Peter Sutcliffe has died after contracting COVID-19.
LONDON (Reuters):
Peter Sutcliffe, the British serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper for a five-year murder spree in which he stabbed and clubbed at least 20 women and girls, killing 13 of them, has died after caught COVID-19.
The Sutcliffe murders – which mutilated women in northern England between 1975 and 1980 – sparked widespread fear in northern towns and police were criticized for taking so long to find him.
Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981 and pleaded guilty to 13 charges of murder and 7 charges of attempted murder. He spent the rest of his days in prison. He died on Friday in the early hours after refusing treatment for the coronavirus. He was 74 years old.
Among those he killed was a 16-year-old salesman. Her youngest victim, barely 14 when Sutcliffe hit her five times on the head with a hammer in 1975, survived the attack.
Sutcliffe, who worked as a truck driver, pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of murder but guilty of manslaughter on the basis of reduced liability.
He said that God gave him the mission to kill prostitutes, although his victims came from all walks of life. The judge dismissed his reduced liability plea and Sutcliffe was convicted of murder on all counts.
He was sentenced to 20 life terms and was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
West Yorkshire Police have been criticized for missing opportunities to capture Sutcliffe, despite questioning him nine times during the hunt.
The investigation, which preceded the use of computer records, was overwhelmed with paperwork, hampering detectives’ ability to link clues and allowing Sutcliffe to squeeze through the net, according to a subsequent investigation.
Police also mistakenly believed a hoax audio tape of a man claiming to be the murderer, sending them on a futile search for a person with a Sunderland accent in the northeast.
Sutcliffe was eventually caught while he was with a 24-year-old sex worker, and a police officer discovered that his vehicle’s license plates were fake.
