Police Photofits

In the late 1970's the north of England was terrorised by a serial killer (eventually named as a certain Peter Sutcliffe) whom the press dubbed "The Yorkshire Ripper".

The police investigation into the Ripper case was fatally flawed. Surviving witnesses provided a fairly consistent description of the attacker through the Identikit/Photofit system:



... but at no point in the hunt for the Ripper did the police prioritise bearded suspects.

Peter Sutcliffe: The Yorkshire Ripper.

Sutcliffe was interviewed 13 times by the police, but never regarded as a serious suspect.

Photographer Giles Revell devised an Art project in which members of the public & celebs were invited to create a self-portrait of themselves using a 1970's police Photofit kit. These are the results: a series of interesting studies in both Vanity and Insecurity about the way we look (or think we do, or would like others to perceive us):

pinhedz wrote:

eddie wrote:

Some of these are remarkably good, but what happens when a witness tries to do it by memory after seeing a criminal one time?

that one is not good at all

pinhedz wrote:

and here we get to see yakima ahaha