The Yorks hire Ripper
Growing up in Bingley, Yorkshire, Peter Sutcliffe was said to be a loner. After leaving school at 15, he worked in menial jobs while developing an obsession with voyeurism. Sutcliffe spent his days spying on prostitutes and the men using their services.
He soon started visiting prostitutes himself.
In 1969, he was questioned by police after an altercation with a sex worker during an
argument over money.
Six years later, he turned more violent. He attacked two women with a knife, but was disturbed before he could fatally wound them.
But by the end of 1975, Sutcliffe killed his first victim, 28-year-old Wilma McCann.
He attacked her with a hammer and stabbed her in the neck, chest and abdomen.
Over the next five years, Sutcliffe murdered a further 12 women – some of whom were sex workers – with hammers and screwdrivers.
More women were attacked, but survived.
Police launched a search, dubbing the killer ‘The Yorkshire Ripper’.
But Sutcliffe remained at large until January 1981, when the police stopped him by chance with a sex worker in Leeds. After two days of police questioning, Peter Sutcliffe admitted he was ‘The Ripper’ and calmly described his many attacks.
In May 1981, he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder between 1976 and 1981, and sentenced to 20 concurrent life sentences. This was increased to a whole-life tariff. Sutcliffe is now 74.
He attacked her with a hammer and stabbed her