Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Rot in hell

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #26
    I was listening to the 'You're wrong about' Podcast, where they mentioned that the main reason there aren't as many serial killers as there used to be is the Police got better at catching them before the media could make them notorious, and the main thing the police did to catch them was stop bringing assumptions about victims to investigations. So many murderers were not caught because the Police's assumptions like with Sutcliffe; one of Jeffery Dahmer's victims escaped his apartment and made their way to the police, only to be taken back to Dahmer; the police thought this was the sort of thing queers did.

    Comment


      #27
      From Patricia Highsmith's review of Gordon Burn's book in the London Review of Books

      [Sutcliffe's Friend Trevor ]Birdsall’s letter to the police in late 1980, giving Sutcliffe’s name and address and place of employment, went unnoticed by the Police in their by then very paper-burdened search for the Yorkshire Ripper. Twenty-four hours after writing this letter, Birdsall was persuaded by his girlfriend to go to the police station. ‘There he repeated what he had said in the letter’ – that the car spotted in Alma Road at the time of Jacqueline Hill’s murder might be Sutcliffe’s Rover – ‘adding that he had been with Sutcliffe when he got out of his car to go after a woman in Halifax on 16 August 1975, the night Olive Smelt was attacked. He was thanked for his co-operation but heard nothing more from the police; his statement, if it was ever transcribed by the young constable on the desk who took it, was never seen again.’

      Comment


        #28
        One of the things that also comes out of the David Peace books is the amalgamation of the various police forces into West Yorkshire Police was a problem, as until 1968, they'd all been independent with hierarchies and patronage cultures that made the operation of regional investigations which traversed formerly independent patches very difficult on the level of personnel.

        Comment


          #29
          When you look at the investigation it was indeed botched. The problem was they had so much evidence they simply couldn't deal with it as they were using a paper indexing system. It was because of this and the subsequent inquiry that the HOLMES database was created. HOLMES = Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. It makes me wonder if more lives have been saved by this botched investigation that would have been the case if Sutcliffe had been stopped earlier.

          Comment


            #30
            Originally posted by MsD View Post
            Yes, as a young woman at the time I used to ask why there was no male curfew. It was common to hear banter about the Ripper, rape and attacks in general.
            There were several cases where rapists got off, with their cases either thrown out due to "unreliable" complainants, or with a fine/non-custodial sentenced. In 1982, Judge Richards said that a woman who was hitchhiking late at night and was picked up and raped was ‘asking for it’ and guilty of contributory negligence.
            The Ealing Rape in the mid 80s was indeed horrific, but Jill Seward got sympathy mainly for being a virgin, and for being raped in front of her vicar father.
            It's taken a long time for rape victims to be treated sympathetically, and I still don't know whether I'd go to the police.
            Things certainly hadn't changed much by 2003-2004 ish. I was at a women's college at university, there was a guy going round wielding a knife and attacking women, so the college's response was to put up loads of posters warning us to stay inside. I had lots of arguments with people, basically saying that there should be a male curfew instead and that all the posters were doing was instilling fear and curtailing female freedom, not actually making us any safer. Several of my friends disagreed with me. Some agreed. The ones who agreed came with me on a "reclaim the night" march.

            Comment


              #31
              Originally posted by Paul S View Post
              When you look at the investigation it was indeed botched. The problem was they had so much evidence they simply couldn't deal with it as they were using a paper indexing system. It was because of this and the subsequent inquiry that the HOLMES database was created. HOLMES = Home Office Large Major Enquiry System. It makes me wonder if more lives have been saved by this botched investigation that would have been the case if Sutcliffe had been stopped earlier.
              the word "botched" covers a multitude of sins there, Paul. But its suggests a bit of hasty building work rather than the product of massive structural problems- and in particular the misogyny which was running through the police force at the time.

              Comment


                #32
                Originally posted by Satchmo Distel View Post
                The term 'Yorkshire Ripper' is itself offensive and glorifying but we seem to be stuck with it whenever his name comes up. I suppose it would be falsifying history to pretend the association is not there but I think it's a hateful, misognynistic legacy of 70s culture.
                Not something West Yorkshire Police deamt up, IIRC?

                We had the fourth estate to thank for that.

                Comment


                  #33
                  The HOLMES system sounds like something where they really wanted to use that acronym.

                  Comment


                    #34
                    Not something West Yorkshire Police deamt up, IIRC?
                    No, and I wouldn't claim it did so. I'm not sure if their press conferences and releases didn't use the term and thus gave it extra validation, though.

                    Comment


                      #35
                      Originally posted by MsD View Post
                      Yes, as a young woman at the time I used to ask why there was no male curfew. It was common to hear banter about the Ripper, rape and attacks in general.
                      There were several cases where rapists got off, with their cases either thrown out due to "unreliable" complainants, or with a fine/non-custodial sentenced. In 1982, Judge Richards said that a woman who was hitchhiking late at night and was picked up and raped was ‘asking for it’ and guilty of contributory negligence.
                      The Ealing Rape in the mid 80s was indeed horrific, but Jill Seward got sympathy mainly for being a virgin, and for being raped in front of her vicar father.
                      It's taken a long time for rape victims to be treated sympathetically, and I still don't know whether I'd go to the police.
                      These statistics are both illuminating (if that's the right word) and depressing.
                      A visualisation of the complex reasons behind the low rape conviction rate.

                      Comment


                        #36
                        Yep. I should have written "several high-profile cases", as of course the vast majority of rapes never get reported, let alone come to trial, and it was worse in that period.

                        Attila the Stockbroker wrote a poem, "Contributory Negligence", that's on Pillows and Prayers.

                        Comment


                          #37
                          Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                          The HOLMES system sounds like something where they really wanted to use that acronym.
                          They probably got to HOLES rather quickly and then realized they needed to add something.

                          Comment


                            #38
                            Originally posted by Patrick Thistle View Post
                            The HOLMES system sounds like something where they really wanted to use that acronym.
                            I once got published in Computer Weekly after the HOLMES system was involved in some sort of cover-up for pointing out that it was Windows based and brought a whole new meaning to the phrase "this program has performed an illegal operation".

                            Comment


                              #39
                              That's the first I've heard of that. Fucking unbelievable.

                              Comment


                                #40
                                Should The Graun have printed an obit. I'm not sure that they should've.

                                Comment


                                  #41
                                  No they shouldn't. not should the Yorkshire Post (whilst trying to right a wrong) have defined the women Sutcliffe killed as only important in their relationships to others

                                  https://twitter.com/LiamPRyan91/status/1327559747101462528?s=20

                                  Comment


                                    #42
                                    AAAAAAAAAARRRRGH. Talk about not getting it.

                                    Comment

                                    Working...
                                    X