The Yorkshire Ripper Files



Pretty amazing stuff. Botched doesn't come close.

I suppose we love the idea of the non pc Gene Hunts of this world but that's the reality of the 1970s.
 
My Dad was interviewed at the time as he was a haulage driver and my mams twin lived in Batley so they were regularly driving down there.
Had dark hair and tache as well but no beard
 
On to Ep 2 now, Will watch the last one tomorrow,The Plod have a lot to answer for going by the 1st Ep, I'm sure it will get worse :oops:
 
Thoroughly enjoyed the first episode last night, looking forward to the next two.

I thought the son of his first victim has turned out a decent lad and well spoken considering what he had to go through after finding out about what happened to his mother aged 5 and what followed after - the nightmares he suffered.

For a post war social/cultural history buff like myself, the programme is a cracking snapshot of what Britain was like in the mid to late 70s, although the subject matter is horrendous for all those who suffered because of Sutcliffe.

My, how police forensics and detective procedures have improved these last 40 years.....the police at the time made some absolute howlers as regards gathering evidence/not acting on evidence given.
 
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hank williams said:
Didn't they catch him through a fiver or something like that ?
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No, the police traced a new five pound note, that was found in a victims bag, to the place where he worked when it had been issued as part of the firms payroll. Sutcliffe was interviewed along with all of the other drivers . Sutcliffe was interviewed 9 or so times during his time and his mates used to call him Jack. They even made a sign to go in his van window.

Scary thing Sutcliffe walked one of his mates daughter`s home one night to make sure she got back safely.

The police were overwhelmed with potential evidence and everything was cross referenced on millions of cards so it was easy not to make connections. However, to me, overlooking the eye witness descriptions of survivors who had been attacked in the same area that the Ripper operated and in the same manner that he attacked his other victims, who all gave remarkably similar descriptions, was their biggest blunder and heading down the Ripper Tape blind alley just compounded it.
 
I watched all of the episodes on iplayer and thought it was excellent and had a different slant to usual documentaries on Sutcliffe. Really interested in the comments made by Joan Smith, the journalist as I've read a few of her 'feminist' crime novels. I felt uncomfortable watching the reactions and press conference with the senior offices after they eventually caught Sutcliffe too.
 
Police made a right balls up by ignoring statements by victims who had escaped , just because they weren't prostitutes they were adamant it wouldn't have been the ripper, even when two of the sketches of the ripper were almost identical
 
Watched the first one and was disappointed. It was straining to put police and press attitudes to prostitutes and women in general at the centre of the story. They did have those attitudes, they were criticised for it at the time, but it wasn’t the big central undermining failure this makes out.

At one point the narrator asks why no one inquired into why the Rytka sisters became sex workers in the first place. Why would they though? People were getting killed. It wasn’t some kind of project to increase social awareness.
 
Fletch said:
Police made a right balls up by ignoring statements by victims who had escaped , just because they weren't prostitutes they were adamant it wouldn't have been the ripper, even when two of the sketches of the ripper were almost identical
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This was their biggest blunder. Ignoring eye witness testimony was unforgivable.
 

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