An original black-and-white press photograph documenting the extensive public appeal launched during the Yorkshire Ripper investigation in October 1979.
The photograph shows Station Sergeant George Kedgley fixing one of the newly issued Ripper appeal posters to the exterior wall of the police headquarters in Keppel Street, South Shields, while several members of the public look on.
The large poster bears the urgent headline:
“HELP US STOP THE RIPPER FROM KILLING AGAIN.”
It invites members of the public to examine handwriting reproduced from correspondence then believed to have been written by the murderer and to listen to a recorded voice. A Newcastle telephone number is prominently displayed for anyone able to identify either. The West Yorkshire Police crest and an instruction to report information to the local police appear at the foot of the poster.
The original pasted newspaper caption on the reverse reads:
“Members of the public look on as Station Sergeant George Kedgley hangs one of the new Ripper posters at the Keppel Street, South Shields, police headquarters.”
A Shields Gazette Library stamp and archive date of 8 October 1979 establish its contemporary newspaper provenance. Manuscript crop measurements and editorial lines on the reverse provide further evidence of its use as a working press photograph.
The handwriting and voice promoted by this poster came from letters and a cassette recording which police then believed had been sent by the Yorkshire Ripper. The recording had a distinctive north-east accent and led to an enormous publicity campaign intended to identify the speaker. The official Byford review records that the tape was posted in June 1979 and became central to a major “Letters and Tape” line of inquiry.
The poster is therefore especially relevant to South Shields and the wider north-east of England. Members of the public were encouraged to study the supposed killer’s handwriting and listen to the recorded voice, while police pursued thousands of potential leads across the region.
The letters and tape were eventually established as a hoax unrelated to Peter Sutcliffe. The misplaced reliance upon them became one of the most heavily criticised aspects of the investigation, with the later official review identifying serious errors of judgement and excessive dependence upon the material.
This photograph consequently records more than a routine police publicity exercise. It documents, as it happened, one of the defining and ultimately disastrous investigative strategies associated with the case.
The image has additional local significance through its precise identification with the former Keppel Street police headquarters and its provenance from the photographic archive of the Shields Gazette.
This is a genuine period newspaper photograph from 1979. It is not a modern reproduction.
Good condition for an original working press photograph. There is light age-related toning, minor surface marking and normal newsroom handling wear, together with slight edge and corner wear. The image remains clear, sharply focused and well contrasted, with the wording and principal design of the police poster readily visible.
The reverse retains the original pasted newspaper caption, Shields Gazette Library stamp, archive date, manuscript crop measurements and editorial border lines. These contemporary working annotations form an integral part of the photograph’s history and provenance.
Please study the photographs carefully as they form part of the description.
Subject: Yorkshire Ripper police appeal poster
Date: 8 October 1979
Location: Keppel Street police headquarters, South Shields
Person identified: Station Sergeant George Kedgley
Photographer: Uncredited
Provenance: Photographic archive of the Shields Gazette
Size: 25.3 × 20.3 cm
Format: Original black-and-white press photograph
Documentation: Original newspaper caption and archive markings verso
MAP DRAWER C YR FOLDER
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