PETER SUTCLIFFE’S INTERVIEWS WITH DETECTIVES
The following is a record of Sutcliffes interviews with the police.
Nov. 2nd 1977 Peter’s 1st police interview about the £5.00 note found in Jean Jordan’s purse. This murder in Manchester was not regarded by the police as a Ripper murder. Sutcliffe was giving a house warming party the night before the body (7 days dead) was discovered. Sonia confirmed this. Also his mother confirmed she was driven home by Peter that night. He was questioned about the night Jean Jordan was killed; 1st October. Sonia couldn’t be sure of this date one month before she was questioned.
Nov. 8th. Second Interview He and Sonia were questioned about the £5.00 note. This time the police had a warrant to search the house. This extract is from the Sheffield Star on 5th January 1981 confirms the police took his blood group. It was standard practice in this investigation to get all suspects blood group. the police were to later suggest that Sutcliffe was eliminated because he didnt speak with a Geordie accent. That is a patent lie.
Dec. 14th. Peter assaulted Leeds prostitute Marilyn Moore who accurately described him. Jan 31st 1978. Helen Rytka Rippers 6th victim (Jordan murder not then a Ripper one) massive publicity from 6th February. March. Ripper writes two letters to police, including Jean Jordan in his count and promised “Manchester again”. He also takes credit for the Harrison murder in Preston in 1975. March 26th. Yvonne Pearson (3 months dead) body found. Copy-Cat Ripper blamed by police. Same M.O. as Jordan murder and none of the Ripper’s hall-marks. Killer returned to the body to expose it from its hiding place in both cases.
Tuesday May 16th. When Vera Millward’s body was found in the grounds of the Royal Infirmary in Manchester there was blanket publicity immediately and Sonia, who was aware that Sutcliffe was a Ripper suspect, satisfied herself that he was with her at Rockafella’s disco in Leeds at the crucial time of the murder, only the previous day. She was then certain Peter was not the Ripper. Aug. 13th. Interview 3: Sonia told police about Rockafella’s disco the night of 16th May (Tues.). They came to Peter because his car was seen in Leeds and Bradford red light areas 7 times on 3 dates. Nov. 23rd. Interview 4: Sonia made a written statement verifying he was with her at Rockafella’s disco on 16th May and convinced the police Peter was not the Ripper. His resemblance to Marilyn Moore’s attacker was obvious.
click on image for a set of articles about the copycat ripper.
Peter Sutcliffe
April 4th 1979. Josephine Whittaker murdered in Halifax. Massive publicity next day and forward. Sonia was with Peter. June 26th. Police reveal that the Ripper sent 3 letters and a cassette to them. The tape promised another murder in September or October. July 29th. Interview 5: Sonia was interviewed and gave Peter an alibi for April 4th and other dates. The police came because Sutcliffe’s car was seen in murder zones in Bradford 36 times, Leeds twice and Manchester once. He fitted Marilyn Moore’s description but was “0” blood.
Sept. 1st. Barbara Leach murdered by Ripper. Body discovered 4th September. Massive publicity. Sonia with Peter at crucial time. Oct. 23rd. Interview 6: Sonia again gave him alibis that he was home with her on lst September and other relevant times. She was certain he wasn’t the Ripper and she convinced the police. Sutcliffe’s workmates news article
Sutcliffe’s mission from God My opinion of Sutcliffes’ role in the whole affair is as follows. He married a girl who had serious mental problems. She was sexually cold, devoid of love for him and totally self centred and domineering. In many ways she was responsible for disturbing this man’s mind. After 6 years courting , followed by less than one year of married life, the realisation of this left him feeling wasted, worthless and with no future. Whatever dreams he had were shattered by a Jeckyl and Hyde wife whom he deeply despised. All women became hated objects and Anna Rogulsky’s screaming and threatening behaviour at her boyfriend’s door which he by chance witnessed, triggered his first attack. Then came the attack on Mrs Smelt followed by the sex attack on Tracy Browne and Leslie Moleseed. Then in 1976 he attacked Marcella Claxton in Roundhay Park Leeds, who was his first prostitute victim. This brought him to the attention of Billy Tracey, the violent pimp, who had a special squad looking for him for the two linked, Leeds, Ripper murders and he had left the area for the moment. All these early attacks were sex attacks , masturbating while touching up his victims. This was what Sonia had reduced him to and I believe he didnt care if he were caught. It was to reflect what she had done to him. His attacks received scant publicity while the Ripper murders made the news headlines. Then the murder of Irene Richardson in the same Roundhay Park by Tracey followed by massive publicity must have affected him greatly given that Sutcliffes’ crimes received little or no publicity, particularly as Claxton was hardly mentioned until after his arrest, but Tracey would have been aware of it from the start. It was his opener. Two more Ripper murders followed at regular intervals all accompanied by massive publicity. Sutcliffe was being baited by the Ripper and he knew it. He responded with the Long attack, then the Jordan murder in Manchester where he returned to expose the body and returned again later to plant the fiver with the handbag which he had taken. Then the Wilkinson murder, then the Moore attack and finally Pearson. While Pearson’s body lay undiscovered the Ripper murdered Helen Rytka in Huddersfield to a blaze of publicity. The disturbed Peter Sutcliffe planted a newspaper with one large Ripper story under Pearson’s body. I see him as desperate to be arrested at this stage. Clearly , by his statements in Court he felt that he was involved with the occult. He felt driven and he saw himself involved in a battle between good and evil. Somewhere here, his earlier sick and perverted sex attacks were to be put aside and he saw himself pitting his wits against the evil Ripper. This was his mission from God. He would sacrifice his freedom to placate the Ripper, an evil monster he had aroused. However this was easier said than done. The police had evidence of the Ripper’s blood and semen. Sutcliffe’s was different. It is on this issue that the Ripper became national and international news and escalated to frenzied proportions as the murders progressed. Tracey, the career criminal and violent pimp, was supremely confident of his ability to force the police to get someone for his crimes. He knew that when the pressure came on the police, someone had to be accused. He had done it many times before but not on such a scale as this. His game was to force the police to get the copy-cat and he was confident enough to write to them and even send voice messages to them. He gave them everything about himself except his name and recorded fingerprints, thats how confident he was in his chosen career, and while the average man in the street would think that every policeman would be very interested to know the identity of a killer, in this case they were scared to even find out. It was more comfortable to dismiss it. The story of my efforts to tell the police bears this confidence out . Nobody knew better than Tracey how the police fitted-up people for the crimes of others. He was a master of psychology. It was this supreme arrogance of the Ripper which made the police link all his murders publicly because they felt they knew so much about his identity that they would surely get him. It also made it well nigh impossible for Sutcliffe to be blamed. Tracey’s letters and cassette message were part of that game plan until, true to form as he saw it, he finally forced the police to frame Sutcliffe, the mad man they had eliminated so thoroughly. If the newspaper accounts of Sutcliffe’s statements are studied one will see the terrible dilemma he had landed himself into. In the end he had to commit more murders just to prove to police that he was the Ripper eventhough they knew his role since about January 1980, that he was the copy cat. Can you imagine his shock when in 1979 the police revealed that the Ripper was in corrospondance with them. After the Leach murder he said he felt that the Devil was driving him. Then he actually attacked a journalist in Ilkeley hoping she would report him. This attack was never in the Ripper frame. Then in 1980 while Tracey lay low suspecting the police had identified him, Sutcliffe really went berserk with at least six attacks, three of whom were murdered. It was a complex tit for tat battle for Sutcliffe culminating with him actually staging his arrest in Sheffield because the West Yorkshire police knew him so well. He planted hammers and planted knives in the police toilet, gave false names , had wrong number plates on his car, had a prostitute and told the police he was a Ripper suspect. The mission from God theory was put forward by him later to divert attention from his earlier perverted sick sex attacks which he was at pains to deny. Dick Holland’s deal on behalf of the police would have ensured nobody would have ever known, had it not been rejected by judge Boreham. It should be noted that all of Sutcliffe’s murders and attacks are fully corroborated by both the known facts before his arrest and by his statements, whereas with the Ripper murders his confessions are at odds with the known facts and his statements are way off beam.