The Yorkshire Ripper


 It is a truism that human beings are irrational creatures. In the 1970s,  a serial killer was active in Yorkshire. He killed any kind of woman who was unfortunate enough to come across him. Because of few of his early victims were rumoured to be prostitutes (they were not) he was dubbed by the local press the Yorkshire Ripper. And this was where the police wasted years looking for a completely different suspect. They said he was a prostitute killer, so other attacks were not investigated. A man sent a tape to a newspaper claiming credit for the murders, and he had a Geordie accent, so the numerous times women were attacked by a man with a Yorkshire accent were also discounted. The police in Yorkshire had a limited understanding of the world, and through that limited understanding they tried to catch a serial killer and made the situation much worse. It is not that they didn't catch him. The investigation that they lead was so disorganized and misguided that it allowed him to be active for 5 years longer than he should have. He was interviewed by the police nine times! If they had a more neutral approach to police work, and had listened to women (or if they had had women investigators) they would have caught the killer much earlier. A truly fascinating look at incompetence. 5/5

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