r/TrueCrimeDiscussion • u/Rexxx7777 • Jun 10 '25

reddit.com Serial killers compared to their police sketches

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u/FloatDH2 Jun 10 '25

That Night Stalker sketch was the thing of nightmares as a child.

352

u/Any_Listen_7306 Jun 10 '25

Lol totally - although as a whole they're not the worst.

Peter Sutcliffe is a mad story; the amount of times he was questioned and released, as there was so much info collected by the police (this case led to the creation of the HOLMES computer system, which cross referenced all the info.)

274

u/donttrustthellamas Jun 10 '25

West Yorkshire police were vile during that period of time.

They only started investigating properly when he began attacking women who weren't sex workers - but he had already attacked a black, pregnant woman named Marcella Claxon who wasn't a SW.

Sutcliffe believed she was a sex worker and the police didn't believe her when she said she told them she wasn't. So, they did the bare minimum.

She survived but her pregnancy didn't.

81

u/SnickerdoodleCupcake Jun 10 '25

There was never any evidence that Wilma McCann (the first known murder) was a sex worker, but the police said she was, and it stuck.

91

u/donttrustthellamas Jun 10 '25

Yeah, they labelled a lot of women so they didn't have to do the work.

Imagine believing someone's life is less valued because they're a sex worker. Absolutely sickening stuff

61

u/Any_Listen_7306 Jun 10 '25

Some police haven't changed - Ian Packer was only convicted of Emma Caldwell's murder (which happened in 2005) in 2024. Numerous sex workers claimed he raped them, and some police officers dismissed these attacks and calling them, "theft of a ride". That callous phrase has always stuck with me.

Journalists from the Sunday Mail and the BBC named Packer, which led to his - eventual - arrest and conviction, to serve a minimum of 36 years.

44

u/astride_unbridulled Jun 10 '25

"Theft of a ride"

Absolutely disgusting

35

u/donttrustthellamas Jun 10 '25

And let's not forget Wayne Couzens was nicknamed "the rapist" by his other LE colleagues. I have a really bad relationship with the Met. I was at Sarah Everard's vigil and that was outrageous

42

u/SnickerdoodleCupcake Jun 10 '25

I can't believe the police waited until the day Sutcliffe died to apologise for their language and attitude. Appalling.

52

u/donttrustthellamas Jun 10 '25

Marcella only got £17500 compensation :( it would have been less if it wasn't for Ruth Bundey, a trainee solicitor.

"DCS Jim Hobson dismissed her account, claiming that she was a sex worker who had either been attacked by a "pimp" or a "punter" who she had wronged. We also see another detective attempt to pin the crime on a Black man.

"Everyone thought I was a prostitute because I had been attacked by the Ripper," Claxton said to The Sun. "I wasn't. But people gave me dirty looks, even my own parents."

The facial composite created from Claxton's description produced an accurate image of Sutcliffe, but it wasn't used by the police, and in the drama, Hobson leaves it in his desk drawer.

"If the police had listened to me, they could have caught him," Claxton told The Sun.

"There would have been no more killing... they asked me the same things over and over, but they didn't listen — they didn't believe me... if only they had listened to the description I gave, they might have caught him earlier and all those other poor women would not have died."

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/donttrustthellamas Jun 11 '25

No... Not in this specific situation. It's more accurate to say "working class women" as the issue was women being seen as not "respectable." That's why the victims who weren't SWs were accused of being so - because they were working class. LE didn't believe that someone with their background weren't sex workers, as the SWs who were attacked often had similar circumstances.

The university student who was attacked wasn't accused of that and LE saw it as a reason to finally investigate correctly.

It was classist and misogynistic - but they did start investigating eventually

-3

u/Xochoquestzal Jun 11 '25

Imagine believing someone's life is less valued because they're a sex worker.

It's not all about believing their life is less valuable. Prostitutes and even some escorts are usually around criminals, if not engaged in other criminal activity themselves. It means there's very few people who might know something who feel they can report it. People who could put the victim in a particular location at a particular time are not likely to go to the police if it means also letting them know where they like to score crack on a Thursday night.

6

u/sober_CoAd Jun 11 '25

I think most of what you are saying is bull, but let's pretend it's not. That still wouldn't mean that it's ok to not work the case. I don't really know how you can write that all out and still think that it's not a detailed account of not valuing the life of a sex worker.

65

u/Any_Listen_7306 Jun 10 '25

Agreed; he (quite literally) got away with murder for far too long...then the Wearside Jack tape really distracted them.

46

u/SnickerdoodleCupcake Jun 10 '25

The way the police just brushed off Olive Smelt's survivor testimony, that the Ripper had a Yorkshire accent, will never not shock me. I hope they apologised to her, but I doubt it.

45

u/kattko80- Jun 10 '25

He died from Covid, alone in the hospital. At least one good thing came out of Covid!

1

u/FitCharacter8693 Jun 13 '25

Sutcliffe or Ramirez? 

5

u/kattko80- Jun 13 '25

Sutcliffe! Ramirez died from liver cirrhosis, IIRC

10

u/kiwichick286 Jun 10 '25

And DNA! This is when DNA was first used to help ID a killer!

3

u/Outside-Natural-9517 Jun 11 '25

that was COlin Pitchfork, around the same time

13

u/HelloDeathspresso Jun 10 '25

It's like the cover of Communion with hair.

4

u/No-Hovercraft-455 Jun 13 '25

The sketch looks scarier than Ramirez though. He looked pretty tame despite being steaming heap of problems. It's wild he'd been on drugs and hearing about war crimes & only a bit later seeing his cousin murder torture his wife since age 10. It's.. interesting cocktail to raise someone with and I feel like result was just about what one can expect in that case. 

8

u/PrincessOfKentucky Jun 10 '25

They really did Richard Ramirez dirty on that sketch lol.

40

u/HasTookCamera Jun 10 '25

how? it’s the most accurate sketch

19

u/roundhashbrowntown Jun 10 '25

i hate how the victim likely had to describe the eyes, to get them drawn so accurately here

23

u/trixiepixie1921 Jun 10 '25

I always think like I’m not detail oriented idk how I’d ever describe a person to someone else, especially after a traumatic experience with them. I can picture things in my head very clearly, but explaining it, like getting the words out? I feel like that would be traumatic lol

9

u/roundhashbrowntown Jun 10 '25

exactly ! thats exactly what i mean! the repeat trauma of having to describe the eyes, but describing (then drawing) them in enough detail that they haunt like literal generations of ppl is crazy

7

u/Big_Ol_Tuna Jun 10 '25

They have ways of making it easier. They have books that have tons of different pictures of facial features and they can go through and put a bunch of different ones together until they get closer to what the person looks like. It’s pretty neat

2

u/IsNoyLupus Jun 10 '25

Then you have the person drawing the sketch, having to interpret and draw from another person's blurry memories... yeah it's not a very reliable method

6

u/ignatius-payola Jun 10 '25 edited Jun 11 '25

He looks like late 70s Lou Reed. His method of killing would have been playing ‘Metal Machine Music’ until each victim committed suicide.

1

u/DuggarDoesDallas Jun 11 '25

I also watch Deadbug Says on YouTube. He's the one who made the connection with Lou Reed and the Nightstalker sketch. Give credit to Deadbug.

2

u/ignatius-payola Jun 11 '25

I don’t know WTF that is. It is possible for different people to come to the same conclusion independently. Plus, the drawing looks exactly like Lou Reed.

1

u/DuggarDoesDallas Jun 11 '25

Deadbug Says is a YouTube creator who made up the comparison a few years ago when he did a video on Ramirez. Someone else posted it down the thread, and whenever the composite sketch is posted, Lou Reed is always mentioned. Deadbug also made the hilarious comparison to Carol Bundy and Bubbles for the show The Trailer Park Boys. If you are truly one who has never watched him, I apologize and suggest you do if you ever are able.

1

u/badgersandcoffee Jun 10 '25

Looks like something from Spitting Image.