Coronation Street alum Bruce Jones lost his marriage after police wrongly believed he could be the Yorkshire Ripper.
Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, died today after being diagnosed with coronavirus.
Sutcliffe, 74, was an inmate at maximum security HMP Frankland in County Durham, after being given 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of seven others. Former detectives believe he could be responsible for up to 22 further killings.
Soap star Bruce Jones, who played Les Battersby for a decade, revealed the impact the investigation had on his life after police suspected him as the killer.
The Mirror reports the actor, who appeared in the soap between 1997 and 2007, was treated as a suspect at the age of 23 after he discovered the mutilated body of one pf the Ripper's victims, Jean Jordan, in 1977.
Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe had brutally murdered the 20-year-old and dumped her body on an allotment in Manchester.
The mum-of-two had lived in Moss Side and had stumbled across the Yorkshire Ripper as he cruised for business in the red light district.
The pair haggled over money before Jean directed her murderer to the wasteland on Princess Road, Chorlton.
It was there that the Ripper struck, seizing a hammer left in one of the old nearby garages and raining down blows on Jean's skull until she died.
He dragged her body into bushes and raced off in his red Ford Corsair before he could be spotted - but in his panic left behind a freshly minted £5 note that had come from his work pay packet.
Realising his mistake as he drove off, Sutcliffe considered going back to the scene of his crime, but drove on in the hope he wouldn't be discovered.
Eight days later, Sutcliffe returned to the wasteland, finding Jean's body well hidden and in a state of decay.
He frantically searched the area for the incriminating £5 but unable to find it, took out his rage on Jean's remains.
He stripped her of her remaining clothes and slashed at her naked body with a knife. In a final act of violation, he decided cut off her head "to make a big mystery of it" and to hide his hammer blows from police.
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But the tools he used weren't up to the job so, defeated, Sutcliffe drove home to Bradford to burn his clothes.
Later that morning, 23-year-old Bruce and another allotment holder discovered Jean's brutalised body near a shed.
They called the police and Bruce was immediately suspected of being the killer - something he said had an enduring impact on his mental health and led to the breakdown of his marriage.
"He'd uncovered her, he was there that day, he'd hacked away at her," Bruce told the Mirror back in 2013.
"I lost my first marriage, my children.
"I lost everything because of that. It actually destroyed me to learn that people can do that to a human being. I had nightmares like you wouldn't believe."
On October 15, Jean’s handbag was found, about 50 yards from where her body was. Tucked away, in a pouch in one of the pockets, was a new £5 note.
Police figured the killer had returned to the body frantically looking for Jean’s handbag to try and recover the note he had given her, knowing it could incriminate him.
It eventually led police to Sutcliffe after a nationwide appeal to trace the note.
In 2010, Bruce said he experienced "pure panic" when the police asked him about his whereabouts.
"You start thinking, 'Where was I? What have I done wrong?' Your mind starts racing. It's pure panic," he said in The Dark Side Of Fame With Piers Morgan.
"I had nightmares for 12 months. I still do."
The impact of finding Jean's body was so great that Bruce experienced suicidal thoughts and struggled to cope.
His marriage to first wife Sue broke down in 1982, but Bruce said his sons - John and Stephen - kept him going.
He struggled to cope with what he had seen and said: "It's my two children that kept me going. If I hadn't had them, I think I'd have ended it all."
He was later suspended from Coronation Street after getting drunk with an undercover reporter and spilling the beans on upcoming storylines, and sunk into alcoholism after two of his homes were repossessed.
Sutcliffe was eventually caught when driving with fake number plates, finally confessing to the murders of 13 women by claiming he'd heard the voice of god sending him on a mission to kill sex workers.
He was sentenced to a whole life order in prison, spending the rest of his life behind bars and dying alone in hospital on the morning of Friday, November 13 2020 after contracting coronavirus.
