YORKSHIRE Ripper hoaxer Wearside Jack has died, according to reports.

The notorious hoaxer, who tricked police into believing he was the Yorkshire Ripper leaving Peter Sutcliffe free to kill three more women, drank himself to death aged 63.

His death certificate is believed to name a cause of death as heart disease and ‘chronic alcohol misuse’.

Humble taunted detectives when he claimed to be the Ripper in three letters and an audio tape in the 1970s.

The Northern Echo: Hoaxer John Humble who taunted West Yorkshire Police during the Yorkshire Ripper investigationHoaxer John Humble who taunted West Yorkshire Police during the Yorkshire Ripper investigation

The Northern Echo: Police at a house in Sunderland where John Humble was arrested by officers from West Yorkshire police investigating the case of Wearside Jack the hoaxer whose phone calls and letters to West Yorkshire police are blamed for the delay in capturing Yorkshire Ripper Peter SutcliffePolice at a house in Sunderland where John Humble was arrested by officers from West Yorkshire police investigating the case of Wearside Jack the hoaxer whose phone calls and letters to West Yorkshire police are blamed for the delay in capturing Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe

All the letters were stamped with a Sunderland postmark, and officers pinpointed the accent on the tape down to the Castletown area of the city.

Humble evaded justice for decades, but his identity was established 25 years later when his DNA, taken after a minor offence, was matched against saliva on an envelope sent to detectives.

In March 2006 he admitted four charges of perverting the course of justice and was jailed for eight years.

It is reported that after Humble was released in 2009, he was moved to South Shields, South Tyneside, and given a new identity, John Samuel Anderson. It is understood he died in July.