How The Yorkshire Ripper Murders Inadvertently Boosted Feminism.

 

In May 1981, a then 34 year old Yorkshire man named Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others over the course of the previous six years. Two others were also suspected to have been injured by Sutcliffe during this time.

Those six years were also marked the occurrences of some of the most important events in female history. 1976 saw the introduction of the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act which meant that married women were finally able to obtain a court order against their violent husbands without the need for a divorce, and men could be ordered out of their homes. Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom’s first female Prime Minister in 1979, and a couple of years previous the first ‘Reclaim the Night’ march began, a movement started as part of the Women’s Liberation Movement that demanded women should be able to walk the streets at night without being afraid.

These contrasting, seemingly unrelated events dominated British media, and ultimately painted the picture most of us envision today as 1970s Britain. It wasn’t until I watched the new Netflix docuseries ‘The Ripper’ (2020), particularly episode three, I realised just how entwined these two phenomena actually were. It is hard to imagine a series of brutal murders having an effect on Feminism, but it appears that this is exactly what happened.

Female Freedom.

As The Ripper discusses, the seventies were a time of empowerment for most women. The contraceptive pill, which was originally only given to married women, became widely available to all women in 1967, resulting in a sexual freedom that radiated through the female population. This freedom was further inflated by Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power, illustrating that women could break the seemingly indestructible glass ceiling and were no longer confined to the boundaries of gender. This quote from ex Prime Minister David Cameron highlights the importance of this event: “at a time when it was difficult for a woman to become a Member of Parliament, almost inconceivable that one could lead the Conservative Party and, by her own reckoning, virtually impossible that a woman could become Prime Minister, she did all three.” 

Media footage of the decade shows women out dancing, walking through the streets at night with friends. Mo Lea, who was a student in Leeds in 1979, described the liberating freedom she experienced during this time, stating how women felt they could dress however they wanted and style themselves in a more ‘masculine’ way without being judged. It appeared that women had broken the underlying ‘rules’ surrounding gender, and finally felt free.

This freedom, however, was unfortunately short-lived. In 1979, the then mystery murderer only known by the media-given nickname ‘the Yorkshire Ripper’ murdered 19 year old Josephine Whitaker, a building society clerk. The police claimed that as the previous victims had been prostitutes, this was concerning as now the offender has ‘branched out’ of the red light areas meaning all women of any background were at risk. Media reports and newspapers brandished the words ‘don’t walk alone’ at any given opportunity, and Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, who became in overall command of the hunt, stating that “any woman is at risk... any woman who is out alone at night, is at risk until we catch him”. This understandably instilled a great deal of fear in all women in the area, and ultimately made a number of women feel like they had gone back to square one - they had finally been granted freedom, and now it had been taken away.

Mo Lea also mentions how as a young girl she had spent a long learning how to be street-wise and learning how to go out alone without being frightened, and so being told to either stay at home or make alternative plans to get home safely really went ‘against the grain’. She describes how watching what she was wearing, what she was doing, and having to carry a safety alarm made her feel ‘imprisoned’ to some extent. She goes on to say, “we start out really strong and powerful, thinking we can do anything, combat the world... and then because of the killings we reverted back to being vulnerable women, which was really very frustrating when you had fought so hard to be perceived as an independent person.”

Julie Bindel, a radical feminist writer and co-founder of Justice for Women who also features in the docuseries, also recalls feeling this strain at the time. Being a huge part of the growing Feminist movements in Leeds at the time, she recalls how instead of following the police’s safety advice to not go out alone she questioned it. It was advised that if women wanted to go out and enjoy themselves at night, it had to be under the supervision of a man for their own safety. Bindel saw this as ironic, explaining how they were being told to fear men yet rely on them for protection at the same time. 

This ultimately caused somewhat a divide between men and women. Joan Smith, who worked at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester during the late seventies, noted how when the murder of Barbara Leach in 1979 made headlines the women were terrified whereas the men were not as phased. There was a clear divide in how men and women went about their daily lives as a result of the Yorkshire ripper murders.

Bindel also recalls how men would offer their protective 'services' to women, and when the women refused the men would become agitated, believing that the women were saying no out of fear that they were ‘the Ripper’. In her mind, this was men using the murders as a tool to make women more compliant, as they were before the new found freedom the seventies brought. She further believes this was enhanced by the police putting what felt like ‘a curfew on women’.

It was this anger that helped inspire ‘Reclaim the Night’, a movement that saw women demanding they be able to walk the streets at night in peace. Like Bindel, many women believed women were being punished as a result of the murders, and so often brandished signs with messages such as ‘No Curfew on Women - Curfew on Men’.

This movement also brought to light the belief held by many that the Yorkshire ripper would not have committed these crimes were it not for the culture of misogyny many felt they were living under.

Policing Problems

It is no secret that there appeared to be a number of issues regarding the police operations during the course of the Yorkshire ripper murders. While I will not discuss the internal issues going on within the police force, it is worth mentioning that the public were becoming increasingly frustrated that the murderer had not yet been caught, and many were losing faith in the police.

Returning to the issue of misogyny brought to attention by the ‘Reclaim the Night’ movement, many were becoming angry with the police for their overall reporting of the victims. Joan Smith noted how a press conferences regarding the murders saw hundreds of journalists, photographers etc present, yet she only counted around five women. She found it strange how these were crimes against women yet the ones reporting on it and the ones attempting to solve it were male, prompting her to ask ‘where do women get a voice in this?’

Mo Lea, who as you can see from this post has openly spoken about this case on many occasions, has been particularly outspoken as she herself became a victim of The Yorkshire Ripper. Despite the police taking a statement and her actually being able to recall the appearance of the offender, the police chose to not take her case any further, despite it being key in catching the Ripper. Lea believes that this may have been because the police would have been embarrassed that "another victim had arrived". She also recalls feeling embarrassed, and that it was her fault for walking alone and being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, the victim-blaming posters and police warnings made a lot of women at the time feel this way.

The ways in which the police referred to the victims also caused a lot of problems. For example, it was common at the time for the police to refer to the prostitute victims and other victims differently, often naming the 'other' victims as being the 'real' victims, implying that the ones involved in prostitution were somehow not victims and were in fact responsible and deserving of their actions. Headlines at the time stated Sutcliffe made his 'first mistake' after killing 16 year old Jayne McDonald, as she was the first murder victim to have not been involved in prostitution. George Oldfield once appeared on television addressing the Ripper in 1979 stating: "There may be more pawns in this war before I catch you, but I will catch you", implying to some that women were simply disposable pawns. In addition, Jim Hobson, who was a senior West Yorkshire detective at the time, told a press conference that the murderer "has made it clear that he prostitutes. Many people do. We, as a police force, will continue to arrest prostitutes. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls."

This degrading way of talking about prostitutes did not go unnoticed, and women involved in the English `Collective of Prostitutes (ECOP) organised protests outside of the Old Bailey court during Sutcliffe's trial. They were left disappointed further, however, when the attorney general at the time, Sir Michael Havers, said of the victims: "some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women". Nina Lopez, a member of the ECOP, recalls how the efforts of the police only seemed to heighten after the murder of Jayne McDonald, believing that Sutcliffe was doing the police a favour by 'cleaning up the streets' of prostitutes. This view was unfortunately held by many, with many also believing it was the police's disregard for sex workers that effectively enabled Sutcliffe to continuing murdering people. 

The police 'Special Report' did not help disprove this claim, either. Joan Smith was able to obtain a copy of this report thanks to her role in journalism, and was shocked at the 'misogyny' that she found within it. Terms such as 'she is of loose morals' were scattered throughout, and when discussing first murder victim Wilma McCann they wrote how she was 'neglectful' of her home and children, stating that 'her house was filthy' and that she often left her children to 'go out drinking into the early hours'... information that is in no way relevant to her being a victim of murder. As Smith rightly acknowledges, instead of the police viewing this information as a potential cry for help from a woman who is clearly struggling in life, they viewed this information as being somewhat evidence of her inevitable fate.

Reports of McCann's death at the time rarely referred to her by name, but instead as 'the prostitute', again removing the element of humanity from her. It was actually revealed that before they discovered she was a prostitute, there was little to no evidence that she actually was one - the police had made this assumption based on the fact she left her children sometimes and that her home was "filthy". This wrongful assumption made by police was actually hugely important, as it was this belief of Wilma being a prostitute that started the police theory that the murderer was a 'prostitute hater', which is ultimately what their investigation relied on from then on. 

When discussing the murder of second victim Irene Richardson, the report stated that 'she had no previous convictions, but was thought to be actively engaged in prostitution'. The police had no evidence to prove this, and so were again acting on an assumption, which further steered the investigation into looking solely at women engaged in prostitution, despite there being little evidence. A member of the police force at the time went on to say "this woman was living fairly respectable, up to about 10 days before she met her death. She then seems to have gone down in status, and may well have been acting as a prostitute." They also felt the need to include that she had a large 'sexual appetite' in the report, which was completely unnecessary and dangerous in painting an image of this victim that was completely redundant to the case.

The assumption that The Yorkshire Ripper was targeting prostitutes then became a fact amongst the police. As Joan Smith suggests, the police appeared to go along with this assumption as it helped to provide a narrative and a theory they could work on for the case.

John Robins, the current chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, has since apologised for the "language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time in relation to Peter Sutcliffe's victims", and said "it was as wrong then as it is now". 

An incorrect narrative

As previously mentioned, it was believed by some that the police in some way wanted the victims to be involved with prostitution so it would fit their narrative of a 'prostitute killer', ultimately making it easier to catch them as they knew what direction they would take.

It is believed by many that Wilma McCann was the first victim of The Yorkshire Ripper, as she was the first woman to have been murdered by him. In fact, there were eight other women who had been attacked by the Ripper that were not considered to be 'real' victims as they were in no way involved with prostitution. As a result, the police were excluding incredibly important eye witness evidence, like with the case of Mo Lea I mentioned earlier, and also particularly with victim Olive Smelt, who actually heard the Ripper speak. It was Olive who first spoke out about the police's incorrect narrative, stating that they should be warning all women about the murderer, not just prostitutes. This of course later became the case, regarding the 'all women curfew' we discussed earlier, but what Olive was trying to do was make the police understand from very early on that there was not a 'type' of victim here, and that they should focus their attention away from the narrative of a 'prostitute killer'. She said in an interview "it wasn't fair to other women to think that they could go out safely in the streets, because I knew they couldn't". Olive then went on to say how while the police were starting to believe the Ripper may have been a 'Geordie', she had heard the Ripper speak and could say for a fact that he had a Yorkshire accent. In fact, the police were even stating on television that 'what is certain about the Ripper is that he has a Geordie accent'. 

They thus eliminated anyone that didn't have a Geordie accent, slowing them down massively in their investigation. Even with Olive's opposing information, they continued to believe otherwise, furthering and extending their dangerously incorrect narrative. 

The police eventually admitted that their story of a 'prostitute killer' was wrong, showing a sense of fear that now everything they once knew was wrong they would never catch them. This, as expected, slowed down the investigation, and were almost waiting for a new victim so they could gather more information. Perhaps if they had listened to Olive Smelt at the time, they wouldn't have been so stumped. Other victims Marilyn Moore and Tracey Browne, who were attacked by the Ripper but not murdered so were swept under the rug by police, provided photofits of their attackers, which were later revealed to be accurate portrayals of Peter Sutcliffe. Because neither of their attacks were considered to be acted out by the Ripper, their photofits were never considered in the investigation.

Tracey Browne's photofit compared to a real photo of Peter Sutcliffe

Marilyn Moore's photofit compared to a real photo of Peter Sutcliffe

Today

In Leeds today, Basis Yorkshire is a charity supporting sex workers who work the same streets where Sutcliffe found his victims. The charity stated that “the death of Peter Sutcliffe (which occurred in 2020) reminds us all of the stigma sex workers face and the lack of understanding of the reasons why women [do] sex work – often a lack of funds, women who felt that they had no other option than to sex work, even when the police was trying to stop them working; even when a killer was around... In Leeds, sex workers do feel like they are able to report crimes committed against them, even though stigma means that sex workers are still at greater risk of violence.”

This shows how the murders committed by Peter Sutcliffe contributed to the creation and galvanisation of “a very vibrant women’s movement against violence”, said Bindel. “Because as soon as you pick up the rock and see the misogyny underneath you can’t unsee it... we still haven’t got the message about the violence inherent in prostitution; we still haven’t got the message about how women in prostitution are not disposable, that there are no innocent victims because there were no guilty victims.” 

Journalist Joan Smith, who we have referred to lots in this post and who  now chairs the Violence Against Women and Girls board, still believes that forty years on things still need to change. She said, "now we’re now in the situation where women’s organisations are having to take the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to court for not prosecuting rapists.” 

Nina Lopez, who helped organise the protests outside the Old Bailey court, believes that there are still issues with the police force today that are mirrored in more recent murder cases. She notes how it took the killing of three sex workers in Bradford in 2009 and 2010 before police caught Stephen Griffiths, dubbed the “crossbow cannibal killer” by the media. “The police have much better PR now, they’re much more careful in their language – but in terms of their attitude, their investigations, their priorities, they haven’t changed,” she said. “I think the messaging has changed. I don’t think the establishment has changed at all.”

Feminism has come a long way since the 1970s, and has since been enhanced further by the revival of the 'Reclaim the Night' marches in 2013 and the emergence of the #MeToo movement in 2017. It is without a doubt, however, that The Yorkshire Murders boosted Feminism in a way that nobody could have foreseen. It is a shame that it took the misogyny within the police force and the murders of sex workers for this to happen, but in a way these events helped to highlight the issues within the police force, and helped to highlight the issues surrounding negative views of sex workers, ultimately framing some of the fundamentals of Feminism we know today.