THE Yorkshire Ripper spent 32 years at Broadmoor – but if it had been down to him it would have been a lot less.
Shortly after he arrived at the high security hospital in Berkshire he dreamt up an audacious escape plan, which he tried to pull off with the help of Ronnie Kray.
One of the final photos of Sutcliffe attending a hospital appointment, five years before his death in 2015[/caption]
Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital where both Peter Sutcliffe and Ronnie Kray were held[/caption]
Ronnie was doing life for murder after he shot dead George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in 1966.
And just like Sutcliffe, he had been transferred to Broadmoor after a spell in prison when he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The hospital may not have been a prison but there were still bars on Sutcliffe’s windows, and during his early years he found himself staring at them as the plan began forming in his mind.
If he could acquire a hacksaw blade and spend the night sawing through the bars, then eventually he might be able to make it out into the grounds and scale the perimeter wall.
It was an escape plot straight out of a Hollywood movie which had little chance of succeeding in reality, but that didn’t put off Sutcliffe – who sought Ronnie’s help, even though Broadmoor gossip had it that they didn’t get on.
People also reckoned that Ronnie had tried to arrange for other inmates to attack Sutcliffe when he was in Parkhurst jail before he was transferred to Broadmoor, which the Ripper dismissed as rubbish.
He said: “I read it in a newspaper, I think it said that Ronnie had put a contract out on me but when I met him I pulled him about it and he totally denied any such thing.
“If it was true he must have been scared to admit it, but I believed him and we got on okay.
“I used to cut his hair and we used to sit and chat. Ronnie couldn’t stand his hair being long, he always had to have it short and looking smart.
“He always thought people were talking about him but he trusted me and he trusted me to cut his hair, and we got on alright.”
Ronnie Kray was imprisoned at Broadmoor alongside Sutcliffe[/caption]
An aerial shot of Broadmoor High Security Psychiatric Hospital in Berkshire[/caption]
Ronnie had a reputation of being a sharp dresser, appearing in the visiting room in a striking suit with monogrammed handkerchief and cufflinks.
But Sutcliffe revealed that it was just for public show and his dress sense on the ward left something to be desired.
He said: “He dressed like a tramp on the ward. Scruffy old jeans and scruffy shirt, not dressed up at all.
“He only wore [suits] to show off to impress people, but when he came back on the ward he was a bit of a slob.”
Celebrity sightings
It was no surprise Ronnie made an effort to look his best for visits, given the list of celebs who went to see him which included Richard Burton, Barbara Windsor and Debbie Harry.
Sutcliffe added: “I seen Roger Daltrey and lots of people come to visit Ron.”
The twins have been immortalised in numerous films and television shows over the years, including the 1990 movie The Krays when they were played by the pop star brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, who also visited Broadmoor.
Ronnie always thought people were talking about him but he trusted me
Peter Sutcliffe
Sutcliffe said: “Them two Kemp brothers came to visit Ronnie and Reggie many times and discussed everything, got to know their personalities so they could portray them as near as possible.
“So Ronnie was happy with that and so was Reggie, they thought they’d done a pretty good job on it.
“He didn’t like his mother portrayed as cursing like that. But they were fairly happy with the outcome of the film.”
Bid for freedom
Notorious gangster Kray received many visitors during his time behind bars – including singer Debbie Harry[/caption]
Actor Richard Burton also visited Kray at Broadmoor[/caption]
Pop stars Martin and Gary Kemp in character as the Kray brothers in the 1990 film The Krays[/caption]
Sutcliffe revealed all about his day-to-day life in the secure hospital to Britain’s top amateur criminologist, Alfie James.
Factory worker Alfie, 49, grew close to him over 16 years when he visited him regularly in Broadmoor and spoke to him every week by phone.
He built up a huge library of material from him which he turned into the definitive biography of Sutcliffe, I’m the Yorkshire Ripper, written with Sun reporter Robin Perrie.
In the final instalment of our Beast of Broadmoor series to mark 50 years since the Ripper’s first known attack, Alfie reveals it was Ronnie Kray who helped him acquire the hacksaw blade which he intended to use to achieve his freedom.
Sutcliffe told Alfie: “It came from a friend of Ronnie Kray’s who was a patient in Broadmoor.
“It could have been brought in, as security wasn’t that good back then, but inside Broadmoor we had workshops, that’s where I think it came from.
“I just know Ronnie Kray was involved in getting us the blade.”
I nearly managed to cut through one of the bars in my cell window
Peter Sutcliffe
The blade was snapped in half and a friend of Sutcliffe’s, who intended to escape with him, took the other section to get to work on the bars in his own room.
The Ripper added: “I nearly managed to cut through one of the bars in my cell window.”
He hid the blade during the day behind a skirting board, but the escape attempt came to an abrupt end when, without warning, he was moved to another room.
He said: “For some reason I was moved to another cell, nothing to do with what I’d been trying to do.
“After a while, that cell was being decorated and it was noticed that the bar on the window had been nearly cut through.
“Because it had been a while since I’d done it, it had turned rusty so no connection was made to me.”
Real motive
The notorious serial killer murdered 13 women and attempted to kill at least seven more[/caption]
Sutcliffe always claimed he’d heard voices in his heard, urging him to kill[/caption]
Alfie also revealed Sutcliffe’s own view of the most commonly asked question about the Ripper case – why did he kill?
What turned a softly-spoken lorry driver who loved his mum and was devoted to his wife into an evil monster?
Detectives, lawyers and doctors all disagreed on what was behind his reign of terror, with many convinced he made up the voices to try and secure an easy life in Broadmoor, rather than a tougher prison regime.
But as far as Sutcliffe, who died in 2020 aged 74, was concerned, the answer was simple.
He told Alfie: “I was suffering from an illness which caused hallucinations which were so realistic that I misinterpreted what was happening to me.
“Mental illness can be a deciding factor in a person’s actions as they will tend to act out of character.
“I didn’t want to do what I did, I was being controlled by my illness, but the tragedy is I didn’t think I was ill, I just believed I was caught up in a miracle. So when things happened to thwart the police I simply believed it was divine intervention and thought no more of it.
I didn’t want to do what I did, I was being controlled by my illness but the tragedy is I didn’t think I was ill, I just believed I was caught up in a miracle
Peter Sutcliffe
“It’s played down or even ignored by society, they only want to see people as being bad.
“It was only a short, brief period in my life, the events only took a short time, a matter of two or three minutes, and I was gone.
“It took me over 12 years inside before I gained any insight into my illness and even then it was after I’d been put on anti-psychotic injections which at first I strongly opposed.
“The brain is a very complex and fragile thing and no one should sit in judgement unless they are properly qualified in matters relating to mental illness, or if someone in your family has suffered from some such affliction.
“Only then can you speak from personal experience.”
But he never expressed remorse for his victims and instead spent years whining about how hard done by he was.
He moaned that people said of him: “ ‘Oh what a bad guy he is and all that’ and I’m not, they don’t focus on the illness.
“It was a serious mental illness that I had all them years. And I accepted it,” he said.
“I’ve come to terms with it, that it wasn’t God. And that’s the only reason it permitted me to go ahead with it, believing it was a miracle from God, you see.
“I don’t believe that now. My whole outlook and everything has changed drastically.”
I’m The Yorkshire Ripper’ by Robin Perrie and Alfie James is published by Mirror Books and is available in paperback and as an ebook. Buy it on Amazon now.
The Yorkshire Ripper with his wife Sonia, who he married in August 1974[/caption]
The front page of The Sun, after Peter Sutcliffe admitted killing 13 women.[/caption]
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
