Peter Sutcliffe, the serial killer known as the Yorkshire Ripper, has died aged 74.
Sutcliffe was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and north-west England in the late 1970s.
After being convicted in 1981 he spent three decades at Broadmoor Hospital, a high security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire.
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He was being held at HMP Frankland in County Durham, where he has been since 2016, however Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from the prison. He was sent to hospital after developing Covid-19 symptoms.
He reportedly refused treatment for Covid-19. Sutcliffe also had a number of underlying health problems including obesity and diabetes. Two weeks ago he had a suspected heart attack and was returned to prison. He was later forced to go back to hospital after testing positive for Covid-19.
Most of his victims were prostitutes, but some included women walking home and women he offered to give lifts to in his car.
After several attacks, the first victim to lose their life by Sutcliffe was Wilma McCann in 1975 after being hit with a hammer and stabbed multiple times. There was an extensive inquiry into the mother-of-four's death, involving 150 police officers and 11,000 interviews, but no culprit was found until Sutcliffe admitted to his crimes in 1981.
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In October, ITV announced a brand new true crime drama focusing on Sutcliffe and his crimes titled The Yorkshire Ripper.
Written by acclaimed screenwriter George Kay, who is also behind the Netflix crime drama Criminal, the drama will follow the desperate cat and mouse hunt for Sutcliffe, which took place between October 1975 and January 1981 and involved over a thousand police officers.
Having initially murdered a number of sex workers in Leeds, Sutcliffe soon spread across the whole of the North of England, attempting to harm women of all backgrounds, living in all different neighbourhoods.
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In total, Sutcliffe killed thirteen and attempted to kill seven others.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: True Crime, News