"Inside Ronnie Kray's Chilling Plan to Assassinate the Yorkshire Ripper at a Broadmoor Football Match"

WHEN Ronnie Kray invited the Yorkshire Ripper for a sit-down dinner, he secretly dreamed that it would prove his last supper.

In an astonishing interview about the fractious relationship of two of Britain’s most infamous criminals, Alan Paul – a patient at Broadmoor who acted as the gangster’s ‘personal assistant’ – reveals how a brutal plot was formed to kill in a ‘badge of honour’ assassination.

Ronnie Kray was behind a daring murder plot on the Yorkshire RipperCredit: Kevin Dunnett – The Sun Peter Sutcliffe became a target after boasting to the East End gangster about his killingsCredit: Getty

It followed a meal in the dining room at the Berkshire secure hospital, where both men were being held for murder.

As patients cooked the pair’s favourite dishes, Sutcliffe told Ronnie about his sickening crimes.

Hearing how Sutcliffe and attacked seven others boiled the blood of the , who concluded that the Ripper – to put it in gangster parlance – had to be ‘whacked’.

Alan, a patient at during the 1980s, reveals that such dinners were incredibly a typical tactic used by Ronnie to lull someone into a false sense of security.

The plan was to have the Ripper attacked with a razor blade.

Alan was Ronnie’s ‘personal assistant’, meaning he would iron Kray’s shirts and wrote his letters – many to brother Reggie in on the – but his actions to foil the attack threatened to sour their relationship.

Alan – who spent four years inside as a patient – tells The Sun: “Unknown to me, Ronnie decided that the Ripper should be cut during a football game.

“We had regular matches, on Saturdays and Wednesdays, which were strictly supervised and usually one of the patients acted as referee.

“Sometimes Broadmoor’s staff organised proper league matches, although teams always came to us. This meant they used a proper referee, which was an unexpected boost for us keen footballers.

“The Ripper didn’t play football, obviously fearing for his own safety. He was usually nervous, being exposed like that, especially after being attacked at Parkhurst.

“So, he spent a lot of time just on his own. I was amazed to see him, venturing out in a vulnerable situation. Ronnie had persuaded others to get him to the football as a spectator.

“Sutcliffe didn’t leave the ward normally, apart from maybe going to the dentist or seeing his wife in the visiting hall but the conspirators told him that he should get out more.

“We were all lined up in our football kit in the stairwell of Somerset block being counted before the game.

“I’d never seen the Ripper there before a match, so I did wonder what was going on.

“The staff had never seen him there either but they counted him in and were obviously going to keep a very close eye on him.

“There were about 20 other spectators, but the Ripper attracted most of the attention from everyone.”

Alan, who was detained at Broadmoor for manslaughter with diminished responsibility, spotted two patients, Les and Terry, passing an object between them. It looked like a furtive operation.

He recalls: “The look in their eyes told me something serious was about to happen in the stairwell. I spotted a glint of steel and knew immediately what it was. A razor blade.

“It wasn’t in a wrapper or anything, just a bare blade and they were fumbling with it. I felt I had to do something.”

‘Badge of honour’

Kray decided that the Ripper needed to be ‘whacked’ for his crimes against womenCredit: Hulton Archive – Getty Ronnie was horrified at Sutcliffe’s crimes against women in the 1970sCredit: PA

Alan realised one of the players was going to have a badge of honour for slashing, maiming or even killing the Ripper.

Sutcliffe was about to have his throat cut – and Alan, who was devoutly Christian, had just seconds to save Sutcliffe’s life.

He reveals: “I couldn’t stand by having spotted the conspiracy, even though I also loathed the Ripper.

“So, I shouted out that there was a problem and the staff swooped, as they were trained to do. The blade was dropped and everyone, in a melee, was rushed back to the ward.”

Later that day, Alan could see that Ronnie Kray was angry. The plot had been uncovered, and he knew that Alan raised the alarm.

Kray’s boyfriend, , told Alan that Ronnie had spent a lot of time asking everyone to persuade the Ripper to go along as a spectator.

Ronnie had worked on the plan after that Broadmoor dinner and hearing more details from fellow patients about Sutcliffe’s crimes. Those close to the gangster shared the hatred.

Alan says: “Ronnie came up to me in the ward after things had calmed down, and I wondered what he was going to say.

“It would have been a badge of honour for Ronnie to have the Ripper badly hurt or even worse.

“He said it wasn’t like me to play dirty, but he understood that I’d raised the alarm because of my religious beliefs. He said he wasn’t going to hold it against me, and the matter was never discussed again.”

An investigation by the hospital authorities did not get to the bottom of the plot but some patients lost privileges for a time.

Second assassination attempt

Alan Paul was Ronnie’s personal assistant, but reported the attack on Sutcliffe due to religious beliefsCredit: Supplied Broadmoor has housed some of the UK’s most notorious criminalsCredit: Rex

Alan describes another ‘simulated attack’ on the Ripper, who spent 32 years in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital from 1984 until 2016, when he was diagnosed as well enough to go into the system.

Other patients were aware, from his trial in 1981, that Sutcliffe struck his victims on the head with a hammer, then slashed them with a knife or screwdriver.

Alan says: “Knowing this, a patient called Warman approached the Ripper from behind. Warman then used his coffee mug, in a hammer style of action, swinging at the Ripper.

“He was obviously trying to miss, but a couple of swings seemed quite close. Staff appeared quickly and led Warman away from the scene.”

Former lorry driver Sutcliffe was sent to Parkhurst in May 1981 after receiving 20 life sentences. There, he was attacked by a Scottish prisoner, .

Costello’s weapon of choice was a broken coffee jar. He used it while Sutcliffe was totally unprepared, filling a plastic bowl with water away from the relative safety of his cell.

It took 30 stitches to repair the damage, with a deep cut running from the Ripper’s mouth to his neck, and another wound from his left eye to his ear.

Costello was found guilty after a trial on the Isle of Wight of wounding Peter Sutcliffe with intent to cause him grievous bodily harm, receiving five years on top of his sentence.

As he was being driven away from the court, he told onlookers: “How can anyone use too much violence against the Ripper?”

Vow of revenge

Ronnie (right) and Reggie Kray were put in prison for the murder of George CornellCredit: Hulton Archive – Getty James Costello attacked the Yorkshire Ripper with a coffee jarCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd Sutcliffe was badly injured in the attackCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd

The Ripper told Alan in Broadmoor that Costello would never be forgiven for the attack. Sutcliffe said he knew people who would sort out Costello, if the Scotsman was ever released.

Alan reveals: “He said in that high voice of his that he would get even in the end. He squeaked to me, ‘You wait and see, you wait and see.’ Sutcliffe was determined to get his own back.

“But Costello was a hard, hard, gangster. I never heard any more about revenge for the Ripper.”

Frankie Fraser, a regular inmate at Parkhurst, commented at the time of the attack: “Jimmy Costello deserves a medal.”

Sutcliffe was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1984 and transferred to Broadmoor, arriving two weeks before Alan, who says: “When I saw him at first, I didn’t know who he was.

“I could see facial wounds from that earlier attack and tried to find out more. He kept himself to himself a lot and always seemed to be eating raspberry ripple ice cream.

“A couple of other patients on the admissions ward told me all about Sutcliffe and his savage murders.”

There were more vicious attacks on Sutcliffe at Broadmoor after the foiled plot by the hospital’s footballers.

In 1997, , the ‘Woolworths Killer’ who killed a shop assistant during a robbery, stabbed the Ripper ten times in the eyes with a Parker rollerball pen, blinding him in his left eye and severely damaging the other.

Kay was reported as saying: “Sutcliffe said God told him to kill 13 women. The Devil told me to kill him because of that.”

Psychotic attack

Ian Kay also attacked Sutcliffe and left him partially blind from a rollerball pen stabbingCredit: Reuters

Ten years later, also at Broadmoor, Patrick Sureda, a paranoid schizophrenic, attempted to blind the Ripper’s remaining good eye with a cutlery knife.

Sutcliffe was eating his lunch in the dining hall. Four nurses grabbed hold of the attacker as he tried to stab Sutcliffe again and again.

Sureda had strangled his 68-year-old mother, Geraldine, at her home in Mitcham Park, South London, in August 2000. He had been staying with her on weekend leave from Springfield Hospital in Wandsworth.

Sureda believed his mother was part of a plot to kill him because of his Conservative beliefs. He believed that New Labour was behind the conspiracy.

Sureda had shown signs of mental disorder since his teenage years, and once attacked his father with a knife.

After more than three decades at Broadmoor, Peter Sutcliffe was moved to in County in 2016.

He died there in 2020, aged 74, after contracting Covid-19. He had other issues including heart problems and type 2 .

Alan had no sympathy when he heard that the Ripper had died.

He says: “I remember telling him several times that I hoped he would roast in Hell. He hated me for saying that.

“I thought he was treated too well at Broadmoor, considering his barbaric crimes. Yes, I hope he is now rotting in Hell, where he belongs.”

David Meikle is co-author with Kate Beal Blyth of The Krays: The Prison Years, published by Penguin.

Dave Meikle is a true crime writer who has spent years researching the KraysCredit: Supplied