[6] Since his conviction in 1981 Sutcliffe has been linked to a number of other unsolved murders and attacks. Again he was interrupted and left his victim badly injured but alive. [100] Ripper detective Jim Hobson duly visited the site of the murder in Bristol, but there were a number of differences in the murder to Sutcliffe's known killings. Sutcliffe died from diabetes-related complications in hospital, while in prison custody on 13 November 2020, at the age of 74. Over the next day, he calmly described his many attacks. [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. The mysterious 3,700-year-old . [124] The appeal was rejected on 14 January 2011. [b] The investigation used it as a point of elimination rather than a line of enquiry and allowed Sutcliffe to avoid scrutiny, as he did not fit the profile of the sender of the tape or letters. In the end Sutcliffe was caught after police discovered he had put false number plates on his car and found weapons in the boot. [100] Jenkins' murder remains unsolved. Eleven marches in various towns across the United Kingdom took place on the night of 12 November 1977. Sutcliffe had been interviewed on this issue. He recommended a minimum term of thirty years to be served before parole could be considered, meaning Sutcliffe would have been unlikely to be freed until at least 2011. [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 murder of a woman who was not a prostitute again alarmed the public and prompted an expensive publicity campaign emphasising the Wearside connection. [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 in December 1982 when another man was convicted of her murder. He left this position when he was asked to go on the road as a salesman. Straw responded that whilst the matter of Sutcliffe's release was a parole board matter, "that all the evidence that I have seen on this case, and it's a great deal, suggests to me that there are no circumstances in which this man will be released".[117]. Harrison's murder had been linked to the Ripper killings by the "Wearside Jack" claim, but in 2011, DNA evidence revealed the crime had actually been committed by convicted sex offender Christopher Smith, who had died in 2008. Sutcliffe spent thirty years at Broadmoor Hospital before being moved to HMP Frankland in County Durham four years ago 2016. What is needed is an officer of sound professional competence who will inspire confidence and loyalty". [14] On 5 March 1976, Sutcliffe was dismissed for the theft of used tyres. By Grace Newton 28th Mar 2019,. The series also starred Richard Ridings and James Laurenson as DSI Dick Holland and Chief Constable Ronald Gregory, respectively. The "Wearside Jack" hoaxer was given unusual credibility when analysis of saliva on the envelopes he sent showed he had the same blood group as that which Sutcliffe had left at crime scenes, a type shared by only 6% of the population. 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. Weeks later he claimed God had told him to murder the women. A report compiled on the visit was lost, despite a "comprehensive search" which took place after Sutcliffe's arrest, according to the report. According to his statement, Sutcliffe said, "I got out of the car, went across the road and hit her. Best Known For: Peter Sutcliffe was a British serial killer known as . [140] On 31 July 2020, the series won the BAFTA prize for Specialist Factual TV programming. [27] A witness misidentified the make of Sutcliffe's car, resulting in more than 300 police officers checking thousands of cars without success. [69], Amongst other things, Byford's report asserted that there was a high likelihood of Sutcliffe having claimed more victims both during and before his known killing spree. Following his conviction, Sutcliffe began using his mother's maiden name of Coonan. Sutcliffe hid a second knife in the toilet cistern at the police station when he was permitted to use the toilet. Yorkshire Ripper's niece says evil uncle's ashes are scattered at . Video, 00:01:18 The hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. [135], The song "Night Shift" by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees on their 1981 album Juju is about Sutcliffe.[136]. Sutcliffe was reported to have been transferred from Broadmoor to HM Prison Frankland in Durham, in August 2016. At his trial he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminished responsibility, but he was convicted of murder on a majority verdict. I see you are still having no luck catching me. [90] One of these was Fred Craven, a bookkeeper murdered with a hammer on the same street Sutcliffe lived on in Bingley in 1966, and whose daughter Sutcliffe was known to have approached and been rejected by. That month, Sutcliffe killed again. 38 Ripper's first victim, attacked with a hammer and knife after a night out. [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. Birth Country: England. [91][93] However, some of the links between Sutcliffe and these cases would later be definitively disproven. [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]. A later inspection back at the site of Sutcliffe's arrest revealed he had discarded a hammer and a knife when he supposedly went to relieve himself behind the building. I went back to the car and got in it".[24]. The basis of his defence was that he claimed to be the tool of God's will. For some time the 1970 murder of hitch-hiker Barbara Mayo was listed as a possible Sutcliffe attack by investigators, but this was conclusively disproved by DNA in 1997. The Yorkshire Ripper case is one of those stories that you eventually just absorb if you're a true crime follower like me. [13] She required multiple, extensive brain operations and had intermittent blackouts and chronic depression. Smelt later told Detective Superintendent Dick Holland (later the Ripper Squad's second in command) that her attacker had a Yorkshire accent but this information was ignored, as was the fact that neither she nor Rogulskij were in towns with a red light area. The decision to allow the temporary release was initiated by David Blunkett and ratified by Charles Clarke when he became Home Secretary. The Ripper was originally jailed for 20 years in 1981, with the sentence converted to a whole-life order in 2010. For five years, investigators had pursued every lead in an effort to stop. Tyre tracks left near the murder scene resulted in a long list of possible suspect vehicles. [80] Sutcliffe was familiar with the estate where she was murdered and was known to have regularly frequented the area; in February 1977, only months before the murder, he was reported to police for acting suspiciously on the street Wilkinson lived. [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. [100] After his conviction in 1981, South Yorkshire Police interviewed Sutcliffe on the murder of 29-year-old Doncaster prostitute Barbara Young, who had been hit over the head by a "tall, dark haired man" in an alleyway on the evening of 22 March 1977. Sutcliffe committed his second assault on the night of 5 July 1975 in Keighley. He attacked Anna Rogulskyj, who was walking alone, striking her unconscious with a hammer and slashing her stomach with a knife. The BBC reports he refused treatment for COVID-19, and died in hospital in November 2020 as a result. Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. In April 1980, Peter Sutcliffe was arrested for drink driving. Peter Sutcliffe, later dubbed the Yorkshire. [34]:188, The trial judge said Sutcliffe was beyond redemption, and hoped he would never leave prison. The police told him he was "very lucky", as the woman did not want anything more to do with the incident. [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. Sutcliffe murdered 13 women and attempted to . [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. The sexual implications of this outfit were considered obvious but it was not known to the public until published in 2003. [40] Humble died on 30 July 2019, aged 63.[41]. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls. Thankfully, there is no reason to think he committed any further murderous assaults within that period. [93][92] Also believed to be included 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. Born and raised in Yorkshire, England, he had mental troubles since childhood. Sutcliffe flung himself backwards and the blade missed his right eye, stabbing him in the cheek. [96][97], Other links made by police between unsolved attacks and Sutcliffe would also be subsequently disproven. [2]:107, Ten days later, he killed Helen Rytka, an 18-year-old prostitute from Huddersfield. This was the date and place of the Olive Smelt attack. [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. Birdsall visited Bradford police station the day after sending the letter to repeat his misgivings about Sutcliffe. [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 come back from mutilating Jordan. [123] The hearing for Sutcliffe's appeal against the ruling began on 30 November 2010 at the Court of Appeal. [50][51], The trial lasted two weeks, and despite the efforts of his counsel James Chadwin QC, Sutcliffe was found guilty of murder on all counts and was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment. [86][87] A list was complied of around sixty murders and attempted murders. Cosmopolitan participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. It was one of the largest investigations by a British police force[55] and predated the use of computers. But the killer's true name Peter Sutcliffe is now notorious in England. It was all there in that clogged up system. Attempts to send him to a secure psychiatric unit were blocked. [30], Sutcliffe committed his next murder in Leeds on 20 January 1976, when he stabbed 42-year-old Emily Jackson fifty-two times. Richardson was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. [69] Byford said: The failure to take advantage of Birdsall's anonymous letter and his visit to the police station was yet again a stark illustration of the progressive decline in the overall efficiency of the major incident room. Claxton survived and testified against Sutcliffe at his trial. The police have always had a poor understanding of what drives violence against women. Over three months the police interviewed 5,000 men, including Sutcliffe. Humble was remanded in custody and on 21 March 2006 was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. [37], On 14 December, Sutcliffe attacked Marilyn Moore, another prostitute from Leeds. [3][4] After his arrest in Sheffield by South Yorkshire Police for driving with false number plates in January 1981, he was transferred to the custody of West Yorkshire Police, which questioned him about the killings. 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". In April 1980, Sutcliffe was arrested for drunk driving. [79] Like Wilkinson, Pearson was bludgeoned with a heavy stone and was not stabbed, and was initially ruled out as a "Ripper" victim. [104] The Home Office responded by stating that it would send any new evidence to the police. This serious fault in the central index system allowed Peter Sutcliffe to continually slip through the net". Like Rogulskyj, Smelt subsequently suffered severe emotional and mental trauma. In November 2020, the man known as the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, died of COVID-19 at the age of 74. Sutcliffe was transferred from prison to Broadmoor Hospital in March 1984 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. [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. Peter Sutcliffe was a Bradford lorry driver who became known as the Yorkshire Ripper and . During his imprisonment, Sutcliffe was noted to show "particular anxiety" at mentions of Wilkinson due to the possible unsoundness of Steel's conviction. Sonia had several miscarriages, and they were informed that she would not be able to have children. Only days after Sutcliffe's conviction in 1981, crime writer David Yallop asserted that he may have been responsible for the murder of Carol Wilkinson, who was randomly bludgeoned over the head with a stone in Bradford on 10 October 1977, nine days after Sutcliffe's killing of Jean Jordan. [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. [85] In 2022, ITV broadcast a documentary based on Clark and Tate's book which discussed links between Wilkinson's murder and Sutcliffe. Wilma McCann's son Richard, who was just five-years-old at the time of his mother's murder, said the serial killer's death would bring "some kind of closure" for himself and the other family members of his victims. Their father would also whip them with a belt. [43] On 25 November 1980, Trevor Birdsall, an associate of Sutcliffe and the unwitting getaway driver as Sutcliffe fled his first documented assault in 1969, reported him to the police as a suspect. On 17 January 2005, Sutcliffe was allowed to visit Arnside where the ashes had been scattered. Over five years, as more women were mutilated and killed, the clues that pointed to Peter Sutcliffe grew within that vast pile of evidence. [40] The hoaxer appeared to know details of the murders which had not been released to the press, but which in fact he had acquired from pub gossip and his local newspaper. [138], On 26 August 2016, the police investigation was the subject of BBC Radio 4's The Reunion. [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. Leeds in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a place of fear and suspicion as the hunt for one of Britain's most prolific killers dominated the city. "[27], On the night of 15 August, Sutcliffe attacked Olive Smelt in Halifax. Sutcliffe struck the back of her skull twice with a hammer, then inflicted "a stab wound to the throat; two stab wounds below the right breast; three stab wounds below the left breast and a series of nine stab wounds around the umbilicus". [19], Sutcliffe is also known to have attacked eleven other women:[20] a woman of unknown name (Bradford 1969), Anna Rogulskyj (Keighley 1975), Olive Smelt (Halifax 1975), Tracy Browne (Silsden 1975), Marcella Claxton (Leeds 1976), Maureen Long (Bradford 1977) Marilyn Moore (Leeds 1977), Ann Rooney (Leeds 1979)[21] Upadhya Bandara (Leeds 1980), Mo Lea (Leeds 1980) and Theresa Sykes (Huddersfield 1980). Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom (1970s), World's End murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, List of serial killers by number of victims, "The Yorkshire Ripper files: Why Chapeltown in Leeds was the 'hunting ground' of Peter Sutcliffe", "The Yorkshire Ripper files review a stunningly mishandled manhunt", "Sir Lawrence Byford: Yorkshire Ripper report author dies", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 'was never mentally ill' claims detective who hunted him", "Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe's brother describes disturbing childhood growing up with notorious serial killer", "Who is the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe? [112] In 2003, it was reported that Sutcliffe had developed diabetes. [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. [53] After his trial, Sutcliffe admitted two other attacks. Sutcliffe was accompanied by four members of the hospital staff. 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. All except two of Sutcliffe's murders took place in West Yorkshire; the others were in Manchester.. Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 - 13 November 2020), also known as Peter Coonan and dubbed in press reports as the Yorkshire Ripper (an allusion to Jack the Ripper) was an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980. The police obtained a search warrant for his home in Heaton and brought his wife in for questioning. [15] Other analyses of his actions have not found evidence that he actually sought the services of prostitutes but note that he nonetheless developed an obsession with them, including "watching them soliciting on the streets of Leeds and Bradford". [75], Yallop highlighted that Steel had always protested his innocence and been convicted on weak evidence. It resulted in Sutcliffe being at liberty for more than a month when he might conceivably have been in custody. 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. Sutcliffe said he had heard voices that ordered him to kill prostitutes while working as a gravedigger, which he claimed originated from the headstone of a Polish man, Bronisaw Zapolski,[47] and that the voices were that of God. Many people do. [27], On 5 February, Sutcliffe attacked Irene Richardson, a Chapeltown prostitute, in Roundhay Park. Birth City: Bingley, West Yorkshire. 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. 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. His parents were John William Sutcliffe and his wife Kathleen Frances (ne Coonan), a native of Connemara. [75] Pearson's murder was re-classified as a Ripper killing in 1979, while Wilkinson's murder was not reviewed. The 74-year-old had been serving a life term for murdering 13 women across. He was caught by chance while . In the series she questions whether the attitude of both the police and society towards women prevented Sutcliffe from being caught sooner. At the time of this attack, Claxton had been four months pregnant and subsequently miscarried her baby. Despite matching several forensic clues and being on the list of 300 names in connection with the 5 note, he was not strongly suspected. [91] Sinclair also happens to be 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. The fronts of the elbows were padded to protect his knees as, presumably, he knelt over his victims' corpses. Peter Sutcliffe, 74, was known as the 'Yorkshire Ripper' and had been serving a whole-life term for a monstrous spree that terrorised Yorkshire and the north of England throughout the 1970s. The serial killer was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and north-west England. At Dewsbury, he was questioned in relation to the Yorkshire Ripper case as he matched many of the known physical characteristics. [90] The other male listed as a possible Sutcliffe victim was John Tomey, who was attacked by a hammer by a man who matched his description in his taxi in 1967. I was just cleaning up the place a bit". 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. 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. [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. [86] She survived the attack with serious injuries as a man distrupted the attacker, who matched Sutcliffe's description. By the mid-1970s Wilma, 28, was bringing up four kids on her own in a house with no carpets or heating. [77] Steel had confessed to the murder under intense questioning, having been told that he would be allowed to see a solicitor if he did so.