Brian Cowan was elected to his late father's safe seat as a member of
the Irish parliament in 1984.
He had been a solicitor before that.
Cowan knew Billy Tracey very well indeed, so well in fact that a
mention of Tracey's name to him was a complete turnoff.
Cowan shirked his responsibility as a public representative to help
expose serious crime.
Cowan's father owned a pub in the small village of Clara in county
Offaly.
This man, Billy Tracey was well known and greatly feared in that
village. Se feared in fact that Cowan's father had to have a large
gate put up to prevent him from urinating on his front door whenever
he passed it late at night.
When I first spoke on the phone to Clara Garda sargeant Kevin Forde
and told him that Tracey was the Yorkshire Ripper he replied that it
didnt surprise him because 'he had all the credentials'. Forde asked
me to call to see him and be sure to 'come up in the dark.'
Before Forde took up that job it had been idle for a number of years
because nobody wanted to take it. Tracey had 49 convictions for
serious assaults against policemen and prison officers and anybody
offered the sergeant's job in Clara could be forgiven for enquiring
who was there before taking it on.
Putting it bluntly the Gardai were very afraid of Billy Tracey. They
had wives and families and he was known to threaten policemen's
children and was capable of carrying them out. While the Gardai were
fully aware of Tracey's violent criminal record, the public, including
myself, were left in the dark.
When I brought to the attention of TD and Minister Brian Cowan that
Tracey was the real Yorkshire Ripper, he never responded and refused
any involvement despite his position as a public representative. My
book was written in 1982.
Peter Sutcliffe had been convicted as the Ripper in 1981. The
Birmingham 6 and the Guildford 4 were in maximum security prisons in
the UK.
Miscarriages of justice were unheard of.
Policemen were taken at their word in courts and their word was
gospel.
Like some other residents of Clara, Brian Cowan didnt want to give the
place a bad name.
http://yorkshireripper.com/suspect.htm
Now Brian Cowan is the Taoiseach in waiting and Billy Tracey, the real
Yorkshire Ripper, his old neighbour from Clara, is living it up in
London as a free man thanks to Cowan's failure to do his duty.
Next month the Ripper's old pal Brian Cowan will be our prime minister
and no doubt if he ever returned, Cowan would shake his hand and
welcome him home.
Clara is holding its breath that Tracey will never return. |