Wilma McCann Aged 28
Murdered 30 October 1975
Wilma McCann, aged 28, was attacked by Peter Sutcliffe in the early morning hours of October 30 1975. The night of October 29th saw Wilma McCann in a familiar pattern. At around 7:30 pm, she said goodnight to her four children, leaving the oldest, at aged 9, in charge, and headed out of her council house on Scott Hall Avenue, in the Chapeltown area of Leeds, walked past the nearby Prince Phillip Playing Fields, and headed for the pubs and clubs.
Emily Jackson Aged 42
Murdered 20 January 1976
Emily Jackson, aged forty-two, was a part-time prostitute, whose description as such after her murder was a source of astonishment to her friends and neighbours in Churwell, where she lived. Her husband, Sydney, was a local roofing contractor, and she helped with the paperwork and drove the old Commer van for him from job to job, since he did not drive.
Around Christmas, due to financial pressures, Emily had decided to start taking money from the men she might pick up on their almost nightly excursions to the pubs. It was her habit to cruise the streets of Chapeltown looking for business, or she would sometimes leave the van in the car park and go off with clients in their vehicles.
Marcella Claxton Aged 20
Attacked 9th May 1976-survived
Marcella Claxton, aged 20, and a prostitute, was attacked in Leeds in the early hours of Sunday, May 9 1976. The police did not link the attack to the Yorkshire Ripper series, though they did re-examine the file after the next murder in February 1977.
Irene Richardson Aged 28
Murdered February 5 1977
Irene Richardson, aged 28, was murdered by Peter Sutcliffe nine months later, and at almost the same exact spot, as the previous known attack on Marcella Claxton in May 1976. The murder was also the one where his actions could be seen as deliberate, calculated, and controlled. Instead of quickly leaving the scene, as in previous attacks, he took the time to re-arrange her clothes and boots, and cover her body with her coat.
Patricia Atkinson Aged 32
Murdered April 23rd 1977
Patricia "Tina" Atkinson, who lived in a small flat, Flat 3, at 9 Oak Avenue, was at the Perseverance, in Lumb Lane, Bradford, on the night of April 23rd, dressed in a familiar outfit of blue jeans, short leather jacket, and a largely unbuttoned blue shirt. She was becoming more and more drunk, and had left the Perseverance and headed up Lumb Lane to stop at another of her regular haunts, the Carlisle, which was only a short walk back to her flat. The manager of the Carlisle had decided she had had enough to drink, and between 10:15 and 10:30 the staff remembered her announcing that she was leaving and watched her stagger towards the exit. She set off in what appeared to be her next destination, the International, and up to around 11:00 pm a number of the ladies of the street remembered seeing her unsteadily walking around.