[29] After two days of intensive questioning, on the afternoon of 4 January 1981, Sutcliffe suddenly declared he was the Ripper. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls. The visit led to front-page tabloid headlines. Over five years, as more women were mutilated and killed, the clues that pointed to Peter Sutcliffe grew within that vast pile of evidence. Can women ever trust the Met Police again? Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died in hospital after contracting Covid-19. . 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=1142141115, 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 28 February 2023, at 18:59. [34]:188, The trial judge said Sutcliffe was beyond redemption, and hoped he would never leave prison. This serious fault in the central index system allowed Peter Sutcliffe to continually slip through the net". [48][49], Sutcliffe pleaded guilty to seven charges of attempted murder. [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. Sutcliffe's first and last murders also occurred in Leeds. [76][75] Police eventually admitted in 1979 that the Yorkshire Ripper did not only attack prostitutes, but by this time a local man, Anthony Steel, had already been convicted of Wilkinson's murder. Sutcliffe was reported to have been transferred from Broadmoor to HM Prison Frankland in Durham, in August 2016. Peter Sutcliffe, The 'Yorkshire Ripper' Who Terrorized 1970s England After an attack with a pen by fellow inmate Ian Kay on 10 March 1997, Sutcliffe lost the vision in his left eye, and his right eye was severely damaged. How was the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe caught? According to his statement, Sutcliffe said, "I got out of the car, went across the road and hit her. Two months after that, on 26 June, he murdered 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald in Chapeltown. They made the point that women should be able to walk anywhere without restriction and that they should not be blamed for men's violence. 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. Richardson was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Sutcliffe was transferred from prison to Broadmoor Hospital in March 1984 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. The courts in Yorkshire have been very busy with killers, sex predators and fraudsters all jailed in February . The hoaxer case was re-opened in 2005, and DNA taken from envelopes was entered into the national database, in which it matched that of John Samuel Humble, an unemployed alcoholic and long-time resident of the Ford Estate in Sunderland a few miles from Castletown whose DNA had been taken following a drunk and disorderly offence in 2001. [2]:92 In a confession, Sutcliffe said he had realised the new 5 note he had given her was traceable. Although Sutcliffe was interviewed about it, he was not investigated further (he was contacted and disregarded by the Ripper Squad on several further occasions). Coronation Street: Bruce Jones unrecognisable after Hollywood makeover She resumed a teacher training course, during which time she had an affair with an ice-cream van driver. Hill's body was found on wasteland near the Arndale Centre. He is one of Britain's most notorious criminals - and 37 years ago this week, the killing spree of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was finally brought to an end in Sheffield. [88][86] A month later Sutcliffe would kill Jacquline Hill only a mile away from the scene of Lea's attack. Sutcliffe said he had followed a prostitute into a garage and hit her over the head with a stone in a sock. [140] On 31 July 2020, the series won the BAFTA prize for Specialist Factual TV programming. [71] In 1969, Sutcliffe, described in the Byford Report as an "otherwise unremarkable young man", came to the notice of police on two occasions over incidents with prostitutes. The 1982 Byford Report into the investigation concluded: "The ineffectiveness of the major incident room was a serious handicap to the Ripper investigation. [98] Investigators had taken DNA from Sutcliffe at Broadmoor Hospital in December 1997, in order to see if they could find links between him and unsolved crimes. McCann, from Scott Hall in Leeds, was a mother of four children between the ages of 2 and 7. 13 November 2020 . [104] Derbyshire Constabulary dismissed the theory, pointing to the fact that a reinvestigation in 2002 had found that only Stephen Downing couldn't be ruled out of the investigation, and responded by stating that there was no evidence linking Sutcliffe to the crime. Peter Sutcliffe is an infamous English serial killer, who was also known as the 'Yorkshire Ripper.' He was convicted for the murder of 13 prostitutes and attempt to kill seven more women. But when he was finally caught in 1981 it was for driving with false number plates. Despite matching several forensic clues and being on the list of 300 names in connection with the 5 note, he was not strongly suspected. [75] Pearson's murder was re-classified as a Ripper killing in 1979, while Wilkinson's murder was not reviewed. [38], The police discontinued the search for the person who received the 5 note in January 1978. Yorkshire Ripper's niece says evil uncle's ashes are scattered at . [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. That indicates your mental state and that you are in urgent need of medical attention. [92] Clark and Tate claimed that Sutcliffe could have been in Essex and still had enough time to drive back to Bradford to kill Leach six and a half hours later. [101][92] However, several aspects of the attack did not fit Sutcliffe's MO, particularly as she hit been hit from the front and had been the victim of a robbery. [30], Sutcliffe committed his next murder in Leeds on 20 January 1976, when he stabbed 42-year-old Emily Jackson fifty-two times. What is needed is an officer of sound professional competence who will inspire confidence and loyalty". He is confirmed to have brutally murdered 13 women between 1975 and 1980 before he was stopped. [86] He fitted Sutcliffe's description, being described as 5feet 8inches (1.73m) tall with black hair and a beard, and hit her with a hammer. For five years, between 1975 to 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper murders cast a dark shadow over the lives of women in the North of England. Sutcliffe hid a second knife in the toilet cistern at the police station when he was permitted to use the toilet. [2]:30, Sutcliffe attacked 20-year-old Marcella Claxton in Roundhay Park, Leeds, on 9 May. It was decided that prosecution for these offences was "not in the public interest". In August 2016, it was ruled that he was mentally fit to be returned to prison, and he was transferred that month to HM Prison Frankland in County Durham. Faces of 32 criminals locked up in Yorkshire in February 2023 Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims. Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe moved from Broadmoor to prison But after a pattern began to emerge with all the killings - victims were all struck over the head with a hammer before being stabbed with a knife or screwdriver - it was clear they were after one man. The search for Sutcliffe was one of the largest and most expensive manhunts in British history, and West Yorkshire Police was criticised for its failure to catch him despite having interviewed him nine times in the course of its five-year investigation. 38 Ripper's first victim, attacked with a hammer and knife after a night out. I see you're having no luck catching me. History of notorious killer who brutally murdered 13women", "How police caught Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe in Sheffield 37years ago this week", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe victims", "Looking back: The Yorkshire Ripper investigation", "Restoring reputations of Yorkshire Ripper's victims after decades of victim-blaming", "Yorkshire Ripper serial killer Peter Sutcliffe dies", "Women who survived Sutcliffe's attacks also had to survive institutional sexism", "The Yorkshire Ripper was not a 'prostitute killer' now his forgotten victims need justice", "Daughter of Ripper victim kills herself", "Yorkshire Ripper: Who were serial killer Peter Sutcliffe's victims? [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. He also attacked three other women, who survived: Uphadya Bandara in Leeds on 24 September 1980; Maureen Lea (known as Mo),[42] an art student attacked in the grounds of Leeds University on 25 October 1980; and 16-year-old Theresa Sykes, attacked in Huddersfield on the night of 5 November 1980. [96][97], Other links made by police between unsolved attacks and Sutcliffe would also be subsequently disproven. Sue MacGregor discussed the investigation with John Domaille, who later became assistant chief constable of West Yorkshire Police; Andy Laptew, who was a junior detective who interviewed Sutcliffe; Elaine Benson, who worked in the incident room and interviewed suspects; David Zackrisson, who investigated the "Wearside Jack" tape and letters in Sunderland; and Christa Ackroyd, a local journalist in Halifax. [59]:83, In 1988, the mother of Sutcliffe's last victim, Jacqueline Hill, during an action for damages on behalf of her daughter's estate, argued in the case Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire in the High Court that the police had failed to use reasonable care in apprehending Sutcliffe. Leeds was the epicentre of Ripper activity, with six murders and five attacks in the city. [26] She later said, "I've been afraid to go out much because I feel people are staring and pointing at me. On 23 March 2010, the Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, was questioned by Julie Kirkbride, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Bromsgrove, in the House of Commons seeking reassurance for a constituent, a victim of Sutcliffe, that he would remain in prison. A detailed history, The ending of Sex/Life season 2 explained, 'Hollywood Ripper' murdered Ashton Kutcher's date. [2]:144 He was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010. Yorkshire Ripper's niece says his ashes were scattered at a seaside The so-called Yorkshire Ripper is finally caught by British police, ending one of the largest manhunts in history. How the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was finally caught - Cosmopolitan [74][75] Wilkinson's murder had initially been considered as a possible "Ripper" killing, but this was quickly ruled out as Wilkinson was not a prostitute. Peter Sutcliffe was sitting inside the vehicle with a sex worker, and instantly came to the officers' attention because he fit the description of the Yorkshire Ripper. [143] To be titled The Long Shadow, it was expected to air in September 2022.[144]. [12], Reportedly a loner, Sutcliffe left school at age 15 and had a series of menial jobs, including two stints as a gravedigger in the 1960s. [92] Barbara Mayo was already ruled out as a Peter Sutcliffe victim by police in 1997, and the DNA sample in her murder case has not been linked by police to that of Weedon or Stratford, showing the murders were committed by different people. The urge inside me to kill girls was now practically uncontrollable. [85] In 2022, ITV broadcast a documentary based on Clark and Tate's book which discussed links between Wilkinson's murder and Sutcliffe. Yorkshire Ripper's niece reveals his remains were scattered at the [102][92], Following his conviction and incarceration, Sutcliffe chose to use the name Coonan, his mother's maiden name. He struck Rytka on the head five times as she exited his vehicle, before stripping most of the clothes from her body (although her bra and polo-neck jumper were positioned above her breasts) and repeatedly stabbing her in the chest. During a strip search, officers noticed that Sutcliffe was wearing elbow padding, as well as an upside-down V-neck jumper under his trousers, exposing his genitals. The mysterious 3,700-year-old . He went on a killing spree and was even a suspect of the cops, but by the time they put 2 and 2. 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. [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 criminal investigation, nine months after one of the victims' sons wrote on behalf of several of the victims' families.[65]. He was the subject of one of the most expensive manhunts in British history, making fools of the West Yorkshire Police. The police told him he was "very lucky", as the woman did not want anything more to do with the incident. 1981: How was the Yorkshire Ripper caught? Sutcliffe murdered 13 women and attempted to . The attacks took place across Leeds, Bradford, Manchester, Huddersfield and Halifax, which meant officers were thrown off the scent of a serial killer being to blame. Many people do. [75] In 2015, former detective Chris Clark and investigative journalist Time Tate published a book, Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders,[84] 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. How police caught Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 37 years ago Yorkshire Ripper hoaxer Wearside Jack dies - BBC News Netflix's The Ripper review: A riveting look at the notorious Yorkshire The Yorkshire Ripper began his gruesome crusade of violence against women in 1975, when he killed 28-year-old mother-of-four Wilma McCann, 28 as she walked home from a night out in the early hours of 30 October. 40 years on: Catching the Yorkshire Ripper - Investigation UK A Netflix documentary, The Ripper, looks at Peter Sutcliffe's horrific crimes. The Yorkshire Ripper timeline: How was he caught and how and when did This inquiry also looked at the killings of two prostitutes in southern Sweden in 1980. Jan 2 1981: the Yorkshire Ripper is caught - Find it on YouTube Sutcliffe was not convicted of the attack but confessed to it in 1992. The problem with TikToks Bold Glamour filter, Who has Dua Lipa dated? 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. [89], One of the cases investigated was an attack on student teacher Gloria Wood in November 1974, in which Wood was attacked as she walked home one evening in Bradford by a man who had asked if she needed help carrying her bags. Yorkshire Ripper: Peter Sutcliffe's timeline of terror across the [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. "Bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. The Yorkshire Ripper has died at the age of 74 - nearly 40 years after he was convicted of murdering 13 women across the north of England. After hosting a family party at his new home, he returned to the wasteland behind Manchester's Southern Cemetery, where he had left the body, to retrieve the note but was unable to find it. In April 1980, Peter Sutcliffe was arrested for drink driving. [2]:71, Sutcliffe reportedly hired prostitutes as a young man, and it has been speculated that he had a bad experience during which he was conned out of money by a prostitute and her pimp. Download Ripper Notes (PDF/BOOK) Full | Martha Williams [63], In response to the police reaction to the murders, the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group organised a number of 'Reclaim the Night' marches. 7.1/10. How They Were Caught: The Yorkshire Ripper - YouTube How They Were Caught: The Yorkshire Ripper BuzzFeed Unsolved Network 5.37M subscribers 187K views 1 year ago The story behind the capture. [86], Hellawell also included six unsolved murder cases in Scotland on his list of potential Sutcliffe victims, and Sutcliffe was reportedly interviewed in prison about a number of murders in Scotland. [86], Another suspected victim of Sutcliffe was Yvonne Mysliwiec, a 21-year-old student attacked by a man with a ball-peen hammer at Ilkley train station in October 1979. [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. In December 2020, Netflix released a four-part documentary entitled The Ripper, which recounts the police investigation into the murders with interviews from living victims, family members of victims and police officers involved in the investigation. It was his sixteenth attack. [91][92] These included the murders of prostitute Carol Lannen and trainee nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe in Dundee in 1979 and 1980 respectively, which together became known as the "Templeton Woods murders" due to their bodies being found only 150 yards apart in Templeton Woods in the city. All except two of Sutcliffe's murders took place in West Yorkshire; the others were in Manchester.. Once she was dead, Sutcliffe mutilated her corpse with a knife. The basis of his defence was that he claimed to be the tool of God's will. Police believed this was in fact a new version of Jack the Ripper one hoaxer even claimed to be the killer, referring to himself as "Jack" in at least one recording sent to investigators during the manhunt. Between November 1971 and April 1973, Sutcliffe worked at the Baird Television factory on a packaging line. [86] The killing took place only two days before Sutcliffe's known killing of Patricia Atkinson in Bradford. Peter Sutcliffe refused to be shielded from Covid, inquest hears I'm Jack. [86][88][87] Twelve of these occurred within West Yorkshire, while the others took place in other parts of the country. For five years, investigators had pursued every lead in an effort to stop. [114], On 22 December 2007, Sutcliffe was attacked by fellow inmate Patrick Sureda, who lunged at him with a metal cutlery knife while shouting, "You fucking raping, murdering bastard, I'll blind your fucking other one!" [72] Later that year, in September 1969,[73] he was arrested in Bradford's red light district for being in possession of a hammer, an offensive weapon, but he was charged with "going equipped for stealing" as it was assumed he was a potential burglar. Now, Netflix is showing a documentary looking into the harrowing crimes the Yorkshire Ripper committed, in a new four part series. [78], Around the time of Wilkinson's murder it was widely reported that Professor David Gee, the Home Office pathologist who conducted all the post-mortem examinations on the Ripper victims, noted similarities between the Wilkinson murder and the killing of Ripper victim Yvonne Pearson three months later. 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. [68] Nina Lopez, who was one of the ECP protestors in 1981, told The Independent forty years later, Sir Michael's comments were "an indictment of the whole way in which the police and the establishment were dealing with the Yorkshire Ripper case". [34], The Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers QC, at the trial in 1981 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. Peter Sutcliffe, the man also known as the Yorkshire Ripper after he murdered 13 women in the north of England throughout the 70s and 80s, died of coronavirus last month at the age of 74. Yorkshire Ripper killings created 'culture of fear' - BBC News The group and other feminists had criticised the police for victim-blaming, especially for the suggestion that women should remain indoors at night. [84] As part of the research for the book, Clark and Tate claimed to have found evidence that pointed to the wrong man having been convicted for the Sewell murder, having unearthed a pathology report which allegedly indicated that the originally convicted Stephen Downing could not have committed the crime. Peter Sutcliffe, during his time as a serial killer, managed to kill at least 13 women and attempted to kill seven more, making a name for himself as the Yorkshire Ripper. Employing the same modus operandi, he briefly engaged Smelt with a commonplace pleasantry about the weather before striking hammer blows to her skull from behind. [78], In 1982, West Yorkshire Police appointed detective Keith Hellawell to lead a secret investigation into possible additional murdered committed by Sutcliffe. On 17 January 2005, Sutcliffe was allowed to visit Arnside where the ashes had been scattered. "[27], On the night of 15 August, Sutcliffe attacked Olive Smelt in Halifax. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look hundreds times for their favorite readings like this Listening About Jack The Ripper , but end up in malicious downloads. 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. The hoaxer, dubbed "Wearside Jack", sent two letters to police and the Daily Mirror in March 1978 boasting of his crimes. Between 1975 and 1980 Sutcliffe preyed on women across Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. How was the Yorkshire Ripper caught? What happened to Peter Sutcliffe In 2001, Angus Sinclair was convicted of the murder of Mary Gallagher on DNA evidence, and he was also convicted of the World's End murders in 2014 in a highly publicised trial. [86] She survived the attack with serious injuries as a man distrupted the attacker, who matched Sutcliffe's description. Paul Wilson, a convicted robber, asked to borrow a videotape before attempting to strangle Sutcliffe with the cable from a pair of stereo headphones. In January 1981, Peter was jailed after police caught him with a 24-year-old prostitute called Olivia Reivers. It wasn't until January 1981, three months after his final attack on 20-year-old Jacqueline Hill in Leeds, that police caught up with Sutcliffe. There, officers searched his car and discovered screwdrivers in the glove compartment. [86] Another case was the April 1977 murder of 18-year-old Debbie Schlesinger, who was killed as she walked home one evening in Leeds after a night out. That month, Sutcliffe killed again. At Dewsbury, he was questioned in relation to the Yorkshire Ripper case as he matched many of the known physical characteristics. [2]:107, Ten days later, he killed Helen Rytka, an 18-year-old prostitute from Huddersfield. This included interviews with some of the victims, their family, police and journalists who covered the case. View this post on Instagram. She survived and provided police with a description of her attacker. In November 2020, the man known as the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, died of COVID-19 at the age of 74. [90], Hellewell had also listed the attacks on Tracey Browne in 1975 and Ann Rooney in 1979 as possible Sutcliffe attacks, and it was to him he confessed to these crimes to in 1992, confirming police suspicions that Sutcliffe was responsible for more attacks than those he confessed to at trial. Police were able to trace the note back to the bank, which consequently narrowed their search down to around 8,000 people. [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. [83], In 2003, Steel's conviction was quashed after it was found that his low IQ and mental capabilities made him a vulnerable interviewee, discrediting his supposed "confession" and confirming Yallop's long-standing suspicions that he had been wrongly convicted.