The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Suspected connection with Yorkshire Ripper’s method
While researching his book, Chris Clark did find a connection between Peter Sutcliffe and the murder of Dawn Webster in Grangemouth.
He said: “Sutcliffe in 1979 admitted to his workmates at Clarks Transport that he was having an affair with a 35-year-old Scots divorcee who lived in a village near Glasgow.
“He met her in the Crown Bar in Holytown in Motherwell when he made a delivery to the Motherwell General Motors plant in 1979.
“He gave the woman the story that he was Peter Logan, a widower, who lived in a big house in Yorkshire and he also wrote romantic letters using his father’s address for returns.”
Dawn Webster was 18 and from Stenhousemuir. She went to a 21st birthday party on September 14 1979 at the ICI club in Grangemouth, which was the last place she was seen alive.
She vanished and her partially-stripped body was found 15 days later down an embankment off the M9 near Grangemouth.
“It would appear she was trying to hitch-hike back to Stenhousemuir,” Mr Clark said.
“At the time the pathologist concluded she died of a heart attack following a blow or pressure to certain parts of her body but found no bruising.
“Sutcliffe in several of the cases we have highlighted used a garrote, which was a knotted length of rope.
“The only parts of the rope that come in contact with the neck are where the knots are, so there wouldn’t be any rope burns.
“That was what he used in 1980 for one murder and one attempted murder, and I have highlighted that he also used this on several victims prior to the Ripper series.”
Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders in 1981.
However, a new book written by Mr Clark and Mr Tate claims those figures are just the tip of the iceberg.
Yorkshire Ripper: the Secret Murders claims that Sutcliffe was responsible for the murder of 35 women and a man.