Streetcleaner: Yorkshire Rippe [Hardcover]

Nicole Ward Jouve (Author), Nicole Ward-Jouve (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This book on Britain's notorious serial killer of the 1970s is a feminist contribution to the growing literature on the case. Written by a Frenchwoman living in England, the story is highly subjective and utilizes psychology, feminism and linguistics in its exploration of the case as symptomatic of the situation of women. Jouve discusses working-class attitudes toward women in Britain's dying industrial North and argues that the police did not trouble much about catching the murderer as he was killing only prostitutes. She is perceptive in treating the personality of the killer, Peter Sutcliffe, a weak and effeminate "mama's boy" so out of place in his class that he could prove his power over women in only one way. Much of the linguistic analysis, however, is tortured and at worst silly, and the book ends with a gratuitous bit of fiction. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jouve, an English professor, presents a feminist interpretation of the murders of women committed by Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper." Her aim is critical analysis rather than story re-creation. Using published accounts of the case, especially Gordon Burn's Somebody's Husband, Somebody's Son ( LJ 1/85), she draws on psychology, linguistics, myth, and literature to produce a dissertation on male violence and the social pressures that transformed Sutcliffe from a shy, effeminate boy into an obsessed killer. General readers will find the writing obscure and difficult and, as the author says, "it may be objected that . . . the speculations are idle, pushed too far." Still, Jouve is sometimes on the mark and her conclusions about Sutcliffe's psychopathy are persuasive. Primarily for academic collections. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers (October 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714528471
• ISBN-13: 978-0714528472
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,694,088 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Forget it, September 28, 2011

By 

Patsy A. Jackson (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Streetcleaner: Yorkshire Rippe (Hardcover)

Don't waste your money. This book is nothing but a lot of psychological hyperbole. Only a psychologist could make such extravagant exaggerations regarding the most minor moments of a person's life.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sutcliffe was not the ripper, March 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Streetcleaner: The Yorkshire Ripper Case on Trial (Paperback)

1978. Detective Chief Superintendent Lapish, Bradford C.I.D. 'We must now face the very real possibility that there is a second man preying on women". 1978. Daily Mail. "Copy-Cat Ripper at Large". 1980. Sunday Times "Insight". "Oldfield conceded to us - that there is not one Ripper, but - at least - two". 1989. R.J.P. Warren. Deputy Chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority. "It was known in the top echelons of the police that two men were involved in the series of murders". 1983. Ian Smith. Editor of Ch. Con. Ronald Gregory's Memoirs. "I agree with your premise that Sutcliffe was not responsible for all the murders". Brian Marriner. Author of "A century of Sex Killers". "I don't think now that Sutcliffe did all the killings he Confessed to "

It was a well established fact that at the time of Peter Sutcliffe's arrest, two killers were involved in the series of murders and assaults; the Ripper, who had been corresponding with the police, and a Copy-Cat killer.

Peter Sutcliffe was a disturbed man whose marriage to Sonia Szurma triggered off a hatred for females which saw him embark on a series of sex attacks on respectable women less than one year into the marriage. Sutcliffe's assaults followed by masturbation at the scene coincided with a series of horrific murders of prostitutes in Leeds and Bradford Red Light areas by a cunning maniac who was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper. Sutcliffe, who had a certain insight into such attacks, came to believe he was the Ripper. His first fatal attack was on Jean Jordan in Manchester, and there he left a £5 note clue which led the police to him for the first of twelve interviews over the next 3 years. He was eliminated each time, because his teeth pattern and blood group didn't match the Rippers. His murder of Jean Jordan was then included in the Ripper frame, on the basis of information confided to the police in 3 letters and a cassette tape, by the Ripper himself. This locked Sutcliffe, the Copy-Cat killer, into a battle of wits with the Ripper as their toll of victims mounted, until Sutcliffe's arrest and "confessions", which enabled the police to clear the slate.

He was duly convicted on his uncontested "confession" evidence, and the police assisted victims of his assaults who remembered him, into court, in order to convince the public, he was the man. They made much of his four murders while they skimmed over the real Ripper victims, relying on his "confessions" and ignoring the forensic evidence. The goal posts were moved with Sutcliffe firmly In goal.

The real Ripper, with the rare B blood group detected from semen and saliva on bites, was written off as a hoaxer and officially the case remains firmly closed.

The Lancashire police, who had responsibility for one Ripper murder in Preston, wouldn't accept Sutcliffe's "confessions" to their murder and he wasn't charged with this.

The man responsible for this Preston murder, and fourteen more mainly in the North of England is still free in the U.K. and is identified in this book as Billy Tracey, as are the police responsible for this gross criminal negligence.

From the time of Sutcliffe's conviction all attempts to show this evidence to the police were met with indifference and indeed resentment. The official position of Sutcliffe's conviction is resolutely adhered to despite overwhelming evidence. Anything that could undermine the conviction is ignored or ridiculed by the police but the following record stands. The West Yorkshire Police proved beyond all doubt that Sutcliffe was not the Ripper