Marilyn Moore - Yorkshire Ripper Victim
On the 14th December 1977 Peter Sutcliffe viciously attacked Marilyn Moore who was a convicted prostitute. Marilyn was assaulted by Peter Sutcliffe on spare ground in Scott Hall Street, Leeds.
The inquiry established that Moore was picked up for prostitution purposes by the driver of a car which, by a process of elimination, was subsequently thought to be of the BMC "Farina" type, driven by a man who said he was called "Dave".
The driver parked his car on spare ground and having suggested that intercourse should take place in the back of his vehicle, he hit Marilyn over the head with a hammer as she was getting into the rear seat. She sustained seven or eight lacerations to the head together with a depressed fracture of the skull.
She also received injuries to her hands which she had used to try to protect herself from the hammer blows to her head. Moore was eventually found and taken to Leeds General Infirmary for treatment. The attack was investigated by Detective Chief Superintendent Hobson from the Eastern Crime area but it was not linked with the series crimes until the 12th May 1978 when it was circulated to other forces in a West Yorkshire Police circulation.
Tyre tracks found at the scene of the crime were similar to impressions which were found at the scene of the earlier murder of Irene Richardson. Marilyn Moore described her assailant as a white man about 28 years of age, 5’7 - 8” tall, of stocky build with dark wavy hair, a medium length neatly trimmed beard and a "Jason King" moustache. Over 1,000 men called "Dave" or "David" were identified in the nominal indexes of the series crimes. All were interviewed but none of them could be implicated with the crimes. Unfortunately, although Moore’s description of the car in which she had been picked up was accepted, the police placed less reliance on her description of her assailant. In retrospect it can be said that her identification of the car was wrong whilst her description of her attacker matched that of Peter Sutcliffe fairly accurately.
