Bit of a grim subject- but was anyone living in Leeds / Bradford at the time of the Yorkshire ripper?

Dee1012

We had a neighbour whose daughter was at Leeds University and I can remember how frightened she was and her insistence that her daughter return home....she didn't.
She was actually living very close to the Chapeltown district where I believe he killed.
I can remember talking to her once and her saying that students had been told they'd be fine because he only killed one specific group

I was in Chorley at time but we were also on high alert as there had been a terrible killing near Preston that he's always denied but anyone with Geordie accent was supect! And up here we were ALL scared, after all we knew he'd go for anyone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, all the guff about targeting 'working girls' we dismissed as typically male attitude , in those days men assume ANY female out alone after dark (which during winter could be 3.30pm!!!) Was'on the game' and they obligingly harassed us at their pleasure! Disgusting pervs the lot!!

My Aussie ex husband, as usual made a joke of it!
At one point they released the theory that the Ripper was actually thought to be a local Yorkshire man so my ex was talking about it to someone he worked with - also a Yorkshireman , saying to him "it could be you!" - the workmate's name was also actually Peter Sutcliffe !!!!!

I was in Lancashire, just over the Pennines but everyone I knew worried about the possibility of him deciding to widen his scope. I was in my 20s, married and a full-time lecturer at a local college which meant I taught teenage girls, and also had to teach one evening class a week. My husband came to meet me until he decided it might be sensible to get a car so I could get myself home in relative safety!

What I remember being angry about was the emphasis in the media, maybe by the police not sure, on the fact that Sutcliffe's victims were prostitutes as if somehow they were sub-human or deserving. The reporting in those early days was extremely judgemental indicative of a warped morality which seemed at the time to affect the motivation of the West Yorkshire Police in their hunt for Sutcliffe. I thought a lot about the victims' families and really impressed on my female students to travel in groups or ask parents to pick them up if they could. All that because of the behaviour of one sociopathic man.

My DH cousin was working at Leeds University in the language department . The ‘Jack’ tapes listened too and the phonetics were pinpointed to come up in the North East and police were informed. Obviously should have taken note when the Ripper eventually discovered in Yorkshire!!!

Yes was about 9-10 miles from Leeds, (lived in middle of Leeds/Bradford/Huddersfield) when all that was going on, grew up there, when i got to late teens (15/16/17) and went out we all either went in a group or in two's.

Twig14

My DH cousin was working at Leeds University in the language department . The ‘Jack’ tapes listened too and the phonetics were pinpointed to come up in the North East and police were informed. Obviously should have taken note when the Ripper eventually discovered in Yorkshire!!!

I don’t really understand your post, Twig14. They did take note, unfortunately, which led to them looking for someone with a North East accent. Sutcliffe was from Bradford, nowhere near the North East.

I was a teenager and young woman in Manchester. He attacked women there too. The tape of ‘Geordie Ripper’ tape was repeatedly played everywhere, especially on buses. It was terrifying to listen to it on a bus after dark, then have to walk home from the bus stop in the dark. The Police investigating it were so incompetent. They should have caught Sutcliffe years before they did, but the senior officers dismissed anyone who wasn’t a Geordie, even though Sutcliffe was interviewed many times, fitted several photo fits given by several different women and worked as a Lorry driver at a firm linked to the enquiry. Bloody useless!

A good friend of ours was teaching in Leeds at the time of the Murders. A pupil at the school told police that he looked like the description given so they had him in twice for questioning. He looked absolutely nothing like Peter Sutcliffe except both had a moustache. It really shook him up.

Yes my parents lived in Roundhay just up the road from Chapeltown and Headingly. They wouldn’t let me go out alone at night!
I was also a student in Manchester when the Moors murders were taking place!

I lived in the centre of Leeds when he was on the prowl and a victim was found across the road from where I lived. When I visited my boyfriend at night about a mile away I used to run home! How that would have helped I don’t know!

I lived a 5 minute walk away from where Josephine Whittaker was killed in Halifax. I was a young Mum with two small children, I was very anxious. Remember the ripper murders very well indeed and will never forget .
Can't watch the recent tv documentaries!

Driving through Headingly one morning, stuck at the end of Alma Road, when the news came on about the latest victim - found in Alma Road. When I go that way, I still remember the poor girl. The fact that stupid detective believed the 'I'm Jack' tape cost women their lives. Sutcliffe was interviewed several times, they should have got him much sooner.

Eldest daughter started at university there at that time. I remember taking her to her 'digs' the first term.
I was very worried and gave various warnings. She had the carefree attitude of youth.

I live 2 miles from where the Yorkshire Ripper lived. At the time it was very frightening for all women to go anywhere after dark. You kept away from unlit, quiet places. It impacted on the freedom of women.
My then husband and I were stopped by the police as he had a beard. The suspect had a beard as we found out later. One time there was a shovel in the back of the car. We had a bit of explaining to do. It was not the best time to live in the Leeds/ Bradford area.

I lived in Leeds during the time of the murders, and used to walk to work and home again regularly. I did this (a) to save money and (b) because the buses I could have used, took the same amount of time to cover the distance as I could walk it in! This was a four mile walk. I was a widow at that time, so lived alone. I passed two of the sites where victims were found on my way to and from work. The locations of my office were changed during that time - first in the city centre and then in Headingley. I lived in Harehills. close to Chapeltown. A very scary time.

I was a student teacher in Leeds at the time. Women didn’t dare go out alone after dark. My final teaching practice was at a boys’ school in Bradford. It transpired that one of the Maths teachers was the Ripper’s next-door neighbour. Of course, he was totally unaware of this until Peter Sutcliffe had been arrested.

Personally I would prefer to refer to him by his name, Peter Sutcliffe. He wasn't a bogey man, he was a seriously flawed human being who murdered women.
The women he murdered were not all sex workers (I don't like the term prostitute either) and sadly the families of these poor ladies have had to live with the stigma for the last 40+ years!
First and foremost they were women. Some mothers, all daughters, some sisters, aunties, cousins, wives.
So very sad that we remember HIM and very few remember their names.
The recent programme was about another possible 20 victims.
Had these crimes happened now I'm confident more would have been attributed to him and he would have been charged with more.
? to those directly affected by his crimes.

Yes I lived in Bradford not far from where the Ripper lived. A time of fear for every woman. My husband was hauled in for questioning as he often drove on the lane the prostitutes used to buy equipment for his work.

Although from Yorkshire, I was working in Cheltenham at the time, so it was dreadful to hear about but distant.

Many years later I went to work in Leeds, in the Little London area between the centre and Headingley. Although so long ago, it was very jarring to see the actual places where he had operated.

At Leeds University at the time living in Headingly, we were all told you're fine he doesn't go for students. Then married living in Bramley, only way home from the bus stop was down a dark dirt track past the undertakers , used to run that last bit like the devil was after me

My Father in Law lived in Bradford and was attacked and verbally abused on more than one occasion after Sutcliffe was arrested because he looked so much like him, so much so they had to leave the area.

Nannina, it was indeed Broomhill where he was arrested, on a quiet, dark secluded road called Melborne Avenue, which runs along the back of the playing fields of Sheffield High School for Girls.

Sorry - forgot to add it’s probably listed as Broomhall but the school was usually listed as Broomhill, perhaps because it was a posher suburb!

I was, at the time of the Ripper ,living in Pudsey ( and I still am ). Newly married at the time and it terrified me to go out after dark, even to the corner shop for milk etc. I used to walk down the middle of the street to avoid dark gateways etc.
The worst thing was that in actual fact, he followed a lady from an office not 200 yards from my house, and killed her half a mile away. It still gives me shivers when I walk past the house where they found her body in the garden.

No but I lived near Cannock Chase when the cannock chase murderer was on the rampage