On a rainy Saturday night in April 1971, seventeen-year-old Dorothy Leyden went to see Motown star Jimmy Ruffin perform at Manchester’s Golden Garter nightclub. She laughed with her friends, caught a towel thrown from the stage, and left just after 1am to make her way home.
She never arrived.
A few hours later, Dorothy was found beaten to death behind a pub in Collyhurst. Witnesses had seen a young woman being dragged through the dark, screaming for help - but by the time police arrived, it was too late.
In this episode of Manchester Murders, Susan tells the haunting story of Dorothy’s final night, the massive police investigation that followed, and the disturbing pattern of attacks on other women in the same area. Decades later, despite forensic breakthroughs and renewed appeals, Dorothy’s killer has never been identified.
This is the story of a teenage girl whose life was cut short, and of a city still waiting for answers.
