This is he face of the "Yorkshire Ripper" His name is Peter William Sutcliffe and he is responsible for the death of 13 women. Seems Peter was abit of a loner at school and once had a job as a grave digger. As a young man he did like to sleep with prostitutes but after being conned out of money by one of them, experts feel this may have triggered his hatred of women. He married in 1974 and they tried to have children, but after many failed attempts, they discovered that his wife could not have children. The first attack happened on the the 5th of July 1975 in Keighley.
He attacked Anna Rogulskyj as she walked home. He hit her on the head with a ball-pein hammer and slashed her stomach with a knife. A neighbour interrupted Sutcliffe and he fled, leaving the victim alive but unconscious. He attacked again in August, this time in Halifax and again the victim survived because he was interrupted. On August the 27th he attacked 14 year old Tracy Browne in Silsden as she walked along a country lane. He hit her 5 times on the back of the head. Sutcliffe was never charged for this assault until he confessed in 1992. His next victim was to be the first killed by Sutcliffe. She was a mother of 4 and was hit twice with the hammer, then stabbed 15 times in her neck, chest and abdomen. This first murder took place in Chapeltown on the 30th of October 1975 and traces of semen were found on her underwear. An extensive police investigation took place but Sutcliffe slipped through the net. It is important to note, that none of the above victims were prostitutes.
Sutcliffe took a break until January 1976 when he struck again. This time it was 42 year old housewife Emily Jackson. She had financial problems and was using the family van to make cash by selling her body. Her husband would be in the pub, and was well aware his wife was entertaining her clients in the back of the family van. Sutcliffe hit Emily on the head with his hammer and stabbed her several times with a sharpened screwdriver. Sutfcliffe also left an impression of his boot on Emily's thigh, were he had stomped on her. His next attack was on the 9th of May and his victim survived. She had accepted a ride from Sutcliffe as she walked home from a party. She was hit on her head with the hammer as she exited Sutcliffes vehicle.
Sutcliffe's next attack was in 1977 on the 5th of February. The victim was a 28 year old prostitute who was killed by the hammer blows to her head. Afterwards Sutcliffe mutilated her corpse with his knife. He also left tyre tracks at the scene. 2 months later he killed again on the 23rd of April. Again the victim was a Prostitute and this time he killed her in her flat. Police found a boot print on her bedclothes. 2 months later and he strikes again, this time his youngest victim and not a prostitute. Jayne MacDonald was only 16 years old, and it was after this killing that the public [Especially women] realised the Yorkshire Ripper had a hatred for all women, not just prostitutes.
July 1977 and he is at it again. This time the victim is seriously assaulted and left for dead, as Sutcliffe was interrupted yet again. A witness to this assault saw the vehicle but gave the wrong description to police. The next killing by Sutcliffe was an interesting one. The victim was 20 year old Manchester prostitute Jean Jordan, killed on the 9th of October 1977. However her body was not found for 10 days [Jean's body was discovered by actor Bruce Jones who was a a local dairy worker at the time] Police realised when they examined the scene that the body had been moved several days after the killing. The reason for this was made clear by Sutcliffe himself, who later told police that he had given Jean a new 5 pound note and it dawned on him days later that the note was traceable. He returned to the scene and could not find her handbag. He then tried to cut off her head with a broken pane of glass and a hacksaw. He did this to make it look like it was not a killing by the Yorkshire Ripper. Police did locate the missing 5 pound note and after some extensive research, narrowed it down to 8000 local workers, who would have been given the new 5 pound note in their pay. In fact Sutcliffe was one of 5000 men interviewed.
Sutcliffe however slipped through the net [Bear in mind, it is the 70's and police did not have the tools they have today] Later in December that year another prostitute was attacked in Leeds. She survived and was able to give police a description of the Ripper. Police also found tyre tracks at the scene, which matched the tyre tracks found in February. A new year rolled around and the Ripper killed again in January 1978. This time the victim was a 21 year old Bradford prostitute. Sutcliffe hid the body under a discarded sofa at the scene. Her body was not found until March that year. On the 31st of January 1978 another prostitute was killed in Huddersfield, she was 18 years of age, and her body was not found for 3 days.
A few months rolled by before the Ripper struck again. This time a 40 year old prostitute killed in the car park of the Manchester Royal Infirmary on the 16th of May. It was to be nearly a year before the Yorkshire Ripper attacked again, during which time his mother passed away in November 1978. It was the 4th of April 1979 the Ripper killed a 19 year old bank clerk in Halifax as she walked home. Around this time the police received a hoax tape from a man claiming to be the Yorkshire Ripper. Police really thought this was the killer and concentrated all their efforts on this man. They even went as far as making the recording available to the public to listen to. Police also concentrated on the accent of this man, an accent that was nothing like the real Rippers. This man was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to 8 years prison for perverting the course of justice.
So the real ripper continued to kill and his next victim was a 20 year old Bradford student, killed near her university. This attack and murder alarmed the public again [Especially woman] as the victim was not a prostitute, but a student and this meant no woman in Yorkshire was safe. Peter Sutcliffe was re-interviewed twice in 1979, in regards to the 5 Pound note and despite being on a list of only 300 possible suspects he slipped through the net again. In fact he was interviewed 9 times by the police in total. It seems the Yorkshire Ripper had some incredible luck as he was arrested in April of 1980 for drunk driving, and as he awaited trial for this charge, he felt confident enough to strike again. He killed a 47 year old in August and a university student from Leeds in November. He also attacked a Doctor in Leeds on the 24th of September 1980 and a 16 year old in Huddersfield on the 5th of November 1980 and both these victims survived.
His luck continued after these attacks, as a friend of Peter Sutcliffe suspected him of being the Yorkshire Ripper and reported this to police on the 25th of November. Nothing came of this and Sutcliffe's friend just presumed he had been investigated and cleared of being the Yorkshire Ripper. It was the 2nd of January 1981 when the Yorkshire Rippers luck ran out. He was stopped by police for having false license plates on his car. He had a 24 year old prostitute with him at the time. He was taken to the Dewsbury police station where he was questioned about the Ripper murders, as he matched alot of the physical characteristics in the case. The next day after his arrest police found a knife, hammer and rope, discarded at the place where police had arrested him. They also found another knife in the toilet cistern at the police station where Sutcliffe was questioned. Sutcliffe had used the toilet during questioning and had hidden the knife there.
When he was stripped at the police station Sutcliffe had some rather odd under garments on. He had a V neck sweater under his trousers. the arms had been pulled over his legs, so that the V-neck exposed his groin; the elbows were padded to protect his knees as, presumably, he knelt over his victims' corpses. Sutcliffe confessed to the killings on the 4th of January 1981. He told police all the gory details and claimed he was told by God to kill prostitutes. He went to trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he not be considered for Parole for at least 30 years. He has been attacked by fellow prisoners a few times and has lost vision in his left eye because of one attack.
He was sent to Broadmoor Hospital in March 1984 under under section 47 of the Mental Health Act 1983. On 17 February 2009, it was reported that Sutcliffe was 'fit to leave Broadmoor'. If the Ministry of Justice agrees with the doctors' verdict, he will be sent to a medium-secure unit where he could be allowed out on short release for rehabilitation. Read More On Peter Sutcliffe
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