The revelations come as 50-year-old John Humble today admitted that he deliberately tried to derail the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper in a bid to achieve notoriety.
Humble sent three letters and a tape claiming to be the Ripper, which saw the investigation switch from West Yorkshire to Wearside.
Humble leapt from the Wearmouth Bridge in November 1979, at the height of the police investigation – wracked with guilt that his actions had led to further killings.
Humble, of Flodden Road, Ford Estate, today admitted four counts of perverting the course of justice at Leeds Crown Court and will be sentenced for his crimes tomorrow.


Guilt drove 'Jack' to try to kill himself

WRACKED with guilt, John "Wearside Jack" Humble tried to kill himself by jumping 100ft from the Wearmouth Bridge.
His suicide bid came just five months after he had sent the infamous tape to detectives in West Yorkshire.
He was pulled out of the river by police, but it would be another 27 years before they snared him with the DNA from his saliva on the gum of one of the hoax letters.
Realising the hoax was rapidly spiralling out of control, on Monday, November 5, 1979, the 23-year-old, threw himself off the famous bridge.
The following day, the Echo reported how a man called John Humble had been incredibly lucky, escaping with only minor injuries as a result of the fall.
His suicide bid also followed claims that just two months earlier, he had tried to contact police to tell them the whole thing was a "hoax".
Just months after the tape had been sent out, and 18 months after posting the first hoax letter, the sheer scale of the police investigation became apparent.
But despite persistent rumours the letters and tape could be a hoax, the Sunderland investigation into the hunt for "Jack" would continue until the eventual arrest of Peter Sutcliffe in 1981.
During the following 25 years, Humble is not believed to have told anyone about what he did – or why he did it.
Then a cold-case review into the mystery of Wearside Jack prompted a series of remarkable events that led to the historic arrest.
Ordered by West Yorkshire detectives last year, the first step was to try to find any remaining evidence of the infamous hoax letters and tape.
A search was conducted of three UK forensic laboratories – London, Birmingham and Wetherby in North Yorkshire.
While the Birmingham and Wetherby searches proved fruitless, hidden away in a corner of the London lab was a piece of seemingly anonymous piece of paper that had been there for 25 years.
It was part of the original envelope from the letter Humble had posted to the Daily Mirror in Manchester in March 1978.
The seal was still there and from it,detectives were able to take a sample of "Jack's" saliva in the space where he had attached the stamp.
The sample was immediately passed on to forensic experts who then, using the latest technology, were able to build up a DNA profile.
The tiniest piece of saliva evidence soon became the clue that would finally reveal the true identity of Jack.
The DNA profile of the hoaxer was then scanned through the UK's database and a match was found.
Humble's DNA had been placed on the database in 2001 after his arrest over an assault.
With West Yorkshire detectives finally confident they had snared their man, plans were made to travel up to Sunderland and arrest Humble.
On Tuesday, October 18, a team of forensic officers moved in and arrested Humble at his Ford Estate home.


Hoaxer admits derailing Ripper hunt

WEARSIDE Jack – John Humble – today admitted he derailed the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.
Amid dramatic scenes at Leeds Crown Court, the 50-year-old pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
His infamous hoax letters and tape saw police leading the hunt for the real Ripper decamp their investigation to Sunderland, convinced the voice on the tape was from Castletown.
The divorcee, who lived with his brother in Flodden Road, Ford Estate, had previously admitted making the hoaxes, which diverted police attention while Sutcliffe killed three more women.
Humble, a former labourer and window cleaner, today admitted four counts of perverting the course of justice, corresponding to each of the three letters and the audio tape he sent during the Ripper inquiry.
Two letters were sent to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, who led the investigation in the late 1970s.
A third was sent to the offices of the Daily Mirror newspaper in Manchester.
The tape, which purported to be from the murderer and taunted the police for not catching him, was played to a spellbound public by detectives in 1979.
Despite the convictions of language experts that the voice on the tape was from Castletown, his only link to the village was that he once cleaned windows there.
The letters and tape were exposed as a hoax when Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981 and confessed.


The day police swooped

ON Tuesday, October 18, police swooped at 51 Flodden Road on Sunderland's Ford Estate.
With John Humble finally in police custody, he was immediately transferred to a West Yorkshire police station.
Drunk and in a state of shock, he was given many hours to sober up before police began their first interview.
Disorientated and without a drink, Humble was initially in a confused state in the surroundings of the police station.
In his first interview with police he appeared to be non-committal and offered officers nothing in terms of a confession.
But the DNA evidence which police had gathered would prove conclusive – John Humble was Wearside Jack.


'I did it for publicity, notoriety for me'

HOAXER John Humble, the man who made the Wearside Jack tape and letters, told detectives who snared him after 27 years: "I did it for publicity, notoriety for me."
The man responsible for Britain's biggest criminal hoax craved fame because of his unremarkable life.
Humble grew up on Hylton Lane Estate, in Sunderland, and attended Hylton Road Primary School before moving on to the former Havelock Secondary School.
His late mother Violet was a dominant figure throughout his childhood, taking an even greater role after the death of his father Samuel when John was just eight.
Violet strongly influenced all her children, including John's brother Harry and sister Jean.
Humble was not an exceptional pupil and, after leaving school, started on a series of different jobs, including security guard and builder's labourer. For three years, he worked as a window cleaner in Shiney Row and Penshaw.
Cleaning windows also took him across the Wear to Castletown. To this day, this remains the only link between Humble and the former colliery village – despite the original investigation pinpointing Castletown as the home of "Wearside Jack".
He was a keen darts player, enjoyed watching football and would often drop into the nearby Round Robin pub on Hylton Lane to have a pint.In 1990 Humble, who has never had children of his own, married Anne Mason in a register office ceremony.
He lived with Anne, now 54, for 14 years at a house on Fell Road where he acted as a father to Anne's son Joesph, now 29, who today lives just yards away on Ford Road.
Humble's life began to spiral out of control after he lost his job with a national building contracting firm.
The loss of his job took a heavy toll on his marriage to Anne and she left him and went to live with her daughter Colleen Cuthbert, 34, in Nuneaton.
Joe said his stepfather started out as a "sound dad" trying to discipline him and treat him like his own.
He said: "We got on at first, but I didn't like the way he treated my mum. She was a hard-working mum but when they met he changed her.
"I got home from school one day and she was packing his bag. I didn't blame her."
Joe stopped talking to Humble and his family once the relationship with his mother fell apart.
Humble moved back to live with brother Harry and the pair became well-known boozers in the area and could be regularly seen walking to and from the nearby HS Fairley Off Licence at least twice a day.
The pair became known as the "alkie brothers" while Humble was dubbed "John the Bag" because he could always be seen walking to and from the off licence with his rucksack.
Although the pair were unkempt, they never caused any problems and were mainly liked by their neighbours.
Humble was arrested at his Flodden Road home on Tuesday, October 18, before being taken to a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning.
After he was given time to sober up, two interviews were conducted by detectives.
At first he was reluctant to give anything away, but the police then informed his solicitors they had secured DNA evidence on their client.
Experts claim the DNA discovered was a billion-to-one match with John Humble – after 25 years, the police had finally caught Wearside Jack.


DNA and detective work snared Humble

WHILE being interviewed by West Yorkshire Police, Humble was asked why he did it.
"Publicity, notoriety for me," he responded.
Humble was then asked to read out a verbatim transcript of the original tape he had sent in June 1979.
This was the tape that would go on to be heard by millions of television viewers, the tape that vocal experts claimed came from a Wearside man, most probably from Castletown.
His voice was recorded as he repeated the words he had put onto that audiotape 25 years earlier.
A sample of his handwriting was analysed, while his blood grouping was determined to be that of a rare B secretor. With all this evidence, it seemed police finally had their man.
In an interview with former Sunderland Echo news editor, Patrick Lavelle, Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Gregg, from West Yorkshire Police, said: "Like many people, I thought the way forward was to locate the letters and the tape and to apply the latest DNA techniques to any material we could find.
"I was aware that the exact whereabouts of the tapes and letters was unknown and an attempt had to be made to find them.
"When I became head of the Homicide and Major Inquiry Team I was in a position to see that this work was carried out. We had to find out if the letters and tape still existed and if they did not find out what had happened to them."
The arrest and prosecution of John Humble combined good detective work and advances in DNA technology.


Nephew tells of drinking sessions

THE nephew of Wearside Jack would regularly enjoy all-day drinking sessions with his uncle.
David Carroll, 43, pictured, from Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, spoke of Humble's ongoing battle with the booze.
He said: "John's an alcoholic, but then again, so am I.
"He has always liked a drink but the past few years it has got out of hand."
Carroll also claimed the death of Violet, Humble's mother played a significant role in the brothers' drinking.
He added: "It hit them all hard. They all really worshipped the ground she walked on."


Mystery of missing book

WEARSIDE Jack found inspiration for the crime that gripped a nation at the Kayll Road library.
Just a short walk from his home on the Hylton Lane estate, he found a wealth of information on true crime at the library – including one about Jack the Ripper.
Humble is alleged to have borrowed the book, detailing the original Ripper's gruesome crimes.
Despite extensive searches of Humble's property, police have been unable to trace the book.