Peter Sutcliffe dead – Women who survived Ripper hammer attacks relive terrifying ordeal
A BRAVE Ripper survivor battered with a hammer has revealed her terrifying ordeal at the hands of the monster.
Marcella Claxton said she is still suffering the effects of the brutal attack 44 years later.
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She had been out drinking in Leeds in 1976 when the monster approached her in his white Ford Corsair asking if she was "doing business".
Marcella, then aged 20, told him she wasn't a prostitute but asked for a lift home.
Sutcliffe then battered the young woman, who had learning difficulties, with a hammer as she left the car with her back to him.
Marcella has now told how the violent attack still affects her now after the Ripper died in hospital today aged 74.
She told Sky News: "I have to live with my injuries, 54 stitches in my head, back and front, plus I lost a baby, I was four months pregnant.
";I still get headaches, dizzy spells and black outs."
Marcella gave evidence to police after the attack and told them it was carried out by a white male with distinctive features and hair colour.
But she was told her attacker was black, concluded her evidence was unreliable and didn’t investigate any further.
At the time, officers were obsessed with the theory that the killer was only out to get prostitutes.
Another one of the Ripper's surviving victims spoke out last month as the brute's health declined.
Mo Lea was studying art in Leeds 40 years ago when she became a target of the depraved serial killer.
She had been out with pals planning her 21st birthday on October 25, 1980, when the fiend pounced as she walked to the bus stop alone.
Mo, now 60, recalled: "I didn't recognise him and he was holding himself strangely.
"I said 'bye', and then realised I was in danger and I started to run.
"Fear came over me as I heard his footsteps get faster behind me.
"I felt a whack to the back of my head, the pavement coming up to my face, and then I blacked out."
Mo woke up in hospital with a fractured skull, fractured cheekbone, a broken jaw and a puncture wound to the back of her skull.
The monster had hit her with a hammer and used a sharpened screwdriver to try to sever her spinal cord in a chilling nod to his other victims.
He had left Mo covered in blood in the gutter to die with her own parents unable to recognise her.
The unsolved attacks linked to Sutcliffe
IN 2017, cops quizzed the Ripper on 17 unsolved attacks that bore chilling echoes of his murderous rampage.
Detectives did not reveal which assaults they suspected are linked to the killer.
But the list is thought to include Yvonne Mysliwiec, a 21- year-old reporter attacked in Ilkley, West Yorks, in 1979.
Another possible victim is Tracy Browne, hit with a hammer at 14 in Silsden, West Yorks.
Shop assistant Rosemary Stead, 18, was attacked in January 1976, while Maureen Hogan suffered head injuries and stab wounds in Bradford that year.
Student Ann Rooney, 22, who was hit with a hammer on the outskirts of Leeds in 1979.
After initially suffering from PTSD, Mo conquered her demons and returned to school to secure a 2.1 degree in fine art.
She also took part in a five-step programme that allowed her to look at pictures of her attacker.
Mo said: "I could draw a picture of him and would then rip up the Ripper, it was very empowering, to see his face torn into little pieces.
"You can let these massive events define you, but he didn't take my being, he just attacked me - I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Sutcliffe was caged for life in 1981 for 13 murders and seven attempted murders.
In 2017, it emerged the killer had been quizzed in jail by detectives investigating 17 unsolved attacks.
The crimes all bore schilling similarities to his grisly spree with several attacks carried out using a hammer.
The cases are thought to include that of Tracy Browne who, at just 14, was hit a number of times with a hammer in Silsden, West Yorks, in August 1975.
Tracy believes she survived because her attacker was disturbed by a car’s headlights in a country lane.
Speaking about the attack previously, she said: "I just remember looking up and this dark haired chap walking towards me.
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"He asked for my name and tried to make light conversation.
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“And then I felt five hammer blows to the head.”
Sutcliffe was said to have admitted the attack to a cop, but officials ruled a prosecution was not in the public interest.
