No One Escapes: Reflections On A Serial Killing

When murder is committed, a chain of consequence spirals out from the killer and victim at the core, touching the lives of everyone in society. Survivors, relatives, social institutions, a writer documenting a case or her readers themselves: every contact leaves a trace.In No One Escapes, Carole Hayman builds on her renowned documentary installation of the same name (used widely as teaching material by psychiatrists). The book centres on the case of Fred and Rosemary West, which, twenty years on, remains the most shocking series of murders in British history. Hayman explores the effects of psychopathic violence through interviews with people 'contaminated' indelibly by the killers' dreadful predations - Rosemary West's stepdaughter; the sister of a victim; the lead police investigator; West's lawyer; forensic psychiatrists; and others.Rosemary West has never confessed or spoken about the murders she and her husband (who committed suicide while awaiting trial) perpetrated. She is reviled as one of the most notorious female killers in history. By focusing on the ripple effects of West's crimes, Hayman has also set out to examine how society deals with the act of female violence specifically, which contravenes so many taboos and assumptions about women. Indeed, the question of whether or not women can be considered true psychopaths remains a much-debated contention. Hayman takes West as a point of departure to examine such attitudes to 'killer women', as well as to reflect on how female violence touches the lives of people at the 'blast site' itself and at the furthest periphery.