The real-life faces behind The Long Shadow: Victims and cops portrayed in hit ITV drama that casts new light on Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe’s sickening five-year killing spree

• The ITV series covers the five years during which Sutcliffe killed 13 women
• Aftermath revealed how he was able to commit his crimes under police’s nose
• Read on to see real-life pictures of Ripper’s victims, survivors and investigators

ITV’s The Long Shadow is drawing to a conclusion as it charts the chain of missed opportunities in catching the Yorkshire Ripper as police were sidetracked by a hoax tape.

The true ripper – Peter Sutcliffe – was able to commit 13 murders and more non-fatal attacks in just over five years despite being interviewed multiple times by West Yorkshire Police.

His victims, survivors and investigators are all depicted in the TV drama which has been credited for putting its emphasis on the victims of Sutcliffe’s crimes rather than glorifying the serial killer.

Read on to see real-life pictures of some of the series’ leading faces. 

A composite of 12 of the 13 victims murdered by Sutcliffe. Victims are: (top row, left to right) Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson; (middle row, left to right) Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka; (bottom row, left to right) Vera Millward, Josephine Whitaker, Barbara Leach, Jacqueline Hill

Mark Stobbart (left) first appears as the Yorkshire Ripper – Peter Sutcliffe (right) – in the penultimate episode of The Long Shadow

Mark Stobbart as Peter Sutcliffe

Although Sutcliffe himself might be the expected focus of a drama about the Yorkshire Ripper, Mark Stobbart only appears as the infamous murderer in the final two episodes. 

This is to put the emphasis on the victims of his attacks. In the trailer for the series, the only visual reference to the Ripper was in a police drawing.

The same reasoning was behind a name change for the series form The Yorkshire Ripper to The Long Shadow. 

Sutcliffe killed 13 women in just over five years during which he attacked multiple other surviving victims.

He got his ‘Ripper’ title in the press for how he left the bodies of those he killed. 

Sutcliffe was eventually fortuitously arrested on January 2 1981 because he was spotted in a stolen car with a prostitute, before being held and questioned in connection to the Ripper murders as a result of his likeness to the perpetrator’s reported appearance.

He admitted to the killings two days after his arrest, bringing on a wave of inquiry as to how he got away for so long.

The perpetrator was interviewed in connection to Ripper murders at least nine times, and he committed five attacks, two of them fatal, after an officer’s suspicions were dismissed on the grounds that his accent did not match with that on a hoax tape sent to police in 1979.  

At his Old Bailey trial in 1981, he claimed God’s voice had told him to murder his victims, many of whom were, or he believed to be, sex workers. 

Sutcliffe was eventually sentenced to 20 consecutive life sentences, and a dismissed appeal in 2010 – by which point he had been moved to the high-security psychiatric facility at Broadmoor – ensured that the murderer remained locked away until his death on November 13 2020.

Gemma Laurie as Wilma McCann 

Wilma McCann – depicted by Gemma Laurie – was the Ripper’s first victim – killed on October 30, 1975

Sutcliffe’s first victim was 28-year-old mother-of-four Wilma McCann, who was from Scott Hall Avenue in Leeds.

By the time of her murder, four women – including Anna Rogulskyj, Olive Smelt and Tracy Browne – had already been attacked, but not killed.

Wilma, a sex worker, was attacked and brutally murdered just 100 yards away from her house on October 30, 1975.

The night before, Wilma had said goodnight to her children before going out drinking.

She was seen at four pubs – including the Regent and White Sawn – drinking whiskies and beer.

Later in the evening, she ended up at a drinking club, where she left very drunk after 1am, she staggered around looking for a lift home and was seen by Sutcliffe, who stopped his car and picked her up.

He parked his car near Prince Philip Playing fields and, after suggesting that they have sex on the grass, attacked and killed her.

Sutcliffe hit her with a hammer and stabbed her 15 times in the chest, neck and abdomen. Her body was found in Prince Philip Playing fields.

The first episode of The Long Shadow opens with Wilma’s children waking up to find their mother – played by Gemma Laurie in her first major on-screen credit – gone. 

Katherine Kelly as Emily Jackson

Emily Jackson – played by Katherine Kelly (left) – was Sutcliffe’s second victim – she was 42 years old and from Morley in Leeds

Sutcliffe struck again on January 20, 1976.

Emily Jackson – played by Katherine Kelly – was from Morley in Leeds. The 42-year-old died after being stabbed 52 times.

Again in the first episode of the Long Shadow, we see how she was desperate to make enough money for her and her husband Sydney to see through the New Year, turning to part-time sex-work.

Episode 1 ends with the moment that Emily got into Sutcliffe’s car.

Sutcliffe had picked her up outside the Gaiety pub on Roundhay Road, where she was soliciting for business.

After Emily had told him an encounter would cost £5, he drove via Roundhay Road to a derelict patch of land where he stopped his car and pretended it wouldn’t start.

As she tried to help him by holding her lighter while he looked under the bonnet, he battered her twice with a hammer.

He then dragged her body into a yard and used a screwdriver to viciously stab her.

Her body was found on nearby Manor Street by a workman on the morning of January 21.

The killer would later tell police: ‘At that time I had a feeling of satisfaction and justification for what I’d done.

‘I found that I didn’t have any blood on my clothes which I could see, so I had no need to dispose of them.’

Molly Vevers as Irene Richardson

Aged 28, Irene Richardson was Peter Sutcliffe’s third victim – she was murdered on February 5 1977. She is played by Molly Vevers (left)

Sutcliffe’s next murders came in 1977, when he took the lives of four women, starting with Irene Richardson on February 5.

The 28-year-old was a mother-of-three, however, she put her son up for adoption in 1969 when she was working as a chamber maid, in order to give him a better life.

Irene is played by Molly Vevers who appears in episode 2 of The Long Shadow.

She was picked up by her eventual killer near to where he had collected his last victim over a year beforehand.

This time Sutcliffe drove north to Roundhay Park and onto Soldier’s Field where there were toilets which Irene had hoped to use.

Finding them locked, Irene instead urinated on the grass. As she was crouching Sutcliffe hit her three times with a hammer.

He then cut open her coat and blouse before stabbing and slashing her with his Stanley knife.

Irene’s body was found by a jogger the next morning at around 7.30am and police later found tyre marks left by Sutcliffe’s car on the park.

Sophie Hopkins as Patricia Atkinson

Patricia Atkinson, 32, was killed inside her own flat on April 24 1977. She is portrayed by Sophie Hopkins (left)

Sophie Hopkins appears in episode 3 as Sutcliffe’s fourth victim – 32-year-old Patricia ‘Tina’ Atkinson.

Tina was also a mother to three children, and was killed inside her own flat on Oak Avenue in Bradford – the only Ripper murder which took place indoors.

On the evening of April 23, 1977, she left her home to go drinking, initially in the Perseverance pub on Lumb Lane.

After getting very drunk, she left and headed to the nearby Carlisle pub to continue drinking.

Sutcliffe picked Tina up after seeing her staggering around after leaving the Carlisle, when she told him they could go to her flat.

He drove there and followed her inside after retrieving a claw hammer from his car.

Sutcliffe hit her four times on the back of the head with the hammer and stabbed her a further six times.

She was found by a male friend the following evening with bed linen thrown over her body.

A bloody boot print found at the flat would confirm to police it was the same killer who had carried out Emily Jackson’s murder.

Tina’s flat is still standing today but is derelict.

Kate Rutter as Irene MacDonald

Three years after her daughter Jayne was murdered, Irene MacDonald pleaded with the women in the killer’s life to hand him in. Pictured: Kate Rutter as Irene (left), and the woman herself

While Sutcliffe’s fifth victim is not portrayed in The Long Shadow, her mother Irene MacDonald appears played by Kate Rutter in episodes 3, 4, 6 and 7 as the police are thrown off by the hoax attempt by Wearside Jack but eventually arrest the true killer.

Irene’s daughter Jayne was killed at just 16 years of age on June 26, 1977, and was Sutcliffe’s first victim who was not a sex worker.

Jayne was a shop assistant who had recently left school and was on her way home from a night out dancing with her friends the night she was murdered.

Sutcliffe spotted her as she was walking down Chapeltown Road in the early hours of the morning.

After parking up and watching her for a few minutes, he decided she must be a prostitute.

He attacked and killed her at an adventure playground using a hammer and a knife, and she was found there by two children at around 9.45am that morning.

Three years later, when Sutcliffe was still at large, Jayne’s mother Irene addressed the women in the murderer’s life and urged them to turn him in.

She said: ‘I dare them to turn him in. This man is a coward, but the biggest coward of them all is the person shielding him.

‘It is his mother, wife, sister or indeed a male, they should put themselves in the position of we women who have lost someone they loved.

‘It makes my stomach churn to think that someone is saving his neck.’

But Sutcliffe’s wife, Sonia, continued to stand by her husband even after he had been caught an unmasked.

She visited him in prison, and when he had been sent to Broadmoor hospital, before the pair ultimately divorced in 1994 following 20 years of marriage.

Daisy Waterstone as Jacqueline Hill

Jacqueline Hill was Sutcliffe’s 13th and final murder victim on November 18, 1980, and is portrayed in The Long Shadow by Daisy Waterstone (L)

Jacqueline Hill was Sutcliffe’s 13th and final victim, and is the fifth murder victim depicted in The Long Shadow. 

Daisy Waterstone plays the 20-year-old Leeds University English student, and Sunday school teacher, in episodes 5 and 6.

Jacqueline was killed in Headingley, Leeds, on November 18, 1980.

Sutcliffe saw her get off a bus after she had attended a meeting with probation service workers, having applied to become a volunteer.

He followed her before attacking and killing her.

Her body was found the next day 100 yards from her halls of residence. 

She had suffered four skull fractures and cuts to her head, a stab wound to her left breast and a stab wound to her right eye. 

Sutcliffe went on to tell police how Jacqueline appeared to look at him with an ‘accusing stare’ as he attacked her. 

‘I jabbed the screwdriver into her eye but they stayed open, and I felt worse than ever,’ he said. 

A plaque installed near where she died by women’s group the Leeds Spinners, reads: ‘Sister, daughter, housemate, friend, fiancée, gentle and caring person, lovely kind girl, endearingly silly sense of humour, funny, clever, English student, Sunday School teacher, probation service volunteer, brought only goodness to the world, she was everything people wanted their daughter to be. Silver Girl.’

Jill Halfpenny as Doreen Hill

Doreen Hill (right), who is played by Jill Halfpenny, was vocal about the price of police incompetence in the aftermath of her daughter’s death

Doreen Hill was the mother of Jacqueline, and appears in episodes 5, 6 and 7 of the ITV series played by Jill Halfpenny. 

Jacqueline’s family, from Middlesbrough, was so concerned about the Ripper that they persuaded Jacqueline, to move to her university’s halls of residence from her previous accommodation thinking it would be safer.

Doreen called out police incompetence in the time after her daughter’s death, insisting that Jacqueline would still be alive without it.

Jacqueline was the second victim, after Marguerite Walls, that Sutcliffe killed while awaiting trial charged with drunk driving.

Doreen was particularly vocal on their focus on the Ripper hoaxer which delayed the investigation for several years.

Speaking in 1981, she said that Wearside Jack ‘had a few deaths on his conscience’.

Jasmine Lee-Jones as Marcella Claxton

Marcella Claxton was 20 when she survived an attack by Sutcliffe. As she was not a sex worker, she was not initially seen by police as a victim of the murderer. Pictured: Jasmine Lee-Jones as Marcella in The Long Shadow (L) and Marcella in 1981 after Sutcliffe’s arrest

There were seven other Ripper victims who survived attacks in his fatal five-year spree, such as Marcella Claxton, who appears in five episodes of The Long Shadow played by Jasmine Lee-Jones.

Marcella was mistaken for a prostitute and attacked by Sutcliffe on the way home from a party in Leeds, in May 1976 – at which point he had killed twice already.

She passed out after the murderer hit her over the head with a hammer, but when she came to she was able to crawl to a nearby phone box and hide  – as Sutcliffe returned to check if she was dead – before calling for help.

The then-20-year-old lost the baby that she was pregnant with at the time, and also needed over 50 stitches as a result of the attack.

Claxton, as with other survivors, helped police produce a photofit identifying Sutcliffe, but her evidence was discounted because she was not a sex worker, leading police to discount her as a possible Ripper victim.

Speaking after her attacker’s death, Claxton said she still suffers: ‘I still get headaches, dizzy spells and blackouts.’

Nicola Stephenson as Olive Smelt 

Olive Smelt (right) was 46 when she was attacked by Sutcliffe in August 1975 – before he had murdered anyone. She is played by Nicola Stephenson

Another victim who survived an attack by Sutcliffe was Olive Smelt.

Olive is played by Nicola Stephenson in The Long Shadow, and appears in the final three episodes, despite being targeted by the Ripper before he had committed any murders.

Aged 46, she was hit twice over the head with a hammer and slashed by a pickaxe near her Halifax home in August 1975.

Sutcliffe later admitted he would have killed her were it not for the headlights of a nearby car throwing him off. 

Olive died in 2011 with her daughter saying: ‘She never got over that night. She did well to survive and had to learn to accept what happened mentally. But physically her mobility was never the same.

‘She has been through hell and suffered in silence. She never complained. May she rest in peace.’

Toby Jones as DCS Dennis Hoban 

Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban (right), played by Toby Jones (left), led the investigation into the Ripper after the first murder, but was later replaced by his assistant Jim Hobson 

Detective Chief Superintendent Dennis Hoban, played by Toby Jones, was one of the first police officers to take the Ripper murders seriously, with the ITV series showing how he encouraged the victims to be noted for their motherhood rather than the fact that many were sex-workers.

Hoban initially led the investigation after the first murder and was also one of the first to recognise that the murders taking place around Yorkshire were the work of a serial killer.

He dedicated himself to his job compulsively, working 16 to 18-hour days, seven days a week at a time when policing methods could be crude and corruption was widespread.

Hoban, and his partner Jim Hobson who later took on the case, were widely respected across the Leeds area for their decency and outstanding work.

However, the job took its toll – Hoban died unexpectedly on March 15, 1978 aged 52.

His associates cited the stress brought on by the investigation as one of the leading causes of his death.

His Honour Judge Barrington Black, who ended his long legal career as a Supreme Justice of Gibraltar before finally retiring at the age of 82, said last month that he believed the Ripper could have been apprehended sooner were it not for Hoban losing the case before his death.

Judge Black said: ‘I feel that Dennis Hoban may have done better as he had good luck on his side.

‘He had a reputation for picking up villains out of thin air. It was said that if a villain was climbing out of a bedroom window having stolen jewellery or something and he climbed down the ladder, he’d find Dennis Hoban at the bottom.’ 

David Morrissey as ACC George Oldfield 

David Morrissey plays ACC George Oldfield, who took the case over as it became a national story

When the case was brought to national attention as the press coined the name Yorkshire Ripper after Sutcliffe’s fifth murder, West Yorkshire Chief Constable Ronald Gregory appointed his most senior detective – Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, to investigate the murders. 

The case grew into the biggest police manhunt in British history.

Oldfield, played by David Morrissey in The Long Shadow, was drawn off-track by a series of letters and audio tapes sent to police by John Samuel Humble, where he called himself Jack the Ripper.

His distinctive accent, which earned him the nickname ‘Wearside Jack’, was pinpointed to Sunderland by voice experts.

His 200-strong ripper squad, told they could discount suspects without a Wearside accent, eventually carried out more than 130,000 interviews, visited more than 23,000 homes and checked 150,000 cars. 

A month later, Sutcliffe was questioned regarding the murders for a fifth time, but discounted on the grounds that his voice and handwriting did not match the hoax tapes and letters. 

Another three murders were committed between the first tape being sent in June 1979 and Oldfield being replaced following a heart attack in November 1980.

At that time police had a league table of suspects.

There were 26 in Division One – at the top was a completely innocent taxi driver who they tailed for months.

Some 200 names were in Division Two and 1,000 – including Sutcliffe – were in Division Three.

After suffering another heart attack in 1985, Oldfield died at the age of just 62 – and has since been referred to by friends as ‘the Ripper’s 14th victim’.  

Lee Ingleby as DCS Jim Hobson

Jim Hobson (right) was investigating a different crime committed by Sutcliffe at the time of his first murder. He is portrayed by Lee Ingleby (left) in The Long Shadow

At the time of the first Ripper murder, Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Hobson was head of Leeds CID and was leading an investigation into another crime committed by Sutcliffe – an attack on Tracy Browne in Silsden, West Yorkshire.

However, the Ripper only confessed to this crime in 1992.

Hobson, played by Lee Ingleby in the ITV series, went on to give an insight to the sexism within the police which has led to much scrutiny in reviewing the failings in the pursuit of the murderer.

During a press conference following the murder of 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald – Sutcliffe’s fifth victim – he said that the killer ‘has made it clear that he hates prostitutes. Many people do. 

‘We, as a police force, will continue to arrest prostitutes. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls.’

Sutcliffe exploited this attitude toward sex workers throughout his five years at large, with it only once he killed other young women that the police and public started taking the case more seriously.

Hobson, who appears in all seven episodes of The Long Shadow, inherited full control of the serial killer case from Oldfield and immediately downgraded the importance of the Wearside Jack tapes and letters.

Two months later, Sutcliffe was arrested. 

Michael McElhatton as CC Ronald Gregory

Ronald Gregory (played by Michael McElhatton), in his role as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, was responsible for appointing officers to lead the Ripper case

Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Ronald Gregory, played by Michael McElhatton, was responsible for appointing officers to the Ripper case.

He is another who appears in every episode of the new drama.

Like Oldfield, Gregory contributed to the elongation of the case as a supporter of the theory that the Wearside Jack tapes had come from the true killer. 

Nevertheless, he was triumphant during a press conference called after Sutcliffe’s arrest when he announced a reduction in the Ripper project as he was ‘delighted with developments at this stage’.

This drew criticism for opening the possibility of prejudicing Sutcliffe’s trial, but fortunately it was not sufficient to jeopardise the conviction. 

In his final annual report before retiring in 1983, Gregory said: ‘The Ripper is a thorn in my career. I wish we could have caught him earlier. But I know the men on the case could not have worked any harder.’ 

He would robustly defend his force’s Ripper investigation until he died in April 2010, claiming criticisms were only with the benefit of hindsight. 

Steven Waddington as DSI Dick Holland

Detective Superintendent Dick Holland (right), played by Steven Waddington (left), was another sidetracked by the Wearside Jack tapes 

Detective Superintendent Dick Holland is another of the police officers who was involved in the pursuit of Sutcliffe.

Portrayed by Steven Waddington, he was yet another convinced by the Wearside Jack tapes, to the point of batting away alternative theories posed by his juniors.

He was later brought into question again for being one of three members of the police who allegedly withheld evidence which led to the false conviction of Stefan Kiszko for the murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed in West Yorkshire in 1976.

Kiszko was released in March 1992 after the case was reopened, and Ronald Castree was finally convicted of the murder in 2007 after DNA evidence came to light.

Holland was formally charged with ‘doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice’ by allegedly suppressing evidence in Kiszko’s favour, namely the results of scientific tests on semen taken from the victim’s body and from the accused.

However, on May 1, 1995, the case was challenged by defence barristers, arguing charges should be stayed as the passage of time had made a fair trial impossible. 

The magistrate agreed and as the case did not get and the accused as presumed innocent.

Adam Long as DC Andrew Laptew

Andrew Laptew (seen, right, in 1999) saw his concerns about Sutcliffe batted away by DSI Holland. Left: Adam Long, who plays Laptew in the new Ripper series

Detective Constables Andrew Laptew interviewed Sutcliffe in July 1979 and has since said that ‘there were a lot of alarm bells ringing. 

‘He had a striking resemblance to the photofits of the attacker. He was in the suspect occupation group [a heavy vehicles driver].’

The relatively junior officer, played by Adam Long, raised his concerns to Holland, who he ‘put on a pedestal’, only to be shut down.

He continued: ‘He asked, “Has he got a Geordie accent?” I said, “No, he’s local. He’s from Bradford. He’s a dead ringer for the photofit.”

‘Then he said, “If anybody mentions photofits to me again, they’ll be doing traffic for the rest of their service.”‘

When Laptew learned of the eventual arrest in 1981, he ‘got in my car and dashed up to the police station, opened my locker door and looked through my notebooks and there was his name “Peter William Sutcliffe – not satisfied with this man – full report submitted.”‘

Source: Read Full Article