How police caught Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe 37 years ago In the series she questions whether the attitude of both the police and society towards women prevented Sutcliffe from being caught sooner. [122] Sutcliffe spent the rest of his life in custody. But the killer's true name Peter Sutcliffe is now notorious in England. On 10 January 1983, he followed Sutcliffe into the recess of F2, the hospital wing at Parkhurst, and plunged a broken coffee jar twice into the left side of Sutcliffe's face, creating four wounds requiring thirty stitches. Over the next day, he calmly described his many attacks. He was sitting in his car on an empty laneway on a quiet Friday night after new year's. Beside him in the passenger seat was a woman who, by the end of the weekend, would be grateful to be alive. John Humble, who was dubbed Wearside Jack, sent police on a wild goose chase when he sent. It was all there in that clogged up system. Walking home from a party, she accepted an offer of a lift from Sutcliffe. The Yorkshire Ripper Is Finally Caught. 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]. [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. His first. 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. Sutcliffe was finally arrested on January 2 1981, but it was several days before they revealed him to be the serial killer. [34]:188, The trial judge said Sutcliffe was beyond redemption, and hoped he would never leave prison. [86][87] A list was complied of around sixty murders and attempted murders. "Everybody wanted him caught . The identification and subsequent capture of the man labelled 'The Yorkshire Ripper' by the media was actually quite fortuitous. Namibia and Iceland caught in jaws of fish scandal. 1". Police analysis of bank operations allowed them to narrow their field of inquiry to 8,000 employees who could have received it in their wage packet. During his imprisonment, Sutcliffe was noted to show "particular anxiety" at mentions of Wilkinson due to the possible unsoundness of Steel's conviction. He then disarranged her clothing and slashed her lower back with a knife. [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. Police visited Sutcliffe's home the next day, as the woman he had attacked had noted Birdsall's vehicle registration plate. Born and raised in Yorkshire, England, he had mental troubles since childhood. [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. 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. What is needed is an officer of sound professional competence who will inspire confidence and loyalty". Yorkshire Ripper's niece says his ashes were scattered at a seaside The series also starred Richard Ridings and James Laurenson as DSI Dick Holland and Chief Constable Ronald Gregory, respectively. But "for some inexplicable reason", said the Byford Report, the papers remained in a filing tray in the incident room until the murderer's arrest on 2 January [1981], the following year.[69]. [18] The following is a summary of Sutcliffe's confirmed crimes: Sutcliffe's thirteen known murder victims were Wilma McCann (Leeds 1975), Emily Jackson (Leeds 1976), Irene Richardson (Leeds 1977), Patricia "Tina" Atkinson (Bradford 1977), Jayne MacDonald (Leeds 1977), Jean Jordan (Manchester 1977), Yvonne Pearson (Bradford 1978), Helen Rytka (Huddersfield 1978), Vera Millward (Manchester 1978), Josephine Whitaker (Halifax 1979), Barbara Leach (Bradford 1979), Marguerite Walls (Leeds 1980) and Jacqueline Hill (Leeds 1980). [137], The 13 May 2013 episode of Crimes That Shook Britain focused on the case. He is confirmed to have brutally murdered 13 women between 1975 and 1980 before he was stopped. The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has died at the age of 74. 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. That month, Sutcliffe killed again. Peter Sutcliffe, later dubbed the Yorkshire. The Telegraph reports the murderer claimed he had been "directed by God to kill prostitutes" as reasoning for the grim attacks. When he was caught in 1981, after years of police missteps, lost . [30], Sutcliffe committed his next murder in Leeds on 20 January 1976, when he stabbed 42-year-old Emily Jackson fifty-two times. Sutcliffe was not convicted of the attack but confessed to it in 1992. [9][pageneeded], The first victim to be killed by Sutcliffe was Wilma McCann on 30 October. [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. The notorious killer died in hospital after reportedly. [53] After his trial, Sutcliffe admitted two other attacks. The 5 note, hidden in a secret compartment in Jordan's handbag, was traced to branches of the Midland Bank in Shipley and Bingley. Peter Sutcliffe refused to be shielded from Covid, inquest hears June 26, 1977 The Yorkshire Ripper kills 16 year old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald in Leeds, changing public perception of the killer as she was the first victim who was not a . I see you are still having no luck catching me. The third book (and second episodic television adaptation) in David Peace's Red Riding series is set against the backdrop of the Ripper investigation. The play was produced by New Diorama.[142]. [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. On 1 September, Sutcliffe murdered 20-year-old Barbara Leach, a Bradford University student. [2]:144 He was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010. In January 1981, Peter was jailed after police caught him with a 24-year-old prostitute called Olivia Reivers. Hill's body was found on wasteland near the Arndale Centre. Birth City: Bingley, West Yorkshire. Yorkshire Ripper killings created 'culture of fear' - BBC News [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!" The 74-year-old had been serving a life term for murdering 13 women across. At his trial he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminished responsibility, but he was convicted of murder on a majority verdict. [9][10], Through his childhood and his early adolescence, Sutcliffe showed no signs of abnormality. The police then decided to do a . [70], The Byford Report's major findings were contained in a summary published by the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, the first time precise details of the bungled police investigation had been disclosed. Her body was found three days later beneath railway arches in Garrards timber-yard to which he had driven her. 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. 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. 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. . [8] Kathleen was a Roman Catholic and John was a member of the choir at the local Anglican church of St Wilfred's; their children were raised in their mother's Catholic faith, and Sutcliffe briefly served as an altar boy. The sections "Description of suspects, photofits and other assaults" and parts of the section on Sutcliffe's "immediate associates" were not disclosed by the Home Office. 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. He was interrupted and fled, leaving her for dead. [72][69] The report said that it was clear Sutcliffe had on at least one occasion attacked a Bradford prostitute with a cosh. 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. 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. No one felt safe - and every man was a suspect. [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. Sutcliffe was reported to have been transferred from Broadmoor to HM Prison Frankland in Durham, in August 2016. [79][78] Sutcliffe did not confess to Wilkinson's murder at his Old Bailey trial, although by this time Steel was already serving time for the murder. 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. In October 2020, it was announced that ITV was to produce a new six-part drama series about the Ripper. [13] Because of this occupation, he developed a macabre sense of humour. [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. Anna's life. [2]:107, Ten days later, he killed Helen Rytka, an 18-year-old prostitute from Huddersfield. The police obtained a search warrant for his home in Heaton and brought his wife in for questioning. Yorkshire Ripper killings created 'culture of fear' - BBC News [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". His victim was Yvonne Pearson, a 21-year-old prostitute from Bradford. "Bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. [126], In December 2015, Sutcliffe was assessed as being "no longer mentally ill". Byford described delays in following up vital tip-offs from Trevor Birdsall, an associate of Sutcliffe since 1966. While at Parkhurst he was seriously assaulted by James Costello, a 35-year-old career criminal with several convictions for violence. On 17 January 2005, Sutcliffe was allowed to visit Arnside where the ashes had been scattered. [2]:36. The Yorkshire Ripper is definitely the less famous of the Rippers, but he is nonetheless deadly! 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. The next day police returned to the scene of the arrest and discovered a knife, hammer, and rope he had discarded when he briefly slipped away from the police after telling them he was "bursting for a pee". 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. 13 women were dead and the police seemed incapable of catching the killer. On 25 November 1980, Birdsall sent an anonymous letter to police, the text of which ran as follows: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, I have good reason to now [sic] the man you are looking for in the Ripper case. [29] An extensive inquiry, involving 150 officers of the West Yorkshire Police and 11,000 interviews, failed to find the culprit. [86] However, by 2002 West Yorkshire Police publicly announced they were ready to bring charges against Sutcliffe for her murder (although no further action was taken as his whole-life tariff was confirmed). He often used the services of sex workers in Leeds and Bradford and targeted them. [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. Sutcliffe murdered 47-year-old Marguerite Walls on the night of 20 August 1980, and 20-year-old Jacqueline Hill, a student at Leeds University, on the night of 17 November 1980. [92] Sutcliffe was also linked to the 1975 murder of Lesley Molseed after a man was found to have been wrongly imprisoned for the crime in 1992, but Ronald Castree was convicted of his murder after a DNA match in 2007. Sutcliffe said he had followed a prostitute into a garage and hit her over the head with a stone in a sock. How was the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe caught? [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. Following his conviction, Sutcliffe began using his mother's maiden name of Coonan. How and where was the Yorkshire Ripper caught? [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. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women". He went on to describe all the attacks in a detailed confession that lasted 24 hours. The hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. The police found that the alibi given for Sutcliffe's whereabouts was credible; he had indeed spent much of the evening of the killing at a family party. He was unemployed until October 1976, when he found a job as an HGV driver for T. & W.H. Peter Sutcliffe - Yorkshire Ripper, Wife & Death - Biography On 1 October 1977 Sutcliffe murdered Jean Jordan, a prostitute from Manchester. Sutcliffe was accompanied by four members of the hospital staff. [2]:92 In a confession, Sutcliffe said he had realised the new 5 note he had given her was traceable. Best Known For: Peter Sutcliffe was a British serial killer known as . Tyre tracks found at the scene matched those from an earlier attack. Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. 38 Ripper's first victim, attacked with a hammer and knife after a night out. [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. On 16 July 2010, the High Court issued Sutcliffe with a whole life tariff, meaning he was never to be released. [110] On 23 February 1996, he was attacked in his room in Broadmoor's Henley Ward. [48][49], Sutcliffe pleaded guilty to seven charges of attempted murder. [23][133][19][134] A private funeral ceremony was held, and Sutcliffe's body was cremated. When Sutcliffe returned, he was out of breath, as if he had been running; he told Birdsall to drive off quickly. 1981: How was the Yorkshire Ripper caught? Two of Sutcliffe's murders took place in Manchester; all the others were in West Yorkshire. Detective George Oldfield's unshaken belief the 'Ripper' was a man from the North East possessing a 'Geordie' accent wasted valuable police time and resources searching for a man who fitted a profile matching the hoax recordings and letters that had been sent to Oldfield at the investigation headquarters in Leeds. [5] The report led to changes to investigative procedures that were adopted across UK police forces. It was on . McCann, from Scott Hall in Leeds, was a mother of four children between the ages of 2 and 7. 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. Sutcliffe hid a second knife in the toilet cistern at the police station when he was permitted to use the toilet. 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. It resulted in Sutcliffe being at liberty for more than a month when he might conceivably have been in custody. He stamped on her thigh, leaving behind an impression of his boot. Referring to the period between 1969, when Sutcliffe first came to the attention of police, and 1975, the year of his first documented murder, the report states: "There is a curious and unexplained lull in Sutcliffe's criminal activities" and "it is my firm conclusion that between 1969 and 1980 Sutcliffe was probably responsible for many attacks on unaccompanied women, which he has not yet admitted, not only in the West Yorkshire and Manchester areas, but also in other parts of the country". I went back to the car and got in it".[24]. For five years, investigators had pursued every lead in an effort to stop. On 6 April 1991, Sutcliffe's father, John Sutcliffe, talked about his son on the television discussion programme After Dark. [14] On 5 March 1976, Sutcliffe was dismissed for the theft of used tyres. [92] Because detectives firmly believed (and continue to believe) that McAuley, Cooney and Kenny's murders were committed by the same person, this appeared to also rule out the possibility of Sutcliffe also having committed the murders of Cooney and Kenny. [84] Due to the popularity of the book it was in 2022 turned into a two-part prime-time ITV documentary series of the same name, which featured both Clark and Tate. Drug kingpin Rehman was caught out after being identified as an Encrochat user who had facilitated the sale of drugs worth over 4million in an 11-week period. West Yorkshire Police made it clear that the victims wished to remain anonymous. [130] West Yorkshire Police later stated that it was "absolutely certain" that Sutcliffe had never been in Sweden. 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. [94][95][92] The murder of Hila McAuley could also be definitively proven not to have been committed by Sutcliffe as on the same night she was killed he murdered Jean Jordan in Manchester. Weeks later he claimed God had told him to murder the women. Her body was dumped at the rear of 13 Ashgrove under a pile of bricks, close to the university and her lodgings. The Netflix series reveals that the serial killer had murdered 13 women and attempted to murder seven more between the years 1975 and 1980. [92][102] Links were also made between Sutcliffe and the murder of 38-year-old Mary Gregson in Shipley in August 1977, but Sutcliffe was able to be ruled out with DNA after a profile of the killer was extracted in 1999, and in 2000 another man was convicted of the killing. 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.