The Yorkshire Ripper's House

I am currently spending a week in Yorkshire, north of England, where the history and architecture takes you back in time decades and even centuries ago.

And just like that, by chance, I ended up photographing the house of one of England’s most prolific serial killers.

I was speaking with a crime investigations officer about crime in the area of Bradford when he asked me if I knew about the Yorkshire Ripper, a 20th century serial killer with similarities to his Victorian counterpart, London’s Jack the Ripper.

Everyone knows about Jack the Ripper.

But what about the Yorkshire Ripper?

There is one important difference between the two serial killers.

Unlike Jack the Ripper, who was never caught and his identity was never known, in 1981, the Yorkshire Ripper was caught, convicted, and sentenced to 20 consecutive lives in prison for his 13 murders and seven attempted murders, most of them during 1975 to 1980.

But his destiny had other plans. In 2020, after 39 years in prison, Peter Sutcliffe died on 13th November, 2020 at age 74 from Covid-19 complications.

Sutcliffe had refused treatment after testing positive for Covid-19 and was suffering from a number of underlying health conditions.

In the end, a small virus killed one of the greatest serial killers in history.

Who was the Yorkshire Ripper?

Starting in the late 1960s and all through the 1970s, Peter William Sutcliffe terrorised the north of England in what he called “a mission from God.”

He became one of Britain’s most prolific serial killers.

Peter Sutcliffe was responsible for targeting at least 21 victims, 13 of whom he killed.

Eight women survived his gruesome attacks with lasting trauma and severe injuries. His first victim, unfortunately, didn’t press charges.

That would have perhaps saved the lives of the victims who didn’t have her same luck.

He exclusively sought out women, usually sex workers, in Yorkshire and Manchester.

Sutcliffe often battered his victims with a hammer first, as well as stabbed and mutilated them with a knife or a sharpened screwdriver.

At some point, the police concluded that Sutcliffe probably committed more crimes than those for which he was convicted.

First victim

The first known woman Sutcliffe killed was 28-year-old Wilma McCann. She was a sex worker who he murdered in October 1975.

Sutcliffe later confessed to the police:

“After that first time, I developed and played up a hatred for prostitutes in order to justify within myself a reason why I had attacked and killed Wilma McCann.”

The Yorkshire Ripper’s house

“This is the house of The Yorkshire Ripper,” he said.

We drove from the police station to Garden Lane in the Heaton area of Bradford. That’s where the house of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper is.

The house is hidden behind trees and bushes and is now lived in by his ex-wife, Sonia Sutcliffe.

She got a divorce 13 years after he was convicted. Sonia was unaware of the double life of her husband.

I had a strange feeling when we stopped in front of the house. That was the street we know he walked for sure, sometimes after brutally killing one of his victims.

I got out of the car to take pictures of the Yorkshire Ripper’s house.

There I was. Standing in front of the house where one of England’s most prolific serial killers had lived over 40 decades ago.

I wanted to do it quickly. There were some children across the street. When they saw me taking a picture, one of them screamed: “excuse me!” As if they were guarding the house.

Who knows what kind of things go through those children’s minds? It’s even chilling to think one of those could become a serial killer in the future.

No, it’s not unlikely to happen if you think about it. It’s simply a possibility, like it happened to the sweet boy Peter Sutcliffe was.

I quickly went back to the car. The police officer who was with me told the children we were taking pictures because we were going to buy the house.

They became silent. With the pictures taken, we left.

What happened to the Yorkshire Ripper’s remains and ashes?

Since Bradford has several old, Victorian cemeteries, I was hoping that the Yorkshire Ripper’s remains would be buried there.

But no, they are not. It seems like he had different plans for his after-life.

It is believed the killer told relatives where he wanted his ashes to be scattered and someone in the family took care of his remains.

A portion of his ashes are thought to have been released at Arnside. His father’s ashes were scattered there back in 2004.

It is believed the rest of the Yorkshire Ripper’s ashes could have been released on the adjacent beach at White Creek.

Trying to understand the reasons behind the crimes of a serial killer is challenging even for professional psychiatrists.

The human mind remains a mystery even today. Perhaps in the future, further developments in science and technology will unveil some of its mysteries.

Until then, the first question I would ask a serial killer is limited to one word: why.

What would you ask?