The Yorkshire Ripper Files

I felt so sad hearing about the women who lost their lives because they had no other way to put food on the table.
The wife who turned to prostitution after the family business went under with her husband waiting for her in the pub...

I worked in a police station during the Yorkshire Ripper years (not WYP but not a million miles away either) and all I can say is that Life On Mars wasn't complete fiction.

There's a very good book by an ex-policeman that suggests Sutcliffe is responsible for more missing women in Britain, particularly in London. And a few men too.

West Yorkshire Police's multiple errors were the result not just of staggering incompetence but deep misogyny.

Fancy that. West Yorkshire Police, you say.

Great big sarcasm smiley.

Richard McCann is an amazing man, have heard him speak before. His Mum would be so proud of him.
Sadly his sister had too many demons to cope with and took her own life . Having heard her speak about what happened to her Mum I thought she was a lovely girl and just so wish she’d been able to overcome her issues.

I watched the programme last night and it's an excellent examination of the horrific misogyny around that case and in the culture generally.

I had to read up on the Ripper case as part of a dissertation I wrote as a student many moons ago and as part of the research I read the essay Joan Smith wrote in her brilliant book Misogynies. She appeared in the programme last night too.

It was an utter eye opener and completely enraging. It had a huge effect on me at the time wrt VAWG and misogyny and made me question a lot of things. It's one of my earliest feminist awakenings.

I can still remember (I think) a quote from someone involved in the case along the lines of

The Ripper hates prostitutes. Many people do - just jaw dropping.

It was shocking how they felt the women deserved it. So many horrible men featured, not just Peter Sutcliffe - the police officers who spoke differentiated between innocent women and ones who deserved it etc, the husband who sent his wife off to prostitute herself while he waited in the pub and then refused to identify her body but sent his 17 year old son instead, the father of Wilma McCann who abused her and then abused her motherless children and killed their dog. Such vile attitudes, and in my lifetime!

I felt so much for Richard, Wilma's son. He has experienced so much sadness. I hope he has peace and happiness now.

What channel please?
I remember the Take back the night marches, scarey time.

Dehumanising women in order to explain away male violence.

Part two is on tonight.

I watched it. One woman who was attacked but survived was described in police reports as having loose morals - because she was attacked coming home from the pub without her husband. There was a lot of talk at the time about the innocent victims, as opposed to the prostitutes. Those women deserved so much better.