Peter Sutcliffe Research Paper

20 consecutive life sentences in prison - this was the Yorkshire Ripper’s punishment for his crimes. The crimes that the Yorkshire Ripper committed were some of the worst anyone had heard of at the time. He struck panic and terror into the population of Yorkshire and surrounding areas. The Yorkshire Ripper, who violently took the lives of 13 people and attempted to take 7 more, was identified as Peter Sutcliffe in 1981; which led to the rest of his life being spent in a jail cell. At times, learning the background of a murderer may lead to a better understanding of what went wrong. How could any human possibly be so careless with others’ lives? What truly caused this? Peter Sutcliffe was born in Bingley, West Yorkshire, England on June 2,

Together, they were searching for a woman who owed them money but they did not succeed. Sutcliffe then went out alone and found a random woman. He continued to assault this woman by hitting her over the head with a sock with a large rock inside. To much of his surprise, the sock ripped; he then fled the scene, knowing there was not much else he could do. The unnamed woman followed Sutcliffe, got his license plate, and reported it to the police. She chose not to press charges; as a result, the case was dropped and Sutcliffe was never found guilty of this heinous crime (The Yorkshire Ripper Case). This seemed to satisfy him for the next 6 years until he struck again. In 1975, Sutcliffe unfortunately came across a woman named Olive Smelt just 15 miles from where the first attack occurred. Olive was tragically slashed across her whole back. Luckily, a bystander interrupted the incident and the victim survived (The Yorkshire Ripper Case). The next of Sutcliffe’s assault victims is Tracy Brown, who was only 14 years old at the time of the attack. It took place on August 27 of 1975, when Tracy was simply walking down the side of a country lane. She was hit on the head from behind with an unknown large, blunt object. The brutal attack was then interrupted by a car coming down the usually quiet road. Although she survived, she had to undergo brain surgery and lived the rest

An estimated 2.5 million police hours were put into finding the serial killer. On January 2, 1981, Sutcliffe was stopped by police for having faulty license plates (Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe Gruesome Murder Method and Appalling Injuries). In his car was Olivia Reivers, a 24 year old sex worker. Before he was taken into custody he asked if he could urinate in the nearby bushes. The cops obliged, but little to their knowledge, Sutcliffe was dumping his weapons there. He was arrested and taken into custody by Sergeant Robert King (The Yorkshire Ripper Is Apprehended). After he was taken to the station, a thorough search of the surrounding area was done. Police found a hammer, knife, and rope nearby. Police at the station then strip searched Sutcliffe. He was found to be wearing an upside down, v-neck jumper, which exposed his genitals and knee pads. The purpose of the shirt exposing his genitals was believed to be so that he could easily sexually assault his victims. The knee pads were to protect his knees from being scratched as he knelt over the victims. It took authorities two days to get a confession out of the murderer. Sutcliffe claimed that the voice of God told him to kill sex workers (Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe Gruesome Murder Method and Appalling Injuries). Sutcliffe’s trial officially began on May 4th of 1981. During his two