Peter Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's first documented assault was of a female prostitute, whom he had met while searching for another woman who had tricked him out of money. He left his friend Trevor Birdsall's minivan and walked up St. Paul's Road in Bradford until he was out of sight. When Sutcliffe returned, he was out of breath, as if he had been running. He told Birdsall to drive off quickly. Sutcliffe said he had followed a prostitute into a garage and hit her over the head with a stone in a sock. According to his statement, Sutcliffe said, "I got out of the car, went across the road and hit her. The force of the impact tore the toe off the sock and whatever was in it came out. I went back to the car and got in it".[24]

Police visited Sutcliffe's home the next day, as the woman he had attacked had noted Birdsall's vehicle registration plate. He admitted he had hit her, but claimed it was with his hand. The police told him he was "very lucky", as the woman did not want anything more to do with the incident.

Sutcliffe committed his second assault on the night of 5 July 1975 in Keighley. He attacked Anna Rogulskyj, who was walking alone, striking her unconscious with a hammer and slashing her stomach with a knife.[25] Disturbed by a neighbour, he left without killing her. Rogulskyj survived after neurological surgery[lower-alpha 1] but she was psychologically traumatised by the attack.[26] She said later "I've been afraid to go out much because I feel people are staring and pointing at me. The whole thing is making my life a misery. I sometimes wish I had died in the attack."[27]

On the night of 15 August, Sutcliffe attacked Olive Smelt in Halifax. Employing the same modus operandi, he briefly engaged Smelt with a commonplace pleasantry about the weather before striking hammer blows to her skull from behind. He then disarranged her clothing and slashed her lower back with a knife. Again he was interrupted and left his victim badly injured but alive. Like Rogulskyj, Smelt subsequently suffered severe emotional and mental trauma.

She had told interviewing officer Det. Supt. Dick Holland (later the Ripper Squad's second in command) that her attacker had a Yorkshire accent, but this information was ignored, as was the fact that neither she nor Rogulskij were in towns with a red light area.[28] On 27 August, Sutcliffe attacked 14-year-old Tracy Browne in Silsden. He struck her from behind and hit her on the head five times while she was walking along a country lane. He ran off when he saw the lights of a passing car, leaving his victim requiring brain surgery. Sutcliffe was not convicted of the attack but confessed to it in 1992.[9]

The first victim to be killed by Sutcliffe was Wilma McCann on 30 October. McCann, from Scott Hall in Leeds, was a mother of four children between the ages of 2 and 7. Sutcliffe struck the back of her skull twice with a hammer, then inflicted "a stab wound to the throat; two stab wounds below the right breast; three stab wounds below the left breast and a series of nine stab wounds around the umbilicus".[29] An extensive inquiry, involving 150 officers of the West Yorkshire Police and 11,000 interviews, failed to find the culprit. In December 2007, McCann's eldest daughter Sonia Newlands died by suicide, reportedly after years of anguish and depression over the circumstances of her mother's death, and consequences to her and her siblings.[30]

Sutcliffe committed his next murder in Leeds on 20 January 1976, when he stabbed 42-year-old Emily Jackson 52 times.[31] In dire financial straits, Jackson had been persuaded by her husband to engage in prostitution, using the van of their family roofing business. Sutcliffe picked up Jackson, who was soliciting outside the Gaiety pub on Roundhay Road, then drove about half a mile to some derelict buildings on Enfield Terrace in the Manor Industrial Estate.[32] Sutcliffe hit her on the head with a hammer, dragged her body into a rubbish-strewn yard, then used a sharpened screwdriver to stab her in the neck, chest and abdomen. He stamped on her thigh, leaving behind an impression of his boot.[2]^: 30

Sutcliffe attacked 20-year-old Marcella Claxton in Roundhay Park, Leeds, on 9 May. Walking home from a party, she accepted an offer of a lift from Sutcliffe. When she got out of the car to urinate, he hit her from behind with a hammer. Claxton survived and testified against Sutcliffe at his trial. At the time of this attack, Claxton had been four months pregnant and subsequently miscarried her baby.[13] She required multiple, extensive brain operations and had intermittent blackouts and chronic depression.[27]

On 5 February, Sutcliffe attacked Irene Richardson, a Chapeltown prostitute, in Roundhay Park. Richardson was bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Once she was dead, Sutcliffe mutilated her corpse with a knife. Tyre tracks left near the murder scene resulted in a long list of possible suspect vehicles.[2]^: 36

Two months later, on 23 April, Sutcliffe killed Patricia "Tina" Atkinson, a prostitute from Bradford, in her flat, where police found a bootprint on the bedclothes. Two months after that, on 26 June, he murdered 16-year-old Jayne MacDonald in Chapeltown. She was not a prostitute and, in the public perception, her murder showed that all women were potential victims.[33] The police described her as the first "innocent" victim.[34]^: 190[35] Sutcliffe seriously assaulted Maureen Long in Bradford in July. He was interrupted and fled, leaving her for dead. She was suffering from hypothermia when found and was in hospital for nine weeks.[27] A witness misidentified the make of his car, resulting in more than 300 police officers checking thousands of cars without success.

On 1 October 1977 Sutcliffe murdered Jean Jordan, a prostitute from Manchester.[2]^: 92 In a confession, Sutcliffe said he had realised the new £5 note he had given her was traceable. After hosting a family party at his new home, he returned to the wasteland behind Manchester's Southern Cemetery, where he had left the body, to retrieve the note but was unable to find it.

On 9 October, Jordan's body was discovered by local dairy worker and future actor Bruce Jones,[36] who had an allotment on land adjoining the site where the body was found and was searching for house bricks when he made the discovery. The £5 note, hidden in a secret compartment in Jordan's handbag, was traced to branches of the Midland Bank in Shipley and Bingley. Police analysis of bank operations allowed them to narrow their field of inquiry to 8,000 employees who could have received it in their wage packet. Over three months the police interviewed 5,000 men, including Sutcliffe. The police found that the alibi given for Sutcliffe's whereabouts was credible; he had indeed spent much of the evening of the killing at a family party. Weeks of intense investigations pertaining to the origins of the £5 note led to nothing, leaving police officers frustrated that they collected an important clue but had been unable to trace the actual firm (or employee within the firm) to which or whom the note had been issued.[37]

On 14 December, Sutcliffe attacked Marilyn Moore, another prostitute from Leeds. She survived and provided police with a description of her attacker. Tyre tracks found at the scene matched those from an earlier attack.[13] Her photofit bore a strong resemblance to Sutcliffe, like other survivors, and she provided a good description of his car, which had been seen in red-light districts. Sutcliffe had been interviewed on this issue.[38]

The police discontinued the search for the person who received the £5 note in January 1978. Although Sutcliffe was interviewed about it, he was not investigated further (he was contacted and disregarded by the Ripper Squad on several further occasions). That month, Sutcliffe killed again. His victim was Yvonne Pearson, a 21-year-old prostitute from Bradford. He repeatedly bludgeoned her about the head with a ball-peen hammer, then jumped on her chest before stuffing horsehair into her mouth from a discarded sofa, under which he hid her body near Lumb Lane.[2]^: 107

Ten days later, he killed Helen Rytka, an 18-year-old prostitute from Huddersfield. He struck Rytka on the head five times as she exited his vehicle, before stripping most of the clothes from her body (although her bra and polo-neck jumper were positioned above her breasts) and repeatedly stabbing her in the chest. Her body was found three days later beneath railway arches in Garrards timber-yard to which he had driven her.[2]^: 112 Sutcliffe said of Rytka while in police custody in 1981: "I had the urge to kill any woman. The urge inside me to kill girls was now practically uncontrollable."[38]

On 4 April 1979, Sutcliffe killed Josephine Whitaker, a 19-year-old building society clerk whom he attacked on Savile Park Moor in Halifax as she was walking home. Despite forensic evidence, police efforts were diverted for several months following receipt of the taped message purporting to be from the murderer taunting Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield of the West Yorkshire Police, who was leading the investigation. The tape contained a man's voice saying, "I'm Jack. I see you're having no luck catching me. I have the greatest respect for you, George, but Lord, you're no nearer catching me now than four years ago when I started."[39]

One of multiple billboards erected across Northern England in 1979 appealing for information pertaining to the identity of Wearside Jack.

Based on the recorded message, police began searching for a man with a Wearside accent, which linguists narrowed down to the Castletown area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The hoaxer, dubbed "Wearside Jack", sent two letters to police and the Daily Mirror in March 1978 boasting of his crimes. The letters, signed "Jack the Ripper", claimed responsibility for the murder of 26-year-old Joan Harrison in Preston in November 1975.

The hoaxer case was re-opened in 2005, and DNA taken from envelopes was entered into the national database, in which it matched that of John Samuel Humble, an unemployed alcoholic and long-time resident of the Ford Estate in Sunderland – a few miles from Castletown – whose DNA had been taken following a drunk and disorderly offence in 2001. On 20 October 2005, Humble was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice for sending the hoax letters and tape. Humble was remanded in custody and on 21 March 2006 was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.[40] Humble died on 30 July 2019, aged 63.[41]

On 1 September, Sutcliffe murdered 20-year-old Barbara Leach, a Bradford University student. Her body was dumped at the rear of 13 Ashgrove under a pile of bricks, close to the university and her lodgings. It was his sixteenth attack. The murder of a woman who was not a prostitute again alarmed the public and prompted an expensive publicity campaign emphasising the Wearside connection. Despite the false lead, Sutcliffe was interviewed on at least two other occasions in 1979. Despite matching several forensic clues and being on the list of 300 names in connection with the £5 note, he was not strongly suspected.

In April 1980, Sutcliffe was arrested for drunk driving. While awaiting trial, he killed two more women. Sutcliffe murdered 47-year-old Marguerite Walls on the night of 20 August 1980, and 20-year-old Jacqueline Hill, a student at Leeds University, on the night of 17 November 1980. Hill's body was found on wasteland near the Arndale Centre. He also attacked three other women, who survived: Uphadya Bandara in Leeds on 24 September 1980; Maureen Lea (known as Mo),[42] an art student attacked in the grounds of Leeds University on 25 October 1980; and 16-year-old Theresa Sykes, attacked in Huddersfield on the night of 5 November 1980.[43] On 25 November 1980, Trevor Birdsall, an associate of Sutcliffe and the unwitting getaway driver as Sutcliffe fled his first documented assault in 1969, reported him to the police as a suspect. In total, Sutcliffe had been questioned on nine separate occasions, by the police, in connection with the Ripper enquiry, prior to his eventual arrest and conviction.[10]

West Yorkshire Police was criticised for being inadequately prepared for an investigation on this scale. It was one of the largest investigations by a British police force[55] and predated the use of computers. Information on suspects was stored on handwritten index cards. Aside from difficulties in storing and accessing the paperwork (the floor of the incident room was reinforced with concrete pillars to cope with the weight of the paper), it was difficult for officers to overcome the information overload of such a large manual system. Sutcliffe was interviewed nine times,[56] but all information the police had about the case was stored in paper form, making cross-referencing difficult, compounded by television appeals for information which generated thousands more documents. The 1982 Byford Report into the investigation concluded: "The ineffectiveness of the major incident room was a serious handicap to the Ripper investigation. While it should have been the effective nerve centre of the whole police operation, the backlog of unprocessed information resulted in the failure to connect vital pieces of related information. This serious fault in the central index system allowed Peter Sutcliffe to continually slip through the net".[57]

The choice of Oldfield to lead the inquiry was criticised by Byford: "The temptation to appoint a 'senior man' on age or service grounds should be resisted. What is needed is an officer of sound professional competence who will inspire confidence and loyalty".[58] He found wanting Oldfield's focus on the hoax confessional tape[59]^: 86–87 that seemed to indicate a perpetrator with a Wearside background,[60] and his ignoring advice from survivors of Sutcliffe's attacks and several eminent specialists, including from the FBI in the United States, along with dialect analysts[61] such as Stanley Ellis and Jack Windsor Lewis,[59]^: 88 whom he had also consulted throughout the manhunt, that "Wearside Jack" was a hoaxer.[lower-alpha 2] The investigation used it as a point of elimination rather than a line of enquiry and allowed Sutcliffe to avoid scrutiny, as he did not fit the profile of the sender of the tape or letters. The "Wearside Jack" hoaxer was given unusual credibility when analysis of saliva on the envelopes he sent showed he had the same blood group as that which Sutcliffe had left at crime scenes, a type shared by only 6% of the population.[40] The hoaxer appeared to know details of the murders which had not been released to the press, but which in fact he had acquired from pub gossip and his local newspaper.[63]

In response to the police reaction to the murders, the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group organised a number of 'Reclaim the Night' marches. The group and other feminists had criticised the police for victim-blaming, especially for the suggestion that women should remain indoors at night. Eleven marches in various towns across the United Kingdom took place on the night of 12 November 1977. They made the point that women should be able to walk anywhere without restriction and that they should not be blamed for men's violence.[59]^: 83

In 1988, the mother of Sutcliffe's last victim, Jacqueline Hill, during an action for damages on behalf of her daughter's estate, argued in the case Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire in the High Court that the police had failed to use reasonable care in apprehending Sutcliffe. The House of Lords held that the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire did not owe a duty of care to the victim due to the lack of proximity, and therefore failing on the second limb of the Caparo test.[64] After Sutcliffe's death in November 2020, West Yorkshire Police issued an apology for the "language, tone, and terminology" used by the force at the time of the criminal investigation, nine months after one of the victims' sons wrote on behalf of several of the victims' families.[65]

The attitude in the West Yorkshire Police at the time reflected Sutcliffe's own misogyny and sexist attitudes, according to multiple sources.[66][34][67] Jim Hobson, a senior West Yorkshire detective, told a press conference in October 1979 the perpetrator:

"has made it clear that he hates prostitutes. Many people do. We, as a police force, will continue to arrest prostitutes. But the Ripper is now killing innocent girls. That indicates your mental state and that you are in urgent need of medical attention. You have made your point. Give yourself up before another innocent woman dies".[34]

Joan Smith wrote in Misogynies (1989, 1993), that "even Sutcliffe, at his trial, did not go quite this far; he did at least claim he was demented at the time".[34]

The Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers QC, at the trial in 1981 said of Sutcliffe's victims in his opening statement: "Some were prostitutes, but perhaps the saddest part of the case is that some were not. The last six attacks were on totally respectable women".[6] This drew condemnation from the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP), who protested outside the Old Bailey.[68] Nina Lopez, who was one of the ECP protestors in 1981, told The Independent forty years later, Sir Michael's comments were "an indictment of the whole way in which the police and the establishment were dealing with the Yorkshire Ripper case".[65]

Amongst other things, Byford's report asserted that there was a high likelihood of Sutcliffe having claimed more victims both during and before his known killing spree. Referring to the period between 1969, when Sutcliffe first came to the attention of police, and 1975, the year of the murder of Wilma McCann, the report states: "There is a curious and unexplained lull in Sutcliffe's criminal activities" and "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".[71] In 1969, Sutcliffe, described in the Byford Report as an "otherwise unremarkable young man", came to the notice of police on two occasions over incidents with prostitutes.[72] Later that year, in September 1969,[73] he was also arrested in Bradford's red light district for being in possession of a hammer, an offensive weapon, but he was charged with "going equipped for stealing" as it was assumed he was a potential burglar.[72][69] The report said that it was clear Sutcliffe had on at least one occasion attacked a Bradford prostitute with a cosh.[72]

Byford's report states:

We feel it is highly improbable that the crimes in respect of which Sutcliffe has been charged and convicted are the only ones attributable to him. This feeling is reinforced by examining the details of a number of assaults on women since 1969 which, in some ways, clearly fall into the established pattern of Sutcliffe's overall modus operandi. I hasten to add that I feel sure that the senior police officers in the areas concerned are also mindful of this possibility but, in order to ensure full account is taken of all the information available, I have arranged for an effective liaison to take place.[69]

Police identified a number of attacks which matched Sutcliffe's modus operandi and tried to question the killer, but he was never charged with other crimes.

Only days after Sutcliffe's conviction in 1981, highly regarded writer David Yallop asserted that Sutcliffe may have been responsible for the murder of Carol Wilkinson, who was randomly bludgeoned over the head with a stone in Bradford on 10 October 1977, only nine days after Sutcliffe's killing of Jean Jordan.[74][75] Wilkinson's murder had initially been considered as a possible "Ripper" killing, but this was quickly ruled out as Wilkinson was not a prostitute.[76][75] By 1979 police finally admitted that Sutcliffe did not only attack prostitutes, but by this time a local man, Anthony Steel, had already been convicted of the murder.[75] Yallop, however, highlighted that Steel had always protested his innocence and been convicted on weak evidence.[77] Steel had in fact been convicted based on a confession he made after intense questioning because he was told that he would be allowed to see a solicitor if he confessed.[78] Even though his confession failed to include any details of the murder, and Ripper detective Jim Hobson testified at trial that he did not believe the confession, he was narrowly convicted.[78] Around the time of Wilkinson's murder it was widely reported that professor David Gee, the Home Office Pathologist who conducted all the post-mortem examinations on the Ripper victims, said that there were similarities between the murder of Carol Wilkinson and the murder of victim Yvonne Pearson by Sutcliffe. This was committed just three months later.[79] Just like Wilkinson, Pearson was bludgeoned with a heavy stone and was not stabbed, and was initially ruled out as a "Ripper" victim.[75] Pearson was in fact a Ripper victim, and was re-classified as one in 1979, while Wilkinson's murder was not reviewed.[79][78] Sutcliffe did not confess to Carol's murder at his Old Bailey trial, although by this time Steel was already the man serving time for the murder. During his imprisonment, Sutcliffe was noted to show "particular anxiety" at mentions of the murder due to the possible unsoundness of the conviction of Steel.[9]

Sutcliffe had in fact known Wilkinson, and was known to have argued violently with Carol's stepfather over his advances towards her.[80] Sutcliffe knew the estate she was killed on and was known to have regularly frequented the area, and only months before the murder in February 1977 was reported to police for acting suspiciously on the street Wilkinson lived.[81] Another thing that linked Sutcliffe to the killing was that earlier on the same day as Wilkinson's killing, Sutcliffe had gone back to mutilate Jean Jordan's body before returning to Bradford, showing he had already gone out to attack victims that day and would have been in Bradford to attack Wilkinson after he come back from mutilating Jordan.[75][82] The location Wilkinson was killed was very close to Sutcliffe's place of employment at T. & W. H. Clark, where he would have clocked in for work that afternoon.[83]

In 2003 Steel's conviction was quashed on appeal after it was found that his low IQ and mental capabilities made him a vulnerable interviewee, discrediting his supposed "confession" to the crime and confirming Yallop's long-standing suspcions that Steel had been wrongly convicted.[78] In 2008, Yallop again put forth the theory that Sutcliffe was the real killer.[75] In 2015, former detective Chris Clark and investigative journalist Time Tate also supported the theory that Wilkinson was a victim of Sutcliffe in their book Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders.[84] They pointed out that her body had been posed and partially stripped in typical "Yorkshire Ripper" fashion, with her trousers and pants pulled down and her bra lifted up.[85] In 2022, ITV also published a documentary based on Clark and Tate's book titled Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders which discussed links between Wilkinson's murder and Sutcliffe.[78]

In 1982, West Yorkshire Police appointed detective Keith Hellawell to lead a secret investigation into possible additional victims of Sutcliffe.[86][87] A list was complied of around 60 murders and attempted murders not just in Yorkshire but around the country that West Yorkshire Police and other forces thought could possibly be linked to Sutcliffe.[86] Detectives were able to eliminate him from 40 of these cases with reference to his lorry driver's logs which showed which part of the country he was in when he was working, leaving 22 unsolved crimes with hallmarks of a Sutcliffe attack which were investigated further.[86][88][87] 12 of these occurred within West Yorkshire, while the others took place in other parts of the country.[89]

One of the cases investigated was an attack on student teacher Gloria Wood in November 1974, in which Wood was attacked as she walked home one evening in Bradford by a man who had asked if she needed help carrying her bags.[86] He fitted Sutcliffe's description, being described as 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall with black hair and a beard, and hit her with a hammer.[86] Another case was the April 1977 murder of 18-year-old Debbie Schlesinger, who was killed as she walked home one evening in Leeds after a night out.[86][87] Within yards of her home she was stabbed randomly by a man with dark hair and a beard, and there was no clear motive.[86] Although a hammer was not used, Sutcliffe also often used a knife to stab his victims.[86] Most notably, Sutcliffe's work record also showed that he was delivering to an engineering plant 100 yards from Schlessinger's home on the day she was killed.[86] The killing took place only two days before Sutcliffe's known killing of Patricia Atkinson in Bradford.[86] At the time detectives did not believe Schlessinger's murder was a Ripper killing as she was not a prostitute.[86] However, by 2002 West Yorkshire Police publicly announced they were ready to bring charges against Sutcliffe for her murder (although no further action was taken as his whole-life tariff was confirmed).[88] At this time police also announced they were ready to bring charges against Sutcliffe for another attack on a woman who was listed as a possible victim of Sutcliffe by Hellawell, Mo Lea, who had been attacked with a hammer in Leeds in October 1980 by a man matching Sutcliffe's description.[88][86] A month later Sutcliffe would kill Jacquline Hill only a mile away from the scene of Lea's attack.[86]

Another suspected victim of Sutcliffe was Yvonne Mysliwiec, a 21-year-old student attacked by a man with a ball-peen hammer at Ilkley train station in October 1979.[86] She survived the attack with serious injuries as a man distrupted the attacker, who matched Sutcliffe's description.[86][90] There were also two men on Hellawell's list of possible victims.[90] One of these was Fred Craven, a bookkeeper murdered with a hammer on the same street Sutcliffe lived on in Bingley in 1966, and whose daughter Sutcliffe was known to have approached and been rejected by.[90] Witnesses saw a man running from the scene wearing a Donovan hat, and Sutcliffe was known to have owned one, but police never interviewed him at the time.[90] The other male listed as a possible Sutcliffe victim was John Tomey, who was attacked by a hammer by a man who matched his description in his taxi in 1967.[90]

Hellewell had also listed the attacks on Tracey Browne in 1975 and Ann Rooney in 1979 as possible Sutcliffe attacks, and it was to him he confessed to these crimes to in 1992, confirming police suspicions that Sutcliffe was responsible for more attacks than those he confessed to at trial.[86]

Hellawell also included six unsolved murder cases in Scotland on his list of potential Sutcliffe victims, and Sutcliffe was reportedly interviewed in prison about a number of murders in Scotland.[91][92] These included the murders of prostitute Carol Lannen and trainee nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe in Dundee in 1979 and 1980 respectively, which together became known as the "Templeton Woods murders" due to their bodies being found only 150 yards apart in Templeton Woods in the city.[91][93] The murder of teenager Mary Gallagher in Glasgow in 1978 was also believed to be included on Hellawell's list of possible victims, and he was said to be taking this case "very seriously".[93][92] Also believed to be included were the murders of 20-year-old Anna Kenny, 36-year-old Hilda McAuley and 23-year-old Agnes Cooney in separate incidents in Glasgow in 1977, as well as the World's End murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie in Edinburgh in 1978.[91][93] However, some of the links between Sutcliffe and these cases would later be definitively disproven. In 2001, Angus Sinclair was convicted of the murder of Mary Gallagher on DNA evidence, and he was also convicted of the World's End murders in 2014 in a highly publicised trial.[91] Sinclair also happens to be the prime suspect in the murders of Kenny, McAuley and Cooney, but detectives felt they did not have enough evidence to charge him before his death in prison in 2019.[94][95][92] The murder of Hila McAuley could also be definitively proven not to have been committed by Sutcliffe as on the same night she was killed he murdered Jean Jordan in Manchester.[92] Because detectives firmly believed (and continue to believe) that McAuley, Cooney and Kenny's murders were committed by the same person, this appeared to also rule out the possibility of Sutcliffe also having committed the murders of Cooney and Kenny.[94][92] In 2007 a man was tried for the murder of Elizabeth McCabe after a 1 in 40 million DNA match was found between his DNA and samples found on the victim's clothing, but he was found not guilty by a majority verdict at the conclusion of the trial.[96][97]

Other links made by police between unsolved attacks and Sutcliffe would also be subsequently disproven. For some time the 1970 murder of hitch-hiker Barbara Mayo was listed as a possible Sutcliffe attack by investigators, but this was conclusively disproved by DNA in 1997.[98] Investigators had taken DNA from Sutcliffe at Broadmoor Hospital in December 1997, in order to see if they could find links between him and unsolved crimes.[99][92]

Other forces across Britain also investigated links between Sutcliffe and unsolved murders in their force area. In August 1979 a prostitute, 32-year-old Wendy Jenkins, was killed in Bristol, and Avon and Somerset Police liaised with West Yorkshire Police about whether there was any potential links to the "Ripper" killing spree.[100] Ripper detective Jim Hobson duly visited the site of the murder in Bristol, but there were a number of differences in the murder to Sutcliffe's known killings.[100] Jenkins' murder remains unsolved.[100] After his conviction in 1981, South Yorkshire Police interviewed Sutcliffe on the murder of 29-year-old Doncaster prostitute Barbara Young, who had been hit over the head by a "tall, dark haired man" in an alleyway on the evening of 22 March 1977.[101][92] However, several aspects of the attack did not fit Sutcliffe's MO, particularly as she hit been hit from the front and had been the victim of a robbery.[92] South Yorkshire Police also interviewed Sutcliffe on the murder of Ann Marie Harold in Mexborough in 1980, but links to him were later disproved in December 1982 when another man was convicted of her murder.[101][92] For many years Sutcliffe was linked in the press to the murder of 42-year-old Marion Spence in Leeds on 10 June 1979, but a man had in fact been convicted of her murder in January 1980.[92][102] Links were also made between Sutcliffe and the murder of 38-year-old Mary Gregson in Shipley in August 1977, but Sutcliffe was able to be ruled out with DNA after a profile of the killer was extracted in 1999, and in 2000 another man was convicted of the killing.[92] Sutcliffe was also linked to the 1975 murder of Lesley Molseed after a man was found to have been wrongly imprisoned for the crime in 1992, but Ronald Castree was convicted of his murder after a DNA match in 2007.[92] Detectives had been able to compare Sutcliffe's DNA with the killer's in order to eliminate him from the inquiry.[103]

In 2015, authors Chris Clark and Tim Tate published a book claiming links between Sutcliffe and unsolved murders, titled Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders.[84] It alleged that, between 1966 and 1980, Peter Sutcliffe was responsible for at least 22 more murders than he was convicted of.[84] Due to the popularity of the book it was in 2022 turned into a two-part prime-time ITV documentary series of the same name, which featured both Clark and Tate.[78] Clark and Tate claimed there were links between Sutcliffe and unsolved murders across the country, such as that of Jacqueline Ansell-Lamb and Barbara Mayo, Judith Roberts, Wendy Sewell, Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, Carol Wilkinson and Patsy Morris.[84] As part of the research for the book, Clark and Tate claimed to have found evidence that pointed to the wrong man having been convicted for the Sewell murder, having unearthed a pathology report which allegedly indicated that the originally convicted Stephen Downing could not have committed the crime.[104] The Home Office responded by stating that it would send any new evidence to the police.[104] Derbyshire Constabulary dismissed the theory, pointing to the fact that a reinvestigation in 2002 had found that only Stephen Downing couldn't be ruled out of the investigation, and responded by stating that there was no evidence linking Sutcliffe to the crime.[104]

A number of murders Clark and Tate claimed could be linked to Sutcliffe already have DNA evidence, such as the murders of Barbara Mayo, Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, and investigators are known to already have a copy of Sutcliffe's DNA and have been able to rule him out of unsolved cases as a result.[92] Barbara Mayo was already ruled out as a Peter Sutcliffe victim by police in 1997, and the DNA sample in her murder case has not been linked by police to that of Weedon or Stratford, showing the murders were committed by different people.[92] Upon Sutcliffe's death in 2020, Clark submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office, asking if Sutcliffe's DNA was on the national DNA database.[105] The Home Office confirmed that it was, indicating that Sutcliffe can be ruled out of unsolved murder cases in which there is existing DNA evidence such as in the Mayo, Stratford and Weedon cases.[105] The Mayo, Stratford and Weedon cases did not feature in the 2022 documentary version of Clark's book.[78]

One murder that was linked to Sutcliffe in the book, that of Alison Morris in Ramsey, Essex, on 1 September 1979, took place only six and a half hours before his known killing of Barbara Leach in Bradford, over 200 mi (320 km) away.[92] Clark and Tate claimed that Sutcliffe could have been in Essex and still had enough time to drive back to Bradford to kill Leach six and a half hours later.[106] One supposedly "unsolved" murder linked to Sutcliffe in The Secret Murders, that of Marion Spence in Leeds, in 1979, had in fact already been solved in January 1980 when a man was convicted of her murder.[102][92]

Following his conviction and incarceration, Sutcliffe chose to use the name Coonan, his mother's maiden name.[107] He began his sentence at HM Prison Parkhurst on 22 May 1981. Despite being found sane at his trial, Sutcliffe was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Attempts to send him to a secure psychiatric unit were blocked. While at Parkhurst he was seriously assaulted by James Costello, a 35-year-old career criminal with several convictions for violence. On 10 January 1983, he followed Sutcliffe into the recess of F2, the hospital wing at Parkhurst, and plunged a broken coffee jar twice into the left side of Sutcliffe's face, creating four wounds requiring thirty stitches.[108] In March 1984, Sutcliffe was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, under Section 47 of the Mental Health Act 1983.[109]

Sutcliffe's wife obtained a separation from him around 1989 and a divorce in July 1994.[110] On 23 February 1996, he was attacked in his room in Broadmoor's Henley Ward. Paul Wilson, a convicted robber, asked to borrow a videotape before attempting to strangle Sutcliffe with the cable from a pair of stereo headphones.

After an attack with a pen by fellow inmate Ian Kay on 10 March 1997, Sutcliffe lost the vision in his left eye, and his right eye was severely damaged.[111] Kay admitted trying to kill Sutcliffe and was ordered to be detained in a secure mental hospital without limit of time.[112] In 2003, it was reported that Sutcliffe had developed diabetes.[113]

Sutcliffe's father died in 2004 and was cremated. On 17 January 2005, Sutcliffe was allowed to visit Arnside where the ashes had been scattered. The decision to allow the temporary release was initiated by David Blunkett and ratified by Charles Clarke when he became Home Secretary. Sutcliffe was accompanied by four members of the hospital staff. The visit led to front-page tabloid headlines.[114]

On 22 December 2007, Sutcliffe was attacked by fellow inmate Patrick Sureda, who lunged at him with a metal cutlery knife while shouting, "You fucking raping, murdering bastard, I'll blind your fucking other one!" Sutcliffe flung himself backwards and the blade missed his right eye, stabbing him in the cheek.[115]

On 17 February 2009, it was reported[116] that Sutcliffe was "fit to leave Broadmoor". On 23 March 2010, the Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, was questioned by Julie Kirkbride, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Bromsgrove, in the House of Commons seeking reassurance for a constituent, a victim of Sutcliffe, that he would remain in prison. Straw responded that whilst the matter of Sutcliffe's release was a parole board matter, "that all the evidence that I have seen on this case, and it's a great deal, suggests to me that there are no circumstances in which this man will be released".[117]

An application by Sutcliffe for a minimum term to be set, offering the possibility of parole after that date if it were thought safe to release him, was heard by the High Court on 16 July 2010.[118] The court decided that Sutcliffe would never be released.[119][120] Mr Justice Mitting stated:

This was a campaign of murder which terrorised the population of a large part of Yorkshire for several years. The only explanation for it, on the jury's verdict, was anger, hatred and obsession. Apart from a terrorist outrage, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances in which one man could account for so many victims.[121]

Psychological reports describing Sutcliffe's mental state were taken into consideration, as was the severity of his crimes.[122] Sutcliffe spent the rest of his life in custody. On 4 August 2010, a spokeswoman for the Judicial Communications Office confirmed that Sutcliffe had initiated an appeal against the decision.[123] The hearing for Sutcliffe's appeal against the ruling began on 30 November 2010 at the Court of Appeal.[124] The appeal was rejected on 14 January 2011.[125] On 9 March 2011, the Court of Appeal rejected Sutcliffe's application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.[126]

In December 2015, Sutcliffe was assessed as being "no longer mentally ill".[127] In August 2016, a medical tribunal ruled that he no longer required clinical treatment for his mental condition, and could be returned to prison. Sutcliffe was reported to have been transferred from Broadmoor to HM Prison Frankland in Durham, in August 2016.[128][129]

In 2017, West Yorkshire Police launched Operation Painthall to determine if Sutcliffe was guilty of unsolved crimes dating back to 1964. This inquiry also looked at the killings of two prostitutes in southern Sweden in 1980. Given that Sutcliffe was a lorry driver, it was theorised that he had been in Denmark and Sweden, making use of the ferry across the Oresund Strait. In December 2017 West Yorkshire Police, in response to a Freedom of Information request, neither confirmed nor denied that Operation Painthall existed.[130] West Yorkshire Police later stated that it was "absolutely certain" that Sutcliffe had never been in Sweden.[131][132]