Peter Sutcliffe

In reality, Peter Sutcliffe, the mysterious and elusive Yorkshire Ripper, did not claim another life until January 1976. Emily Monica Jackson, 42, lived with her husband and three children in Back Green, Churwell on the outskirts of Morley, west of Leeds. The Jacksons had been having financial problems for some time when Emily decided to begin taking money for sexual favours. Together, Emily and husband Sydney would drive their blue Commer van into Leeds where Sydney would wait for his wife in one of the bars while Emily would use the van to earn the extra money they needed. On the night of Tuesday 20 January 1976, they parked their van in the carpark of the Gaiety and went inside. They had a drink together then Emily left to see whom she could find outside. Sydney was to wait there until she returned at closing time. When she wasn’t there to meet him, he took a taxi home, expecting her to follow in the van shortly after. But she never returned home.

Emily’s mutilated body was found just after 8:00 am the following morning only 800 yards from the Gaiety where her husband had waited for her. Peter Sutcliffe had left Emily lying on her back with her legs apart. She was still wearing her tights and pants, but her bra was pulled up, exposing her breasts. Like Wilma before her, Peter had struck Emily on the head twice with his hammer and then stabbed her lower neck, upper chest and lower abdomen 51 times with a sharpened "Phillips" head screwdriver. Peter’s need to vent his anger upon the already-dead Emily caused him to make a slip; he stomped on Emily’s right thigh, leaving the impression of the heavy-ribbed Wellington boot. The boot was further identified as a Dunlop Warwick, probably size 7, definitely no larger than an 8. Another print was found in the sand nearby.

Emily Jackson

Hoban knew immediately that the man who had killed Emily Jackson was the same man that had killed Wilma McCann. Sydney Jackson, devastated by the vicious and senseless murder of his wife, believed that the man would kill again and prayed that he would soon be caught. He wept for his wife and sent their children to stay with relatives until he could tell them the terrible news of their mother’s death.

On 5 March 1976, Peter Sutcliffe was fired from his job with the tyre company. Although he had been a good hard worker, Peter was constantly late for work. His late night forays into the red-light districts of Yorkshire made it difficult for him to arise early enough for work. It would take him many months of rejection and frustration before he could find work as a lorry driver because of his lack of experience.

In the same month, George Oldfield, Assistant Chief Constable at West Yorkshire Police Headquarters in Wakefield, received the first in a series of letters by a person claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper. Oldfield quickly dismissed the letter, which claimed responsibility for the murder of Joan Harrison but showed no relation to the Ripper case, as just another one of the many crank letters he, and many newspapers, had already received.

As Marcella Claxton, a 20-year-old prostitute, walked home from a drinking party held by friends in Chapeltown around 4:00 am on the morning of 9 May 1976, a large white car pulled up along side her. She wasn’t working that night but she asked the driver for a lift. Instead of driving her home, he drove her to Soldier’s Field just off Roundhay Road. Peter offered Marcella 5 pounds to get out of the car and undress for sex on the grass, but she refused the offer. As they both got out of the car, Marcella heard a thud as something Peter had dropped hit the ground; he told her it was his wallet. Marcella then went behind a tree to urinate. Peter walked towards her and the next thing she felt was the blow of Peter’s hammer as he brought it down upon the back of her head, then she felt the second blow. She lay back on the grass, looking at the blood on her hand from where she had touched her head. Peter stood nearby.

Marcella Claxton

She remembered vividly that his hair and beard were black and crinkly and that he was masturbating as he watched her bleeding on the ground. He went back to the white car with the red upholstery to get some tissues to clean himself up. When he finished, he threw the tissues on the ground and placed a 5-pound note in Marcella’s hand, warning her not to call the police as he got back into his car.

Marcella, her clothes now covered in blood, managed to half walk, half crawl to a nearby telephone box where she called for an ambulance. As she sat on the floor and waited for help, she would see Peter drive past many times looking for her, probably to finish the job and rid himself of a vital witness.

The gaping wound in the back of her head required 52 stitches and a seven-day stay in hospital. For months after the attack she would hate men, barely able to even be in the same room with them. Even five years after the attack, she would still be plagued by depression and dizzy spells and be unable to hold down a job. The birth of her son Adrian coincided with Peter Sutcliffe’s arrest in 1981, but neither event could ease the ache she had felt since her attack. She too wished she had died.

The attacks of the Yorkshire Ripper were by now the main topic of conversation among prostitutes and the patrons of the many pubs in the Leeds area. With little information in the papers about the nature of the murders, the public soon added their own horrific details, which were incredibly similar to the notorious crimes of Jack the Ripper in the previous century. Prostitutes, in an attempt to protect themselves, were seen working in groups, making it very clear to their clients that the details of their car and registrations were being recorded. Increased police activity in the area put further pressure on the already strained relationship between the prostitutes and officers of the law, creating a formidable barrier to police investigations. The fact that the attacks on Anna Rogulskyj and Olive Smelt had not yet been linked with the other Yorkshire Ripper murders resulted in a complacency in the general population who seemed to view prostitutes as somehow deserving of the Yorkshire Ripper’s punishments.

During the summer of 1976, George Oldfield promoted Denis Hoban to the position of Deputy Head of the Force C.I.D. While honoured at the confidence shown in him by the appointment, he was disappointed that he would have to leave Leeds to work from the West Yorkshire Police Headquarters at Wakefield, nor was he happy to be desk-bound in his new position. Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson replaced Hoban.

In October 1976, Peter Sutcliffe came home to his wife with the good news that he had finally found work as a lorry driver. He was now working with T & WH Clark (Holdings Ltd) on the Canal Road Industrial Estate, between Shipley and Bradford.

Sutcliffe driving Clark lorry

It would be five months before Peter would kill again. Jim Hobson would head the investigation into this attack, as his predecessor, Hoban had done nine months earlier when Marcella Claxton had survived Peter’s last attack.

On Saturday 5 February, twenty-eight-year-old Irene Richardson left her rooming house in Cowper Street, Chapeltown at 11:30 pm to go to Tiffany’s Club. At the time of her attack, Irene would have thought that life couldn’t get any worse. Both of her daughters, aged four and five, were with foster parents. She had nowhere decent to live, and due to lack of money, had to walk the streets of Chapeltown to look for customers. When Peter Sutcliffe had finished with Irene, he had left her lying face down in Soldier’s Field, placing her coat over her inert and bloodied body. He had given her a massive fracture of the skull with the three blows he inflicted with his hammer. One of the blows had been so severe that a circular piece of her skull had actually penetrated her brain. He had stabbed her in the neck and throat, and three more times in the stomach, savage downward strokes so severe that they had caused her intestines to spill out.

Irene Richardson

When Hobson and the pathologist, Professor Gee, removed her coat, they found that while her bra was still in place, her skirt had been lifted up and her tights pulled off the right leg and down. One of the two pairs of pants she had been wearing had been removed and stuffed down her tights, while the other pair were still in place. Her calf-length brown boots had been removed and placed neatly over her thighs. A vaginal swab showed the presence of semen but it was considered to have been from sexual activity prior to the attack.