendent Jack Slater as his deputy, plus ten other detectives.

      16 MAY: Manchester. Vera Millward murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Ridgway.

      1979

      MARCH: Detective Superintendent Dick Holland takes over Ripper squad at Millgarth; also in charge of the centralized incident room.

      4 APRIL: Halifax. Josephine Whitaker murdered. SIO: ACC (Crime) George Oldfield.

      2 SEPTEMBER: Bradford. Barbara Leach murdered. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Gilrain.

      1980

      21 AUGUST: Leeds. Marguerite Walls murdered at Farsley. SIO: Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson. Unacknowledged Ripper killing.

      24 SEPTEMBER: Leeds. Uphadya Bandara attacked at Headingley. SIO: Detective Superintendent Tom Newton. Unacknowledged Ripper attack.

      5 NOVEMBER: Huddersfield. Teresa Sykes attacked. SIO: Detective Superintendent Tony Hickey. Unacknowledged Ripper attack.

      17 NOVEMBER: Leeds. Jacqueline Hill murdered. SIO: Detective Superintendent Alf Finlay.

      25 NOVEMBER: ACC (Crime) George Oldfield sidelined as head of the Ripper inquiry. Jim Hobson takes over with temporary rank of ACC.

      26 NOVEMBER: External advisory team appointed by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Mr Lawrence Byford. Reports to the chief constable before Christmas.

      1981

      2 JANUARY: Peter Sutcliffe arrested in a car with a prostitute in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

      5 JANUARY: Peter Sutcliffe charged with murder of Jacqueline Hill.

      22 MAY: Peter Sutcliffe found guilty of thirteen murders. Sentenced to life imprisonment.

      2006

      18 OCTOBER: John Humble arrested in Sunderland and later convicted for being the sender of the Ripper hoax letters and tapes.

      PREFACE

      Poor Wilma. A strong-willed and feisty woman, she was determined to live life on her terms. It was either her way or no way. A driver picked her up. She agreed, late one night in October 1975, to a risky proposition from a total stranger: sex for a fiver. With a bunch of small kids to care for on her own, this was how she got by. And now? She was dead, the first publicly acknowledged victim of the Yorkshire Ripper.

      Her body – shrouded by a low-hanging mist at the edge of a football field – was found early the next morning. The damp and miserably cold vapour clung as grimly and insistently to the frail corpse lying on that grassy bank as it did to the rest of the city of Leeds that autumn.

      The fog was almost a symbol of the terror and fear that was to come. It seemed to hang perpetually over the North of England for some considerable time, like some mysterious and impenetrable miasma. And it never lifted for five long years. It enveloped and chilled the lives of millions who lived there, men and women, young and old. But most of all women.

      A year later, MPs in the House of Commons voiced deep concerns