David Yallop was an investigative writer of some repute who
had written his manuscript following two years of research mainly in the
North of England. His script had been delivered to the publishers who were
preparing the book just before Sutcliffe was arrested. It was handed back
to him and in the rush to print following Sutcliffe's "trial" Yallop had
to rewrite his book with Sutcliffe in the frame.
Even Yallop knew about the strange man from the Bingley
Shipley area.
Yallop had no reason to believe the police would fit up a
copy-cat killer and his book was my best resource because he had managed
to secure most of the police reports of incidents and suspects.
Significantly he had as his number one suspect, the stocky bearded
Irishman, until these developments and in fairness he did a good job
trying to make Sutcliffe fit the frame but it was an impossible task and
left him with many major imponderables.
a page from Yallop's book
Nevertheless, his book, which focused on the Irishman was
my first knowledge of an Irish suspect and it reinforced my conviction of
the truth and reality of my belief that Tracey was the Ripper, a belief
that until then I thought I would never be able to substantiate. How would
anyone believe me?
I was burdened with knowledge that weighed me down.
Yallop's research lifted me to the extent that I then knew I could prove my
belief to an intelligent person who would listen or study it.
It was a trudge from Hell with Tracey always close by and the
police favouring his innocence.
Policemen never admitted their mistakes. Miscarriages of justice
were unheard of. Newspaper crime correspondents, who fed off police briefings
and tip-offs in all criminal trials quoted policemen like Gospel. That was
1981. Perceptions have changed since then.
Even if David Yallop had asserted what I was asserting from
Ireland he would be laughed at them.
What chance would an Irishman living in Ireland have of
overturning such a massive judicial farce in the London Courts then or now ?
Naively I thought the police would grasp it. Every policeman I approached
ducked it or referred me to the police who had fitted up Sutcliffe. Irish
police were frankly afraid to get involved.They have wives and families. Tracey
has a record of threatening policemen's children and they all passed it like a
hot potato.
But he is still somewhere. Now I see my role as informing the
public of my experience. After all they have to live with the danger too.
I can run faster than him and I don't fear him any more. He has
lived in the UK since 1984 and undoubtedly has murdered since 1979. I ought to
say that I know of many other serious crimes he committed in both Ireland and
the UK, and the Ripper murders that he chose to link were only a chapter in his
life of crime. His supreme confidence in his own invincibility was well
founded. The public were conditioned to believe that the ripper was some sort
of crazy lunatic who would ultimately be caught. |
