TWO TV documentaries have this week brought two killers from the Bradford district back into the spotlight.
The 'Crossbow Cannibal' Stephen Griffiths and Alexia Heckles have both been the subject of shows broadcast this week. Below are the Telegraph & Argus articles previewing each show.
'Crossbow Cannibal'
Documentary examines what turned Crossbow Cannibal Stephen Griffiths into a serial killer
Alexia Heckles
Bradford woman convicted of killing her partner features in new Channel 4 prison documentary
Here is a list of other high-profile deaths from the district which received national notoriety through dedicated documentaries.
Michael Sams
Keighley killer Michael Sams, now aged 78, featured in a television documentary about the police investigation which eventually led to his arrest.
The programme, called Manhunt - Evil Calling, broadcast in September 2000, traced West Yorkshire Police detectives' efforts to catch one-legged Sams, who murdered Leeds teenager Julie Dart in July 1991 and abducted estate agent Stephanie Slater in September 1992.
He was eventually brought to justice when a photofit picture and an extract from a ransom tape were featured on the BBC Crimewatch programme.
His first wife Susan Oake recognised his voice. Sams received four life sentences in 1993.
'Yorkshire Ripper' Peter Sutcliffe
In 'Killer in the Family', broadcast on BBC One in March 1999, the father of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe admitted: 'My son should have hanged'.
John Sutcliffe, 75, revealed he no longer visited his son who was jailed for life at Broadmoor top security hospital for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven more.
He told the programme of his continuing love for his son who he talks to every fortnight on the telephone.
He also spoke of feelings of guilt, shame and hurt he had dealt with since his life was turned upside down when Sutcliffe, a Bradford lorry driver, was arrested.
A second documentary, Letters to the Yorkshire Ripper - Everyman, was broadcast on BBC One in May 2001.
But the programme caused controversy when Dr John Cromby, a social psychologist at Bradford University, said the broadcasting of Ripper Peter Sutcliffe's voice on TV could spell extra trauma for relatives of his victims.
The documentary described how dozens of women had become fascinated by the serial killer, and had written to him at his home at Broadmoor high security mental hospital.
The programme focused on three of these women. One of them was sent a tape by the killer, on which he had recorded a message for her. When it is played during the documentary, it will be the first time the Ripper's voice will have been heard on television.
Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus at the time, Dr Cromby said: "By letting Sutcliffe speak on this programme, it humanises him and makes him less of a demon," he said.
Shafilea Ahmed
The murder of Bradford-born Shafilea Ahmed was featured in a documentary.
The teenager Shafilea was murdered in front of her siblings by her own parents at the family home in Great Sankey, Warrington, in 2003.
The documentary, When Missing Turns To Murder, broadcast in April 2019, explored the police investigation - from the 17-year-old being reported missing from her home to the discovery of her body in the Lake District and the conviction of Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed nearly a decade later.
Shafilea was the victim of a brutal honour killing after her parents attempted to force her to marry her cousin in Pakistan.
The Ahmeds suffocated Shafilea to death by forcing a plastic bag down her throat, and she was later reported missing by her friends.
Five months later, her body washed up in the River Kent in Cumbria after severe flooding.
In 2012, the Ahmeds were convicted of Shafilea's murder and each jailed for a minimum of 25 years.
Yassar Yaqub
Yaqub, 28, was shot dead by police on an M62 slip road in January 2017 after returning from a meeting in Bradford.
Hometown, a BBC Three documentary broadcast in June 2019, follows award-winning journalist Mobeen Azhar who moves back to his hometown of Huddersfield to cover the death of Mr Yaqub.
Mr Yaqub, who suffered fatal gun shot wounds to his chest, had been the front seat passenger in one of two cars travelling in convoy from Bradford to Kirklees when four unmarked police vehicles surrounded them at junction 24 of the motorway at Ainley Top, near Huddersfield.
Samia Shahid
A documentary on the alleged “honour killing” of a Bradford woman was shown on BBC Two in February 2018.
Samia Shahid, 28, died in July 2016 while visiting family in Pakistan after receiving a phone call claiming her father was critically ill.
Her father Chaudhry Muhammad Shahid, who was held as a suspected accessory and was later released on bail, died in Pakistan in January 2018.
Her former husband, Muhammad Shakeel, from an arranged marriage, and her father were charged with her murder and her ex-husband was also charged with raping her before her death.
A documentary, Murdered for Love? Samia Shahid, was broadcast after it was postponed the previous month following her father's death.
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