Michael Bilton > Quotes

“There is however the concept which Ian Fleming allowed “Goldfinger” to propound: “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

“The senior detective in charge of the biggest manhunt in British criminal history didn’t know how to work a tape recorder.”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

“Unknown to Oldfield, the best opportunity yet to arrest the Yorkshire Ripper was about to unfold, but it happened at the very time when the investigation was at its most dangerous, depressing and muddled phase, with carelessness piled upon misfortune piled upon incompetence.”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

“estimated four tons of accumulated paper was placing a considerable physical weight on the incident room floor.”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

“society is at the mercy of a murderer without a motive”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper

“Knowing this, one autumn afternoon in late October 1979 Peter Sutcliffe answered the front door of his home to be confronted for the sixth time by murder squad detectives who had come to interview him.”
― Michael Bilton, Wicked Beyond Belief: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper