The Yorkshire Ripper was- is- perhaps the most famous British serial killer, aside from his Victorian namesake. His crimes gripped the nation over a five year period, starting in 1975. But behind the media image created for him was a man called Peter Sutcliffe, a normal man from the accounts of all who knew him. He first worked as a gravedigger, before moving on to regular jobs as a salesman, a factory worker, and finally an HGV driver. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Sutcliffe's story is one of inept policing, media frenzy and unrelenting brutality- and insanity. When initially apprehended, Sutcliffe claimed that he had been ordered to murder prostitutes by no less an authority than God himself. Because of his string of crimes, Sutcliffe has been imprisoned for almost the entirety of his adult life. He has no chance of ever being released.