All killers go through an attack ritual before they start their attack – I have talked at length about these types of rituals before on the blog. In my previous post I talked about the three types of rituals but in this post I want to highlight how important it is to trust your own intuition as it could save your life.
The Yorkshire Ripper caused terror in the 1970s across the Yorkshire region sadly attacking numerous women and killing several. Many of his attacks in Bradford occurred in the Lumb Lane area of the city and this was quickly associated with the killings in West Yorkshire.
The TV programme Band of Gold which was shown between 1995-7 highlighted this part of Bradford again, and showed it as a seedy red light district. The local residents from the area decided they had simply had enough of this bad reputation and they decided to make a stand. They teamed up by getting together and protested by joining hands and forcing the prostitutes and the pimps out of their neighbourhood. This pushed the red light district to the Thorton Road part of the city which is next to the University of Bradford and it has been there every since.
More recently the self-proclaimed “Crossbow Cannibal” Stephen Griffiths was a student at the University of Bradford and he had a house just off Thornton Road which means he has been walking these streets every single day for many years. One prostitute was reported as saying she saw him every single day. Why is this important I hear you ask? Because all of the victims of the latest murders in Bradford were likely to have known Mr Griffiths personally because they saw him every day. They knew him, or at the very least, they will of known of him.
A scary fact is more than half (60%) of women are attacked by men they already know – not a complete stranger.
In my opinion the guy that attacked these ladies probably lived amongst them.
Good personal safety is being aware of people you know as well as the complete strangers.
Attack Rituals
If we look at attack rituals, an attacker is almost always likely to have his blood full of adrenaline. The murderer, or attacker, attacks people for a reason and usually it’s because they get a buzz out of it.
So if you see someone you know and they are behaving just slightly differently this can often be a key clue because it’s not congruent. Now I am not saying that everyone who acts a little differently is going to attack you but it should ring some alarm bells in your head.
If someone is going to attack they are either going to use the ambush technique, or they are going to use the talking distance attack, because it has to take place at talking distance. The attacker needs to get close, so they can either run and ambush or they come and talk to you nicely but they won’t be acting like they normally do.
If I was to guess I would say that these terrible series of Bradford murders were probably talking distance attacks and the girls probably recognised their attacker and felt pretty comfortable in his company. In fact, one newspaper article I read said the accused, Stephen Griffiths, was acting in a very different way on the day of the final murder – in other words he looked a bit shifty!
There are three elements to look out for:
- Body language
- Tonality
- Words
If the other person seems excited or nervous, or both, there will be a incongruency between their body language, tone and words. In other words they may be saying one thing but their body language and tonality would be saying another because of this extra excitement.
Psychopaths like to kill people because there is a feeling of being important and more in control – they enjoy this kind of domination. They don’t understand empathy and often they simply do it to get a chemical reaction in their blood.
So if your proposed attacker wants to get close, he will try and talk to you and he will have increased levels of adrenaline. This is why some people appear “shifty” as there body language is saying something completely different to their words.
I know this advice may sound simple and it is but it could save your life. I would recommend you trust your instincts even with people you know.
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