British serial killer, Peter Sutcliffe known as ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ has passed away on Friday, November 13 at 74 from coronavirus.
UK Ministry of Justice on Friday announced the death of the convicted killer who was serving a whole life term.
He had been suffering from underlying health conditions before testing positive for COVID-19, but the Prison Service could not confirm the cause of death as that is “rightly a matter for the coroner”.
A Prison Service spokesperson said;
HMP (Her Majesty’s Prison) Frankland prisoner Peter Coonan (born Sutcliffe) died in hospital on 13 November. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.
The spokesman revealed that Sutcliffe died at University Hospital of North Durham, three miles from where he was an inmate.
He was sent there after developing COVID-19, but is understood to have refused treatment for the virus.
The 74-year-old returned to prison after being treated for a suspected heart attack two weeks ago, but was forced to go back to hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
He was obese and had a number of health problems, including diabetes and heart issues.
Nicknamed the “Yorkshire Ripper” by the UK press, Sutcliffe was convicted in 1981 for murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven others during a reign of terror in northern England between 1975 and 1980.
His 13 known victims were: Wilma McCann, Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Tina Atkinson, Jayne MacDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka, Vera Millward, Josephine Whitaker, Barbara Leach, Marguerite Walls and Jacqueline Hill.
His five-year reign of terror in the north of England led to one of the biggest police manhunts of the 20th century.
Confessing to cops after his eventual arrest, Sutcliffe reportedly said he was “a beast” driven on “by a devil” inside him.
Sutcliffe spent many years in Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital being treated for paranoid schizophrenia, before being considered stable enough in 2016 to be transferred to HMP Frankland in County Durham.
May his soul rest in peace.
