General Chat

The trouble with mediums is that they can never come up with the name and address of the murderer. The fact that they can see 'a tall man with dirty blond hair, who lives near water' isn't of much use to the police really. This will probably be solved by a mixture of luck, old fashioned police work and psychological profiling, as usual. I somehow don't think it is a woman committing these crimes, women generally commit murder in the privacy of their own homes, not out in public places, and strangulation requires some physical strength. OC

On BBC 24 hour news, the police spokesman has said several times he/she/they during the last 2 days. Jay

Budgie, you are right but its easier to type 'he' than he/she/they.

In the last few years there have been a few women who have gone missing in the Ipswich area and never been traced. I don't think they were all prostitutes either.

They certainly have learned lessons, but the short time span has helped. Same pathologist for each PM Same shift searching through all the cctv footage, etc Jay

Without a doubt Teresa

Its easy for us to sit here and pontificate, 'they should have done this and 'they should have done that' but we were not involved, so how would we know what they went through during the investigations. Watching the programme the other night on the operation to catch Nielson, yes there were gaffs and blunders, one of which seems to have led directly to the death of the last victim, but they got him in the end. With todays technology and instant access to national information, both Sutcliffe and Nielson would probably have been caught sooner.

The floor started to collapse with the weight of the files! Trying to cross reference anything was just a nightmare - they had so many different files for each line of enquiry. The £5 note should have solved that case but it wasn't to be and it's easy to say after the event. Debby

Maybe a medium didn't solve a case but may have provided certain information. Not sure, but if they had solved one, would they want the publicity...wouldn't that make them a target? Whatever the police do, I hope they catch him soon! Nanna-Moo ;-)

That's a very good point Debby, we forget that at the time they didn't have access to technology that we do today. I must have been like looking for a needle in a haystack back then.

Don't forget there were no computers when the Yorkshire Ripper was around - the police were drowning in paperwork and weren't making the connections - a computer would have thrown his name up again and again. The police were incompetant too and Wearside Jack didn't exactly help the investigation. I'd say it was too early to bring mediums in at this stage - the police use them on many of their investigations but don't like to advertise the fact. I have to say I don't remember any case being solved in England through a medium though. Debby

TC,,,,mwahh Baz xx

I agree, though reading back it sounds as if I don't lol. Sorry about that.

As I said TC, just a thought. I'm following Tony Stockwell at the moment, and he's just proving to me that they might have something to offer. Baz xx

I'm hoping that lessons were learned by the kind of mistakes that were made then, not only with Sutcliffe, but with Nielson, the Cambridge Rapist, Huntley and others. That brings me to another question, I'll start a new thread for that though. Back to your original point Baz, yes I agree, use a reputable psychic, but they never found Shergar or Lord Lucan, and they were used then too. Its not the answer in itself.

Well let's just hope and pray the police don't get sidetracked by red herrings this time, and that they don't have so much paperwork they miss things, both of which happened with Sutcliffe. My blood still runs cold at two early clues not being followed through - in an earlier attack (not a murder) the victim came up with an identikit picture with a very strong resemblance to Peter Sutcliffe. And a bite mark he left on one of the victims showed the murderer had a gap between his two front teeth. Peter Sutcliffe was detained and questioned several times, but always released - caught purely by chance. Jay

Sorry Rosalyn, I'm with you now. Yes it certainly looks that way for that particular case.

I agree with David, in fact the Police said today jsut after the press conference this morning, that he would probably be revelling in the notoriety and being compared to other serial killers such as Sutcliffe. The reality is of course, there is no comparison, except that the victims were prostitutes.

I was saying I think the uncaught killer of the Glasgow prostitute maybe foreign as a non -British man was seen with her, Ros

A driver from abroad wouldn't know the old roads, he would only know the main A14, which I know is only yards away. I really believe it is someone local, not just Ipswich, but anywhere in East Anglia. We shouldn't jump to the conclusion that he is foreign, after all, Nielson, Sutcliffe, Huntely, were all British.