Forty-three-year-old Mary Judge was a well-known sex worker in the area around Kirkgate, near Leeds, England, recognized for her cheerful demeanor and love of drink.
At ten-eighteen p.m. on Thursday, February 22nd, 1968, passengers on the eight-thirty-seven p.m. train from Hull witnessed a dreadful sight as they peered out the windows: Mary Judge being murdered on a patch of waste ground about fifty yards from the train tracks.
The victim’s body was found some time later, nearly nude and savagely beaten, her head crushed nearly beyond recognition.
One young boy on the passing train got a decent look at Mary’s killer and described him as a tall, slim man with dark hair.
A frequent client of Mary’s who had been drinking with her in the Regent Hotel before her death was arrested and questioned, but released due to lack of evidence. Later investigators theorized that Mary Judge might have been a victim of serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, better known as the Yorkshire Ripper, who fit the description of the individual seen from the train. Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven more, and he usually targeted sex workers, beating them in the head with a hammer.
Former police officer Keith Hellawell, who interviewed Sutcliffe multiple times, is convinced that Sutcliffe is responsible, not only for the killing of Mary Judge, but also for seven additional unsolved murders, including the slaying of Barbara Mayo in 1970 and Judith Roberts in 1972.
Crime Immemorial 