Further reading for Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper
Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper by Michael Bilton
Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son by Gordon Burn
The Sick Rose: Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration
Between 1975 and 1980, Red Light Districts of Yorkshire County, in the north of England, were terrorized by Peter Sutcliffe, who the British tabloids took to naming The Yorkshire Ripper on account of sensation and the loose association with Jack The Ripper. Between those years, Sutcliffe attacked 22 women, killing 13 and wounding 9 by bludgeoning them with a hammer and slashing them with a knife. In spite of this MO, his first two victims survived but third victim died. Wilma McCann was a mother of four and her murder resulted in a significant police investigation which sent Sutcliffe into hiding until 1976 when he changed up his methods and took advantage of heinous police disinterest in investigating the deaths of Yorkshire’s sex workers.
Over the next four years, Sutcliffe would lure his victims out to remote locations under the guise of a John and would then brutally attack the woman, first knocking her out with a hammer and then stabbing her with a sharpened screwdriver dozens of times before dumping the body and returning his regular life of being an absolute fucking weirdo.
Sutcliffe was almost immediately identified by police as the likely killer as they interviewed him nine times over the course of his killing spree and in an investigation that rivals the Jeffrey Dahmer, police had him in custody several times while he was in possession of his murder weapons, even managing to let him slip through the cracks when he stashed one of his weapons in a toilet IN the fucking police station. While awaiting trial for an unrelated arrest, Sutcliffe killed twice more, women who were not prostitutes and this is when the investigation was forced to take him seriously. Peter was eventually picked up and questioned where he finally and rather casually confessed to the crimes.
Episodes: 407 & 408
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