Ripper tape move ‘serious mistake’

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 10

Ripper tape move ‘serious mistake’

NZPA London The former Chief Constable, Ronald Gregory, has admitted that he made a “serious mistake” in releasing the hoax Geordie “Ripper” tapes.

But in his controversial interview in the “Mail on Sunday” he said: “Enough boasts had come true to convince me, beyond reasonable doubt, that the Geordie and the Ripper were the same man. His advisers were convinced that the reaction from making the tape public would identify the killer “probably within days.” But before releasing the tape he was told by a police chief that it contained no details that had not been in the papers. Detective Chief Inspector David Zackaisson of Northumbria Police studied all the press cuttings on the inquiry and found that the vital fact which West Yorkshire police thought authenticated the tapes had

already appeared in a paper.

They thought the fact that a Ripper victim, Vera Millward, had been treated in Manchester Royal Infirmary, had not been published. But it had ... in the “Daily Mail.”

One of the hoaxer’s letters also named Joan Harrison as an extra Ripper victim, and there were similarities with the other murders.

Mr Gregory admits that George Oldfield — the man in charge of the Ripper hunt who was personally taunted in the tape — was against making it public. A meeting of senior officers from the six forces involved in the hunt agreed “that our public front would be to stress our total conviction that they (the tape and letters) were authentic.” Mr Gregory sent an 18page special notice to every police force in the country saying that every suspect not matching the accent and

blood group of the Geordie who sent the letters and tape should be eliminated.

After that notice Peter Sutcliffe was interviewed by the police and the report filed because he did not match up. Mr Gregory said: “When we finally arrested Sutcliffe, I realised immediately what a serious mistake I had made. Sutcliffe, who spoke with a soft local Bradford accent, was not a Geordie.” Mr Gregory still believes that the hoaxer could be the killer of Joan Harrison trying to throw the police off his trail, knowing that he had alibis for the Ripper murders.

Mr Gregory defended publication of his memoirs and said that “misconceptions” about the police handling of the Ripper case had to be challenged.

His articles in the “Mail on Sunday” would not conceal the mistakes, but show that police officers were human.