On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the murderous life of a British serial killer named Peter Sutcliffe, aka the Yorkshire Ripper. It was May of 1981, and he was convicted of murdering 13 women (mostly prostitutes) and trying to kill another seven. But he didn’t have typical serial killer childhood or even the control issues or sexual fantasies that many such killers had. In fact, his motivation seemed to come from the fact that he heard God’s voice tell him to kill hookers through the grave stone of a dead Polish man. You know…that old story.

So, how did it all start? Sutcliffe was born to a middle class factory family and had an otherwise normal mom and childhood. He was anti social, but nothing anyone would describe as particularly out of the ordinary. His father was a macho bully who berated Peter for not being more manly, but there was no evidence of physical abuse. Eventually, after years of this treatment, he worked out until he was buff enough to best his brothers and make his family happy.

He lived a seemingly normal life, working at various factories and eventually getting a job as a truck driver. He was married, but had no kids. But, he was disturbed. He worked a job as a grave digger, and people said he would do strange things with the corpses, like pose them and make fun of them. He’d tell jokes that even other grave diggers thought were pushing it, and he’d steal things from the dead. Eventually, he started to visit hookers to get revenge on his cheating girlfriend, and that’s where his transformation to the Yorkshire Ripper started. His first taste of blood was when a pimp took his money and roughed him up without letting him have sex. He went back to the neighborhood and beat the hooker with a sock that had a brick in it. He did this a total of three more times, and he had his taste of blood and bludgeoning.

From there, he elevated things and started to attack hookers with ball peen hammers and slash them with a knife. The first few survived, but he dot more aggressive and eventually shifted to killing. The Yorkshire Ripper would hit hookers with the hammer several times and then slash or stab them. Like many serial killers he was caught and questioned by the police several times but always managed to talk his way out of it.

So, what finally got him busted? How did he try to hide the evidence of his crimes with the cops right there? What was his reaction when accidentally killed a girl who wasn’t a prostitute? What was the deal with his V-Neck sweater that he wore upside down to let his crotch go through the neck hole? How many cops did it take to catch him, and how many interviews did they do? How was he treated in prison, and when did his wife finally leave him? Did he really have a testicle five times bigger than normal? Why did the media give him a name that hearkens back to Jack the Ripper? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit our Sources:

https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sutcliffe-peter.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutcliffe

https://allthatsinteresting.com/peter-sutcliffe-yorkshire-ripper

http://www.yorkshireripper.com/the-story/

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2431418/peter-sutcliffe-yorkshire-ripper-prison-murder-blinded/

https://www.dailymail.co.