DID THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER KILL MEN?

Fred Craven.

Written by Scott Williams-Collier

Peter Sutcliffe is in no doubt, in my opinion, the most ruthless serial killer in the UK. There are still many unanswered questions about the serial killer's crimes. I have always believed that Peter Sutcliffe attacked many more women than he was eventually tried for in court. In fact, there are some including myself, that believe Sutcliffe started by targetting men.

In April of 1966 in the small town of Bingley in West Yorkshire, Fred Craven, a well known and well-liked character and bookmaker was found horribly murdered. Fred was found in his office bludgeoned to death with what is thought to have been a hammer. Money had also been stolen from the premisses.

Now a murder in a small town like Bingley back in 1966 would have been a phenomenal event. Murder in a place like Bingley was practically unheard of and for one to have been so savage and brutal made it even more spectacular.

Fred Craven with one of his Daughters.

Fred Cravens's daughter, Irene Vilder is convinced that her father's killer is Peter Sutcliffe. Sutcliffe was well known to the Craven family. He lived a few doors away from Fred and played with his children as a child growing up. He was even invited into the Craven family home for food with the other children in the street where they all lived

Peter Sutcliffe also asked one of Fred's daughters out on a date on more than one occasion during his adolescents, which she declined. Sutcliffe also placed bets with the bookmaker. Interestingly Sutcliffe's younger brother was questioned about the murder of Fred Craven.

I have to ask myself how can someone be so utterly ruthless and callous, bludgeoning an elderly man to death who stood only 4 feet 7 inches in height. The only person in Bingley who had those types of credentials was Peter Sutcliffe.

Peter Sutcliffe could have very easily left the scene of the crime through the back of the building onto the canal pathway, and walked the short distance down the canal to his home without being seen during the late morning that day.

Unfortunately, during a move to a new police station, the police in Keighley lost all the evidence on the Fred Craven murder, so we are very unlikely to ever have closure on the Fred Craven case. Unless of course, Peter Sutcliffe was to stand up and say he was the murderer. That's never going to happen in a million years, Sutcliffe would never admit to killing men as it blows his story of mental illness out of the water.

John Tomey

There are three other men who Sutcliffe is suspected of attacking which resulted in two deaths and one man seriously injured with life long brain damage.

Taxi driver, John Tomey picked a passenger up one evening in 1967, who asked to go to Bradford. According to Tomey, the passenger changed his mind several times about where he wanted to go and eventually asked Tomey to take him to Bingley. Not far from Bingley on the Moors, John Tomey had become lost and leaned forward to look at a map, just as he was about to ask his passenger "where the hell are you taking me" he had what felt like an explosion go off inside his brain. The Passenger reigned down at least seven more blows to his skull. His Skull was fractured in eight places.

After regaining consciousness John Tomey realised his driver's side window had been smashed. He managed to drive his car to a house to get help, leaving his attacker on the moors. The photofit description John Tomey gave to the police looked just like Peter Sutcliffe. In fact, after Peter Sutcliffe was apprehended, and before his arrest was announced, Tomey was shown a lineup of mugshots. He took just 20 seconds to pick out Peter Sutcliffe.

Possible victim, Gordon Snowdon

George Ellis was a cemetery worker at the Bingley cemetery and a work colleague of Peter Sutcliffe. He was found dead by the side of the road in 1967 a few months before Sutcliffe was sacked from his job as a gravedigger. The police at the time believed he was a victim of a hit and run while walking home in the dark after work.  The police allowed work colleagues to go see George Ellis's body, which was being held at the church chappel, to pay their final respect. The group which included Sutcliffe was expecting to find him in a mangled mess. However, they found him lying across the slab with no marks on him apart from the back of his head which was fractured.

Ex-police officer and author Chris Clarke researched and highlighted these cases bringing them to the public's attention in his book Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders. Chris also believes Peter Sutcliffe Murdered Petrol station attendant Gordon Snowdon in 1979, who was found with severe head injuries. A cash register had been stolen from the scene. Mr Snowdon died later of his injuries in the hospital.

Peter Sutcliffe

There are too many coincidences with some of these cases to ignore them. The three that I am convinced Peter Sutcliffe attacked are the murder of Mr Craven,  the brutal attack on Mr Tomey, and the mysterious death of graveyard worker Mr Ellis. These attacks all happened inside or close to Sutcliffe's home town of Bingley where he grew up. He knew two of the people that died, and John Tomey has said that Sutcliffe was definitely his attacker. The manner in the way they were attacked bears all the hallmarks of Peter Sutcliffe's modus operandi.

The murder of Fred Craven and the brutal attack of John Tomey were actually flagged up by police officers during the ripper murders. However, the senior police chiefs rejected the idea as the Yorkshire Ripper only targetted women. Maybe if they had looked into the cases further they could have made a link to Sutcliffe sooner!

Peter Sutcliffe has obviously denied any involvement in these attacks. He's not going to admit to them either. Denying involvement gives him power and control over the police and the victim's families. He's also not going to back down from his claims of mental illness and hearing God's voice commanding him to kill prostitutes. This gives him some kind of shield to hide behind and to make himself a victim too.

Regardless of what happens in the future with these cases, as far as I am concerned Sutcliffe started his reign of terror, years before the Ripper murders and targetted men.