13 brutal murders – the serial killer’s campaign of terror
■ SUMMER, 1975: Peter Sutcliffe begins attacking women, two in Keighley and one in Halifax. They all survive. Police do not link the attacks.
■ OCTOBER 30, 1975: Sutcliffe’s first fatal attack. He kills Wilma McCann, a 28-yearold mother from the Chapeltown district of Leeds, originally from Skye.
■ JANUARY 20, 1976: He murders Emily Jackson, 42, from Leeds, using a hammer and screwdriver.
■ FEBRUARY 6, 1977: He kills Irene Richardson, 28, a prostitute from Leeds.
■ APRIL 24, 1977: Sutcliffe strikes for the first time in Bradford, his home town, murdering 32-year-old Patricia Atkinson.
■ JUNE 26, 1977: The case becomes national news after Sutcliffe murders shop assistant Jayne MacDonald, 16. The attacker is dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. West Yorkshire’s Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield is appointed to investigate.
■ OCTOBER 1, 1977: Sutcliffe dumps the body of Jean Jordan, 21, on an allotment in Manchester. Police find a £5 note he gave her in nearby shrubs. They trace the serial number on it back to the payroll of the Yorkshire hauliers who employ Sutcliffe. Police interview him but he provides an alibi.
■ JAN 20 TO MAY 16, 1978: Sutcliffe murders prostitutes Yvonne Pearson, 22, from Bradford, Helen Rytka, 18, from Huddersfield, and Vera Millward, 40, from Manchester.
■ APRIL 4, 1979: Sutcliffe kills Halifax Building Society clerk Josephine Whitaker, 19.
■ JUNE, 1979: Letters and a tape are sent to police by a man calling himself Jack the Ripper. Oldfield mistakenly thinks this is the killer. Voice experts pinpoint ‘Wearside Jack’ to Sunderland’s Castletown district. Officers are told to discount suspects without a Wearside accent.
■ SEPTEMBER 1, 1979: Sutcliffe murders Barbara Leach, 20, in Bradford.
■ AUGUST 20, 1980: He kills Marguerite Walls, 47, from Leeds, then Jacqueline Hill, 20, a student, on November 16.
■ NOVEMBER, 1980: Detective Chief Superintendent James Hobson replaces Oldfield. Hobson downgrades the importance of the Wearside Jack tape and letters.
■ JANUARY 3, 1981: Sutcliffe admits he is the Yorkshire Ripper after police arrest him with a prostitute. Police admit the killer does not have a Wearside accent.
■ MAY 22, 1981: He is jailed for life at the Old Bailey. The judge recommends a minimum sentence of 30 years.
■ MARCH 21, 2006: John Humble, a former builder, is sentenced to eight years in prison after he admits to being the Ripper hoaxer known as ‘Wearside Jack’.
■ JUNE 1, 2006: The Byford Report, kept secret for nearly 25 years, finds Sutcliffe probably committed more crimes than the 13 murders and seven attempted murders for which he was convicted.
■ NOVEMBER 13, 2020: Sutcliffe dies at the University Hospital of North Durham at the age of 74.