Yorkshire Ripper: who were serial killer Peter Sutcliffe’s victims, when did he get caught, and how did he die?

Notorious serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died in hospital.

Sutcliffe was known to have murdered at least 13 women across the north of England in the late 1970s, before being caught and jailed in 1981.

A Prison Service spokesman confirmed that Sutcliffe, who was 74, died at University Hospital of North Durham on Friday 13 November, close to where he was an inmate at HMP Frankland.

He was sent to the hospital from prison after testing positive for coronavirus, but reportedly refused any treatment.

Sutcliffe, who had diabetes and heart issues, had been in the hospital only two weeks prior to his death, after suffering a suspected heart attack.

The cause of his death will be investigated and confirmed by the coroner.

The Yorkshire Ripper was one of the UK’s most infamous serial killers, remaining at large for five years as he killed innocent women across Yorkshire and north west England.

But who exactly was Peter Sutcliffe and who were his victims?

Who was Peter Sutcliffe?

Sutcliffe was born in Bingley, West Yorkshire, on 2 June, 1946.

Said to be a loner, Sutcliffe left school at age 15 and worked a few odd jobs as a factory worker, door-to-door salesman, HGV driver and a grave digger.

His dad once said he “seemed detached” from other children, and he struggled to hold a conversation unless it was about cards or motorbikes.

When he was a teenager, Sutcliffe reportedly had an obsession with voyeurism and often spied on prostitutes and their clients.

Sutcliffe married Sonia Szurma in 1974.

At this point, he had been attacking women since the late 1960s. His first murder, of 28-year-old Wilma McCann, took place a year after he was married.

Sutcliffe went on to kill 12 more women up until 1980, and he tried to murder seven more.

Who were the Yorkshire Ripper’s victims?

Sutcliffe is known to have brutally murdered 13 women, but police remain convinced there were more victims due to a series of missed opportunities to catch the serial killer.

During his murdering spree, women in Yorkshire were unable to leave their homes in case they became Sutcliffe’s next victim.

He was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he would mutilate his victims with a hammer, screwdriver and knife.

A lot of his victims were sex workers.

His first known victim was Wilma McCann in 1975, a mother-of-four from Leeds.

Sutcliffe struck her twice with a hammer, before stabbing her 15 times in the neck, chest and abdomen.

Sutcliffe then killed 42-year-old Emily Jackson in Leeds in 1976, after stabbing her 52 times.

Irene Richardson, 28, was his third victim in 1977. She was hit to death with a hammer.

The same year, he killed Patricia Atkinson, 32, in her own flat.

Sutcliffe then murdered Jayne McDonald, who was only 16 - his youngest victim.

Jean Jordan, 20, was his next victim. Sutcliffe had given her a £5 note which allowed police to narrow their field of inquiry to 8,000 people.

He then killed Yvonne Pearson in 1978 with a hammer, and hid her body under a discarded sofa.

Eighteen-year-old Helen Rytka was next to be killed by the Yorkshire Ripper, followed by Vera Millward, 40.

Josephine Whitaker was then killed by Sutcliffe when she was walking home in 1979, when she was 19.

Barbara Leach, a 20-year-old university student, was next, followed by Marguerite Walls, 47, in 1980.

Sutcliffe killed Marguerite and 20-year-old student Jacqueline Hill, his last known victim, while he was awaiting trial for a drink driving offence.

When did he get caught?

It wasn’t until three months after his final attack on Jacqueline, in January 1981, that Sutcliffe was caught.

It took the police a while to piece the investigation together and link the murders because they took place all over Yorkshire.

Yet, a pattern of killing began to emerge since all the victims were murdered in a similar way - struck with a hammer, before being stabbed by a knife or screwdriver.

However, the serial killer was only caught when police noticed stolen number plates on his car.

Two policemen in Sheffield stopped a brown Rover after noticing the car’s registration didn’t match the number on the vehicle’s tax disc.

Sutcliffe was inside the car with a sex worker, and police recognised that he fit the profile of the still at-large Yorkshire Ripper.

The police sent Sutcliffe to Dewsbury station to be interviewed, after they allowed him to go to the toilet behind a nearby building.

A search of his car found screwdrivers in the glove compartment, and officers discovered a hammer and a knife which had been discarded at the place where Sutcliffe had apparently relieved himself.

A Yorkshire Post report said a second knife had been hidden in a toilet at the police station before he was searched.

Evidence was piling up against Sutcliffe at this point.

After two days of questioning, he finally admitted to his gruesome crimes and went on to describe the attacks in detail in a confession that lasted an entire 24 hours.

It is reported that Sutcliffe claimed he had been “directed by God to kill prostitutes”.

He was charged with multiple counts of murder, found guilty by trial and sentenced to 20 consecutive life sentences.

Did Peter Sutcliffe have a wife?

During his killing sprees, Sutcliffe used to go home to his wife Sonia who had no idea of his callous crimes.

Born on 10 August, 1950, Sonia, now 70, was 24 when she married Sutcliffe.

She worked as a school teacher while, unbeknownst to her, Sutcliffe was murdering women across Yorkshire.

After he was arrested, Sonia visited him at a police station where he reportedly told her he was the notorious Yorkshire Ripper.

Despite being charged with 20 life terms, Sonia stood by him in jail and visited him several times.

She did not stop until 2017 when he was moved from Broadmoor Hospital, where he was being treated for paranoid schizophrenia, to HMP Frankland.

Sonia finally divorced him in 1994, after 20 years of marriage, 13 years after he was caught.

Sonia still lives in the same house she shared with her ex-husband in Yorkshire, although she has since remarried to 60-year-old hairdresser Michael Woodward.

However, for reasons publicly unknown, he has declined to live with Sonia in her marital home and instead lives a 15-minute drive away.

Who are Peter Sutcliffe’s brothers and sisters?

Sutcliffe had five brothers and sisters, and they lived together with their parents in a small four-bed house in Bingley.

Not much is known about them, but his younger sister Anne Summer died of cancer aged 56 and Sutcliffe was reportedly “devastated” to learn the news.

His younger brother, Carl, told Yorkshire Live that he gets pointed at in the street due to Sutcliffe’s crimes.

Who were Peter Sutcliffe’s parents?

The Yorkshire Ripper was apparently a “mummy’s boy”, and was very attached to his mother Kathleen.

After his arrest, Sutcliffe took on his mother’s maiden name, Coonan.

When he was a child, Sutcliffe was rejected by his dad John - a tough, sports-mad Yorkshireman - who was said to be disappointed with his weedy, skinny son.

This is one theory as to why Sutcliffe proceeded to grow up as a strange loner who struggled to fit in with other children at school.