Trevor Birdsall
Trevor Birdsall, Sutcliffe's close friend who was in his car the
night he assaulted Olive
Smelt and saw him tip a blood-stained stone froma sock. Birdsall read
about the assault days later and in 1980 he wrote to the police naming
Sutcliffe as the Ripper and later called personally to the police. His
information was not acted upon because the police were then certain Sutcliffe
was merely the copy-cat Ripper and they were anxious to trap the real Ripper
before arresting him as this action would mean massive publicity being focussed
on this man with the result that the Ripper would know the game was up. Tracey
was the man they were desperate to apprehend, more to be the heroes than
anything. But he was in Ireland and they would have to wait for him to travel
to the U.K. They wanted him with blood on his hands. They were watching him,
waiting for him to move. Sutcliffe had to be left alone until after the
Ripper's expected arrest. Under any other circumstances Birdsall would have
been arrested and charged with being an accomplice or an accessory to the
crime. However when Sutcliffe staged his arrest in Sheffield on the 2nd of
January 1980 events spiralled outside their control. The police did indeed take
Birdsall's information seriously but they already knew this and could not tell
him, an accessory to a crime, their strategy. Birdsall may have been given
obvious clues by Sutcliffe who wanted to be reported.
Extract from Gordon Burns' Book 'Somebody's Husband, Somebody's
Son' |
