Serial Killer Steven Gerald Wright aka The Suffolk Strangler (Crime Documentary)

Steven Gerald James Wright (born 24 April 1958) is an English serial killer, also known as the Suffolk Strangler and the Ipswich Ripper. He is serving life imprisonment for the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in Ipswich, Suffolk. The killings took place during the final months of 2006, and Wright was found guilty in February 2008.<br /><br />Steve Wright was born in the Norfolk village of Erpingham, the second of four children of military policeman Conrad and veterinary nurse Patricia. He has an older brother and two younger sisters. While Wright's father was on military service, the family had lived in both Malta and Singapore. Wright's mother left in 1964 when he was 6; his father divorced his mother in 1977; both remarried. Wright and his siblings lived with their father, who fathered a son and a daughter with his second wife, Valerie.<br /><br />He left school in 1974, and soon afterward joined the Merchant Navy, becoming a chef on ferries sailing from Felixstowe, Suffolk. In 1978, in Milford Haven, at the age of twenty, he married Angela O'Donovan. They had a son, Michael. The couple separated in 1987 and later divorced. Wright became a steward on the QE2, a lorry driver, a barman and, just prior to his arrest, a forklift truck driver. Former sex worker Lindi St Clair said she was attacked by Wright in the 1980s. His second marriage was to 32-year-old Diane Cassell at Braintree register office in August 1987. They split in July 1988 while he was a pub landlord in Norwich.<br /><br />It was during this time that he also managed a public house in South London. This post was lost due to his gambling and heavy drinking. He was convicted in 2001 of theft, having stolen £80 to pay off his debts. This was his only criminal conviction prior to the murders.<br /><br />It is known that throughout these times Wright built up large debts largely through gambling, and had recently been declared bankrupt. Wright had twice tried to commit suicide, first by carbon monoxide poisoning in his car in 1994; secondly in 2000, by an overdose of pills.<br /><br />Wright met Pamela Wright (she was not his wife, but shared the same surname) in 2001 in Felixstowe, and they moved to the house in Ipswich together in 2004. Wright had always admitted that he used sex workers and had done since he was in the Merchant Navy, and continually throughout his life. In Ipswich, he admitted he went to certain massage and sauna establishments that were actually brothels. Throughout his trial, he had stated that he had used professional sex workers on many occasions, including three of the victims and when his partner began working night shifts and their sex life became almost non existent, he returned to using professional sex workers who were based on the nearby streets, procuring a dozen in the final three months of 2006.<br /><br />Between 30 October and 10 December 2006, Wright murdered five sex workers in Ipswich. Forensic evidence led to his arrest on 19 December.