Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

by Michael Bilton

Overview

Time Out

A gripping and probing account of the biggest criminal manhunt in British history.

It is over 40 years since Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attacking 7 more. Still, he remains a killer of almost mythical proportions; his surviving victims, and their families, forever attached to his infamy.

Michael Bilton’s acclaimed account is a powerful indictment of the calamitous investigation that logged over 2 million man-hours of police work – the biggest criminal manhunt in British history. With exclusive access to the detectives involved, the pathologist’s archives and declassified documents, this account reads like the most gripping of thrillers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007450732
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/21/2024
Pages:	816
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 2.12(d)

About the Author

Michael Bilton is a former Sunday Times investigative journalist and an award-winning documentary film maker. He won an Emmy for his documentary on the My Lai massacre and his book Four Hours in My Lai was a bestseller that won plaudits all over the world.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Acknowledgements	xi
	Dramatis Personae	xv
	Chronology	xix
	Map	xxii
	Preface	xxv
1.	Contact and Exchange	1
2.	The Diabetic Detective	35
3.	'A Man with a Beard'	62
4.	Tracks in the Grass	79
5.	Impressions in Blood	102
6.	A Fresh Start	136
7.	Punter's Money	167
8.	'The Job Is Life; Life Is the Job'	200
9.	A Miserable Place To Die	227
10.	Chinese Walls	253
11.	The Wrong Track	274
12.	Going Covert	297
13.	'He Comes from Sunderland'	320
14.	Bad Feelings	358
15.	Swamped by Paper	396
16.	'He Lives Somewhere, He Works for Someone'	434
17.	'The Beast I Am'	462
18.	Mad or Bad?	500
19.	DNA, DNA, DNA	534
	Endpiece: A Suitable Case for Treatment?	563
	Note on Sources	581
	Text Notes and References	588
	Bibliography	640
	Author's Note on the Appendices	654
Appendix A	Statement of Peter William Sutcliffe to West Yorkshire Police, 4 January 1981	659
Appendix B	Subsequent Police Statements, January-February 1981	689
	Index	723

Editorial Reviews

‘A masterpiece that reads like a thriller.’ Time Out

‘There is unlikely to be a more cmprehensive or carefully researched account of the case. To read ‘Wicked Beyond Belief’ is to have a sense of being physically present at the day-to-day investigation, experiencing the frustrations, the stress and the public outrage at its lack of success as the years passed and murder followed.’ P.D.James, Mail on Sunday

‘Bilton knows more about the Ripper case than anyone living.’ Blake Morrison, Guardian

From the Publisher