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The Ripper nickname which was attatched to Peter Sutcliffe was in no ways a journalists careless label, in many respects he did seem to be Jack the Ripper incarnated. Just like the victorian crimes, the victims of Peter Sutcliffe were savagely killed, it was by no means a clean murder. He started killing in 1975 by 1978 nine had been killed, eight of which were prostitutes. One victim he stabbed as many as fifty times. The English police spent Four million pounds on their manhunt but the killings continued through to 1979. Sutcliffe began to grow distant from his methods which is unusual for a serial killer, instead of prostitutes he now began to target female college students and young working women. Also he replaced his knife for a screwdriver. One of his last victims took a glance at him for a few seconds which seemed to trouble Sutcliffe as he would later reveal. He stabbed her in the eye with the screwdriver but was shaken by that mortal stare.
Sutcliffe was arrested in 1981, haphazardly as a routine inspection for solicitation. In the car they found his "tools" and instead of trying to talk his way out of it, Sutcliffe confessed for the next 16 hours.
At his trial the defense tried to get Sutcliffe off on an insanity plea, claiming God had told him to do what he did. The court didn't buy it and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Peter Sutcliffe was just another serial killer who had suffered head trauma, in his case in a motorcycle accident, which is believed to have lead to the homicidal impulses. |
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