Jacqueline Hill grave (20th May 1960 to 17th November 1980)

Most of Peter Sutcliffe’s victim’s were quite young (Jayne MacDonald was 16 and had only just left school). Here I am at the grave of someone a little older - 20-year-old Jacqueline Hill. She was a college student and the last person he murdered.

Monday 17^th November was a rainy night and Jacqueline was returning home to her students hall of residence in Headingley in Leeds. She had attended a seminar in the city centre and joined others for a drink or two. She caught an evening bus back to student halls. About 9:20pm she passed the Arndale Shopping Centre and was spotted by Sutcliffe who was parked up in his Rover consuming a carton of chicken and chips. He saw an opportunity, started the car and followed Jacqueline. He had not murdered for three months and hadn’t had much luck recently. A few weeks earlier he’d attacked twice - swinging a hammer on the heads of Doctor Upadhya Bandara and 16-year-old Theresa Sykes. Both had survived even though Upadhya had been dragged by a rope around her neck and Theresa had also been struck on the forehead. Their descriptions of the attacker was the same - black hair, black moustache and black beard.

Sutcliffe drove passed Jacqueline as she walked up the street (only 80 m from her door). He pulled over to the kerb. She stopped walking to adjust her skirt or her stocking Sutcliffe guessed she was a prostitute. He rose from the car with a hammer and screwdriver and smashed Jacqueline on the back of the head. Suddenly he saw a woman walking down the same road and held Jacqueline’s floppy body into a standing position. With the witness gone he dragged Jacqueline to some rough land behind the shopping centre. He pulled her clothes off and stabbed her repeatedly in the chest and lungs with a screwdriver. Her eyes remained wide open and she seemed to be looking at him me with an accusing stare so he stabbed one of her eyes.

She lay there all night despite police being called when students found Jacqueline’s bag nearby. Somehow their cursory searches with torches didn’t pick up a bloodied torso, spectacles or mitten. The next morning the manager of the Arndale Shopping Centre was arriving for work and happened to throw a glance over the wall and saw the body.

Her grave lives in a beautiful churchyard in Ormesby near Middlesborough (she was from the area). That morning I'd visited Whitby and thought I'd drive north up the coast to find her gravestone. On a sweltering day I found the church in the grounds of Ormesby Hall, a handsome Palladian mansion. The setting of a church and smattering of graves was very English though noise from a nearby road tarnished the atmosphere a little. A couple were sat on a bench looking 30m onto the graveyard. I sat in the motorhome and had a coffee waiting for them to leave. After half an hour they were still there. I had a fried egg sandwich and listened to the radio. After twenty minutes the couple were still there. I went to have a chat with them and said they would see me acting peculiarly around a certain grave but please ignore me. When they asked who it was they were surprised. They knew of Jacqueline's grisly murder but didn't know she was buried there. Sating their curiosity they had a look then eventually left. By the time I prepared my camera another couple planted themselves on the bench. I couldn't win.

I took a few photos and was glad to see some flowers on the grave. I've visited a few of the Ripper's victims graves and saw no signs of visitors. What a sad tale. Jacqueline needn't be here. Ironically her parents had been so concerned for her welfare they'd persuaded her to move from lodgings in Leeds to student halls. Sutcliffe was arrested six weeks after her murder (with a prostitute minutes from being murdered) and jailed on what would have been Jacqueline's 21st birthday. She lies here with her dad who died - as the carving says - broken-hearted. I did a salute and left.

Flowers where she was murdered...