An Unsolved Ripper Murder?

It has just emerged that an unsolved murder from 1979 MAY have been committed by Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.  This is the belief of retired Police Officer Chris Clark.  What goes against it is the fact it was the same day Sutcliffe murdered Barbara Leach in Bradford.  The murder was that of Alison Morris, a 25 year old teacher from Ramsey in Essex, who went for a walk on September 1st 1979.  She was repeatedly stabbed in a frenzied attack.  Police ruled out the Ripper as it was the day that Miss Leach was butchered by Sutcliffe in Bradford, and despite an intense manhunt, the case remains open and unsolved.

    Retired cop Chris Clark who served with Norfolk Police for more than 30 years, is examining 17 unsolved cases, and is doing his own detective work.  What he has unearthed is very interesting.  He has discovered that Sutcliffe had been seen in the area of the murder around the time of it.  What should be remembered is that Sutcliffe was a lorry driver, and they travel around the country.  A couple spoke to a lorry driver looking for directions for nearby Harwich, and when he was arrested for the murders in the north, they recognised the picture of the accused, as the man asking them for directions.  He had time to get back to Bradford.

    Alison was stabbed with a single edged blade.  Now those people whose way of looking at things "Criminal Minds" style who say that Sutcliffe used a hammer and screwdriver and it does not fit his MO.  Well, let us be logical. Criminals do not work to an MO set in stone.  Who is to say that Sutcliffe did not keep a knife in his lorry and his murder tools in his car?  Remember that in 1969, Sutcliffe was arrested carrying a hammer and screwdriver but was charged with being "equipped for theft".  He was arrested in the red light area of Bradford.  Was he "looking for a place to rob" or was he looking for a vulnerable victim?  Earlier in 1967, a Bingley taxi driver was brutally attacked by a young bearded man with a hammer, and was left with injuries that left him unable to work again.  On a hunch, detectives took all the photofits they had compiled during the Ripper hunt, plus Sutcliffes` 1981 AND 1969 arrest pictures.  The taxi driver immediately picked out the 1969 photo as his attacker.  This was shot down by a senior detective with "He only attacks women!"   Obviously, as author Michael Bilton pointed out, he changed his attacks from men to women, as they would not fight back as much, as the taxi driver did.  Michael Bilton also links Sutcliffe to an unsolved 1964 murder of a Bingley bookmaker.

    There are retired cops who find retirement boring and look for tasks to keep them and their minds active.  Doing their own cold case reviews is a very good way ala "New Tricks" and they are capable of unearthing more and new evidence.  More power to men like Chris Clark.