Yorkshire ripper may not have been Peter Sutcliffe

[paul wright]

Apologies, I did try to find the thread this was on before and I know it's off topic but still
https://www1.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/leedsbradford/2006/06/343750. html

[Jane]

Thanks for this dh.

I do remember something about adverts placed in "Private Eye" advertising Noel O'Gara's book (at least I assume it was his book - it was a book saying that Peter Sutcliffe was not the real Yorkshire Ripper and had some Irish connection - I remember wondering what it was all about and considering sending off for the book.

Now we have the Internet and we might not "buy the book" but we can still look into things. Wish I could "remember" more about my previous thoughts on all this - it is like realising that there was "another life" running alongside your day to day one - didn't T.S Elliot (whom I couldn't understand a word of whilst having to study him at University - around the time when the Ripper was up to his tricks and consequently "couldn’t stand" but notice that I have quoted him twice today and methinks it was more that I was a mindless moron at the time of "studying" his work!). Didn't he write something about "down the corridor that we didn't take" or "around the corner that we didn't go"?

Well, I feel now there must have been a lot of such "corridors" and "corners" that I "didn’t go down or around" in the past and this was one of them. The Soham murders was a much more blatant one for me - I really "knew" something was "wrong" that time but was seduced by the media into going along with all the nonsense they tell us.

I will look into this, thanks again dh!

[Reflecter]

Perhaps off topic but thx anyway as that is very interesting and I shall have to expend time looking at all the links for that. Ty.

Cant say Im suprised by the news however as everything needs re-opening and looking at with fresh eyes these days it would seem.

[Whitehall_Bin_Men]

Detective who warned Peter Sutcliffe was Yorkshire Ripper reveals "thunderbolt" moment when murderer was finally arrested
00:01, 21 AUG 2016 UPDATED 15:58, 21 AUG 2016 BY STEVE MYALL
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/detective-who-warned-peter-sutcli ffe-8665987

Detective Andy Laptew was a junior officer on the inquiry who interviewed Sutcliffe and felt 'alarm bells ringing', but his concerns were ignored and three more women were murdered

Andy Laptew interviewed the Yorkshire Ripper and flagged him up as a suspect
A detective who questioned Peter Sutcliffe during the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper but whose concerns about him were ignored has spoken of how the "bottom fell out of his world" when he was finally caught.

Andy Laptew was a junior detective who interviewed Peter Sutcliffe and flagged him up as a serious suspect, but his warnings fell on deaf ears.

He spotted a string of similarities between Sutcliffe and the suspect identified by a victim who survived an attack.

Yet when he spoke to a senior officer he was not listened to as the inquiry was focused the killer being from the North East due to a tape recording sent from a man claiming to be the killer who has accent from that area.

The tape later turned out to be a hoax and contributed to delays in the investigation.

Sutcliffe murdered 13 women in the 1970s and 1980s.

A review after Sutcliffe was caught also criticised a failure to properly file and collect hundreds of thousands of reports about the murders in the 1970s.

Speaking in a BBC Radio Four documentary Mr Laptew said he was concerned about Sutcliffe when he met him and when he later found out he was right it felt like a "thunderbolt" through his heart.

He said he was ostracised by officers he had thought were friends after reports criticised the force and painted him as a lone voice.

Speaking about his meeting with Sutcliffe, he said: "I wasn't happy with Peter Sutcliffe, there were a lot of alarm bells ringing.

“The reason we actually went to see Sutcliffe was because his vehicle had been sighted in three separate red light areas.

“He had a striking resemblance to the photo-fit of the woman who was attacked in Buslingthorpe Lane, in Leeds. He had a gap in his teeth which again was indicative of the the attacker of two of the women who were killed.

Andy Laptew was a junior officer who went to see Sutcliffe at home. “He was in the suspect occupation group – in that he was a heavy goods vehicle driver.

“I said to my colleague 'why don't we bring him in?” and he said 'no we have been told specifically do not bring anybody in'.

“In fact I'll tell you what happened I took it direct to Dick Holland (Superintendant in charge of the enquiry), a man who I had put on a pedestal and hero worshiped

“Has he got a Geordie accent he said. 'No he's local' I said, 'he's from Bradford, he's a dead ringer for the photo-fit.'

"Then he said 'If anybody mentions the photo-fits to me again they will be doing traffic for the rest of their service.

"I could have crawled under the crack in the door."

Asked what he felt when Sutcliffe was finally caught and he discovered his suspicious had been right, he said: "How do you describe a thunderbolt to your heart, the bottom had fallen out of my world.

"I got in my car and dashed up to the police station, opened my locker door and looked through my notebooks and there was his name 'Peter William Sutcliffe - not satisfied with this man - full report submitted'.

"I didn't know what to do, had I done right, had I done wrong, was there any more I could have done and you tend to blame yourself because three women had died since I submitted that report.

"I had suggested he be looked at by a senior officer with a more intimate knowledge of the case."

After Sutcliffe's arrest police realised they had questioned him NINE times but the reports had not been linked.

Mr Laptew said: "The next thing there were three inch headlines saying I was the lone voice crying out in the wilderness against West Yorkshire Police and I was a pariah when all I had ever done was display loyalty.

"People I thought were friends ignored me, senior officers made life a little difficulty for me and instead of speaking to me they would grunt at me.

"I got really really upset by all this, it's made me anti authority."

Sutcliffe was caught when he was stopped by police in a car with stolen number plates with a prostitute and a hammer and knife was found at the scene.

He is still in prison serving 20 life sentences.

The Reunion - The Yorkshire Ripper Investigation is on BBC Radio 4 today a 11.15am