John Humble died of alcohol abuse this week, aged 63.
Humble was the man whose hoax calls to murder detectives derailed the Yorkshire Ripper investigation and led to more victims piling up as it diverted attention away from other lines of inquiry.
He sent investigating officers anonymous letters and a cassette recording of himself taunting them.
The real Ripper's spree started in 1975 and the unknown killer had murdered 10 women in West Yorkshire and at other locations in the north of England when, in June 1979, police revealed they had received the tape recording featuring a man's distinctive Wearside-accented voice. They wrongly believed the man to be the killer.
In it he said: "I'm Jack, I see you re still having no luck catching me."
The real serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe, is currently serving a life sentence for 13 counts of murder, after finally being caught in 1981.
Find out more about the Yorkshire Ripper case in The Inevitable Jack the Ripper which, as well as revealing the identity of ‘Jack’, also looks at the legacy and prelude to the infamous murders of 1888.
Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Inevitable-Jack-Ripper-Paul-Christian/dp/1724586793
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