Five weeks after the Rogulsky attack, on Friday night the
15th August Olive Smelt, a respectable housewife walking home after a
night out in a pub with friends, was assaulted by Peter Sutcliffe, and
after his arrest, and indeed, before his arrest this assault was reported
to police and corroborated by his friend Trevor Birdsall, who accompanied
him on the night he did it. Birdsall gave evidence in the Old Bailey that
Sutcliffe was snubbed by some women in a pub and this probably triggered
his reaction. Whether it was Olive's group or a different party the papers
did not look for this detail.
Ex Chief Constable Gregory's memoirs confirm that Birdsall
saw Sutcliffe tip a blood stained stone from a sock when he returned to
his car where Birdsall waited for him. Birdsall read about the assault in
the paper the next day and remained silent. Had Sutcliffe been the Ripper
it is certain that Birdsall would be arrested and charged with being an
accomplice and withholding evidence. However the police had much to hide
and wanted this case closed fast. Birdsall, an accessory and witness to a
"Ripper" attack went scot free.
He was even paid for his story. This attack was linked to
the Ripper frame three years later as a possible early attempted murder by
the Ripper. Olive was battered over the head by a stranger who walked up
to her and commented that the weather was letting us down, before he
struck her. She said he was good looking, had wavy hair and long sideburns
and spoke with a Liverpool accent. Scratch marks, probably made by his
fingernails as he fumbled in her underwear were found on her abdomen which
were not explained at the time and as she was carried off to hospital upon
discovery and in the absence of simple explanations, evidence of semen
was not found. It would look odd to see policemen searching for semen
stains on a roadway with a magnifying glass the day after the assault even
if Olive knew her attacker had masturbated over her.
Traffic, rain, insects, birds and time would leave no
trace. As in the Rogulsky case no clothing was removed. The assault did
not get a high priority at that time and it was only much later when it
became associated with the Ripper case that it came to be considered as a
possible early Ripper attack. Detective Dick Holland, who investigated
this assault had her husband Harry as his principal suspect at first. It
was very similar to the Rogulsky attack some 5 weeks before, in Keighley,
and to the attack on Miss Tracy Browne, less than a fortnight later in the
same town of Keighley.
In her case, she heard him grunting as he masturbated and
his blood group being different to the Ripper's ensured this never came
into the Ripper frame. After Sutcliffe's arrest in 1981 much was made of
the Smelt attack to convince the public that he was the Ripper rather than
a sick sexually inadequate blackguard who hated women. Here was a man who
hated his wife so much that this hatred was extended to all women and his
early attacks were made opportunistically so that he could masturbate over
a female while groping her. As he came to the notice of Billy Tracey, his
life took on a new meaning and the mission from God developed. At his
arrest it was convenient for the police that they had included the Smelt
attack in the Ripper frame because of all the evidence corroborating it
with Sutcliffe.
It made him look like the Ripper indeed. The grey area that
it was always in, was forgotten about. These attacks would be highlighted
and the Ripper murders played down.
It is very likely that it was Sutcliffe who phoned Olive Smelt in 1980 in
an effort to get out of the dilemma he was locked into. It was just one of
his many attempts at proving he was the Ripper in that year. He wanted to
be identified. Who better to turn to than an actual victim who might
identify him?
Harry Smelt shows where the nightmare began for his family
in Halifax
Olive Smelt being escorted into court at Sutcliffe's trial
