THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER

Peter Sutcliffe (13 victims)

JOHN’S groundbreaking work did not impress everyone. He was asked to help on the Yorkshire Ripper while doing a UK talk. But the detective he met was cynical from the start.

“My partner and I were meeting him in the bar,” recalls John. “So he comes over and he’s trying to convince us, ‘Look, this is a really complicated case’.

“And I said, ‘We have enough cases in the US. We’re quite happy to just sit and have a drink in your pub’. So then he finally starts presenting the case to me.” John heard how three letters had been sent to West Yorkshire Police claiming to be from the Yorkshire Ripper, followed by a tape-recorded confession, beginning “I’m Jack”, in a Wearside accent. John knew - from the victims’ injuries – that it was not the real killer. “I told him right there – that is not the Ripper,” says John. “The guy on the tape was in your face, and the killings were not like that. They were homicides, but not in your face kind of murders.” He was right. The letters were from a hoaxer and in 1981 Peter Sutcliffe confessed to killing 13 women.