During the 1970’s, a brutal serial killer terrorized the women of Manchester and West Yorkshire England. By the time he was apprehended, Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, had claimed the lives of thirteen young women and girls, and had attempted to kill at least eight more. Many of them sex workers he had picked up in red light districts. His killings created a culture of fear and suspicion in England. Every man was looked at with a side eye; whether he was your neighbor, teacher, bus driver, or father. Even after Sutcliffe was arrested in January of 1981, there was still a lingering dark cloud, causing women who were walking alone at night to pick up their pace, and glance over their shoulders. But by the early 90’s, the fear had subsided and Peter Sutcliffe and his horrendous crimes had faded to a cold memory. But when the West Yorkshire police received a letter from an anonymous man in July of 1991, alleging that he had kidnapped a prostitute off a street in Chapeltown, those distant, cold memories began to grow more vivid. The letter claimed that unless a ransom of 140 thousand pounds was paid, the girl would be killed, and the clock on Julie Dart’s life began to tick down.
