The Yorkshire Ripper

[LoopyLou 10]

I can remember living in Sheffield in the 80s when the ripper was caught......... I was only young at the time but I can remember the shock of him being found so close to home.....

 

Apparantly he is hoping to move to a normal prison rather than a hospital so that he can than apply for a release date.

 

I hope and pray that he will not suceed.

 

news story here

[tosh13 11]

He will never be released,he is in the same bracket as Ian Brady a danger to society,better for us all if they hang scum like him & the taxpayer will be better off.

[Ousetunes 10]

Scary times indeed. My mum used to pop round to a friend of hers a two minute walk round the corner and I was absolutely terrified wondering whereabouts the Yorkshire Ripper might be that night.

 

I remember him being found down a lane near King Edward VII School, Broomhill but even then I felt quite worried; maybe they'd got the wrong man?

 

Ah, the early eighties eh? The Toxteth and Brixton Riots, black and white newspapers and three TV channels. But in a strange way, the Specials' Ghost Town just summed all this up, a number one single in June 1981.

 

But as for letting Sutcliffe out. No doubt some civil liberty plonkers will be working on his release - and compensation - right now.....,

[Ned Ludd 10]

There's nothing wrong with civil liberties. I wonder who the plonker is here?

I believe in civil liberties, I also 5think Sutcliffe should be never released (and he won't be!) Do you think were are all friends of Fred West as well?

[Guest karenjane39]

There's nothing at all wrong with civil liberties, quite the opposite, but there are those who do not deserve them, murderers being some of them.

[john t 10]

Some-one who i used to work with in the employment services was the copper who caught him.

He came to work with us after he retired from the police force!!

 

John

[igm1 10]

Sutcliffe is blind in one eye after being stabbed with a pen by a fellow inmate in 1997.

 

Ahh what a shame eh?

 

My mum was just a bit older than me when the yorkshire ripper was caught

[Plain Talker 11]

the girl who used to live next door to me was a "working girl" (coff). she and the lass that they finally caught sutcliffe with, used to work as a pair, on the streets.

 

It's eerie to think that he was as close as he was to murdering someone here in Sheffield.

 

I was only eleven when his first known victim was killed, (in 1975) I was much of an age of one of this woman's sons..

 

The youngest girl who was murdered by him was only 16, she was only about a year older than I was. (edit to add/ correct:- she was killed in June 1977, making her 3 or so years older than me)

 

I remember the terror and fear that we women felt, going out at night, particularly. Every bloke was viewed with the greatest of suspicion. every bloke, or any bloke could have been the yorkshire ripper. Thank god he was caught.

 

I heard that the sheffield coppers who caught him never got the offered reward that the newpapaers etc out up, because he was arrested by thenm in the course of their duties.

 

That was a proper SWIZZ! It was so unfair!

 

They should have received DOUBLE the reward, AND medals, on medals, for what they did. It's unbelieveable that they nabbed this ***@*@*"(:, simply because they were astute enough to cotton on to the dodgy number plates on the car..

 

Amazing. Those coppers should have had a knighthood for what they did.

 

PT

[sheffexpat 10]

Strange how events can link up your life.

I went to Bradford College in 1980,as a [very!] mature student and the whole city was under siege,as it were. One of the Ripper's victims had been found a few yards away from our Halls. She had been a student at Bradford Uni.

Then,they caught him just after the New Year[1981] on Melbourne Avenue.M.Ave. begins at Southbourne Road and comes out at Glossop Road.They caught the Ripper at the Glossop end.

Way back in 1956-8,I used to do a paper round on my bike for a shop on Ecclesall Road.Part of the round was down Melbourne Avenue and then down Newbould Lane.

Not a lot of people even know M.Ave. exists as it's not a through-road for traffic.

Good job he got caught when he did or Sheffield could have been the next on his list.

[H.P 10]

I thought they caught him on malbourgh road at broomhill in a hotel carpark. although this may be wrong I read it in a book a few years ago

[Plain Talker 11]

Originally posted by honeyplanet

I thought they caught him on malbourgh road at broomhill in a hotel carpark. although this may be wrong I read it in a book a few years ago

 

Honeyplanet, no, it wasn't in a pub car park; he had gone down an alley behind Westbourne Rd (melbourne is the name I recall) and was caught there.

 

He had made out to the prostitute with whom he was caught, that they were going to this secluded area for "business".

 

It is almost certain, (as sheffexpat says) that this young woman was going to be his next "victim", because of the weight of the evidence that the police recovered.

 

On his arrest, Sutcliffe pretended that he needed to go for a wee, and craftily hid the hammer and screwdriver he was carrying, behind a drainpipe/ down a drain.

 

The police were astute enough to go back and check where he'd been, and found the "tools" hidden in the drain. This was more incriminating evidence against Sutcliffe.

 

A lot of women breathed a huge, collective sigh of relief when he was convicted.

 

PT

[nuf_said 10]

Originally posted by Plain Talker

I heard that the sheffield coppers who caught him never got the offered reward that the newpapaers etc out up, because he was arrested by thenm in the course of their duties.

 

That was a proper SWIZZ! It was so unfair!

 

They should have received DOUBLE the reward, AND medals, on medals, for what they did. It's unbelieveable that they nabbed this ***@*@*"(:, simply because they were astute enough to cotton on to the dodgy number plates on the car..

 

Amazing. Those coppers should have had a knighthood for what they did.

 

PT

 

Yes it was the false number plates that brought attention to the car. I'm not sure how long after this the police figured out who they were holding. After he was arrested and recognised as the Ripper he apparently almost escaped through a toilet window at the police station - caught by his legs as he slipped out. Does anyone know if that bit is true or is it a modern myth?

 

Btw - Melbourne Ave was a through road in those days - the bollards at the traffic lights are a recent addition.