Police took six years to capture serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, and this was later partly blamed on a catalogue of mistakes made by the force at the time.
He murdered his first known victim in 1975. But it took the West Yorkshire Police until 1981 to arrest him for the crimes. In which time, he’d killed another 12 women, and attacked at least seven more.
Peter Sutcliffe’s crimes became one of Britain’s most notorious serial killer cases. And now the case has been dramatised for the first time by ITV. The Long Shadow is currently airing on Monday nights at 9pm.
And the makers behind the seven-part documentary have attempted to highlight the many mistakes made by the police in the search for Peter Sutcliffe…
Police investigating Peter Sutcliffe’s crimes (Credit: Daily Mail/Shutterstock)
Mistakes made in the Peter Sutcliffe case: The moniker The Yorkshire Ripper
While not unusual at that time, police gave the unknown killer the nickname The Yorkshire Ripper. Like Jack the Ripper before him, police gave Peter Sutcliffe the gruesome title as they launched the investigation into the murders.
Of course, we now know the moniker is extremely offensive. Not only is it painful for the family of the victims, it also helps the glamorous the killer.
Ahead of The Long Shadow airing on ITV, the broadcaster told reviewers: “We’d like to respectfully ask you to consider not using the term The Yorkshire Ripper in your press coverage when writing about The Long Shadow.
“Although the name is well-known shorthand for Peter Sutcliffe, the victims’ family members and survivors of his hideous crimes find the term very distressing and triggering. In respect to the many, many people affected by his awful crimes, we’d ask you to call Peter Sutcliffe by his real name.”
The police force were ‘misogynistic’
West Yorkshire Police received widespread criticism for the way it handled the Peter Sutcliffe case. The Long Shadow writer George Kay explains: “And then there are the detectives. While old-fashioned, unpalatable, misogynist attitudes were ever-present and contributed to the many missteps that drove the flawed investigation, not all were the blinkered misogynists that many might believe them to be.
“Many were stubborn, well-intended men and women who gradually became hamstrung by their own investigation. Whose failures on at least two occasions drove them to an early grave.”
As we learn from the ITV series, four very different men were in charge of the investigation. Although, two million man-hours were logged in the incident room, it took six years to catch the killer.
George Kay also explains how the fact some of the victims were known sex workers also affected the case. He says: “Our exploration and research into the stories of the women who fatally crossed Peter Sutcliffe’s path emphasised the disgraceful way sex workers are still persecuted today.”
He adds: “It’s a known fact that the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police were a force troubled with misogyny and racism. Senior officers opted to follow seemingly tangible evidence – like the hoax letters and tape – rather than listen to the first-hand testimony of women who had survived, like Marcella Claxton.”
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