She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West [Hardcover]

Brian Masters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1996

In attending the trial of Rosemary West, and using private papers and personal interviews, the author presents a study of the sexual obession that led to the measured killing of 12 women and girls by Fred West. In the wake of the horrific detail that has come to light, the book looks at how and why West was driven to serial killing of the most devious kind, resulting in a chain of murders that turned 25 Cromwell Street into a mass burial ground of sexually ravaged human remains, and how an evil psychopath was able to ensnare so many in a web of unseeing complicity.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (July 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385406509
• ISBN-13: 978-0385406505
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,065,188 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad and enlightening, June 28, 2005

By 

D. Spidet (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West (Hardcover)

Reading books like this is always very sad. You are always thinking of the victims ends, snuffed out in their prime with their whole lives ahead of them. But the book is mainly about the trial of Rose West- did she, didn't she? Without deciding for you either way there is no doubt that the trial was a bit of a farce and that 'innocent till proven guilty' is a phrase used so often by society as word service to the judicial system that for all intents and purposes it has become meaningless. When a police force backed by society hatred and anger is trying to prove you guilty then you HAVE to prove your innocence in order to fight. Proving her innocence Rose West failed to do but so too did the prosecution fail to prove her guilt. If she was guilty because she 'must have known' then so are other members of the house guilty. There were hundreds of missing bones from the several victims which points to the dismemberment of the bodies happening away from the house and this indicates Fred Wests need to keep things secret from Rose. What makes me angry about this book is that Rose West could indeed be guilty but the trial never proved it one way or the other. Also, it shows that with Fred Wests suicide, the police and society, needing an outlet still for the rage, turned on Rose West like they had Derek Bently many years before when the real killer was too young to be legally prosecuted. A disturbing aspect was the tabloid journalists supplying schoolchildren with eggs to pelt Rose Wests police van so they could photograph it as she was driven off to court before being tried. Also one of the daughters getting offered hundreds of pounds by a newspaper for her inside story and then paid thousands when she added a page full of maternal abuse. This is a book that makes you think. My conclusions afterwards are that it seems so difficult to find the truth in these situations that society is not helped by the judicial system behaving maliciously and incompetently, and governments pandering to the mob by allowing journalistic interference. As I said, the book doesn't show Rose Wests innocence, it only shows that the trial was a farce.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The stuff of nightmares., October 2, 2005

By 

James A. Cairney (Brighton, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West (Hardcover)

This book gave me nightmares.
That has never happened before.
I have long given up on horror movies as I searched and searched for something that might frighten me.

The stories/facts in this book are true and they are utterly horrific.

Daughter/Girlfriend going "Travelling"....give her this book first.

It should be compulsory reading.