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Wicked Beyond Belief

The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

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About this listen

 Now a major TV series ‘A masterpiece that reads like a thriller’ 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.

Fully updated for this edition.

 Abductions, Kidnapping & Missing Persons Murder Social Sciences True Crime Crime Scary Thought-Provoking Exciting Disappearance
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Most relevant
A brilliant listen of the story about the hunt for the ripper in 1970's Yorkshire

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I grew up in northern England, with the headlines of the late 70s and the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper highlighting the need to "get home safely". I have watched countless documantaries, and listened to several books about Peter Sutcliffe. With confidence I can say that this is the definitive account of the Yorkshire Ripper and just about every relevant story including his campaign of horror, his capture, the court case, his incarceration, the inquiry, his impact on modern policing and closure for all concerned. Marston York uses nunerous authentic accents to bring the dialogue to life. Took be back 40 years, to time without mobile phones or personal computers. The scale of Peter Sutcliffe's horror was unprecedented and evidently unmanageable at that time. An exhaustive listen but, in a very good way if this is what you're looking for.

The benchmark on thr Yorkshire Ripper

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Thoroughly enjoyed it. Went off on occasion talking about other things but overall a good listen.

Very thorough

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learnt a lot more on what actually happened within the police force and where they went wrong more so than just missed opportunities like how many times he was interviewed. also A lot more victims than I originally thought just not as known because they survived or weren't accepted by the police as potential victims because they weren't working prostitutes

excellent listen

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Like many people, I knew the story, though not in anything like the detail that was given here. The narration was excellent, the balance very good, the fact that the focus was on the investigation and the victims rather than the Ripper was exactly what was needed. I thought it was brilliantly laid out and described throughout. My issue was in the descriptions of various sections of the investigation and aftermath, all of this coming after his conviction and imprisonment. There was a deep dive into his time in Broadmoor, his relationships with the system and individual crimes which were broadly connected, largely by MO. Whilst these in themselves were all as good as the rest of the book, the way they were used was totally disjointed and and at times appeared to make no sense because they had no apparent link to anything else. It just seemed very odd to have what amounted to standalone pieces dropped in the middle of the book. Moreover, at the end of one of the pieces was announced the end of the book. It felt as if we had stopped in the middle of something that needed to be continued. Very odd.

Mostly excellent

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