THE truth behind Peter Sutcliffe’s horrific murders will be explored in a gripping new Netflix docu-series.
The Ripper will track the serial killers terrible crimes, which saw 13 women murdered between 1975 and 1980.
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It will examine “the context of England in the late 1970s: a time of radical change, de-industrialisation, poverty, masculinity and misogyny” and how that contributed to Sutcliffe being able to evade capture for so long.
A trailer for The Ripper released last month by the streaming giant shows how unflinching its look back at his murders will be.
But it isn’t a shock doc, it’s a careful examination of the impact on Sutcliffe’s victims and the issues of the time – including police mishandling of the case – which hampered the investigation.
The frail serial killer died on November 16 in to HM Prison Frankland, Durham, aged 74, taking many secrets of his evil deeds to his grave.
The murders whipped up national hysteria, with a long line of women in the north of England butchered and police seemingly incapable of catching the killer.
Until he was finally arrested and jailed for life in 1981, every woman felt unsafe and every man was seen as a suspect.
The Ripper will feature testimony from senior police officers, journalists and family members who were involved and affected by the killings.
It comes as ITV announced an “eye-watering” dramatisation of the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper by the writers of Killing Eve.
The channel had huge success with recent drama Des – about serial killer Dennis Nilsen – and now it wants to capitalise on that with a new six-episode series.
The drama will be based on Michael Bilton’s book Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, and Killing Eve‘s George Kay has developed the scripts.
