18/07/99 - Don't cry over spilt
milk
The People
Yorkshire Ripper's amazing letters reveal his callous
verdict on the 13 women he butchered to death; Secret
visits from ex-wife; Admits he was mad; Niece, 10, meets
Uncle...
YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has callously dismissed
his 13 horrific murders as "spilt milk" in
a letter to a porn star girlfriend, the Sunday People
can reveal today.
Evil Sutcliffe - who says he is now a Jehovah's Witness
- claims he would never have committed the killings
if he had found religion earlier in life.
But then he cynically rubs salt into grieving relatives'
wounds by adding: "Ah well, it's no use crying
over spilt milk as the saying goes!!"
The heartless remark, which shows the Ripper still
has no sympathy for his victims, is one of a series
of astonishing revelations about Britain's most notorious
mass killer which the Sunday People has uncovered.
The chilling insights into Sutcliffe's mind come in
more than 60 letters he has sent in the last two years
to ex-porn star Sandra Lester, 42. They reveal how he...
GETS secret visits from his ex-wife Sonia despite the
seething resentment of her new toyboy husband.
CLAIMS she is the driving force behind his £75,000
claim for damages after being blinded in one eye by a
fellow inmate.
SPENDS hours in his cell at Broadmoor top-security
hospital reading the Bible with fellow Jehovah's Witnesses.
STAYS up all night writing letters to women friends
who have a bizarre fascination with him.
ENJOYS visits from his schoolgirl niece Emily, 10.
CLAIMS for the first time he was mentally ill when
he went on the six- year murder rampage that terrified
women throughout Britain.
Sutcliffe, 53 - jailed for life in 1981 for butchering
13 and trying to kill another seven - proposed marriage
to Sandra in 1995 after she began writing to him.
But the authorities at the Berkshire mental hospital
refused to let her meet him.
Now, in a bizarre attempt to show that the mass murderer
from Bradford, West Yorks, is a reformed character,
Sandra has shown the Sunday People her correspondence.
But his letters do not contain a single word of sorrow
or regret for the murders.
One jokey postcard he sent to Sandra showed the town
of Hell in Norway.
He quipped:
Not many people can say they've been to Hell and back!
Tee hee! Mind you I guess I have - with all the torment
I went through during those horrible years.
He admits to still harbouring feelings for ex-wife
Sonia, 49, who regularly visits him. He wrote in September
last year:
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I
first met Sonia 32 years ago, when she was only 16.
So we are bound to still have some feelings for each
other with so many shared memories etc!! I really want
her to be happy as she deserves it as she has had a
difficult time over the years!
In another letter, Sutcliffe revelled in the trouble
Sonia's visits caused between her and her new husband
Michael. He wrote:
I had a good visit from Sonia all day on Thursday.
We had a lot to catch up on because I hadn't seen her
for a few months 'cos Michael gets too jealous all the
time she comes - he's very immature - and he shouldn't
be at 37 years of age, tut, tut!!
He revealed that it was Sonia who insisted he should
claim compensation for being stabbed in the eye by crazed
fellow inmate Ian Kay in 1997.
Sutcliffe stands to get up to £75,000.
He wrote: "I had a nice visit from Sonia all day
on Thursday. She had a large claim form with her for
me to sign for damages for the injury to my eye etc."
Sutcliffe writes at length about how joining the Jehovah's
Witnesses has turned around his life. He wrote:
I have been seeing them for a good few years now. I
just think they're very good to do Bible studies with.
It's done a lot of good doing the studies. I just wish
I'd known what I know now 25 years ago, because so much
heartache could have been avoided! Ah well, it's no
use crying over spilled milk as the saying goes!
Sutcliffe claims he accepts that he was mentally ill
when he went on his killing rampage in the North of
England. He wrote in February this year: "It's
only recently that I've thought I was suffering from
a mental illness when I committed those crimes and Dr
Horne has promised to get me some booklets on that type
of thing, so I was thinking it would be interesting
to read up on the subject as I've never done that before!"
Although he can dismiss his killing spree with the
offhand phrase about spilt milk, Sutcliffe feigned disgust
when he heard about the double murder of a young couple
near Sandra's home in Southend, Essex, last month.
He wrote: "I've just heard on the news about that
young couple who were killed, that's dreadful."
Sutcliffe portrays himself as a big-hearted guy who
plays the Samaritan in Broadmoor by helping a blind
inmate to fill out his menu sheets.
In fact, he seems to have convinced himself he is a
nice chap.
He wrote in March this year:
Thank you for the kind things you said in your letter
about me being a caring person!! I tend to attract people
like that who write to me. They can see way beyond the
hype put out by the media.
Members of his family have remained closely linked
to him, despite the appalling nature of his crimes.
His nieces Karen and Andrea sent him the stickers of
bears, Smurfs and ducklings he uses to personalise his
mail.
They also sent him a rubber stamp, which he uses to
print dinosaur figures at the top of his letters.
Sutcliffe complained in one letter about tight security
when he gets visits from his niece Emily, daughter of
his youngest brother Carl, 31. He writes:
We're only allowed three adults on visits at one go,
but children don't count, so Emily will be allowed in,
even though the new rules state that children have to
go on to the computer as well for security reasons!
so they get their own visiting pass now!!
Apart from his written fling with Sandra, who is now
married to an erotic artist called Raven, the Ripper
is not short of penpals.
He mentions several women friends and pines after a
biker from Bradford called Julie, who "sadly"
had a steady boyfriend.
Amazingly Sandra, who is ending her friendship with
Sutcliffe because her husband disapproves, is convinced
he regrets his horrific past.
She said: "He is remorseful and tries to give
his kindness to anyone who needs it."
But we showed the letters to forensic psychologist
Ian Stephen who warned: "Sutcliffe is being manipulative.
"Admitting he is mentally ill takes away responsibility
for his crimes, but it also suggests he can be treated
and cured.
"And if he is cured, it leads to the possibility
of release."
And last night David Leach, whose student daughter
Barbara, 20, was murdered by the Ripper in Bradford
in 1979, said: "It is an easy thing for him to
say now that he has found religion but it doesn't bring
back Barbara or any of the others.
"You can't really believe anything Sutcliffe is saying."
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