S1 E5: The Hoax

In June 1979, the biggest manhunt in British police history pivoted on a single cassette tape. The voice on it — a slow, mocking Wearside accent calling himself 'Jack' — sent two hundred detectives chasing a ghost in Sunderland while the real Yorkshire Ripper kept killing. Host Marcus traces John Samuel Humble's three letters and the infamous tape, the expert warnings the police ignored, and the estimated eighteen months of freedom the hoax bought a serial killer. The police believed a voice on a cassette. They dismissed the truth when it finally called. New episodes daily — one complete case every season. Music by SINIUS (Free Music Archive, CC-BY 4.0).