Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was conscious and aware that he was going to die having discussed his transfer to palliative care just hours before he perished in hospital from Covid-19, a coroner has said.
The 74-year-old prisoner, dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper, had been suffering increased breathlessness and needed additional oxygen because he had ‘solid and airless lungs’ in the days before his death in November.
He died alone in University Hospital of North Durham on November 10 because no visitors were allowed by his bedside due to covid rules.
Sutcliffe murdered 13 women and attacked more, terrifying northern England in the late 1970s until he was caught in 1980.
The Ripper had previously signed ‘do not resuscitate forms’ – while friends said he astonishingly believed he would ‘go to heaven’ after his death because he had become a Jehovah’s Witness.
Families of his victims celebrated his death and said the serial killer will ‘rot in hell’.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe (pictured at the time of the murders) has died at the age of 74 after contracting coronavirus. Sutcliffe was pictured in public for the last time on September 26, 2015 when he was being taken from Broadmoor to Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey for eye treatment
12 of the 13 victims murdered by Sutcliffe. Victims are: (top row, left to right) Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson; (middle row, left to right) Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka; (bottom row, left to right) Vera Millward, Josephine Whitaker, Barbara Leach, Jacqueline Hill
The Yorkshire Ripper had even boasted he would not catch covid in jail as victims’ families said the virus ‘has at least one happy ending’ after it claimed his life.
Sutcliffe had written regular letters to a penpal during the pandemic and just months before his death had boasted about feeling ‘much safer’ in prison than in the outside world, MailOnline revealed.
Shortly afterwards he caught coronavirus while serving a whole life sentence at Frankland Prison, Durham, and was transferred to hospital where he was ‘gravely ill’ and then died.
Today assistant senior coroner for County Durham, Crispin Oliver, held a 15-minute hearing in Crook to hear an update on investigations ahead of a full hearing later this year.
Mr Oliver read an extract from the post-mortem examination by Dr Clive Bloxham, carried out at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle, days after Sutcliffe died.
The serial killer tested positive for coronavirus on November 5.
The prisoner, who changed his name by deed poll to Coonan in 2001, had previously suffered from diabetes and heart disease, known risk factors for Covid-19, the coroner said.
He had a pacemaker fitted on November 2 and there were no complications. Referring to the post-mortem, Mr Oliver said: ‘However, he continued to deteriorate with increasing oxygen requirements and on November 12 he was judged to be dying.
‘After full discussion with the patient, he was transferred to palliative care and he died on November 13 at 1.45am.’
The coroner said the post-mortem confirmed severe heart disease, including stenosis of three coronary arteries.
Sutcliffe’s letter on June 14 to his penpal – who asked to remain anonymous – in which he boasted about feeling ‘safer’ behind bars during the covid pandemic. Months later he caught it
Sutcliffe in prison van on way to the Old Bailey in London, May 1981 (left). He is pictured on the right in a video grab taken during his time in prison, where he was serving a full life term
On August 10 1974, Sutcliffe married Sonia (they are pictured at their wedding day). Less than a year later, the lorry driver picked up a hammer and began attacking women, two in Keighley and one in Halifax
He added: ‘The main finding was very heavy, solid and airless lungs, highly typical of adult respiratory distress syndrome, this is a characteristic feature of individuals dying of Covid-19 infection.’
Sutcliffe’s next-of-kin, ex-wife Sonia Woodward, had been in contact with the coroner’s service but did not attend the hearing.
Mr Oliver is awaiting a report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman into Sutcliffe’s death, with its initial findings due on April 8.
A full inquest was provisionally scheduled for May 7, but that could become a pre-inquest review if the ombudsman’s report reveals more issues to consider.
If needed, a full inquest would then happen on June 18, the coroner said.
Spectrum, a community health service responsible for providing care to Frankland inmates, as well as the prison authorities are expected to be interested parties.
Bobbies and blunders: The raft of police mistakes that allowed him to slip the net during the biggest manhunt in British history
The hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper became the biggest manhunt Britain had ever known.
But despite the 2.5 million police man hours expended on catching him, Peter Sutcliffe was allowed to continue his murderous spree for more than five years.
During the police inquiry he was interviewed nine times, but was only caught when picked up by chance with a prostitute in his car. He eventually attacked 20 women, killing 13 of them, between 1975 and 1980.
A series of spectacular police blunders left even Sutcliffe amazed that he had not been caught before.
George Oldfield (Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire), Ronald Gregory (Chief Constable of West Yorkshire) and Jim Hobson (acting Chief Constable of West Yorkshire)- pictured at a press conference shortly after Sutcliffe’s arrest in 1981
A letter to Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield from ‘Wearside Jack’ – the cruel prankster that fooled police during their investigation
At his Old Bailey trial he said: ‘It was just a miracle they did not apprehend me earlier – they had all the facts.’
The Ripper incident room at Millgarth police station used a card index system which was overwhelmed with information and not properly cross-referenced, leading to evidence against Sutcliffe getting lost in the system.
Crucial similarities between him and the suspect, like the gap in his teeth and his size seven feet, were not picked up.
As early as 1976, when Marcella Claxton was hit over the head with a hammer near her home in Leeds, potentially vital evidence was overlooked.
She survived the attack and was able to help police produce a photofit – which later proved to be accurate – but she was discounted as a Ripper victim because she was not a prostitute.
On one occasion Sutcliffe was interviewed by officers who showed him a picture of the Ripper’s bootprint near a body – they failed to notice that Sutcliffe was wearing the exact same pair of boots.
When a £5 note was found in the pocket of 28-year-old Jean Jordan, in Manchester in 1977, police again failed to connect Sutcliffe.
The note was traced to one of six companies, including Clark Transport, which employed Sutcliffe as a lorry driver.
He was interviewed but was given an alibi by his wife and mother, which was accepted.
Police also overlooked Sutcliffe’s arrest in 1969 for carrying a hammer in a red light district, and attempts by his friend Trevor Birdsall to point the finger at him in a anonymous letter.
But the worst blunder came in 1979, when Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield of West Yorkshire Police , who was in overall command of the hunt, was hoodwinked by a hoax tape and two letters sent from Sunderland, which purported to be from the Ripper.
There were warnings of a hoax from voice experts and other detectives, but Oldfield pressed on, convinced this was his man.
Because the voice on the tape had a North East accent, Sutcliffe, who was from Bradford, was not in the frame.
Oldfield’s mistake has been described as one of the biggest in British criminal history, but he was widely regarded as a ‘top notch copper’.
An ‘old school’ policeman with three decades experience, he was a hard drinking, dedicated man who developed a deep personal obsession with nailing the Ripper.
He worked 18-hour days and made a personal pledge to the parents of the sixth victim, Jayne MacDonald, that he would catch the killer.
His 200-strong ripper squad eventually carried out more than 130,000 interviews, visited more than 23,000 homes and checked 150,000 cars.
When the tape arrived it was a personal message to Oldfield, which said: ‘Lord, you are no nearer catching me now than four years ago when I started.
‘I reckon your boys are letting you down George. You can’t be much good can ya?’
Later the same year Oldfield had a heart attack at the age of 57, and was subsequently moved off the case.
He has been described by friends as ‘the Ripper’s 14th victim’.
With attention focused on suspects with a North East accent, the Ripper continued his killing spree and claimed his 13th and last murder victim, 21-year-old student Jacqueline Hill, late in 1980.
At that time police had a league table of suspects.
There were 26 in Division One – at the top was a completely innocent taxi driver who they tailed for months.
Some 200 names were in Division Two and 1,000 – including Sutcliffe – were in Division Three.
Then, in January 1981, police finally got some luck when Sutcliffe was arrested by officers in Sheffield, who stopped him with a prostitute in his brown Rover car.
The car had false number plates and Sutcliffe’s name was passed on to the Ripper squad, where it came up on their index cards.
He had always denied any involvement with prostitutes in his previous interviews, and they decided to talk to him again.
When a £5 note was found in the pocket of 28-year-old Jean Jordan, in Manchester in 1977, police again failed to connect Sutcliffe. The note was traced to one of six companies, including Clark Transport, which employed Sutcliffe as a lorry driver
Detective Chief Superintendent Hobson (left) replaced Oldfield in November 1980. He immediately downgraded the importance of the Wearside Jack tape and letters. Pictured on the right is Detective Superintendent P Gilrain with a poster appealing for witnesses after the murder of Barbara Leach
The officers who went to Dewsbury police station to interview him looked at the car and found screwdrivers in the glove compartment.
The Sheffield officers, meanwhile, hearing Sutcliffe was a Ripper suspect, went back to the scene of his arrest and found a hammer and knife 50ft from where his car had been.
Sutcliffe had dumped the weapons when they allowed him to go to the toilet at the side of a building.
Police also visited Sutcliffe’s wife Sonia, who admitted he had not got home until 10pm on Bonfire Night, when a 16-year-old girl was attacked.
As the net closed, Sutcliffe suddenly and unexpectedly confessed.
He calmly told Detective Inspector John Boyle, who was interviewing him : ‘It’s all right, I know what you’re leading up to. The Yorkshire Ripper. It’s me. I killed all those women.’
He then began a detailed confession lasting 24 hours, and asked for Sonia to be brought in so he could tell her personally that he was the Ripper.
Sutcliffe went on trial at the Old Bailey in May 1981, where he claimed he had been directed by God to kill prostitutes.
The jury had to decide whether, at the time of the killings, he believed he was carrying out a divine mission.
After lengthy deliberations they returned a 10-2 majority verdict of guilty and was jailed for life.
The case remains one of the most notorious of the last 100 years and the assessment of what went wrong in the investigation is still having an impact on major police inquiries to this day.
The Wearside Jack messages were finally, conclusively proved to be hoax nearly 30 years after they were sent when Sunderland alcoholic John Humble admitted perverting the course of justice and was jailed for eight years in 2006.
The woman who stood by a monster: How Yorkshire Ripper’s ex-wife Sonia Sutcliffe remained married to him for nearly two decades and visited him in Broadmoor as recently as 2015
Sonia Sutcliffe stood by her husband even after he was unmasked as one of the most notorious serial killers in British history.
Peter Sutcliffe died this morning at the age of 74 after refusing treatment for coronavirus.
But his wife of 20 years, school teacher Sonia, has never broken her silence to speak out about the man who butchered 13 women.
Sonia still lives in the home she shared with her ex-husband Peter in Bradford, West Yorkshire, while he murdered his victims.
Sutcliffe pictured at his father’s home with his wife Sonia in late 1980 in the midst of his killing spree
Sonia continued to visit her husband at Parkhurst prison and later at Broadmoor where he was transferred in 1984 due to his paranoid schizophrenia.
The pair ultimately divorced in 1994 after 20 years of marriage and in 1997 she remarried hairdresser Michael Woodward.
Sutcliffe, who gained infamy as the Yorkshire Ripper in the 1970s and 1980s, began his reign of terror after an argument with his wife in 1969.
Sutcliffe met Sonia after he got a job as a gravedigger at Bingley Cemetery in 1964.
He and work friends went drinking at the Royal Standard in Bradford’s red light district, and hung out in an area of the pub they dubbed ‘Gravediggers’ corner’.
It was at the bar that he met Sonia, the daughter of Ukrainian and Polish–born refugees, in 1966.
The year after Sonia and Peter got engaged, Sutcliffe’s brother spotted her being driven in a sports car by an Italian businessman.
After a furious argument, Sutcliffe picked up a prostitute that evening in Bradford in a bid to cheat on his then-wife.
Despite changing his mind at the last minute, he went on the claim the woman swindled him out of £5 – triggering a bitter hatred for the sex workers he then went on to murder over the next five years.
The pair patched things up and on August 10 1974, Sutcliffe married Sonia.
Less than a year later, the lorry driver picked up a hammer and began attacking women, two in Keighley and one in Halifax.
All three survived and police did not notice the similarities between the attacks.
The first fatality was Wilma McCann. The 28-year-old sex worker and mother-of-four was battered to death in the early hours of October 30 1975.
When the net closed in on Sutcliffe in 1981 and he confessed, he calmly told Detective Inspector John Boyle, who was interviewing him: ‘It’s all right, I know what you’re leading up to. The Yorkshire Ripper. It’s me. I killed all those women.’
He then began a detailed confession lasting 24 hours, and asked for Sonia to be brought in so he could tell her personally that he was the Ripper.
Sonia stayed by his side when was convicted of murders but has has not been seen at the prison since her visit to Broadmoor in December, 2015.
She remarried hairdresser Michael Woodward in 1997, and was last photographed seen out and about in 2018.
In 2015, Sonia told the Sun on Sunday: ‘People have claimed to have interviewed me when the truth is they have not. There have been a lot of bad things written about me and they are not accurate.
‘I would like the truth to come out one day but I am afraid to be extremely busy for the next two or three years. I have commitments I cannot get out of. I do not want to say what they are.
‘One day I might do something but I don’t want to get your hopes up that is going to happen now.’
In 2015, Sutcliffe complained that he missed ‘his Sonia’ and claimed her new husband was ‘jealous’ of their friendship and preventing her from visiting him behind bars.
Earlier this year, Sutcliffe ‘sent a Valentine’s card to Sonia and asked if she would visit him in prison’ because he was ‘in bits’ that he may never see her again.
In February Sutcliffe asked prison bosses to set up a video call to his ex-wife at HMP Frankland in County Durham.
He had told his friends about the ‘Sonia problem’, a source told the Sun on Sunday, as he ‘desperately tried to find a way through’ missing her.
Sources said he ‘tends to mope around and complain’ about the potential of never seeing his ex-wife before he dies.
‘But it is a wonder than she is in touch with him at all, or in fact that anyone is’, the source added.
The Ripper had reportedly asked a Frankland governor to persuade Sonia to visit as prisoners are banned from making video calls to potential visitors.