Emily Jackson grave (30th March 1932 to 20th January 1976)

It’s thought Peter Sutcliffe attacked four women before he killed Wilma McCann in October 1975. Murdering her with a hammer didn't sicken him as eighty days later he used the same method again. This time it was a housewife Emily Jackson who so short of money she sold her body occasionally. Here I am at the spot where she’s buried. There’s no headstone but I got lucky finding the plot as a bored but knowledgeable funeral operative led me to it.

In 1975 Emily had decided to supplement the family income through sex work. Her husband was a roofing contractor but money was scarce and they had three children to raise. She used her husband’s Commer work van to cruise around Chapeltown in Leeds looking for likely men. Usually she met them in car parks and got in their cars but sometimes she used the back of the van. She had a strong sex drive which had caused problems early on the marriage. Now it didn't as her husband complied with her nocturnal activities; he'd sit in pubs while she went to look for customers. Her encounters with local men meant the vice squad and local prostitutes knew her.

In January 1976 she didn’t return home. One Tuesday evening she visited the Gaiety pub with her husband - about fifteen minutes from their home. About forty minutes Emily left the pub and waited by some telephone boxes. It's thought from a semen sample found later on that she had a customer before meeting the man who killed her. That Tuesday evening Peter Sutcliffe was cruising around in his Ford Capri. He saw Emily, stopped and a £5 fee was agreed. They drove to an industrial estate about half a mile away and parked in darkness away from the streetlights. Sutcliffe later claimed Emily’s cheap perfume enraged him to murder her. Pretending the car wouldn't start he secretly picked up a hammer from beneath his seat and slid it into coat pocket. He alighted and lifted the car bonnet. Emily got out and offered to cast some light on the engine with a cigarette lighter. Sutcliffe pulled away enough so facilitate a mighty swing of the hammer. He belted the back of Emily's skull twice and she collapsed. Dead or dying Sutcliffe gripped her sweater and pulled her like a roll of carpet into a dark yard. He pushed up her sweater and bra and pulled down her pants. Using a Phillips screwdriver he stabbed her 52 times in the neck, breasts, lower abdomen, and back. Incandescent with hate he searched the yard for a length of wood and rammed a piece about three feet long between her legs. He stamped on her thigh so hard his Dunlop Warwick boot left an imprint on her. He left to visit his mother-in-laws house in Bradford.

About two hours later Emily’s husband left the Gaiety pub. He found his van in the car park not knowing his wife lay dead about 600m away. After waiting a while he got a taxi home and went to bed. The next morning a man on the way to work found Emily lying on her back. The police deduced she'd been murdered in the manner Wilma McCann had. At this time they didn't know the murderer would murder another eleven women over the next five years.

I arrived at the cemetery to find a funeral service was in progress. Some bored-looking funeral workers were milling around while music blared inside the crematorium. One was peering through a keyhole at the mourners. I asked him if he knew the cemetery well and he said he “spent half my working life here.” He knew exactly where section "M" was and walked me to it - then led me to the plot number. When he'd gone I pulled out a photograph I had showing the burial plot. On the periphery was the bottom of a neighbouring headstone. The funeral worker right - everything matched up. I doubt there's no headstone due to financial restraints or the family have locked away the whole thing. I'm not sure if Emily's husband is buried here too.

I put a photograph of Emily on the grass. Poor kid. Forty-three years old - you're only just into second gear aren't you? When she was murder there were children at home aged 18, 10 and 7 (Sutcliffe ended up leaving twenty-two children without a parent.) I did a salute, a prayer, another salute and left.