Background
Between 1975 and 1980 a series of women were attacked and killed in Yorkshire and the north of England, in and around Leeds, Bradford and Manchester. Women across the north grew afraid to go out at night. The press named the attacker the 'Yorkshire Ripper'.
The investigation became one of the largest in British police history, with tens of thousands of interviews and millions of pages of records.
The victims included women who were working on the streets and many others who were simply walking home or out with friends. In the early years this led to prejudiced public remarks about victims' lifestyles and later to major public criticism. The first murder in the series took place in October 1975.
Investigative failures
A major factor in delaying the inquiry was a tape and letters received by police in 1979. The tape, in a Wearside accent, claimed to be the killer. Detectives spent months pursuing this lead. It is now known to have been a hoax: the sender, John Humble, was identified through DNA in 2005 and in 2006 was jailed for eight years for perverting the course of justice.
Peter Sutcliffe had been interviewed by police several times, but his voice and handwriting did not match the hoax tape, and he was ruled out.
The inquiry was also slowed by detectives struggling with paper-based record systems. Information was kept on index cards, and important links were not made in time. These shortcomings were discussed in detail in later official reviews.
Arrest and trial
On 2 January 1981, during a routine check in Sheffield, police stopped a car carrying false number plates, and Peter Sutcliffe was arrested. During questioning he confessed to the attacks. On 22 May 1981 he was convicted at the Old Bailey of 13 murders and seven attempted murders and received 20 concurrent life sentences.
Sutcliffe remained in custody for decades and died in hospital in November 2020.
After his conviction Sutcliffe was held first in prison and later in a secure psychiatric hospital, He was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital in 1984 and returned to prison in 2016. He was subject to a whole life order and had no prospect of release.
Legacy
The case led to wide reforms in British policing, including record-keeping, national information-sharing and coordination of major inquiries. Public criticism of the investigation also prompted questions about the stigmatising language used about victims and about women in general. This page remembers those who were killed as people with families and lives, not as numbers.