the serial killer Peter Sutcliffe known
as the Yorkshire Ripper has died in
hospital at the age of 74 he had
coronavirus Sutcliffe murdered 13 women
across Yorkshire and the northwest of
England between 1975 and 1980. he was
also convicted of the attempted murder
of seven other women this report from
our correspondent Danny Savage contains
some flashing images
over a period of six years all of these
women were murdered by the same man 13
families lives torn apart by Peter
Sutcliffe Wilma McCann was the first to
be killed in Leeds in 1975.
her son Richard was just five years old
when she died he believes today brings
some sort of closure I know that there
will be many people that welcomed this
day and and maybe some of them will get
some peace is the man that took my mum's
life and so it is significant and it's
not well it is a motive in some ways but
I've got my own life I've got my own
family now and let's let's get on with
with our lives with a bit more peace
shall we say after today
this was in Halifax where 19 year old
Bank Clark Josephine Whitaker was killed
murder scenes were scattered across
Yorkshire and Manchester
for several years women especially here
in West Yorkshire were scared going out
alone at night was a real risk Peter
Sutcliffe changed the way people lived
still he found victims like Mo Lee who
was an art student in Leeds and survived
when Sutcliffe ambushed her my attack
did shape my life and my Outlook you
know within a matter of five minutes one
side of that time scale I was a
happy-go-lucky Young
innocent art student and after that I
became sarcastic and cynical and I lost
Trust
Sutcliffe was known to police he was
interviewed nine times but things never
went any further I'm Jack I see you are
still having no look cutting me that's
partly because the police inquiry was
famously LED down a blind alley by hoax
tapes from a man dubbed weirside Jack
he sent letters and tapes tauntingly
investigating officers I have the
greatest respect for you George even
though he fitted descriptions it led to
the conclusion that Peter Sutcliffe
wasn't their man as a retired detective
recalls and one of the top table
officers said um
uh is he a Geordie no no what's his name
he said Peter Sutcliffe now listen boys
Peter Sutcliffe Peter Sutcliffe is not
the Yorkshire Ripper so Sutcliffe
carried on killing colleagues at the
haulage firm where he worked knew he was
a suspect and used to joke about it he
was a nickname the Ripper
and he used to answer to that sometimes
so it was you know it's rather
it's rather sort of it's sad now isn't
it when he was eventually arrested for
having stolen number plates he confessed
at dewsbury police station the public
turned out to express their disgust
foreign
was jailed for the rest of his life he
died after Contracting covid-19 and
refusing treatment few if any will mourn
the passing of a man who destroyed so
many lives Danny Savage BBC News leads
West Yorkshire police has apologized for
the way some senior officers spoke at
the time about some of Sutcliffe's
victims a number of whom were sex
workers the forces Chief Constable said
that while some of the language and
attitudes may have reflected wider
Society at the time they were wrong then
and wrong now many women in the north of
England lived in a climate of fear in
the late 70s before Sutcliffe was
arrested as our special correspondent
Lucy Manning reports
Wilma McCann
Emily Jackson
Irene Richardson
Patricia Atkinson
Jane McDonald
Gene Jordan
Yvonne Pearson
Helen ritka
Vera millward
Josephine Whittaker
Barbara Leach
Marguerite walls
Jacqueline Hill
everyone remembers Peter Sutcliffe's
name how many remember theirs
what no one forgets from the time is the
terror felt by women
for a 17 year old in Leeds when
Sutcliffe was left free to kill it was a
fear Michelle teal couldn't shake
and we'd know more about phones so you
couldn't ring to say I don't feel safe
or anything you need nothing so my mum
used to time it knowing when I'd roughly
be coming home and she would walk
halfway to meet me
but it was a scary scary time all of us
were so aware of this case to the point
of actually suspecting friends neighbors
relatives Joan Smith reported on the
murders suffered nightmares after she
wrote about the misogyny of the police
investigating
they kind of thought that the women who
were involved in the sex trade were
asking for it in inverted commas and
they were much more interested in the
innocent women and I thought they missed
the central point was that what he hated
was women
do you think anything has changed for
women since that time in terms of
policing what it changed with women's
attitudes it kicked off the reclaim the
night marches women saying why we're the
victims why should we be the ones who
stay at home and this was an absolutely
foundational event
for a former Yorkshire Evening Post
journalist at the time of the murders it
boiled down to one thing I would say
there was institutionalized misogyny the
victims who survived had all said he had
a local accent but they didn't take any
notice of those people
um and if they had they'd listen to the
women you know maybe he would have
caught being caught sooner
violence against women is taken more
seriously now but few accused of rape
are charged and convictions for that and
domestic abuse are down
the murder in 2006 of five women in
Ipswich who were daughters and mothers
but also worked as prostitutes shows
vulnerable women are still at risk and
when the serial rapist John warboys was
to be released two years ago it was the
victims themselves who had to campaign
to keep him in prison
in the late 1970s it wasn't just a few
weeks when women were scared to go out
it was five years and today there are
still women who feel unsafe not just on
the streets but often in their own home
Lucy Manning BBC News