Netflix's new true-crime documentary The Ripper will be released on 16 December, and looks at the devastating crimes of Peter Sutcliffe and the police's struggle to apprehend him.
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However, the families of Sutcliffe's victims have spoken out against the upcoming series after the name was changed from One Upon a Time in Yorkshire to The Ripper.
WATCH: The Ripper looks at how police apprehended serial killer Peter Sutcliffe
In a letter signed by two survivors of Peter Sutcliffe, Marcella Claxton and Mo Lea, and relatives of seven of Sutcliffe's victims, they said: "The moniker "the Yorkshire Ripper" has traumatised us and our families for the past four decades.
The families criticised the use of the phrase 'the ripper'
"It glorifies the brutal violence of Peter Sutcliffe, and grants him a celebrity status that he does not deserve. Please remember that the word 'ripper' relates to ripping flesh and the repeated use of this phrase is irresponsible, insensitive and insulting to our families and our mothers’ and grandmothers’ legacies."
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In response to the letter, a Netflix spokesperson told HELLO!: "This is not a series about Sutcliffe but a sensitive re-examination of the crimes within the context of England in the late 1970s. This was a time of radical change: a time of poverty and misogyny in which Sutcliffe’s victims were dehumanised by the media and the police, and which resulted in the perpetrator evading capture for five years. This series has at its heart the stories of the women who died.”
The documentary is released on 16 December
The official synopsis for the Netflix series reads: "For five years, between 1975 to 1980, the Yorkshire Ripper murders cast a dark shadow over the lives of women in the North of England. It was a time of national hysteria. 13 women were dead and the police seemed incapable of catching the killer. No one felt safe – and every man was a suspect.
"Chronicling the twists and turns of the largest police manhunt in British police history, this evocative four-part series re-examines the crimes within the context of England in the late 1970s: a time of radical change, de-industrialisation, poverty, masculinity and misogyny, all of which contributed to the Ripper evading capture for so long. "
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