Billy Tracey knew Vera Millward of old, when his own wife was on the game in the same area years earlier, while he was doing time in Strangeways jail in Manchester, where he lived for a period of time. He never forgot anyone he knew no matter how long since he had seen them. Vera was not an active soliciting prostitute and very likely went to the car park of the Infirmary with him because of this old acquaintance. She trusted him. His hallmarks on the victims body were unmistakable. More massive publicity ensued. The letters sent to Oldfield two months previously were known only to the police and the Ripper at that time. Two weeks later the first Manchester murder by Peter Sutcliffe was included in the Ripper frame publicly by the police on the basis of information confided to them by Billy Tracey in letters he posted while visiting Sunderland.
She was an” older” prostitute and “in Manchester again” as he promised in the letters. This fulfillment of his promise led the police to include the Jordan murder in the Ripper frame. They couldn’t believe that a criminal would be winding them up in this fashion. But they should have known that they were dealing with an extraordinary criminal.
Because she was murdered in a car park they wrongly assumed the killer was a motorist. Tyre tracks found near the scene could have been from anybody’s car who used the park and in any case it is something of a red herring, because I have never observed tyre impressions on a paved car park. The police often put out such red herrings to scare the culprit into panicking. Diaries of victims were another scare tactic often employed by the police, but it was highly unlikely that the Ripper would give a victim his name and address.Every known acquaintance of every Ripper victim became a suspect, especially the nearest and dearest.
Sutcliffe’s statement relating to this murder was never published to my knowledge. The ring of truth that attaches to his own crimes such as Jean Jordan or Yvonne Pearson, just doesn’t exist on his statements of how he killed the Rippers victims.
He just couldnt keep up a credible lie and the police must have known he didnt do it. This is the only report I could find.
