Online Encyclopedia
Peter Sutcliffe
Peter Sutcliffe (born June 2, 1946), infamous as the "Yorkshire Ripper", was convicted in 1981 of the murders of thirteen women and attacks on seven more from 1975 to 1980.
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Early life
Peter William Sutcliffe was born in Bingley, West Yorkshire the son of a mill-worker. Reportedly a loner at school he left formal education at the age of fifteen and took a series of manual jobs, including a stint as a grave-digger, before settling into a job on the nightshift at a local factory.
He met Sonia Szurma in 1966 and they married in 1974. Shortly after his marriage he was made redundant and used the pay-off to gain a HGV license in June, 1975 and began working as a driver in September. His wife suffered a number of miscarriages and eventually the couple were informed that she would not be able to have children. Shortly after this his wife returned to a teacher-training course. When she completed the course in 1977 and began teaching the couple used the extra money to get their first house, in Bradford.
Manchester artist Gary Cartwright painted a violently painted portrait of the Yorkshire Ripper, using mixed media including human blood, along with other infamouse killers for an exhibition called 'the darkside' in 2002, the show caused outrage across the north of England where 'sutcliffe' commited his crimes, the painting also features in the book 'behind the painted smile' published by Trafford publishing ltd.
1975
The first known assault by Sutcliffe was in Keighley on the night of July 5, 1975. He attacked Anna Rogulskyj (aged 36) who was walking alone, striking her unconscious with a ball-pein hammer and slashing her stomach with a knife. Disturbed by a neighbour, he left before killing her. Anna Rogulskyj survived after extensive medical attention. He attacked Olive Smelt (aged 46) in Halifax in August with the same modus operandi and again was disturbed and left his victim badly injured. Later in August he attacked Tracy Browne (aged 16) in Silsden. She was struck from behind and hit on the head five times while walking in a country lane. Sutcliffe was not convicted of this attack, but later confessed to it.
His next victim, Wilma McCann of Leeds (aged 28) and a mother of four, was killed on October 30. He struck her twice with a hammer before stabbing her fifteen times. An extensive inquiry, involving 150 police officers and 11,000 interviews did not uncover Sutcliffe.
1976
He did not kill again until January, 1976, stabbing Emily Jackson (aged 42) 51 times in Leeds.
Due to repeated tardiness Sutcliffe lost his first driving job in March, 1976 and did not find another until October. He attacked Marcella Claxton (aged 20) in Roundhay Park in Leeds on May 9, another prostitute, he struck her with a hammer and left her with 25 stab wounds.
1977
The next murder took place in February, 1977. He attacked Irene Richardson (aged 28), another Chapeltown prostitute in Roundhay Park and this time killing her with a series of weighty hammer blows, followed by a post-mortem stabbing. Tyre-tracks left near the murder scene resulted in an enormous list of possible suspect vehicles.
He killed Patricia "Tina" Atkinson (aged 32), a Bradford prostitute in April and Jayne MacDonald (aged 16) in Chapeltown in June. The death of Jayne, rather than the prostitutes, reinvigorated the police inquiry but did not bring them closer to Sutcliffe. He seriously assaulted Maureen Long (aged 42) in Bradford in July, interrupted he left her for dead. He was seen by a witness, but they misidentified the make of his car. The police had over 300 officers working the case and amassed 12,500 statements and checked 1000s of cars, without result.
Sutcliffe killed a Manchester prostitute, Jean Jordan (aged 20) in October. Her body was not found for ten days, but had obviously been moved several days after death. The recovery of her handbag offered a valuable piece of evidence, Sutcliffe had given the woman £5. The note was new and was traced to banks in Shipley and Bingley and from there into the wages of 8,000 local employees. Over three months the police interviewed 5,000 men, including Sutcliffe, but did not connect him.
Sutcliffe attacked another Leeds prostitute, Marilyn Moore (aged 25) in December. She survived and offered another reasonable description of her attacker and tyre-tracks found matched those of an earlier attack.
1978
Despite this the police withdrew their intensive search for the person who received the £5 in January, 1978. In that month Sutcliffe killed again attacking a Bradford prostitue Yvonne Pearson (aged 21), this time hiding the body under a discarded sofa so that it was not found until March. He killed a Huddersfield prostitute Helen Rytka (aged 18) in late January, her body was uncovered three days later.
After a two month hiatus Sutcliffe killed again, attacking Vera Millward (aged 40) in the car park of the Manchester Royal Infirmary on May 16.
1979
Almost a year passed before he struck again, during this time his mother died. On April 4, 1979 he killed Josephine Whitaker (aged 19) in Halifax, a bank clerk, he assaulted her in a park as she was walking home. Despite new forensic clues the police efforts were diverted for several months into a fruitless search for a man with a Geordie accent (more accurately a Sunderland one) following a hoax tape message. The same hoaxer had sent two letters to the police boasting of his crimes in 1978 signed the "Jack The Ripper" and claimed a murder in Preston in November, 1975.
Sutcliffe killed Barbara Leach (aged 20), a Bradford student in September, his sixteenth attack. Yet again the death of a woman other than a prostitute aroused the public and prompted an expensive publicity campaign, which unfortunately pushed the Geordie connection. Even with this false lead Sutcliffe was re-interviewed on at least two occasions in 1979, but despite matching several forensic clues and being on the list of just 300 names in connection with the £5 note he was not strongly suspected. In total Sutcliffe was interviewed by the police on nine occasions.
1980
In April 1980 he was arrested for drunken driving. While awaiting trial on this charge he killed two more women, Marguerite Walls (aged 47) in August and Jacqueline Hill (aged 20) in November 1980. He also attacked two other women who survived - Upadhya Bandara (aged 24) in Leeds and Theresa Sykes (aged 16) in Huddersfield. Following the November murder one of Sutcliffe's friends reported him to the police as a suspect, this information vanished into the enormous volumes already created.
Arrest and trial
In January 1981 he was stopped by the police in Sheffield while in his car with a prostitute Olivia Reivers (aged 24), he was arrested. Having fitted his car with false plates he was transferred to Dewsbury police station in connection with this offence. At Dewsbury he was questioned in relation to the Yorkshire Ripper case as he matched so many of the physical characteristics known. The discovery of a knife, hammer and rope he had tried to dispose of increased police interest and they obtained a search warrant for his home and brought his wife in for questioning.
After two days of intensive questioning he suddenly declared he was the Ripper and over the next day calmly described his many attacks, claiming to have been told by God to murder the women. He was charged on January 6 and went to trial in May.
His trial lasted just two weeks, he was found guilty of thirteen counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he served a minimum of thirty years. His appeal was denied. Since incarceration, he has been informed that he will die a prisoner.
Prison
He began his sentence at Parkhurst prison. Despite not being found insane at his trial he was soon diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia. Attempts to send him to a secure psychiatric unit were initially blocked. During his time at Parkhurst he was seriously assaulted. His wife obtained a separation from him in 1982 and a final divorce in 1994, Sonia went on to contest and win nine libel cases against various publications. In 1984 he was finally sent to Broadmoor hospital. In an attack from a fellow inmate in 1997 his eyesight was severely damaged, his attacker was charged with attempted murder.