Stephen Griffiths: Ven Pariah, Demons, Hookers, Photos And The Yorkshire Ripper
STEPHEN Griffiths is arrested on suspicion of killing three women. The press call them prostitutes. They were women in a dangerous job, criminalised and made vulnerable by the state. The women were prostitutes in and around Bradford.
Suzanne Blamires, 36, is dead. What is thought to be her remains were found floating on the River Aire. A woman’s head was found in a rucksack. Shelley Armitage, 31, has been missing since April. Susan Rushworth, 43, vanished in June 2009.
Stephen Griffiths is 40. He was, reportedly, enrolled on a course at the University of Bradford, where he is specialising in homicide studies. He has a degree in psychology.
On a social networking website, Griffiths writes:
“Ven Pariah has finally emerged into the world. What will this pseudo human do. One wonders?”
The tabloids like to demonise the killer, to make them other than human. In this case, the suspected killer seems media savy:
“Humanity is not merely a biological condition. It is also a state of mind. On that basis I am a pseudo human at best. A demon at worst.”
The website has been removed from the web by police.
The Times has more on Griffiths:
The spectre of a serial killer haunting Bradford recalled dark memories of the Seventies when fear gripped the same streets during the Yorkshire Ripper’s reign of terror. Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of 13 murders and seven attempted murders. Three of his victims were killed in Bradford.
More victims?
Rebecca Hall:
Her stripped and battered body was found almost two weeks later, on April 26, in an alleyway off Thornton Street. Police believe that she was killed on the night she went missing.
Yvonne Fitt:
Her body was found at Warren Point, Norwood Edge, between Otley and Pateley Bridge, on September 12, 1992. Police believe she had been stabbed to death up to two months before her body was found.
The media loves a serial killer.
The Telegraph can barely contain its excitement:
The disclosure that Stephen Griffiths, a mature Bradford University crime student who was researching serial killers, is linked to the murders of up to six women on the streets once stalked by the Yorkshire Ripper could put him on a list of Britain’s worst serial killers. Below is a list of the most high-profile killers.
It’s serial killer Top Trumps.
The Mirror yells:
‘RIPPER’ COPS HOLD MAN FOR 3 KILLINGS
In the Metro, we get more profiling from a local shop worker:
“He wouldn’t say much but used to say hello and buy a few things. I thought he was a bit weird.”
The case goes on…
Posted: 27th, May 2010 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (34) | TrackBack | Permalink
