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Peter William Sutcliffe (2 June 1946 – 13 November 2020), also known as Peter Coonan, was an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others between 1975 and 1980.: 144  He was dubbed in press reports as the Yorkshire Ripper, an allusion to the Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper. He was sentenced to twenty concurrent sentences of life imprisonment, which were converted to a whole life order in 2010. Two of Sutcliffe's murders took place in Manchester; all the others were in West Yorkshire. Criminal psychologist David Holmes characterised Sutcliffe as being an "extremely callous, sexually sadistic serial killer." Sutcliffe initially attacked women and girls in residential areas, but appears to have shifted his focus to red-light districts because he was attracted by the vulnerability of prostitutes and the perceived ambivalent attitude of police to prostitutes' safety. After his arrest in Sheffield by South Yorkshire Police for driving with false number plates in January 1981, he was transferred to the custody of West Yorkshire Police, who questioned him about the killings. Sutcliffe confessed to being the perpetrator, saying that the voice of God had sent him on a mission to kill prostitutes. At his trial he pleaded not guilty to murder on grounds of diminished responsibility, but he was convicted of murder on a majority verdict. Following his conviction, Sutcliffe began using his mother's maiden name of Coonan. The search for Sutcliffe was one of the largest and most expensive manhunts in British history. West Yorkshire Police faced heavy and sustained criticism for their failure to catch him despite having interviewed him nine times in the course of their five-year investigation. Owing to the sensational nature of the case, the police handled an exceptional amount of information, some of it misleading including hoax correspondence purporting to be from the "Ripper". Following Sutcliffe's conviction, the government ordered a review of the investigation, conducted by the Inspector of Constabulary Lawrence Byford, known as the "Byford Report". The findings were made fully public in 2006, and confirmed the validity of the criticism of the force. The report led to changes to investigative procedures that were adopted across UK police forces. Since his conviction, Sutcliffe has been linked to a number of other unsolved murders and attacks. Sutcliffe was transferred from prison to Broadmoor Hospital in March 1984 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The High Court dismissed an appeal by Sutcliffe in 2010, confirming that he would serve a whole life order and never be released from custody. In August 2016, it was ruled that he was mentally fit to be returned to prison, and he was transferred that month to HM Prison Frankland in County Durham. Sutcliffe died in the hospital from COVID-19, in addition to diabetes-related complications, while in prison custody in 2020, aged 74. Early life Peter Sutcliffe was born on 2 June 1946 to a working-class family in Bingley, West Riding of Yorkshire. His parents were John William Sutcliffe (1922–2004) and his Irish wife Kathleen Frances Coonan (1919–1978), a native of Connemara. Kathleen was a Roman Catholic and John was a member of the choir at the local Anglican church of St Wilfred's; their children were raised in their mother's Catholic faith, and Sutcliffe briefly served as an altar boy. Sutcliffe was a premature baby, having to spend two weeks in hospital, and his mother was the victim of domestic abuse, making it likely she struggled through her pregnancy under great emotional stress. Sutcliffe's father was a heavy drinker who once smashed a beer glass over Sutcliffe's head for sitting in his chair at the Christmas table when he was five years old. John Sutcliffe also hated his mother: "She was a bitch and the least said about her, the better." He would frequently dismiss the slightly-built Peter as "a wimp, always hanging from his mother's apron, a mummy's boy." Sutcliffe's mother often lavished attention on her son, and was to become seen by Sutcliffe as "perfect". John would also whip his children with a belt as a form of punishment. Sutcliffe's siblings later described their father as "a monster" and, according to Sutcliffe's younger brother, "The atmosphere in our house would change as soon as he [John] walked in. His life revolved around playing football, cricket, singing in a choir—and womanising." When he was four years old, Sutcliffe was sent to St. Joseph's Catholic Primary School, where he was severely bullied. In 1970, Sutcliffe's father posed as his wife's lover in order to lure her to a local hotel and took Sutcliffe and two of his siblings to witness him expose her infidelity. When Kathleen arrived, Sutcliffe's father pulled out a negligee from his mother's purse as her children watched. In his late-adolescence, Sutcliffe developed a growing obsession with voyeurism, and spent much time spying on prostitutes and the men seeking their services. Reportedly a loner, Sutcliffe left school at the age of 15 and had a series of menial jobs, including two stints as a gravedigger at Bingley Cemetery in the 1960s. Because of this occupation, he developed a macabre sense of humour — co-workers reported that Sutcliffe enjoyed his work too much and would even volunteer to do overtime washing the corpses. Between November 1971 and April 1973, Sutcliffe worked at the Baird Television factory on a packaging line. He left this position when he was asked to go on the road as a salesman.: 63  After leaving Baird Television, Sutcliffe worked night shifts at the Britannia Works of Anderton International from April 1973. In February 1975, he took redundancy and used half of the £400 pay-off to train as a heavy goods vehicle (HGV) driver. On 5 March 1976, Sutcliffe was dismissed for the theft of used tyres. He was unemployed until October 1976, when he found a job as an HGV driver for T. & W.H. Clark Holdings Ltd. on the Canal Road Industrial Estate in Bradford.: 71  Sutcliffe reportedly hired prostitutes as a young man, and it has been speculated that he had a bad experience during which he was conned out of money by a prostitute and her pimp. Other analyses of his actions have not found evidence that he actually sought the services of prostitutes but note that he nonetheless developed an obsession with them, including "watching them soliciting on the streets of Leeds and Bradford." Sutcliffe met 16-year-old Sonia Szurma, the daughter of Ukrainian and Polish refugees from Czechoslovakia, on 14 February 1967, at Royal Standard pub on Manningham Lane in Bradford's red light district; they married on 10 August 1974. Sonia was studying to become a teacher when she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Her relationship with her husband was later characterised by the writer Gordon Burn as domineering, with Sonia willing to slap him down "like a naught.... Discover the Peter Brannen popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Peter Brannen books.