The 2021 podcast Crime Analysis covers Sutcliffe's crimes, focusing on the victims, the investigation and forensics, trial, and aftermath including an interview with the son of victim Wilma McCann. Sutcliffe was born on June 2, 1946, in Bingley, West Yorkshire, England, to John and Kathleen Sutcliffe. This inquiry also looked at the killings of two prostitutes in southern Sweden in 1980. The 74-year-old had tested positive for COVID-19 and was suffering from underlying health conditions. Although broadcast over two weeks, two episodes were shown consecutively each week. He became a trusted employee and remained in the position during his killing spree. Investigators missed other opportunities to stop a killer. Information on suspects was stored on handwritten index cards. [34], At Sutcliffe's trial in 1981, Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers, QC said of Sutcliffe's victims in his opening statement: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. "[27], On the night of 15 August, Sutcliffe attacked Olive Smelt in Halifax. Sutcliffe took the life of 40-year-old Vera Millward, who was also a sex worker, in May. In one encounter, no one spotted that he was wearing a pair of boots that matched a print left at the scene of one of his crimes. Wearing red trousers, a beige coat and cap, the monster looked a world away from the smirking killer who slaughtered 13 in a murderous rampage. It's me. [12], Sutcliffe met Sonia Szurma on 14 February 1967; they married on 10 August 1974. He was sitting in a car with a sex worker, Olivia Reivers, when police spotted his fake license plates. Sutcliffe has one other confirmed victim in 1969 he used a sock with a stone in it to strike a woman; she survived but declined to press charges. Sutcliffe said he had followed a prostitute into a garage and hit her over the head with a stone in a sock. He became a grave digger in 1964, which led to a part-time job at a local morgue. And a five-pound banknote discovered on one victim was traced to Sutcliffe's employer, but police accepted Sutcliffe's alibi that he had been at a party. I have the greatest respect for you, George, but Lord, you're no nearer catching me now than four years ago when I started."[39]. [11] In his late adolescence, Sutcliffe developed a growing obsession with voyeurism, and spent much time spying on prostitutes and the men seeking their services. [104] The Home Office responded by stating that it would send any new evidence to the police. [72][69] The report said that it was clear Sutcliffe had on at least one occasion attacked a Bradford prostitute with a cosh. He left this position when he was asked to go on the road as a salesman. [38] Sutcliffe displayed regret only when talking of his youngest murder victim, Jayne MacDonald, and when questioned about the killing of Joan Harrison, he vehemently denied responsibility. [99][92], Other forces across Britain also investigated links between Sutcliffe and unsolved murders in their force area. In 1977, Sutcliffe took the lives of four women: 28-year-old Irene Richardson in February; 32-year-old Patricia Atkinson in April; 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald in June; and 21-year-old Jean Jordan in October. Sutcliffe shared that he'd killed sex workers due to his belief that he was on a "divine mission. They divorced in 1994. The 5 note, hidden in a secret compartment in Jordan's handbag, was traced to branches of the Midland Bank in Shipley and Bingley. Sutcliffe initially attacked women and girls in residential areas, but appears to have shifted his focus to red-light districts because he was attracted by the vulnerability of prostitutes and the perceived ambivalent attitude, at the time, of police to prostitutes' safety. "Bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. In that episode, Sutcliffe is played by Joseph Mawle. Sutcliffe himself said at his trial, "It was just a miracle they did not apprehend me earlier they had all the facts." Peter Sutcliffe was a British serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper whose 1975-80 murder spree left residents of northern England living in fear. During his interrogation, Sutcliffe confessed to the crimes, saying, "It's all right, I know what you're leading up to. An index card was created on the basis of the letter and a policewoman found Sutcliffe already had three existing index cards in the records. [86][88][87] Twelve of these occurred within West Yorkshire, while the others took place in other parts of the country. [93][92], Also believed to be included on the list were the murders of 20-year-old Anna Kenny, 36-year-old Hilda McAuley and 23-year-old Agnes Cooney in separate incidents in Glasgow in 1977, as well as the World's End murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in Edinburgh in 1978. [78] Even though his confession failed to include any details of the murder, and Ripper detective Jim Hobson testified at trial that he did not find the confession credible, Steel was narrowly convicted. But "for some inexplicable reason", said the Byford Report, the papers remained in a filing tray in the incident room until Sutcliffe's arrest on 2 January 1981, the following year.[69]. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women". The police obtained a search warrant for his home in Heaton and brought his wife in for questioning. [123] The hearing for Sutcliffe's appeal against the ruling began on 30 November 2010 at the Court of Appeal. Following Sutcliffe's conviction, the government ordered a review of the investigation, conducted by the Inspector of Constabulary Lawrence Byford, known as the "Byford Report". The only explanation for it, on the jury's verdict, was anger, hatred and obsession. He then disarranged her clothing and slashed her lower back with a knife. [86][90] There were also two men on Hellawell's list of possible victims. [69], Amongst other things, the Byford Report asserted that there was a high likelihood of Sutcliffe having claimed more victims both during and before his known killing spree. [57], The choice of Oldfield to lead the inquiry was criticised by Byford: "The temptation to appoint a 'senior man' on age or service grounds should be resisted. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. On 23 March 2010, the Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, was questioned by Julie Kirkbride, Conservative MP for Bromsgrove, in the House of Commons seeking reassurance for a constituent, a victim of Sutcliffe, that he would remain in prison. [9], Sutcliffe was known to be acquaintances with Wilkinson, and was known to have argued violently with Wilkinson's stepfather over his advances towards her. When she got out of the car to urinate, he hit her from behind with a hammer. Peter Sutcliffe was born to a working-class family in Bingley, West Riding of Yorkshire. [32] Sutcliffe hit her on the head with a hammer, dragged her body into a rubbish-strewn yard, then used a sharpened screwdriver to stab her in the neck, chest and abdomen. [86] She survived the attack with serious injuries as a man distrupted the attacker, who matched Sutcliffe's description. Sutcliffe was transferred from prison to Broadmoor Hospital in March 1984 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. [145], In November 2021, American heavy metal band Slipknot released a song titled "The Chapeltown Rag", which is inspired by the media reporting on the murders. [78] Yallop continued to put forth the theory that Sutcliffe was the real killer. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. He was declared mentally able to leave the secure hospital and be sent to a maximum-security prison in 2016. [128][129], In 2017, West Yorkshire Police launched Operation Painthall to determine if Sutcliffe was guilty of unsolved crimes dating back to 1964. However, the search for Sutcliffe was derailed by problems that included police being unable to process information they'd collected, disrespect for the many victims who were sex workers and a hoax that misdirected the investigation. [78], In 1982, West Yorkshire Police appointed detective Keith Hellawell to lead a secret investigation into possible additional murders committed by Sutcliffe. [124] The appeal was rejected on 14 January 2011. He was eventually moved to prison in 2016 after it was decided his paranoid schizophrenia could be treated there. Though Sonia no longer lives in the house she and Sutcliffe moved into in 1977, she has not sold the home. Sutcliffe killed three additional victims between the hoax tape investigatory detour and his arrest. [2]:30, Sutcliffe attacked 20-year-old Marcella Claxton in Roundhay Park, Leeds, on 9 May. The sexual implications of this outfit were considered obvious but it was not known to the public until published in 2003. [105] These cases did not feature in the 2022 documentary version of Clark's book. Peter Sutcliffe, shown in a 1974 photo, was convicted on multiple counts of murder in 1981. [75] In 2015, former detective Chris Clark and investigative journalist Tim Tate published a book, Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders[84] (see below), which supported the theory that Sutcliffe had murdered Wilkinson, pointing out that her body had been posed and partially stripped in a manner similar to the Ripper's modus operandi. [69], Birdsall's letter was marked "Priority No. As The pictures were taken while Sutcliffe was still a patient at Broadmoor Hospital. [103], In 2015, authors Chris Clark and Tim Tate published a book claiming links between Sutcliffe and unsolved murders, titled Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders. [84] It alleged that, between 1966 and 1980, Sutcliffe was responsible for at least twenty-two more murders than he was convicted of. [111] Kay admitted trying to kill Sutcliffe and was ordered to be detained in a secure mental hospital without limit of time. He stamped on her thigh, leaving behind an impression of his boot. Sutcliffe was not convicted of the attack but confessed in 1992. While in custody Sutcliffe applied for the right to parole, but a 2010 ruling said that he would never be released from prison. [33] The police described her as the first "innocent" victim. He repeatedly bludgeoned her about the head with a ball-peen hammer, then jumped on her chest before stuffing horsehair into her mouth from a discarded sofa, under which he hid her body near Lumb Lane. West Yorkshire Police was criticised for being inadequately prepared for an investigation on this scale. [146], In February 2022, Channel 5 released a 60-minute documentary entitled The Ripper Speaks: The Lost Tapes, which recounts interviews and Sutcliffe speaking about life in prison and in Broadmoor Hospital, as well the crimes he had committed but which had not been seen or treated as "a Ripper killing".[147]. Sutcliffe died from diabetes-related complications in hospital, while in prison custody on 13 November 2020, at the age of 74. [75], Yallop highlighted that Steel had always protested his innocence and been convicted on weak evidence. In February 1975, he took redundancy and used half of the 400 pay-off to train as a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver. In 1997, an inmate stabbed Sutcliffe's eyes with a pen, and he subsequently lost vision in his left eye. In 1976, Sutcliffe found a job as a truck driver. The whole thing is making my life a misery. Sutcliffe died at the age of 74 on November 13, 2020, in the University Hospital of North Durham, near the prison where he'd been serving his sentence. He killed another sex worker, Emily Jackson, 42, in January 1976. [101][92], For many years Sutcliffe was linked in the press to the murder of 42-year-old Marion Spence in Leeds on 10 June 1979, but a man had in fact been convicted of her murder in January 1980. It was a beautiful sunny day and he looked like an old man strolling to his allotment or something. Read our Yorkshire Ripper live blog for the latest news & updates. [9][pageneeded], The first victim to be killed by Sutcliffe was Wilma McCann on 30 October. Sutcliffe picked up Jackson, who was soliciting outside the Gaiety pub on Roundhay Road, then drove about half a mile to some derelict buildings on Enfield Terrace in the Manor Industrial Estate. [91] Sinclair is also the prime suspect in the murders of Kenny, McAuley and Cooney, but detectives felt they did not have enough evidence to charge him before his death in prison in 2019. [108] In March 1984, Sutcliffe was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, under Section 47 of the Mental Health Act 1983.[109]. The accent on the hoax recording led to authorities searching for suspects outside of Yorkshire (Sutcliffe had a Yorkshire accent). As a teenager he was said to be a loner with voyeuristic tendencies. [100] Jenkins' murder remains unsolved. On 9 October, Jordan's body was discovered by local dairy worker and future actor Bruce Jones,[36] who had an allotment on land adjoining the site and was searching for house bricks when he made the discovery. Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981 and pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Birdsall visited Bradford police station the day after sending the letter to repeat his suspicions about Sutcliffe. After he was taken into custody, police discovered screwdrivers in Sutcliffe's car, which resulted in a search that uncovered a hammer and knife stashed near the scene of his arrest (he'd gotten a private moment by telling officers he needed to relieve himself). One issue with the investigation was the sheer quantity of information. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls. He was remanded in custody, and on 21 March 2006, was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. "Peter Sutcliffe a killer's mask". Trutv.com. Archived from the original on 21 March 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2010. ^ "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe victims". ^ a b "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe dies". BBC News. 13 November 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2020. ^ Brannen, Keith (ed.). "Chart". Execulink.com/~kbrannen. [106] One supposedly "unsolved" murder linked to Sutcliffe in The Secret Murders, that of Marion Spence in Leeds in 1979, had in fact already been solved in January 1980 when a man was convicted of her murder.[102][92]. [81] Furthermore, earlier on the day as Wilkinson's murder, Sutcliffe had gone back to mutilate Jordan's body before returning to Bradford, showing he had already gone out to attack victims that day and would have been in Bradford to attack Wilkinson after he returned from mutilating Jordan. "I was shocked he was not handcuffed considering who he is. Following Sutcliffe's death in 2020, a police constable issued an apology "for the additional distress and anxiety caused to all relatives by the language, tone and terminology used by senior officers at the time in relation to Peter Sutcliffe's victims. LONDON Peter Sutcliffe, who was convicted of killing 13 women and attempting to murder seven others in a yearslong spree that led newspapers to call him Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. The House of Lords held that the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire did not owe a duty of care to the victim due to the lack of proximity, and therefore failing on the second limb of the Caparo test. The hoaxer, dubbed "Wearside Jack", sent two letters to police and the Daily Mirror in March 1978 boasting of his crimes. Photo: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images, G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate, akin to a plea of temporary insanity in the United States, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Peter Sutcliffe, Birth Year: 1946, Birth date: June 2, 1946, Birth City: Bingley, West Yorkshire, Birth Country: England. [131][132], Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham aged 74 on 13 November 2020, after having previously returned to HMP Frankland following treatment for a suspected heart attack at the same hospital two weeks prior. Updated: 20:52, 6 Nov 2020 YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has tested positive for Covid after leaving hospital. [13] Because of this occupation, he developed a macabre sense of humour. This change in victim profile resulted in national press attention, and soon the media was using the name the "Yorkshire Ripper" to describe the killer. West Yorkshire Police made it clear that the victims wished to remain anonymous.[54]. [68] Nina Lopez, who was one of the ECP protestors in 1981, told The Independent forty years later, Havers' comments were "an indictment of the whole way in which the police and the establishment were dealing with the Yorkshire Ripper case". The Yorkshire Ripper. "The women I killed were filth", he told police. [45], Sutcliffe was charged on 5 January 1981. [6] Since his conviction in 1981 Sutcliffe has been linked to a number of other unsolved murders and attacks. Sutcliffe confessed to being the perpetrator, saying that the voice of God had sent him on a mission to kill prostitutes. An application by Sutcliffe for a minimum term to be set, offering the possibility of parole after that date if it were thought safe to release him, was heard by the High Court on 16 July 2010. [118] The court decided that Sutcliffe would never be released. [34], Joan Smith wrote in Misogynies (1989, 1993), that "even Sutcliffe, at his trial, did not go quite this far; he did at least claim he was demented at the time". The tape contained a man's voice saying, "I'm Jack. It was a beautiful sunny day and he looked like an old man strolling to his allotment or something. The Ripper, serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, died in hospital at 1am yesterday aged 74. [86] Detectives were able to eliminate Sutcliffe from forty of these cases with reference to his lorry driver's logs, leaving twenty-two unsolved crimes with hallmarks of a Ripper attack which were investigated further. Peter Sutcliffe, who later used the name Peter Coonan, was jailed for a whole life term in 1981 after murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven more. [64], After Sutcliffe's death in November 2020, West Yorkshire Police issued an apology for the "language, tone, and terminology" used by the force at the time of the original investigation, nine months after one of the victims' sons wrote on behalf of several of the victims' families.[65]. She survived and provided police with a description of her attacker. His father John Sutcliffe was a mill owner. [66][34][67] Jim Hobson, a senior West Yorkshire detective, told a press conference in October 1979 the perpetrator: "has made it clear that he hates prostitutes. [23], Sutcliffe's first documented assault was of a female prostitute, whom he had met while searching for another woman who had tricked him out of money. He left school in 1961, when he was 15. The decision to allow the temporary release was initiated by David Blunkett and ratified by Charles Clarke when he became Home Secretary. [5] This drew condemnation from the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), who protested outside the Old Bailey. [104], A number of murders Clark and Tate claimed could be linked to Sutcliffe already have DNA evidence, such as the murders of Mayo, Stratford and Weedon, and investigators are known to already have a copy of Sutcliffe's DNA and have been able to rule him out of unsolved cases as a result. [10], On 2 January 1981, Sutcliffe was stopped by the police with 24-year-old prostitute Olivia Reivers in the driveway of Light Trades House in Melbourne Avenue, Broomhill, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. British serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe, who is infamous as the 'Yorkshire Ripper' was born under fairly normal surroundings. According to one police detective, "mass hysteria" ensued because more women felt threatened; Whittaker, who'd been killed while walking home, was seen as a "respectable" woman. [16] When Sonia completed the course in 1977 and began teaching, she and Sutcliffe used her salary to buy a house at 6 Garden Lane in Heaton, into which they moved on 26 September 1977, and where they were living at the time of Sutcliffe's arrest.[17]. For other inquiries, Contact Us. After a two-hour representation by the Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers, a ninety-minute lunch break, and another forty minutes of legal discussion, the judge rejected the diminished responsibility plea and the expert testimonies of the psychiatrists, insisting that the case should be dealt with by a jury. [30], Sutcliffe committed his next murder in Leeds on 20 January 1976, when he stabbed 42-year-old Emily Jackson fifty-two times. It resulted in Sutcliffe being at liberty for more than a month when he might conceivably have been in custody. A witness said at the time:Sutcliffe looked really calm and quite happy. Sutcliffe was interviewed nine times,[56] but all information the police had about the case was stored in paper form, making cross-referencing difficult, compounded by television appeals for information which generated thousands more documents. They were snapped as the Ripper was taken for tests [122] Sutcliffe spent the rest of his life in custody. The notorious British serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe died from COVID-19 in prison this month. [86][87] A list was compiled of around sixty murders and attempted murders. The guards were chatting to him casually.. He left school at fifteen and held a variety of jobs, including work at a factory, as a gravedigger Episode 1", "Yorkshire Ripper 'has admitted more attacks', "Sutcliffe's 'secret murders': When Yorkshire Ripper was quizzed on unsolved Dundee killings", "Tayside murders 'bore hallmark of the Ripper', "Angus Sinclair: A lifetime of abuse, rape and murder", "The Bristol prostitute murdered as the Yorkshire Ripper hunted red light districts", "Wendy Sewell murder: Pathology report 'contradicts conviction', "Yorkshire Ripper moved back to prison after 32 years in Broadmoor", "Crime case closed: Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper", "Deranged killer admits Yorkshire Ripper blinding", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 'fit to be freed from Broadmoor', "Summer date for hearing that could lead to parole for Ripper", "Yorkshire Ripper will never be released", "Yorkshire Ripper to remain locked up for life", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe challenges "whole life" ruling", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe challenges full-life jail sentence", "Yorkshire Ripper loses bid to appeal "whole life" term", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe loses life tariff case", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 'facing Broadmoor exit', "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe moved from Broadmoor to prison", "Yorkshire Ripper moved back to prison from psychiatric hospital", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe dies aged 74", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe cremated at secret funeral", "This is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper Awards", "Crimes That Shook Britain Series 4 | Crime and Investigation", "The Yorkshire Ripper Investigation, The Reunion BBC Radio 4", "The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story", "The Incident Room review Yorkshire Ripper retelling puts police in the spotlight", "Long Shadow Yorkshire Ripper drama cast includes some big names", "WELCOME TO CHAPELTOWN: COREY TAYLOR AND CLOWN DELVE INTO SLIPKNOT'S NEW 'BARNBURNER', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Sutcliffe&oldid=1152480740, British people convicted of attempted murder, Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England, English prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, People convicted of murder by England and Wales, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales, Prisoners who died in England and Wales detention, Serial killers who died in prison custody, Articles with self-published sources from January 2021, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from January 2021, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Articles with incomplete citations from June 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2022, Articles lacking page references from January 2021, Articles with dead external links from October 2022, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 22+ (13confirmed murdered, 7confirmed injured, 2suspected to be injured, at least 1 other officially suspected murder), This page was last edited on 30 April 2023, at 14:06. [86], Another noteworthy case was the April 1977 murder of 18-year-old Debbie Schlessinger, who was killed as she walked home one evening in Leeds after a night out. [137], The 13 May 2013 episode of Crimes That Shook Britain focused on the case. [113], Sutcliffe's father died in 2004 and was cremated. He was unemployed until October 1976, when he found a job as an HGV driver for T. & W.H. Sutcliffe was serving a [43] On 25 November 1980, Trevor Birdsall, an associate of Sutcliffe and the unwitting getaway driver in his first documented assault in 1969, reported him to the police as a suspect. [127] In August 2016, a medical tribunal ruled that he no longer required clinical treatment for his mental condition, and could be returned to prison. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women." [79] Like Wilkinson, Pearson was bludgeoned with a heavy stone and was not stabbed, and was initially ruled out as a "Ripper" victim. [92] South Yorkshire Police also interviewed Sutcliffe on the murder of Ann Marie Harold in Mexborough in 1980, but links to him were later disproved when another man was convicted of her murder in 1982. MacDonald was not a prostitute and, in the public perception, her murder showed that all women were potential victims. But multiple investigatory missteps kept police from capturing Sutcliffe. His parents were John William Sutcliffe and his wife Kathleen Frances (ne Coonan), a native of Connemara. [115], On 17 February 2009, it was reported[116] that Sutcliffe was "fit to leave Broadmoor". [104] Derbyshire Constabulary dismissed the theory, pointing to the fact that a reinvestigation in 2002 had found only that Downing couldn't be ruled out of the investigation and stating that there was no evidence linking Sutcliffe to the crime. [29], After two days of intensive questioning, on the afternoon of 4 January 1981, Sutcliffe suddenly declared he was the Yorkshire Ripper. Weeks of intense investigations pertaining to the origins of the 5 note led to nothing, leaving investigators frustrated that they collected an important clue but had been unable to trace the actual firm (or employee within the firm) to which or whom the note had been issued. The police found that the alibi given for Sutcliffe's whereabouts, that he had attended a family party, was credible. The hoaxer case was re-opened in 2005, and DNA taken from envelopes was entered into the national database. And at the time there were no computers to process the facts on these cards. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.
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