Steve Wright was born on April 24, 1958, in the village of Erpingham, Norfolk. He was the second of four children in his family. His father, Conrad, worked as a military policeman, and his mother, Patricia, was a veterinary nurse. Because of his father's military service, the family lived in various places, including Malta and Singapore.

When Steve was six years old, his mother left the family in 1964. His father divorced her in 1978. Steve and his siblings lived with their father, who later remarried and had two more children with his second wife, Valerie. Steve attended school but left at the age of 16 in 1974 without any qualifications.

After leaving school, Steve joined the Merchant Navy. He worked as a chef on ferries that traveled from Felixstowe, Suffolk. In 1978, he married Angela O'Donovan in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, Wales. They had a son named Michael but separated in 1987 and eventually divorced.

Throughout his life, Steve held various jobs. He worked as a steward on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2, a lorry driver, a barman, and most recently, as a forklift truck driver. He also managed a pub in South London during this time. His gambling habits and heavy drinking affected his work and personal life.

Steve married a second time to Diane Cassell in August 1987, but they divorced in July 1988. At one point, he lost his job as a pub manager due to his gambling. In 2001, he was convicted of theft for stealing £80 to pay off his debts. This was his only criminal conviction before he was arrested for murder.

During the late 1990s, Steve accumulated large gambling debts and declared bankruptcy. He also faced two suicide attempts, one in 1994 and another in 2000. In 2001, he met Pamela Wright and moved in with her in Ipswich in 2004. Throughout his life, he admitted to hiring prostitutes, a practice he had engaged in since his time in the Merchant Navy.

Between October 30 and December 10, 2006, Steven Gerald James Wright, known as the Suffolk Strangler, committed a series of murders in Ipswich, England. He murdered five women who were involved in sex work. The victims were found in various locations around the town.

Wright's criminal activities came to light when forensic evidence linked him to the murders. Blood found in his car matched with one of the victims, Paula Clennell. He was arrested on December 19, 2006.

Wright was tried and convicted on February 21, 2008. He was found guilty of all five murders. The following day, he received a life sentence. The judge recommended that he should never be released.

In the years following his conviction, police continued to investigate whether Wright was involved in other unsolved cases. He was later charged with the murder of a 17-year-old named Victoria Hall, whose body was found in 1999. As of June 2024, investigations remained ongoing into other possible murders and disappearances linked to him.

Experts noted that it is unusual for someone to start their criminal activities at an older age, raising the possibility that Wright had committed other crimes before the 2006 murders.