by Ian » Mon Jul 07, 2014 9:52 am
Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. In 1975 in the north of England a serial killer who would come to be known as "the Yorkshire Ripper" took his first victim, sparking off a five year reign of terror and the biggest manhunt in British history. The police were ill-equipped to deal with the ever-increasing scope of the madman's crimes and between the lack of technology, false leads (millions of pounds and hours were wasted pursuing the writer of a series of letters (and an audio tape) purported to be from the killer, but which was actually an elaborate hoax that sent the police off in entirely the wrong direction) and, it has to be said, some examples of staggering incompetence, by the time the killer was apprehended (ironically enough by chance by two uniformed officers who initially pulled him in for picking up a known prostitute) 13 women had been murdered and 7 others savagely attacked. This is an extraordinary and gripping account of that dark time that remains resonant in the UK, and particularly in the north of England, even after over 30 years.