Book Reviews: “Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper”

Book Reviews: “Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper”

TIM HICKS reports . . .

Introduction

Regular readers will be aware that the NYE has been covering the cold case of an unidentified woman whose body was found at Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire in 1981. To increase public interest in her case and generate more information, they have named this victim as “Hope”.

NYE contributor Alderman Norman Murphy has identified this woman to North Yorkshire Police (NYP) as a Scarborough resident, but it has been impossible to get any comment from North Yorkshire Police on this development.

Even now, “Hope” remains unidentified. Her facial reconstruction is shown below.

“Hope” Still unidentified.

Do you recognise her from the bus shelter at Victoria Road Scarborough?

Now NYE contributors Tim Hicks and Chris Clark have published a book on the notorious serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, who is known as “The Yorkshire Ripper”. This covers all the crimes he is supected of over the course of his life, not just the thirteen murders and seven attempted murders for which he was convicted.

Sutcliffe routinely drove through North Yorkshire and delivered to Scarborough. The book includes attacks in North Yorkshire which the authors assert he committed, including the murder of “Hope”, the attempted murder of a schoolgirl in Harrogate in 1979 and an attack on two women in York in about May 1980.

Sutcliffe was familiar with York and regularly drank socially with friends in a pub there. He may have committed another attack there in May 1977.

“Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Final Investigation“ has attracted a lot of favourable reviews. Unusuall,y it has also attracted international interest over a murder in France and two in Sweden that the authors have linked to Sutcliffe. Article here.

We are now able to publish two reviews of the book from readers in the Republic of Ireland and Wales.

Review by Seamus Foley

“Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Final Investigation”

A riveting account that casts new light on serial killer Peter Sutcliffe. The authors’ have performed a thorough examination of “The Yorkshire Ripper” murders, but now with new and compelling evidence of many more victims in the UK and abroad, which were previously unknown.

Also exposed are the many police failings to share information on serial offenders with other police forces, or even investigate them thoroughly, right up to the present day.

Seamus Foley

Review by Helen Baker

“Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Final Investigation” is not a comfortable read but it is totally compelling.

The authors have conducted the most meticulous research into Sutcliffe’s evil crimes. The book also highlights the shortcomings of the various police investigations. For example, the lack of co-operation between the various police forces and the widespread misogyny which blighted the investigation. This all makes for uncomfortable reading.

One of the shortcomings of the Police investigations was their fixed belief that Sutcliffe confined his attacks to Manchester and West Yorkshire. Sutcliffe was a lorry driver and as such he had access to both national and continental road networks. After all who would ever query a lorry being on a particular road? The maps provided be the authors highlight this.

The temptation in a book of this sort would be to sensationalise the events but the authors’ calm and restrained language only serves to intensify the horror of Sutcliffe’s activities. The sub-title calls it “The Final Investigation” but I wonder. Perhaps there are still more victims whose fate is unresolved.

Helen Baker

“Inside the Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper: The Final Investigation” consists of 348 pages, with sixteen black-and-white illustrations and twenty-seven maps. Each of the eighty-one attacks the authors attribute to Sutcliffe is referenced on a map to the corresponding cluster of attacks and associated route packages.

Recommended retail price is £9.99.

NYE Appeal for Assistance

If you recognise “Hope”, or have any information on Peter Sutcliffe in North Yorkshire you wish to pass on, please contact the NYE on letters@nyenquirer.uk.