Yorkshire Ripper dies

Peter Sutcliffe, 74, serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper has died, as he refused treatment after contracting coronavirus at HMP Frankland in County Durham. Sutcliffe who murdered at least 13 women across the north of England in the late 1970s, was jailed in 1981 and spent several years at Broadmoor Hospital where he was treated for paranoid Schizophrenia. His sentence was made a whole life term in 2010 before he was transferred to HMP Frankland in 2016.

Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from where he was an inmate at a Prison Service spokesman confirmed.

The 74-year-old who was obese was suffering from diabetes and heart issues had previously returned to prison after being treated for a suspected heart attack two weeks ago but was forced to go back to hospital after being tested positive for coronavirus.

Sutcliffe grew up in West Yorkshire and after leaving school held several low skilled jobs including a job as a gravedigger and lorry drive from Bradford. He got married in 1974, but by then he had also become obsessed with female sex workers. He started attacking women in the late 1960s but the first known murder happened in October, 1975 when he killed 28-year-old Wilma McCann a mother-of-four from Leeds, by hitting her with a hammer and stabbing 15 times. Next five years he continued killing women across Yorkshire and the North West. His 13 known victims were Wilma McCann, 28, Leeds, October 1975, Emily Jackson, 42, Leeds January 1976, Irene Richardson, 28, Leeds, February 1977, Patricia Atkinson, 32, Bradford, April 1977,  Jayne McDonald, 16, Leeds, June 1977, Jean Jordan, 21, Manchester, October 1977, Yvonne Pearson, 22, Bradford, January 1978,  Helen Rytka, 18, Huddersfield, January 1978, Vera Millward, 41, Manchester, May 1978, Josephine Whitaker, 19, Halifax, May 1979, Barbara Leach, 20, Bradford, September, 1979,  Marguerite Walls, 47, Leeds August 1980, and Jacqueline Hill. 20, Leeds, November 1980. Peter Sutcliffe was arrested in the Sheffield Street in 1981. He is said to have believed he was on a “mission from God” to kill prostitutes, although not all of his victims were sex workers. A huge police operation launched in the 1970s with 150 officers conducting more than 11, 000 interviews. He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper as he mutilated his victims’ bodies using a hammer, screwdriver and knife. Sutcliffe was interviewed nine times during the course of the investigation but continued to avoid arrest and carried on with his killings.