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Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper by: Michael Bilton

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Rating: - Thorough but not revealing

No-one could ever say that Michael Bilton has failed to immerse himself in his subject: this 700+ page book is astoundingly thorough but I have a few particular observations to make. (1) It is very detailed on police procedure, echelons of authority, corridors of power and who answers to whom (there are dozens of police officers' names and I got somewhat confused remembering who was in charge of Leeds CID, Bradford, Manchester, Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire, Barnsley, Halifax, Preston etc etc but a list at the front does abbreviate this quite helpfully). Not a book for you if you don't care how police forces work (or, as in this case, fail to work). (2) It tells you everything you could want to know about the Yorkshire Ripper but very little indeed about Peter William Sutcliffe. We never get a glimpse of what he was like as a man rather than as the Ripper. A little more insight there would have given more colour to the man. (3) The book is admirably light on sensationalism. It is written more like a report in the Times than the Daily Mirror and the gory details are crisply informative only. (4) It's a big book but it is a very good read: painstaking, well composed, learned and it leaves you with the feeling that all the FACTS are here. I'd have liked just a little more INSIGHT into the daily routines of Sutcliffe. How was he able to abscond from his wife so regularly without arousing her suspicion? How was he able to return from a slaying without blood on his clothes? Why was she not suspicious when he was interviewed by the police for a seventh time? And how on earth did all those ghoulishly accurate photofits not steer the cops to Sutcliffe's front door with greater certainty that they had their man at last? In that respect the book is a hideous litany of policing errors and it must have made upsetting reading for all his victims' families to learn just how often the culprit slipped through the net.

Rating: - a must read for all true crime fans

A great insight into the murders an police investigation of the rippers crimes. Its easy to say with hindsight that some of the police investigating made a hash of it but it was really the inner politics of police work that done the damage.
I was in my mid teens when this was happening and did not realise the intensity of what was happening. Nowadays with modern computers and DNA they would have him caught and convicted in no time. He probably chose the right time in history to commit his crimes, just before technology made it possible to even catch the hoaxer which is covered in the up to date copy I purchased.
You read the facts thinking"how did they not catch him earlier" but hindsight is a great thing and he was lucky.
Give the book a whirl, its a long read but is interesting.

Rating: - EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW...

A very interesting book, and a fascinating insight into the enquiries. The most revealing part is just how incompetent the police were in following up the leads. Given that technology isn't what it is today, there were a huge number of files to keep updated, but there were many clues which were clearly missed. Perhaps some of the ripper's victims would still be alive today if the clues had been followed up more carefully.
Sadly, this is still going on today, even with the technology available. Barry George and Stefan Kisko are two that come to mind immediately.
Very readable, and extremely detailed. Not much mention of his wife in all this, and I can't help wondering how much she knew, and why she wasn't more involved during and after the arrest.

Rating: - Very poor!

Hi, i am very dissapointed with the service after purchasing this book as i have not yet recieved it! It has been a very long time since the book was ordered and the money has been taken out of my account. I have emailed the supplier twice regarding this and both times they have promised to send out another copy-we still dont have anything! Please can you help, thank you.

Rating: - Good narrative, but certain points are disputable.

This is the book for you if you want a blow-by-blow account of the events, including the recent arrest of the Hoaxer-but avoid it if you want an analysis of the Ripper himself. Bilton is an excellent author when it comes to telling you what happened, when and where-but seems to avoid discussing who or why. He is telling the story of one of the most dangerous people in the history of British crime, whose mind has been analysed and debated for the past 25 years-but he summarises the very core subject of the book as "irredeemably evil". He also states that he has no intention of contacting Peter Coonan/Sutcliffe-but isn't that the greatest resource of accurate research? His opinion is obvious, but he shouldn't let that cloud the way CERTAIN events are depicted, or lead him to miss out on including pieces of relevant information. I am surprised that he has only donated a couple of sentences to describe attempts on Sutcliffe's life-these are probably the most widely reported events in Sutcliffe's post-imprisonment life, but he prefers to mention his attempts at painting, or his romances(?!). This is a good book to a certain extent, but is a tad inaccurate.

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