YORKSHIRE Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was obsessed with The Shawshank Redemption, unearthed letters have revealed.
The serial killer is said to have read Stephen King’s jailbreak classic more than 50 times and dreamed of escaping, like its hero.
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And in a chilling twist of fate, the book came out in 1982, just a year after Sutcliffe was jailed for life for murdering at least 13 women.
His heinous crimes in the 1970’s and 80’s made him one of the UK’s most notorious killers.
The hit film version starred Tim Robbins as ingenious jailed banker Andy and Morgan Freeman as his friend Red and was released in 1994.
In newly surfaced letters, serial killer Sutcliffe, who was held at Broadmoor Hospital, Berks, and Franklin prison, Co Durham, wrote to a pen pal: “My favourite book is the Shawshank Redemption.”
In 1992, using a hacksaw blade supplied by fellow lag Ronnie Kray, Sutcliffe tried to escape Broadmoor by attempting to cutting the metal bars on his cell window.
The same letter revealed the Ripper’s favourite song was doo-wop group The Impalas’ Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home), which had “great significance” to him and his estranged wife, Sonia.
Sutcliffe also wrote of their married life: “Sonia used to make some lovely Czech meals at home, fantastic.”
The full messages will be in The Ripper Letters, a book edited by Rory Everett.
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Some of the chilling notes were very recent, sent weeks before Sutcliffe’s 2020 death from Covid, aged 74.
Mr Everett said: “The book is the first of its kind, being word-for-word from the Ripper’s brain.”
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