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THE TRIAL OF PETER SUTCLIFFE
The following has been compiled from various newspaper sources at the time of the trial, and from books released afterwards. It is by no means a complete record of events at the trial of Peter Sutcliffe, but is, hopefully, a substantial account of those events. It should also be noted that in the attempt to merge the various accounts together, I have had to decide where to place some sections of text and quotes in the order of testimony. There is the possibility that some of these sections may not be in the correct position. In the case of extracts from Peter Sutcliffe's confession, I am also unsure whether all that I have included were actually read into the record of the court.
CHARGES AND PROCEDURES
JANUARY 5 1981: MURDER AND THEFT CHARGES
FEBRUARY 20 1981: MURDER AND ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGES
APRIL 14 1981: TRANSFER TO OLD BAILEY FOR TRIAL
APRIL 29 1981: PRELIMINARIES
THE TRIAL: WEEK ONE
MAY 5 1981: TRIAL BEGINNINGS, THE VICTIMS
MAY 6 1981: LAST VICTIM, MILNE REPORT
MAY 7 1981: ARREST, FRIENDS
MAY 8 1981: OTHER PROSECUTION WITNESSES
THE TRIAL: WEEK TWO
MAY 11 1981: PETER SUTCLIFFE
MAY 12 1981: PETER SUTCLIFFE, DR MILNE
MAY 13 1981: DR MILNE
MAY 14 1981: DR MILNE
MAY 15 1981: DR MILNE, DR MacCULLOCH
THE TRIAL: WEEK THREE
MAY 18 1981: DR MacCULLOCH, DR KAY MAY 19 1981: CLOSING SPEECHES MAY 20 1981: CLOSING SPEECHES, THE JUDGE'S SUMMARY MAY 21 1981: THE JUDGE'S SUMMARY MAY 22 1981: THE VERDICT
THE TRIAL
CHARGES AND PROCEDURES
MONDAY, JANUARY 5 1981: MURDER AND THEFT CHARGES
At Dewsbury Magistrates' Court, Court Clerk Dean Gardener asked: "Are you Peter William Sutcliffe, of 6 Garden Lane, Heaton, Bradford?" After an affirmative response, he continued: "You are accused that between 16 November and 19 November 1980 you did murder Jacqueline Hill against the peace of our Sovereign Lady the Queen. Further, you are charged that at Mirfield, between 13 November and 2 January, you stole two motor vehicle registration−plates to the total value of 50p, the property of Cyril Bamforth."
The County prosecuting solicitor, Maurice Shaffner, stated that Sutcliffe was not legally represented. Sutcliffe replied in the negative when asked whether he wanted reporting restrictions lifted. The hearing lasted about five minutes.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20 1981: MURDER AND ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGES
At Dewsbury Magistrates' Court, Peter William Sutcliffe was committed for trial accused of 13 murders and seven attempted murders, and transferred to Leeds Crown Court. During a 14 minute hearing, David Kyle, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, made the application for Sutcliffe's committal for trial under a procedure where an accused person can be committed for trial without oral evidence being given. The prosecution also requested, and the magistrates agreed, to the withdrawal of one charge of the theft of number plates worth 50p.
Kerry Macgill, defending, accepted committal without oral evidence. He did not make any applications for bail or for the lifting of reporting restrictions. He did apply for two counsel to represent Sutcliffe at his trial.
The murder charges were of: Wilma McCann, 24, of Scott Hall Avenue, Chapeltown, at Leeds, on October 30 1975; Emily Monica Jackson, 42, of Back Green, Churwell, Morley, at Leeds, on or about January 20 1976; Irene Richardson, 28, of Cowper Steet, Leeds, at Leeds, on or about February 6 1977; Patricia Atkinson, 33, of Oak Avenue, Manningham, in Bradford, on or about April 23 1977; Jayne Michelle McDonald, 16, of Scott Hall Avenue, Chapeltown, at Leeds, on June 26 1977; Jean Bernadette Jordan (Royle), 20, of Lingbeck Cresent, Hulme, Manchester, at Manchester, between September 30 1977 and October 11 1977; Yvonne Ann Pearson, 22, of Woodbury Street, Bradford, at Bradford, between January 20 and March 26 1978; Helen Maria Rytka, 18, of Elmwood Avenue, Birkby, Huddersfield, between January 30 and February 4 1978; Vera Evelyn Millward, 40, of Grenham Avenue, Hulme, Manchester, at Manchester, on or about May 16 1978; Josephine Anne Whitaker, 19, of Ivy Street, Halifax, at Halifax, on or about April 4 1979; Barbara Janine Leach, 20, of Grove Terrace, Bradford, at Bradford, between September 1 and September 4 1979; Marguerite Walls, 47, of New Park Croft, Farsley, Leeds, at Farsley, on or about
here.)
After Sir Micheal Havers finished putting his case: "that this is a case of diminished responsibility", Mr Justice Boreham rendered his decision: "The matter that troubles me is not the medical opinions because there is a consensus. It seems to me that all of these opinions − and I say this without criticism − all these opinions are based simply on what this defendant has told the doctors, nothing more. Moreover what he has told the doctors conflicts substantially with what he told the police on the morning of arrest. I use the word 'conflict' advisedly. In statements to the police he expressed a desire to kill all women. If that is right − and here I really need your help − is that not a matter which ought to be tested? Where lies the evidence which gives these doctors the factual basis for these pleas? It is a matter for the defendant to establish. It is a matter for a jury. We have in a sense conducted a trial which has satisfied us. It seems to me it would be more appropriate if this case were dealt with by a jury."
After the 90−minute luncheon adjournment, there was further legal discussion which lasted for about 40 minutes. Sir Michael Havers informed the judge that he could proceed with the case before a jury on Friday, May 1st. James Chadwin, for the defence, sought an adjournment until Tuesday, May 5th, because he needed time to prepare his case. After some discussion, Mr Justice Boreham agreed to the defence request, and the hearing was adjourned until May 5th.
(NOTE: Trial source material: Burn, Cross, Jones, Yallop, Daily Telegraph, London (Canada) Free Press, The Times, The Guardian.)
THE TRIAL
WEEK ONE
TUESDAY, MAY 5 1981: TRIAL BEGINNINGS, THE VICTIMS
Case: Regina v Peter William Sutcliffe Place: Number One Court, Central Criminal Court, "Old Bailey", London Judge: Mr Justice Boreham Prosecution: Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General Prosecution: Harry Ognall, QC Defence: James Chadwin, QC Defence: Sidney Levine
Opening for the prosecution, Sir Michael Havers, QC, the Attorney General, told the jury that by evidence alone, it demonstrated that Peter Sutcliffe carried out a series of calculated, premeditated, and sadistic murders. However, there was also medical evidence that showed that Mr Sutcliffe suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, as all the doctors who had examined him since his arrest were agreed on the diagnosis. Sir Michael: "This is an abnormality of the mind which, in the view of the doctors, substantially impairs his mental responsibility for his acts, namely murder."
The doctors opinions were not binding on the jury. They were based entirely on the version of events as told to them by Mr Sutcliffe. Sir Michael: "The reason for this trial is simple. There is a marked significant difference between the version which Sutcliffe gave to the police and the version he gave to the doctors. You will have to consider whether the doctors might, in fact, have been deceived by this man; whether he sought to pull the wool over their eyes, or whether the doctors are just plain wrong. You will have to decide whether as a clever, callous murderer he has deliberately set out to provide a cock and bull story to avoid conviction of murder."
Mr Sutcliffe told a psychiatrist about his alleged reasons for the killings. Sir Michael: "He said, in short, that he had messages from God to kill prostitutes and that what he was doing was a divine mission."
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Hugo Milne had a series of 11 interviews with Peter Sutcliffe. It was on March 5th, during the eighth interview and two months after his arrest, that Mr Sutcliffe first made reference to his "mission". Mr Sutcliffe had been describing how he had murdered his third victim, Irene Richardson, and concluded with: "It was important to my cause that I had to carry on with the mission."
When encouraged to talk more by Dr Milne, Mr Sutcliffe said: "I know if I was allowed out I would know it was all right. I'm here now but it might only be temporary. If I was out the feeling would come back. It would be wrong to say I wouldn't to it again. It would be different to say that I couldn't. I know it's wrong to kill but if you have got a reason it's justified and it's all right. I have no doubts whatsoever. I wasn't as rational then as now. If there were women around now it wouldn't take long to get these thoughts again. The prostitutes are still there, even more on the streets now,
Sir Michael said that the Crown intended to demonstrate that Mr Sutcliffe had 'duped' the doctors and was a 'sadistic killer'. The defence had the burden of proving that Mr Sutcliffe suffered from diminished responsibility. If the defence could not satisfy the jury that Mr Sutcliffe genuinely believed that he had heard the voice of God when he was working at Bingley cemetery, then they must find him guilty of murder on all thirteen counts.
After he had listed all the charges against Mr Sutcliffe, Sir Michael said: "All this finally ended on the night of January 2 this year." On that night South Yorkshire police officers, PC Robert Hydes and Sgt Robert Ring, were on routine motor patrol and were checking office premises in a large deserted area. "This area was regularly used by prostitutes. The police vehicle drove up. They saw a Rover parked without its lights on."
Noticing a man and a woman in the vehicle they went over to check it. The woman was: "a well−known prostitute and the man Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe first said she was a girlfriend, but could not give her name, so that did not go on for very long."
When the officers radioed to check the plates on the Rover, they found they were false and belonged to another vehicle. It was after this discovery that both the man and woman were then taken to the police station in Sheffield.
Sir Michael: "Because of this the largest and most expensive and most protracted manhunt ever mounted by a police force in this country was brought to an end." The investigation had cost more than £4 million and had involved more that one million hours of police work.
Sir Michael then told of the activities of: "the man now seated in the dock, who became known, because of the killings, as the Yorkshire Ripper." Peter Sutcliffe had, over a period of five years, made 20 homicidal attacks on women. Thirteen had died and seven lived. They were between the ages of 16 and 47. Some of the women were prostitutes, some were women of easy virtue, but the attacks from 1979 to 1980 involved six women whose reputations were totally unblemished.
With the exception of two attacks in Manchester, all the attacks had taken place in five West Yorkshire towns or cities: Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, and Keighley. No woman was free from these homicidal attacks. Sir Michael: "His modus operandi was marked by deliberation and brutality."
Mr Sutcliffe modus operandi in the cases involving prostitutes was to get them in his car and drive to a secluded place, sometimes of his choosing, sometimes of theirs. Sir Michael: "On a pretext of having sexual intercourse with them he invited them into the back seat and as they stooped to get in he would attack them from behind with a hammer."
In other cases, Mr Sutcliffe would park his car and lie in wait for a victim, or he would follow his victim on foot. The method of attack soon assumed a "clear badge of identity" to the police trying to catch the killer. The victim suffered multiple depressed fractures of the skull, in most cases they were rendered senseless, if not dead. The victims were also repeatedly stabbed about the trunk. Mr Sutcliffe also displaced or removed their clothing before he stabbed them with a knife or screwdriver, saying that when they were found they would: "look as cheap as they are."
Mr Sutcliffe had often been disturbed during his attacks, but always escaped. Sir Michael: "One
might almost say, in happier circumstances, that he led a charmed life."
During the November 1980 attack on Theresa Sykes, age 16, in Huddersfield, he was actually seen attacking her and was chased by a young man. Mr Sutcliffe escaped by hiding in a front garden of a house.
Peter Sutcliffe said that one of his victims, Maureen Long, attacked in Bradford in 1977, passed by him in Bradford city centre approximately two weeks before he was arrested. He recognised her immediately, but she did not recognise him.
In his confession, while most of his victims were prostitutes, Mr Sutcliffe acknowledged that there did come a stage when it no longer mattered to him. He had attacked women of excellent reputation, four of whom died. Sir Michael: "He has given no explanation of importance as to the motive for these killings."
Sir Michael said that Mr Sutcliffe had told of the time, during his late teens, in 1965, when he had been in a motorcycle accident, and had suffered a severe blow to the head on a lamp post, implying that this might in some way account for his later actions. Mr Sutcliffe told the doctors he was: "knocked unconscious for hours." To others, he had said he had been knocked unconscious for half an hour. Sir Michael suggested that: "you may think he was embroidering this story."
Sexual intercourse did not appear to have played any part in Mr Sutcliffe's conduct in regards to his victims. He had asserted that, other that the one exception involving victim Helen Rytka, he had not sought or had sexual relations with any of his victims.
The use of false number plates had led to Mr Sutcliffe's arrest. He had been due to appear in Bradford court charged with a breathalyser offence. In such cases it was usually inevitable that disqualification would take place. He said he had stolen the number plates from a scrapyard in Mirfield, West Yorkshire because his car insurance had expired and in order to tide him over until he lost his license.
Sir Michael: "Of course there may be another motive for this, there was careful checking going on in all the prostitute areas by the police and Sutcliffe had been interviewed a number of occasions. Whatever the cause for the deception it in fact led to his arrest and helped, perhaps, to save the life of Olivia Reivers (the prostitute he was with at the time), and perhaps many more."
Sir Michael said that the police investigation of the murders was bedevilled by letters that were received by the man in charge of the investigation, Mr George Oldfield, Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police. The letters had been posted in Sunderland. They were written in taunting tones, and it appeared that the author had detailed knowledge of attacks. In June 1979, the police received a tape cassette, also posted from Sunderland, that contained a sarcastic mocking message, and had been made by someone with a northeast accent originating from an area of Sunderland.
Sir Michael: "Most regrettably it became widely accepted by a number of senior officers that this man was in fact the Ripper and that he spoke with a Wearside accent. One of the things which affected the investigating officers, seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of people, was that if people interviewed did not speak with a Sunderland accent or if their writing did not compare with that on the letters they tended to be eliminated. The harsh truth is that the author of the letters and tape has
hammer and admitted that he tried to kill her but was prevented from doing so because he was disturbed by something." Anna Rogulskyj suffered two depressed fractures of the skull and had abrasions on her stomach. She has since made a good recovery from her injuries, suffering no brain damage.
When asked about the killings during an interview on January 5th of this year, Mr Sutcliffe said: "All this really started when I was done out of £10 by a prostitute in Bradford. She went off to get it changed and never came back. This poisoned my mind about prostitutes."
When asked about the Anna Rogulskyj attack, Mr Sutcliffe stated: "Yes, that was me. She had a funny name and I asked her if she fancied it. She said 'Not on your life,' and went on trying to get into the house. When she came back, I tapped her again and she elbowed me. I followed her and hit her with the hammer and she fell down. I intended to kill her but I was disturbed. I can't remember anything else."
During the January 22nd interview, Mr Sutcliffe was asked if the Anna Rogulskyj attack was his first. He replied: "Yes, I'm sure of that. I hit her on the head and I think I intended to kill her. I had this inner complex which I think started back in 1965 when I had a motorbike accident. I ran into a telegraph pole and went into it with my head. Since then I have had severe bouts of morbid depression and hallucinations. My mind goes into a haze and I don't know what was right or wrong, or if I was acting rationally or not."
Sir Michael: "You will notice that he makes no mention of any voice from God, simply hallucinations and depressions."
Mr Sutcliffe later told police that he got two bouts of depression a month: "I used to think I was hearing things. These are the sort of things that have been going on, but other times there would be no pattern to them." He also said he thought his attacks on women were probably linked to these bouts.
Mr Sutcliffe went with his first prostitute in order to "level the score" with Sonia before they were married: "I was working at the water board and I heard that Sonia was seeing an Italian ice−cream man who would pick her up from college and take her out at nights. It depressed and upset me and I didn't want to lose her. By going with a prostitute I thought it would level the score. I thought I would have intercourse with the prostitute, but changed my mind when it got to the stage where we had got to do it."
Sutcliffe had later seen the prostitute, who had cheated him out of £10, and: "She refused to give me it back and I felt humiliated, outraged and embarassed. I was full of hatred."
Describing the attempted murder in August 1975 of Olive Smelt, a 46−year−old office cleaner living in Boothtown, Halifax, Sir Michael said: "She often went out on Friday night drinking with another woman friend. Sutcliffe probably went to the same public houses that Mrs Smelt visited."
Olive Smelt had been out drinking with friends on August 15th and had been in five different public houses in the town centre of Halifax. She left the Royal Oak in a car with two men who dropped her off 400 yards from her home. She walked down Woodville Road and then turned down a narrow lane. She then realised there was someone walking on her right−hand side. Having exchanged a few
words with her, he walked off. Sir Michael: "She walked on down the alleyway and the next thing she remembers is waking up in the hospital."
Mrs Smelt's life was saved when a man drove up to the spot with his headlines on, disturbing Mr Sucliffe during his attack on her. While the driver did not see the assailant, he did she Mrs Smelt lying on her front on the pavement with her clothes pulled apart to expose her backside. She was then taken to the hospital. She had suffered two fractures of the skull and had two curious abrasions on the small of her back, one being 12 inches long, and the other four inches long.
Sir Michael then spoke about Trevor Birdsall, aged 32, who had known Peter Sutcliffe since 1966. Sir Michael: "At the back end of last year, in late November, he went to the police and gave them certain information which he had been in possession of for a long time and had done nothing about."
Mr Birdsall told police that in 1971 he was driving his car along Manningham Lane, Bradford, when Mr Sutcliffe told him to stop. Sir Michael: "He got out and walked up St. Paul's Road, a prostitutes area. Five or ten minutes later he came running back, said 'Drive off quickly.'"
Mr Birdsall saw that Mr Sutcliffe had a sock with a stone in it. Mr Sutcliffe said he had "hit a woman" and then proceeded to throw the stone out the window.
Sir Michael: "That was about in 1971. The first count on this indictment is 1975."
(NOTE: The attack took place in 1969, not in 1971 as stated above. This was corrected later on during the trial. All further references have been corrected to 1969).
Sir Michael: "Mrs Smelt was attacked in August 1975. On that very night when the attack on her took place, Sutcliffe went with Mr Birdsall to Halifax and in one of the pubs they visited, the Royal Oak, he pointed out some women and said: 'I bet they are on the game.'"
Mr Birdsall and Mr Sutcliffe were driving out of Halifax towards Bradford later that evening. As they passed through Boothtown, Mr Sutcliffe stopped the car, picked something up from the car, got out and walked off down a street, which was parallel to one where a moment before they had seen a woman.
Sir Michael: "That woman was Olive Smelt. About twenty minutes later, Sutcliffe came back and Mr Birdsall says he was rather quiet and tried to chat a bird up but didn't get anywhere. The next day, Mr Birdsall saw in the paper of the murderous attack on Olive Smelt and where it happened. He didn't do anything." It must have been in Mr Sutcliffe's mind that his friend might have been suspicious about him.
Mr Birdsall again wondered about Mr Sutcliffe when he found out he had been interviewed by the police in 1977 in regards to a £5 note found on one of the murder victims. The police had traced the note to a wages batch which could have been given to Mr Sutcliffe by his employer. Sir Michael: "Mr Birdsall thought again and wondered − but did not do anything. It was not until November (of
- that he sent an anonymous letter to the police and then went himself to see them."
When interviewed by the police after his arrest, Mr Sutcliffe confirmed that the information from Mr Birdsall that he had attacked a prostitute in 1969 while out with Mr Birdsall was correct.
said, 'It costs a fiver.' I was a bit surprised. I was expecting to be a bit romantic. I couldn't have intercourse at a moment's notice, I had to be aroused. She said, 'I am going. It's going to take you all fucking day. You are fucking useless.' I felt myself seething with rage. I wanted to hit her. I told her to hang on a minute and not to go off like that. She said, 'Oh you can manage it now, can you!' It sounded as though she was taunting me. I said, 'Can we do it on the grass!' This was my idea to start hitting her."
(Mr Sutcliffe:) "She stormed off up the field. I had a hammer in the tool box and I followed her up the field. I had the hammer in my right hand and put my coat on the grass. She sat down on the coat and unfastened her trousers and said, 'Come on, get it over with.' I said, 'Don't worry, I will.' I then hit her with the hammer on the top of the head. She made a lot of noise and kept on making noise so I hit her again. I hit her once or twice and she started making a moaning noise. I felt, 'God what have I done!' I knew I had gone too far."
(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I sat in the car and could see her arm moving. I was in a numb panic. I half expected her to get up and realised I would be in serious trouble. I felt the best way to get out of the mess was to make sure she couldn't tell anyone. I thought to make sure she was dead I would stab her in places like her lungs and throat. I was in a blind panic when I was stabbing her, just to make sure she would not tell anybody. I was very frightened and I can't remember driving back. I thought I was bound to get caught. I looked over my clothing before I went into the house, then I went straight upstairs to the bathroom, washed my hands and went to bed. I carried on as normal, living with my wife. After that first time I developed and played up a hatred for prostitutes in order to justify within myself a reason why I had attacked and killed Wilma McCann."
When asked by the police why he disarranged her clothes, Mr Sutcliffe replied: "When they find them (the prostitutes) they will look as cheap as they are."
Peter Sutcliffe's next victim was Emily Jackson, a 42−year−old prostitute. She was a married woman whose husband would drive in to Leeds with her, and leave her to carry out her business. Her body was found by a motorist who spotted a pair of legs among some rubble. He first thought it was a tailor's dummy.
There were boot impression found near the body, and these matched a pair of wellingtons found in Mr Sutcliffe's Bradford home.
Mrs Jackson's clothes had been pulled up above her waist. The body had 52 stab wounds in five groups. She had been stabbed in the chest, abdomen, and back. The pathologist who examined the body, Professor David Gee, stated that it was: "impossible to see the individual track of each wound. They had been inflicted with a Phillips−type screwdriver."
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I felt an inner compulsion to kill a prostitute. I saw this woman and she said it would cost me £5. I remember there was an overpowering smell of cheap perfume and this served all the more for me to hate the woman, even though I did not know her. I could see how the first murder had unhinged me completely. I knew from the outset that I didn't want intercourse with her, I just wanted to get rid of her. I couldn't bear even to go through the motions of having sex with her. I wanted to do what I had got in mind as soon as possible."
(Mr Sutcliffe:) "I pretended the car wouldn't start and told her I would have to look under the bonnet
and asked her to help me. She held her light over the bonnet, I took a couple of steps back and hit her over the head with my hammer, I think a couple of times, and she fell down in the road. I made sure she was dead by taking my screwdriver and stabbing her repeatedly. I pulled her bra up and pulled down her pants. It gave me some sort of sexual revenge on her as, on reflection, it had done with Wilma McCann. I stabbed her frenziedly, without thought, all over the body. I was seething with hate for her. I pushed a piece of wood against her vagina to show how disgusting she was."
While leaving the scene, a car stopped nearby, startling Mr Sutcliffe: "It scared me so I put my hammer and screwdriver on the car floor and went straight home to my mother−in−law's house and had a feeling of satisfaction and justification. I didn't have any blood on my clothes so I didn't have to dispose of them."
Sir Michael had commented part−way through reading Mr Sutcliffe's statement: "Can you imagine an account which sets out more carefully the deliberate way in which he manoeuvred her into a position where he could hit her? Everything was so well planned."
Sir Michael said that Mr Sutcliffe's next attack was on Marcella Claxton, an educationally subnormal West Indian prostitute with an IQ of 50, who was aged 20 at the time of the attack. On Saturday, May 8 1976, she had been drinking in the Chapeltown area of Leeds. She survived despite being hit on the head eight times with a hammer. Evidence showed that Mr Sutcliffe had not left the scene straight away, but had returned to where he had left her. Sir Michael: "Mercifully, she had managed to move away and get help."
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "She went behind some trees to urinate and suggested that we 'start the ball rolling on the grass.' I hit her once on the head with the hammer, but just couldn't bring myself to hit her again. For some reason or another, I just let her walk away and I went back to the car."
It was nine months later that Irene Richardson, 28, was killed. Sir Michael said that she was an active prostitute. She was last seen alive at 11:30 pm on Saturday, February 5th, by her landlady.
That night, the evidence showed, Mr Sutcliffe had been trying to pick up a number of women in the area from about 11:35 pm. Having picked up Mrs Richardson in Chapeltown, he took her to almost the same place he had attacked Marcella Claxton, Roundhay Park in Leeds. Irene Richardson died within a hundred yards of where Marcella Claxton had been attacked.
Irene Richardson's body was discovered the next morning by Mr John Bolton who was out jogging in Roundhay Park at around 7:45 am and spotted a body lying on the ground.
The head injuries, three lacerations on the back of the head, had been caused by a flat surface, such as a hammer head. One of the blows to the back of Irene Richardson's head had driven the skull three quarters of an inch into the brain. Other injuries had been caused by a knife. One injury was a 6 3/4 inch long incision in the trunk. Mr Sutcliffe said that the weapon used was a Stanley knife, a knife with a blade that could be changed.
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I drove to Leeds to find a prostitute to make it one less. I saw this girl and she got in without a word. I told her that I may not have wanted her but she told me she would give me a good time. I drove her to a park and she wanted to go to the toilet. They were locked so she decided to urinate on the grass. I used the hammer and a Stanley knife on her. As she was crouching
MacDonald was a large gaping wound. In it was an embedded broken bottle with the screw lid still attached. It was not known whether it had been a deliberate act by the killer, or whether the broken bottle had become embedded in the body while it was being dragged along. Mr Sutcliffe had denied responsibility for the broken bottle.
The pathologist had the view that Miss MacDonald had been stabbed as many as 20 times. As well, the killer had wiped his knife clean on the back of her body.
Mr Sutcliffe said: "This next one I still feel terrible about. I read recently about her father dying of a broken heart and it brought it all back to me. I realised what a monster I was. I thought she was a prostitute. I felt like something inhuman and I realised it was the Devil turning me."
Mr Sutcliffe continued: "I were quite certain she were a prostitute, absolutely positive. She were walking along in the red−light area, for one thing, and then I saw her stop and chat to a couple of girls on a street corner. I felt sure she were one of them. I walked behind her, following her a short distance. She never looked round. I hit her on the back of the head and she fell down. I pulled her, face down, into the corner of a yard. Her shoes made a horrible scraping noise."
Maureen Long, 42, separated and living with another man in Bradford, was attacked two weeks later. While she had convictions, none were in relation to prostitution. Apparently she still had maintained some relation with her husband, as she met him in Bradford on Saturday, July 9 1977, and had a few drinks with him.
A factory guard in Bowling Hall Lane, Bradford, saw a car being driven at speed out of Mount Street at approximately 3:15 am. The vehicle was a white Ford Corsair and as a result the police checked out over 5,000 cars of similar description that were registered in West Yorkshire. Maureen Long was found when some people heard shouts for help.
Sir Michael: "She had three fractured ribs and stab wounds all over her body." Taken to the hospital, she was: "successfully treated and discharged." However, she has still not recovered and continues to receive out−patient treatment and has fits.
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "She asked me if I fancied her. I told her I did. I had my hammer ready as she got out of the car. I also had a knife. I struck her on the head with the hammer while she was crouching, urinating. I saw a light on in a caravan, but it didn't stop me. The next day I heard my victim was still alive. I got a nasty shock. I thought it was the end of the line there and then. I thought she would be able to identify me."
Sir Michael: "There he is, from the moment of picking her up until all that happened, holding himself back, restraining himself, waiting for the right moment when she put herself in a position where he could use the hammer from behind."
The next murder victim was Manchester prostitute Jean Jordan, which, Sir Michael said, was: "a particularly disturbing story because she was not reported missing, so no search was mounted for her." After Peter Sutcliffe had killed her, he returned to the scene of the murder nine days later and attacked the body again. There were eleven wounds in the top of her head and six fractures to the skull. There were 18 further wounds to the stomach and chest, and 10 wounds between the hip and lower rib cage. There had also been an attempt to severe her head from her body.
Her decomposing body was found the tenth day after her murder by an allotment−holder who had gone to his patch. An allotment holder later found her green handbag which contained a new £5 note.
The £5 note was the 'key'. Sir Michael: "This was the reason Sutcliffe went back to the body several days after he killed her. That £5 note was traced to the Midland Bank at Shipley, West Yorkshire. The police are to be congratulated on their most careful endeavours made to try to trace where this £5 note had gone. In fact Sutcliffe was one of those interviewed, and although he agreed he had been paid, he said this note was not one he had been given. Some 6,000 people were interviewed, and any one of them could have had it, but all 6,000 denied it. That inquiry took something over 27,000 hours of police time. A most important lead if you could have proved to whom it went."
Mr Sutcliffe told police that Jean Jordan had changed her mind about getting into another car, and instead opted for his car: "I supposed this was the biggest mistake she ever made. She told me she was going to go with the other man until she saw me."
After they drove to some allotments, he attacked her: "until the moaning stopped." Since there were a number of cars about, he drove off.
During the October 9th return visit, Mr Sutcliffe tried to cut Jean Jordan's head off and leave it somewhere else: "To make a big mystery of it. I were very frustrated not finding my £5 note and thinking my time was up. I remember I kicked her a few times. I was frustrated, and I thought I had been there long enough so I got back home and went to bed. I was surprised I did not have much blood on my clothes. I put my trousers into the garage to dispose of later. I later burned my trousers along with some garden rubbish."
Mr Sutcliffe also told police: "I read about the note being traced to a Shipley bank, but by some miracle I escaped detection."
Before he was arrested in January, Peter Sutcliffe had been interviewed nine times by the police. Sir Michael: "But every time he was interviewed about his car being spotted in the red light areas he gave explanations. He said that he had been in the Leeds and Bradford areas because he lived and worked in the area and had to pass through."
Marilyn Moore, 25, and a prostitute for six years, was Mr Sutcliffe's next victim. It was on December 14 1977 that she agreed to go with a man in his car. He said to her: "Let's do it in the back." While she was walking round she felt three blows from behind and fell screaming to the ground. Mr Sutcliffe said that he had slipped in the mud as he hit her with the hammer. With her screams, he was worried about some people nearby, so he drove off: "with a lot of wheel spin."
Her screams had been heard by someone nearby and she was then taken to the hospital. She was suffering from seven to eight laceration wounds between one and four inches long on the side of the head and a 4 inch depressed fracture of the skull. After being operated on to release pressure on the brain, she told police her attacker had a trim neat beard with a "Jason King" type moustache. Sir Michael: "Unfortunately, despite tremendous inquiries Sutcliffe was not discovered."
Mr Sutcliffe's next victim, Yvonne Pearson, 22, was last seen alive on January 21 1978, and her body was found on March 26 1978 on waste land, covered by an old settee, and with a comb between her thighs. She had been hit on the head with a walling hammer which Mr Sutcliffe would
feet and towards his car: "This was when I hit her heavy blows to the back of the head. I dragged her to the front of the car and threw her belongings over the wall. She was obviously still alive. I took a knife from the car and stabbed her several times through the heart and lungs. I think it was a kitchen knife which I believe the police later retrieved from my home."
The next murder was of Vera Millward in Manchester. At about 10:00 pm on May 16 1978, she had gone out for cigarettes and had not returned home. She was reported as missing. The next day, some workmen saw her body after they had driven into a compound at the back of Manchester Royal Infirmary. Mrs Millward was found with her coat covering her from her knees to her neck. Blood and brain tissue placement indicated a struggle between the attacker and the victim during the attack. She had been stuck with a hammer three times and then stabbed. Her stomach had been sliced open.
Sir Michael said the last six of the Ripper's victims are significant for several reasons. First, none of them were prostitutes, all were absolutely respectable. Sir Michael: "Second, the modus operandi, the method of operating, is not going to work with respectable women. You can't pick them up and it is rather difficult to drive them to a quiet spot and it is unlikely if you succeeded in that that you could get them into the back of the car. These six have an entirely different pattern. They were all respectable. None were in red light areas."
Josephine Whitaker was a 19−year−old building society clerk living in Halifax, and who was perfectly respectable: "and Sutcliffe knew her to be respectable." On the night of her murder she had gone to visit her grandparents who lived about a mile away from her home in Ivy Street.
Sir Michael: "She left her grandparents at about 11:40 P.M. and a man walking his dog about fifteen minutes later saw a man and a young woman walking side by side towards Saville Park. This was Josephine Whitaker and Sutcliffe. Shortly afterwards another man was walking by the park and he heard an unusual noise, 'the type of noise that makes your hair stand on end.'"
A frenzied stabbing attack was carried out on Josephine Whitaker. Mr Sutcliffe used a specially−adapted Phillips screwdriver, which he later told police he had discarded down a motorway embankment near the M1. Detectives later retrieved the rusty long screwdriver, which had been sharpened before the attack. Sir Michael: "It was done in a way to make it what you may think is one of the most fiendish weapons you have ever seen."
The screwdriver, which was passed around to members of the jury, had also been used in the Barbara Leach murder. Mr Sutcliffe told police: "I used it on Josephine Whitaker and Barbara Leach. It was a giant Phillips screwdriver which was badly worn and had been converted into a bradawl."
Sir Michael: "Josephine's skull was fractured from ear to ear. She had been stabbed twenty−one times in the trunk, six times in the right leg. Her vagina had been stabbed three times in the awful way of using the same entry each time."
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "The mood was in me. No woman was safe while I was in this state of mind. I arrived at Savile Park without having any particular notion. I saw the girl wearing a three−quarter length skirt and jacket. I caught up with her after a couple of minutes. I realised then that she was not a prostitute but I did not bother − I just wanted to kill a woman. I asked her if she
had far to go and she said she was walking home from her grandmother's. We were approaching an open grass area and she said she normally took a short cut across the fields. 'You don't know who you can trust these days,' I said to her. And there was I, walking along with my hammer and screwdriver in my pocket, ready to do the inevitable."
(Mr Sutcliffe:) We started to walk across the fields and about 30 to 40 yards from the main road I asked the time and she told me (by looking at a church clock). I said to her, 'You must have good eyesight,' and I lagged behind, pretending to look at a church clock nearby. I took my hammer out of my pocket and hit her on the back of the head twice. She gave a loud moaning sound and to my horror I saw a figure walking along the road. I dragged her further into the field and at a safe distance I stopped. I heard voices from somewhere behind me and saw at least two figures walking along a path towards the field. She was still moaning loudly. First I pulled some of her clothing off and then I turned her over and stabbed her numerous times in the chest and stomach with the screwdriver. I was in a frenzy."
Sir Michael said that Barbara Leach, a student who was an undergraduate studying at Bradford University, was Sutcliffe's next victim. She was a totally respectable girl. She had been out drinking with friends at a party at a Bradford pub on September 1 1979. When she left the pub at approximately 2:00 am, she decided to go for a walk. The man who she was with did not want to go walking in the rain, be said that he would wait for her at their student accommodation at Bradford University.
Sir Michael: "The next day, when she did not return, it was beginning to assume a sinister pattern and the police came out in force with tracker dogs." Her body was found in a recess used for enclosing dustbins and had been covered by carpets which were held down with bricks.
Sir Michael: "Barbara had a large laceration on the back of her head and seven stab wounds in her trunk, three of them round her umbilicus. The knife was reintroduced again and again into the chest wound. She had numerous bruises and abrasions and had been struck on the head with a hammer and stabbed with a three−sided instrument."
Mr Sutcliffe then hid her body, the action of a man: "determined to delay the discovery of his victim." Her body was found squashed into a rubbish carrier in a walled dustbin recess and had been concealed by the carpets.
Mr Sutcliffe told police: "It (the Whitaker murder) was forty−six weeks after the last one (the Millward murder). I was never urged to do it again until then. I killed Barbara Leach. I took her to the back of the house before I stabbed her."
Sir Michael said that: "another significant departure from the pattern," was the murder of Miss Marguerite Walls, a totally respectable spinster of 47, who was employed as an executive officer at the Department of Education and Science at Pudsey.
Sir Michael: "You find her a complete departure from the way he had done the last few. There was no hammer or anything of that sort. What we do find is that" − and he held up a length of cord, which had been found in Sutcliffe's pocket when he was arrested.
Miss Walls worked late on August 20 1980. Sir Michael: "It looks on the evidence as if she
