# Politics and News > UK, Canada, Oz, NZ >  The Yorkshire Ripper dies aged 74

## Neo

The serial killer was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and north-west England.
His first victim's son, who was five when his mother was killed in 1975, said Sutcliffe's death would bring "some kind of closure".
Sutcliffe died in hospital where he is said to have refused treatment for Covid-19. He also had a number of other underlying health problems.
Also found guilty of the attempted murder of seven women, Sutcliffe was convicted in 1981. He spent three decades at Broadmoor Hospital before being moved to HMP Frankland in County Durham in 2016.
His killings began with mother-of-four Wilma McCann, 28, who was hit with a hammer and stabbed 15 times, in October 1975.
Former police officer Bob Bridgestock, who worked on the hunt for Sutcliffe, said he "won't be shedding any tears"
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.b...gland-54874713

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Brat (11-13-2020),Conservative Libertarian (11-13-2020)

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## Neo

How topical! 

Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from where he was an inmate, a Prison Service spokesman confirmed.
He was sent there after developing COVID-19, but is understood to have refused treatment for the virus

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## UKSmartypants

Well, finally the evil scum Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, has died. For those americans who do not know, he was one of the most notorious serial killers of the 20th Century in the UK. A lorry driver who hated prostitutes, he interspersed his journeys over the north of England during the 1975 - 1980  to kill 13 prostitutes, and attack four more who survived. His mode d'operandi was to smash their skulls in with a ball piened hammer, and mutilate the body around the genitals.

The case was further hampered not only by the useless police, who flapped about like fish out  of water, but a Geordie moron who sent two cassette tapes to them claiming to be the Ripper. This completly sidetracked the investigation, as the police now thought they were looking for a geordie (somone from Newcastle) they called Wearside Jack, wheras Sutcliffe was from West Yorkshire.  This arguably increased the victim count by two.  The Geordie moron, whos name turned out to be John Humble,  was eventually caught years later in 2005 from DNA recovered  from the envelopes, and did 4 years inside.

They also, incredibly, stopped him once in 1981 when he was cruising round looking for his next victim, thought he was of no interest and let him go


The body count is also disputable. In 2006, the Byford Report states "it is my firm conclusion that between 1969 and 1980 Sutcliffe was probably responsible for many attacks on unaccompanied women, which he  has not yet admitted, not only in the West Yorkshire and Manchester areas but also in other parts of the country".  So we'll now never know.  There were in fact 6 almost indenticle attacks in  Scotland  around the same time, which remain unsolved. 
If you are not aware of the case, do read about it, its a litany of good and bad luck, incompetance and evil.

And there was also a curious endgame with his wife, Sonia Sutcliffe....

Sonia Sutcliffe - Wikipedia 

Yorkshire Ripper dead at 74 | Daily Mail Online

Peter Sutcliffe - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wearside_Jack

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Common (11-13-2020),Conservative Libertarian (11-13-2020),donttread (11-13-2020),Old Ridge Runner (11-13-2020),tom (11-13-2020)

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## Neo

The Police had thousand statements, a quarter of a million names, millions of car number plates, but not one computer. They’d barely been invented.
All the information detectives gathered was recorded and stored manually on handwritten index cards - was it any wonder the Ripper squad was overwhelmed by paperwork?
The floor of the incident room in Leeds city centre's Millgarth police station had to be reinforced to cope with the weight of the files in their cardboard boxes. Imagine if there had been a flood or a fire.

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UKSmartypants (11-13-2020)

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## Frankenvoter

> How topical! 
> 
> Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from where he was an inmate, a Prison Service spokesman confirmed.
> He was sent there after developing COVID-19, but is understood to have refused treatment for the virus


".....even notorious serial killers are scared of Covid-19, it _killllllllls_......."

(almost a tagline for a movie of the week)

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UKSmartypants (11-13-2020)

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## Old Tex

I remember him. I was living in England during that time.

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UKSmartypants (11-13-2020)

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## Common

I remember when he was finally caught.

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Neo (11-13-2020),UKSmartypants (11-13-2020)

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## Neo

Where I was living Fred west was in the next street, he lived 300yards away from my apartment. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_West

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UKSmartypants (11-13-2020)

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## UKSmartypants

> The Police had thousand statements, a quarter of a million names, millions of car number plates, but not one computer. They’d barely been invented.
> All the information detectives gathered was recorded and stored manually on handwritten index cards - was it any wonder the Ripper squad was overwhelmed by paperwork?
> The floor of the incident room in Leeds city centre's Millgarth police station had to be reinforced to cope with the weight of the files in their cardboard boxes. Imagine if there had been a flood or a fire.



Yes, absolutely. It was the first time they had launched such a major investigation, as as we know in hindsight, that creates a gigantic flood of information, and they were technically ill prepared to store and process it. Index cards were simply inadequate. It was the data disaster of the Ripper investigation that prompted eventually the creation of the Police National computer system.

In hindsight, before the investigation started recording data, they should have approached a university and asked to use thier computing and data storage facities. But hindsight is wonderful thing.

But that wasnt the real failure. The true failure was George Oldfields obsession with Wearside Jack, to the point he dropped all other lines of investigation. Oldfield himself was out of his depth and above his competance ceiling.

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Neo (11-13-2020)

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## UKSmartypants

> Where I was living Fred west was in the next street, he lived 300yards away from my apartment. 
> 
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_West



Very interesting. did you ever become acquianted with him or Rose?  I understand they pulled the house down to stop it becoming a ghoulish tourist attraction.

Suprisingly, they have never pulled down 10 Rillington Place (John Christie) or 46 Lower Belgrave Street, central London (where Lord Lucan killed Sandra Rivett).

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Neo (11-13-2020)

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## Trinnity

I know all about it thanks to @Neo. Neo, didn't you tell me he lived near you? _Freaky~_

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Neo (11-13-2020)

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## Neo

> I know all about it thanks to @Neo. Neo, didn't you tell me he lived near you? _Freaky~_


Yeah I lived near him at Wellington street, I never met, or saw him driving around. My father said he knew him but I told him to keep quiet about it.

My friends brother used to go to The Wests house for parties and late night drinks with his girlfriend at the time. The Police contacted him as he was living in Sheffield, someone had mentioned his name and just  like ripples in a pond the ripple got bigger and further afield. A murder enquiry turns over every rock, they asked him who he saw at the parties so the ripples of enquiry never ended until all investigations were solved.

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## Neo

This is Wellington street, I moved into an apartment 2 streets away from Fred when it was on offer at Belgrave Road. Next door to my apartment at Belgrave Road were the Irish family the “McGuires”  Don’t ask. 



And this is Belgrave Road 2 streets away from Cromwell Street to where my last apartment was in the 80s in that part of the city.

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## Neo

It’s funny posting about the rented apartments, I can remember exactly how much I was paying for an unfurnished apartment £40 a month, electric and gas was £50 a month on top of that. Food was £40 a month. 
In those days I was earning £30 a week. 
Money was so tight I can remember not having enough money to buy my new wife a pair of shoes.

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## Gator Monroe

He was a gasser in Yorkshire ?

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## Neo

> He was a gasser in Yorkshire ?


Peter Suttcliffe was born in Bingley West Yorkshire, exactly 6 miles away from where my wife grew up, he would of had the unique Bradford northern dialect like my wife (annoying) 
Yorkshire dialects differ dramatically the more south you go. South Yorkshire, Sheffield, Barnsley, is more likeable in my opinion.

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## Gator Monroe

> Peter Suttcliffe was born in Bingley West Yorkshire, exactly 6 miles away from where my wife grew up, he would of had the unique Bradford northern dialect like my wife (annoying) 
> Yorkshire dialects differ dramatically the more south you go. South Yorkshire, Sheffield, Barnsley, is more likeable in my opinion.


Afew Heros of the Falklands fight were from there

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## Glasgow Guy

I believe he had been interviewed previously by police because he matched the description. Then at a routine road stop, he admitted to the murders and had the hammer in the car.

The annoying part is, the UK tax payer paid to house him all of those years. 

As for Fred West, I did read that it was predicted he would kill himself if Rose betrayed him by admitting to the murders. When she did, he hung himself.

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## Big Wheeler

After years of faffing about by West Yorkshire police,he was found purely by chance in a traffic check because his licence plates did not match his tax disc.He had been on the likely list and interviewed many times but the senior investigating officer was diverted by a hoax tape claiming to be from the Yorkshire ripper but spoken with a geordie(tyneside)accent which completely took him in.The police today have apologised for the distress caused and their poor handling of the case.
At the traffic check he was spotted ,by an eagle eyed bobby, lurking about suspiciously and letting drop a hammer behind a wall.

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Neo (11-14-2020)

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