Review: Peter Sutcliffe: The Full Crimes of The Yorkshire Ripper

Peter Sutcliffe: The Full Crimes of The Yorkshire Ripper by Chris Cook
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Peter Sutcliffe, The Yorkshire Ripper, is arguably Britain’s worst serial killer. Holding the women of Yorkshire and much of Lancaster in a state of terror for the latter half of the seventies his moniker, if not his identity, was known to all. More than four decades after he was imprisoned it is a rare person who hasn't heard of his name and the crimes that he has committed. But for such an infamous case how much do people really know? How much horror was swept under the carpet because the public was ‘at its limit’?

I pride myself on my reviews being spoiler-free. As this is a true crime book much of the content is known already. For that reason, commonly known facts may be discussed below but major ‘spoilers’ will be avoided. If you have no idea who Peter Sutcliffe was or what he did then don’t read any further and just go and read the book!

Before reading this book I felt that I had quite a deep knowledge of the Ripper case. I grew up a short distance away from where he was arrested. My mother was friends with the cousin of one of the Ripper’s younger victims and the parent of a close friend of mine worked in the police force on the case. I didn’t think that there was much that I would learn from the book so read it out of interest alone. I couldn’t have been more wrong…

Chris Cook starts the coverage of the book chronicling the early life of Sutcliffe. The conditions he grew up in and details about his family. It covers Sutcliffe’s courtship and the difficulties the young couple faced. The picture painted makes it much easier to see why none of his immediate family suspected anything was amiss.

Then the meat of the case. Cook covers every attack from the Ripper’s first known. The details cover the lives of the victims, humanising them in ways the press failed to do at the time. The details of the attacks are vivid and comprehensive. Descriptions of the crime scenes feel like they come straight from the police report. I was impressed with the depth of the information but this book goes so much deeper.

Several further attacks, not attributed to the Yorkshire Ripper are also discussed. Many of these have too many similarities, or survivors able to identify Sutcliffe, that it is astounding how these were never connected by the Police. Although that arguably is also covered in the book.

West Yorkshire police had on their hands the UK’s largest murder investigation. Hampered by a lack of technology and so much paperwork that they actually had to strengthen the floor of the Police station that they were working out of, it is understandable that things may have gotten missed. This book highlights the issues brought up in the damning 1982 Byford Report and in West Yorkshires Police’s own 1983 ‘Report into the Investigation of the Series of Murders and Assaults on Women in the North of England between 1975 and 1980’. Seeing the callous way the Police treated many victims and the number of times that Ripper should have been caught but wasn’t makes you realise that Sutcliffe’s actions aren’t the only horror in this tragically too-real story.

This book is the perfect blend of facts and heartbreak. From the crime scenes to the famous soap actor who became involved in the case, every page is packed with information that draws you into a case that will never be forgotten. I, for one, couldn’t put it down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen and Sword Publishing for providing me with this eARC. All opinions are my own.


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