Why Joy Division were questioned in relation to the Yorkshire Ripper’s murder spree
After the initial explosion of punk, a more experimental genre, post-punk, began to emerge. Combining styles such as jazz or electronica with the genre’s classic, abrasive, DIY sound, bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Fall, Gang of Four, and Joy Division defined the era.
Formed in Manchester following an eye-opening Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Joy Division would only release two albums in their short existence, Unknown Pleasures and Closer, with the latter coming two months after lead vocalist Ian Curtis’ suicide. The band honed a dark sound that significantly influenced the development of post-punk and gothic rock.
The band called themselves Joy Division after the novel House of Dolls, with ‘Joy Division’ being the name of a Nazi concentration camp’s prostitution wing. Before that, they were Warsaw and, very briefly, Stiff Kittens. However, when they switched their name to Joy Division and subsequently included an illustration of a Hitler Youth member on the cover of their debut EP, An Ideal For Living, the band garnered criticism and were accused of holding Nazi sympathies.
However, that’s not the only time the band found themselves wrapped up in controversy. Believe it or not, several members were questioned when the Yorkshire Ripper was on the loose after the band’s tour dates mysteriously aligned with some of the killer’s crimes. Of course, the real culprit was Peter Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women over the course of several years, often targeting prostitutes.
The hunt for Sutcliffe was extensive and incredibly expensive, with countless men in the north of England receiving questioning. Despite interviewing Sutcliffe on nine different occasions, he wasn’t caught until 1981, when he confessed following his arrest after driving with false number plates.
Sutcliffe was a terrifying figure, tormenting and injuring many more women than the 13 he successfully killed. Most of his crimes took place while Joy Division were rising to prominence in the post-punk scene, and coincidentally, some of Sutcliffe’s murders happened in close proximity to the band as they toured the country. Thus, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris found themselves on the receiving end of the police when their cars were somehow flagged for being “strange”.
Hook told Xfm: “What happened was that every club we played in was run by a dodgy promoter in some dodgy part of town. We managed to play in the red light districts of Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Manchester and probably London as well”.
He added: “The police had asked the public to note down the license plate numbers of any strange cars in the area, so they could investigate them later. Somehow, mine and Steve’s cars had gone in the system a couple of times, and basically, we got picked out!”
Although the pair were totally innocent, Morris was terrified that the police would somehow wrongly suspect him of being the killer, leaving him a nervous wreck. Hook continued: “Steve was very, very nervous in those days, and when the police questioned him, he lost it. He got taken to the police station, and his mum had to come and rescue him. It was very frightening – they basically asked you straight out if you were the Ripper.”
The pair were released, and a few years later, Sutcliffe was finally caught. He spent the rest of his life in jail, dying in 2020 at the age of 74.
