Books

GONE FISHING

THE UNSOLVED CRIMES OF ANGUS SINCLAIR

Angus Robertson Sinclair, one of the worst killers the UK has ever seen, was convicted of four murders.

His first took place in his home city of Glasgow in 1961, when he raped and murdered his seven-year-old neighbour Catherine Reehill when he was just sixteen. But after spending a mere six years in prison, he was released in his early twenties to kill again.

Teenagers Helen Scott and Christine Eadie were last seen at the World’s End pub on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in October 1977. The next morning both were found murdered; not together, but a few miles apart on the East Lothian coast. The largest investigation in Scottish police history didn’t find their killer.

These discoveries lead detectives to examine the link between Sinclair and several other unsolved cases. Scientific advances put him and his brother-in law Gordon Hamilton − who died in 1996 − firmly in the frame for the World’s End murders. In 2007 Sinclair stood trial for these murders, but a lack of evidence saw the case collapse. But following the change in Scotland’s double jeopardy law, Sinclair again faced trial for the World’s End murders in 2014, and this time was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 37 years in prison.

This is the longest sentence issued to anyone in a Scottish court, and ensured that Sinclair would die in jail. But there were more victims. Many more. And in this book Adam Lloyd, host of the UK True Crime Podcast, and co-author Chris Clark, tell their stories.

“Sinclair again faced trial for the World’s End murders in 2014, and this time was found guilty”

These discoveries lead detectives to examine the link between Sinclair and several other unsolved cases. Scientific advances put him and his brother-in law Gordon Hamilton − who died in 1996 − firmly in the frame for the World’s End murders. In 2007 Sinclair stood trial for these murders, but a lack of evidence saw the case collapse. But following the change in Scotland’s double jeopardy law, Sinclair again faced trial for the World’s End murders in 2014, and this time was found guilty and sentenced to a minimum of 37 years in prison.

This is the longest sentence issued to anyone in a Scottish court, and ensured that Sinclair would die in jail. But there were more victims. Many more. And in this book Adam Lloyd, host of the UK True Crime Podcast, and co-author Chris Clark, tell their stories.

Yorkshire Ripper - The Secret Murders: The True Story of Serial Killer Peter Sutcliffe's Reign of Terror

In 1981, Peter Sutcliffe, the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’, was convicted of thirteen murders and seven attempted murders. All his proven victims were women: most were prostitutes.Astonishingly, however, this is not the whole truth. There is a still-secret story of how Sutcliffe’s terrible reign of terror claimed at least twenty-two more lives and left five other victims with terrible injuries. These crimes – attacks on men as well as women – took place all over England, not just in his known killing fields of Yorkshire and Lancashire.Police and prosecution authorities have long known that Sutcliffe’s reign of terror was far longer and far more widespread than the public has been led to believe. But the evidence has been locked away in the files and archives, ensuring that these murders and attempted murders remain unsolved today.As a result, the families of at least twenty-two murdered women have been cheated of their right to know how and why their loved ones died: the pain of living with that may diminish over time, but it never fades away completely. Five other victims survived his attacks: their plight, too, has never been officially acknowledged.Worse still, police blunders and subsequent suppression of evidence ensured that three entirely innocent men were imprisoned for murders committed by the Yorkshire Ripper. They each lost the best parts of their adult lives, locked up and forgotten in stinking cells for more than two decades.This book, by a former police Intelligence Officer, is the story not just of those long-cold killings, of the forgotten families and of three terrible miscarriages of justice. It also uncovers Peter Sutcliffe’s real motive for murder – and reveals how he manipulated police, prosecutors and psychiatrists to ensure that he serves his sentence in the comfort of a psychiatric hospital rather than a prison cell.

The Face of Evil: The True Story of Serial Killer, Robert Black

In 1994, Robert Black was convicted of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of three young girls, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of thirty-five years; in 2011 he was convicted of a fourth such killing. He died in HMP Maghaberry, Northern Ireland, in January 2016, aged sixty-eight, unmourned, and entirely unrepentant of his repellent crimes.

These bald facts, horrific as they are, do not begin to scratch the surface of the truth about Robert Black, a Scottish-born serial killer who undoubtedly committed further murders for which he was never tried, both in this country and on the Continent. In this ground-breaking account, Robert Giles, who has spent years tracing the killer’s movements and sifting through all the evidence, including transcripts of the trials, convincingly argues that Black was an habitual serial killer over many years, and quite certainly responsible for more than the four child murders for which he was convicted.

Co-written with Chris Clark, a former police intelligence officer whose tireless work into the Yorkshire Ripper produced convincing new evidence of other murders that went unnoticed or unrecorded, The Face of Evil shows once and for all that Robert Black was a serial killer whose crimes went far beyond what is generally believed. In doing so, it paints a portrait of human cruelty at its worst.

Manhunt: Hunting Britain's Most Wanted Murderer

In the early hours of 19 June 2004, 16-year-old Liam Kelly was lured to a location in Liverpool and shot dead. The following year, another Liverpudlian, 22-year-old mother of three, Lucy Hargreaves, was shot dead in her own home. Her partner and their 2-year-old daughter escaped after the house was set alight by leaping from a first-floor bedroom window.

For more than fifteen years, six-foot six-inch, broadly built, ginger-haired Kevin Parle has been wanted by the police for both murders. How could he have evaded national and international crime investigators for so long? Who is harbouring him?

Author and former Scotland Yard detective and undercover cop, Peter Bleksley, is determined to find the answers. He has immersed himself again in the world of serious and organised crime, this time armed only with a pen, a notebook and a mobile phone. He has vowed not to rest until Parle is found.

This gripping story goes behind the scenes of the hit BBC Sounds podcast, Manhunt: Finding Kevin Parle.

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Gone Fishing: The Unsolved Crimes of Angus Sinclair