| AGE | DATE | PLACE | OUTCOME | LAST ATTACK |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | July 5 1975 Saturday morning 1:30 am | Keighley | Survived | 5 years 10 months |
Anna Rogulskyj, aged 36, attacked Saturday morning July 5 1975 in Keighley at around 1:30 am, was Peter Sutcliffe's second known attack and second survivor. It was also the beginning of what would be eventually known as the Yorkshire Ripper series of attacks and murders.
Anna Rogulskyj's encounter with Peter Sutcliffe in the early morning hours of July 5 1975 was apparently at least her third meeting with him. Sutcliffe had heard from workmates at Anderton's that Keighley had a lot of prostitutes. Anna Rogulskyj was approached by a man with dark hair and a springy beard one day in the Town Hall square. He wanted to go home with her for a cup of tea. She was more than a little disturbed when the man began following her up Highfield Lane, where she lived. She eventually was able to throw him off.
The second meeting apparently took place a few weeks later when the same man followed her into Wild's coffee bar in the town centre, where at one time she had worked. The man, whom she noticed had "racing" eyes and "dainty" hands, offered to buy her a drink, but disappeared when it appeared obvious she was about to make a fuss about his unwanted attentions.
A few weeks later, on the night of July 4th, Peter Sutcliffe had driven alone to the centre of Keighley. Anna Rogulskyj had gone out drinking that night, taking the bus to Bradford, and had found a ride back to Keighley and to her home. She then decided to call on her boyfriend, whom she had a stormy relationship with, at his home in North Queen Street, a largely vacated and boarded up area. As she was walking she suddenly heard from a darkened doorway a man ask her if she "fancied it". She replied, "Not on your life", and quickened her pace towards her boyfriend Geoff's house. Once there, despite shouting and knocking and pounding on the front door, she could not raise him. In a fit of anger, she removed her shoe and put it through a ground-floor window.
Heading back towards her home, near an alleyway near the Ritz Cinema, she was again asked the same question by the same man, whom she rebuffed yet again. Peter Sutcliffe allowed Anna Rogulskyj to walk a few more paces before he attacked her with a ball-pein hammer, hitting her three times on the head. Once she was on the ground, he raised her blouse and slashed her across her abdomen. He was about to stab her in the stomach, when a man living in Lord Street, disturbed by the noise, called out and asked what was happening, causing Sutcliffe to flee, leaving his victim alive.
Anna Rogulskyj was found by a passerby at 2:20 am. She was rushed to the casuality department at Airedale hospital, and then was transferred to Leeds General Infirmary where she survived a twelve-hour operation which included the removal of splinters of bone from her brain, and at one point was given last rites.
STATEMENTS BY PETER SUTCLIFFE (Confessions, trial testimony, conversations, etc.)
"Yes, that was me. She had a funny name and I asked her if she fancied it. She said 'not on your life' and went to try and get into a house. When she came back, I tapped her up again and she elbowed me. I followed her and hit her with the hammer and she fell down. I intended to kill her but I was disturbed."
(Statement to police, read out in court during his trial. Source: Yallop, Daily Telegraph.)
"I was certain she was a prostitute - scum. I was being given instructions on what was the best moment to attack. I waited till she turned to walk back home. Then I hit her on the back of her head with a hammer. I knew that was safest. I knew she wouldn't see me. It was all over in less than ten seconds. I didn't mean her to suffer. I meant her to die."
(Source: Jones.)
 
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