BBC1
This is the remarkable inside story of the biggest and most controversial hoax in criminal history. In the late 1970’s a series of letters and a tape were sent to detectives trying to catch serial killer Peter Sutcliffe – The Yorkshire Ripper. The police were led on a two-year-long chase for the wrong man, allowing Sutcliffe to murder three more women.
True North worked with West Yorkshire Police’s HMET (Homicide and Major Enquiry Team) to tell the story of John Humble, the man finally found guilty 25 years after leading the hoax.
Using news archive material, the film tells the story of how, in 1978, police hunting Britain's most notorious serial killer received a letter from a man who claimed responsibility for the three-year reign of terror. Another letter soon followed and then the biggest breakthrough of all: A taped message from the killer himself, taunting detectives about their inability to catch the man who had been terrorising the streets of Northern England for the past four years. Calling himself Jack the Ripper, he appeared to have inside knowledge of how and where the killer plied his deadly trade.
Desperate and exhausted, detectives leading the Ripper hunt were convinced it was genuine.
The hunt for the killer swung dramatically from Yorkshire to the North-East, because of the man's "Geordie" accent and the postmark on the envelopes.
In the weeks that followed, a £1m advertising campaign was launched, urging people who recognised the voice of the "killer" to come forward. At the same time, police officers on the killer's trail were told they could eliminate any suspects who didn't have a Geordie accent.
Tragically, that included Peter Sutcliffe - the Yorkshireman who would confess to the Ripper crimes three years later - but only after he had been interviewed at least nine times and eliminated because he had the "wrong" accent and handwriting.
The Ripper Hoaxer tells the story of Humble’s dramatic hoax, the HMET’s modern day hunt for the perpetrator of a 25-year-old crime, and exclusively broadcasts Humble’s taped interviews with the police. It also meets Beryl Leech, whose daughter Barbara was one of Sutcliffe’s victims. Humble’s trial made Beryl re-live the pain she went through when Barbara was killed, and confront her hatred of the man whose actions diverted police attention from the hunt for Sutcliffe.