Risky kill-sites - how and why?

[A P Tomlinson]

Christ! And wasn't his lorry-cab full of weird jottings, about his God-like power etc.

I bet he climbed in and said he had an urgent job - did they in fact ever search his cab before his arrest? If they did, then it would be even more astonishing.

Apparently they did. The report says they did, (but it also said they searched his house and car, and they didn't). It might take me a while to dig out what Sutcliffe said specifically, but my ageing brain is telling me that from his confessions they did make at least a cursory examination. But that might be me conflating stories that I haven't read in a while...
It's hard to accept that they didn't find incriminating evidence on all the various searches. But...

[Paul Sutton]

Apparently they did. The report says they did, (but it also said they searched his house and car, and they didn't). It might take me a while to dig out what Sutcliffe said specifically, but my ageing brain is telling me that from his confessions they did make at least a cursory examination. But that might be me conflating stories that I haven't read in a while...
It's hard to accept that they didn't find incriminating evidence on all the various searches. But...

If they searched his lorry-cab, wow! Who knows when he wrote the creepy graffiti, but it's difficult to believe it wasn't well before the 8th interview you referenced.

One superb moment in the ITV Long Shadow was when he was finally arrested, in Sheffield. The officer in charge keeps joking with him about how much he looks like the photofit. Now, that may be dramatic licence. But it's hard to fathom how this didn't occur to others, on the many visits Old Bill made to his house/place of work.

[Paul Sutton]

Apparently they did. The report says they did, (but it also said they searched his house and car, and they didn't). It might take me a while to dig out what Sutcliffe said specifically, but my ageing brain is telling me that from his confessions they did make at least a cursory examination. But that might be me conflating stories that I haven't read in a while...
It's hard to accept that they didn't find incriminating evidence on all the various searches. But...

Morning AP!

I dug out my copy of Bilton and:

1. Laptew was aware that Sutcliffe's firm was uneliminated, in the fiver enquiry. Bilton isn't sure if Sutcliffe was individually interviewed in relation to his pay, nor if Laptew knew whether has was/wasn't.

2. Laptew's report is now lost (Bilton hints it may have been deliberately torn off the Sutcliffe file, so that it could never be seen again) and he didn't keep a copy. Last he saw of it was when Holland chucked it on his in-tray.

3. Holland was shown photofits, he then asked about Sutcliffe's accent. He warned Laptew that anyone who ever brought up photofits would find themselves working traffic, for the rest of their career.

4. All the tyre information was in his report (incidentally, Bilton uses both that word and 'file').

5. Laptew was subsequently disciplined, post trial, for supposedly leaking his experiences about his report being dismissed.

6. Laptew's comments on Holland's reactions and threats are excoriating, they're extensively quoted in the book. It seems he had both a public dressing down AND a private visit to Holland's office, where the traffic threat was made. He was warned in very strong terms and understood it as that, in his own words. And others saw how he'd been treated and would have noted not to dare question their 'Has he got a Wearside accent' nonsense.

I can't see that I exaggerated anything.

I didn't - as Fleetwood Mac wrongly claimed - put words in Laptew's mouth.

[A P Tomlinson]

If they searched his lorry-cab, wow! Who knows when he wrote the creepy graffiti, but it's difficult to believe it wasn't well before the 8th interview you referenced.

One superb moment in the ITV Long Shadow was when he was finally arrested, in Sheffield. The officer in charge keeps joking with him about how much he looks like the photofit. Now, that may be dramatic licence. But it's hard to fathom how this didn't occur to others, on the many visits Old Bill made to his house/place of work.

There's an old anecdote that upon arrest Sergeant Ring said, "Tha's Ripper, thee" (It's about the only thing connected with the case that makes me smile) and I'm not sure whether that was in jest at the similarity he bore to the photofit pictures, or whether he realised straight away.
An old Barnsley copper who I used to run a pub quiz with knew Ring in passing, (they were both uniform sergeants in the same force) and was serving in South Yorks in the 70s and 80s, and he swore blind that Ring flagged Sutcliffe as soon as he got out of the car. But "Big Dave" had the nickname of "Walter" among his golfing pals, after Mr Mitty, and there were very few of his "Tales of The Old Ways" that weren't considered by most to have been embellished to some degree. Great story teller, lovely bloke, but asbolutely full of ****.


I think if we'd ever let him talk uninterrupted for half an hour, he'd have claimed South Yorkshire had caught Sutcliffe through a process of complex investigation and stole it out from under the noses of the West Yorkshire boys based on skill and daring. When all he had to say was, "We had at least ONE copper who was bloody good at his job!"

[Tom_Wescott]

Paul
his name is Tom Wescott.

i never read his book

It's only been out 10 years. No rush or anything.

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

P.S. I don't think I mention Le Grand in it, but I do a little in Ripper Confidential, the other book you haven't read.