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Moors murders

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An unsmiling blonde woman with a short bouffant hairstyle, wearing a dark coat. To her left is a scowling man with dark, combed-back hair. Both are staring directly at the camera.
Mug shots of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady at the time of their arrest in October 1965

The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17, at least three of whom were sexually assaulted: Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans. The murders are so named because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, over 20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966. The body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there, but as of 2009 it remains undiscovered.

The police were initially aware of only three killings—those of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey, and John Kilbride. The investigation was reopened in 1985, after Brady was reported in the press as having confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist the police in their search for the graves, both by then having confessed to the additional murders.

Dubbed by the press "the most evil woman in Britain",[1] Hindley made three appeals against her life sentence, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but she was never released. She died in 2002, aged 60. Brady was declared criminally insane in 1985, since when he has been confined in the high-security Ashworth Hospital. He has made it clear that he never wants to be released, and has repeatedly asked to be allowed to die.

The murders were reported in "almost every English language newspaper around the world".[2] Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has described them as the result of a "concatenation of circumstances" which brought together a "young woman with a tough personality, taught to hand out and receive violence from an early age" and a "sexually sadistic psychopath".[3]

Victims

The full extent of Brady and Hindley's killing spree did not come to light until their confessions in 1985, as both had until then maintained their innocence. Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a neighbour of Hindley's who disappeared on her way to a dance in Crumpsall on 12 July 1963. She entered a van with Hindley while Brady secretly followed behind on his motorbike. When the van reached Saddleworth Moor, Hindley stopped and got out, asking Reade to help her find a missing glove. The pair were busy "searching" the Moor when Brady attacked Reade with a shovel, fracturing her skull. He then raped her before cutting her throat with a knife, severing her spinal cord and almost decapitating her.[4]

Hindley approached twelve-year-old John Kilbride on 23 November 1963, at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne, and asked him to help her carry some boxes. Brady was sitting in the back of a Ford Anglia car that Hindley had hired. When they reached the moors, Brady took the child with him while Hindley waited in the car. On the moor, Brady sexually assaulted Kilbride and attempted to slit his throat with a six-inch serrated blade before strangling him with a piece of string, possibly a shoelace.[5]

Twelve-year-old Keith Bennett vanished on his way to his grandmother's house in Gorton during the early evening of 16 June 1964,[6] four days after his 12th birthday. Hindley lured him into her Mini pick-up—which Brady was sitting in the back of—by asking for the boy's help in loading some boxes, after which she said she would drive him home. She drove to a lay-by on Saddleworth Moor as she and Brady had previously arranged, and Brady went off with Bennett, supposedly looking for a lost glove. Hindley kept watch, and after about 30 minutes or so Brady reappeared, alone and carrying a spade he had hidden there earlier. When Hindley asked how he had killed Bennett, Brady said that he had sexually assaulted the boy and strangled him with a piece of string.[7]

Brady and Hindley visited a fairground on 26 December 1964 in search of another victim, and noticed 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey standing beside one of the rides. When it became apparent to them that she was on her own they approached her and deliberately dropped some of the shopping they were carrying close to her, before asking for the girl's help to carry some of the packages to their car, and then to their home. Once inside the house Downey was undressed, gagged, and forced to pose for photographs before being raped and fatally strangled with a piece of string. Hindley maintained that she went to draw a bath for the child, and found the girl dead (presumably killed by Brady) when she returned. The following morning Brady and Hindley drove Downey's body to Saddleworth Moor,[8] where she was placed, naked with her clothes at her feet, in a shallow grave.[9]

On 6 October 1965 Brady met 17-year-old apprentice engineer Edward Evans at Manchester Central Railway Station, and invited him to his home at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, where Evans was beaten to death with an axe.[10]

Initial report

16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley. The house has since been demolished.

The attack on Edward Evans was witnessed by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith, the husband of her younger sister Maureen. The Hindley family had not approved of Maureen's marriage to Smith, as he had three convictions for actual bodily harm and another for a stabbing when he was aged eleven.[11] Throughout the previous year Brady had been cultivating a friendship with Smith, who had become "in awe" of the older man, something that increasingly worried Hindley, as she felt it compromised their safety. Shortly before Evans' murder Brady announced to her that he and Smith intended "to roll over a queer".[12]

On the evening of 6 October 1965 Hindley drove Brady to Manchester Central Station, where she waited outside in the car while he selected their victim; after a few minutes Brady reappeared in the company of Edward Evans, to whom he introduced Hindley as his sister. After they had driven back home and relaxed over a bottle of wine, Brady sent Hindley to fetch her brother-in-law. When they got back to the house Hindley told Smith to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. When the signal came Smith knocked on the door and was met by Brady, who asked if he had come for "the miniature wine bottles". A few minutes later Hindley, who had gone into the kitchen to feed her dogs, heard Brady struggling with Evans and saw Smith standing by the front door.[10] She shouted for him to go and help, and Smith entered the room to find Brady repeatedly striking Evans with the flat of an axe. He watched as Brady then throttled Evans with a length of electrical cord.[13] Evans' body was too heavy for Smith to carry to the car on his own—Brady had sprained his ankle in the struggle—so they wrapped it in plastic sheeting and put it in the spare bedroom.[14]

Smith agreed to meet Brady the following evening to dispose of Evans' body.[14] Once back at home, however, he woke his wife and told her what he had just seen. Maureen told him that the only thing to do was to call the police. Three hours later the couple cautiously made their way to a public phone box in the street below their flat, Smith taking the precaution of arming himself with a screwdriver and a kitchen knife to defend themselves in the event that Brady suddenly appeared and confronted them. At 6:07 am Smith made an emergency services call to the police station in nearby Hyde and told his story to the officer on duty.[15]

Arrest

Early on the morning of 7 October, shortly after Smith's call, Superintendent Bob Talbot arrived at the back door of 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, wearing a baker's overall to cover his uniform. Talbot identified himself to Hindley as a police officer when she opened the door, and told her that he wanted to speak to her boyfriend. Hindley led him into the living room, where Brady was sitting up in a divan writing a note to his employer explaining that he would not be able to get into work because of his ankle injury. Talbot explained that he was investigating "an act of violence involving guns" that was reported to have taken place the previous evening.[16] Hindley denied that there had been any violence, and allowed police to look around the house. When they came to the upstairs room in which Evans' body was stored the police found the door locked, and asked Brady for the key. Hindley claimed that the key was at work, but after the police offered to drive her to Millwards to retrieve it, Brady told her to hand the key over. When they returned to the living room the police told Brady that they had discovered a trussed up body, and that he was being arrested on suspicion of murder.[17]

Hindley was not arrested with Brady, but she demanded to go with him to the police station, accompanied by her dog Puppet, to which the police agreed.[18] Hindley was questioned about the events surrounding Evans' death, but she refused to make any statement beyond claiming that it had been an accident. As the police had no evidence that Hindley was involved in Evans' murder she was allowed to go home, on condition that she returned the next day for further questioning. Hindley was at liberty for four days following Brady's arrest, during which time she went to Millwards and asked to be sacked so that she could go on the dole. While there she found some papers belonging to Brady, which she burned. Eventually she was charged as an accessory to the murder of Evans on 11 October, and was remanded at Risley.[19]

Initial investigation

Brady admitted under police questioning that he and Evans had fought, but insisted that he and Smith had murdered Evans between them; Hindley, he said, had "only done what she had been told".[20] Smith told police that Brady and Hindley had hidden evidence in two suitcases stored in a left-luggage office somewhere in Manchester. British Transport Police were asked to search all of Manchester's stations, and on 15 October found what they were looking for—police later found the left-luggage ticket in the back of Hindley's prayer book.[21] Inside one of the cases were nine pornographic photographs taken of a young girl, naked and with a scarf tied around her mouth, and a 13-minute tape recording of her screaming and pleading for help.[22] Lesley Ann Downey's mother later listened to the tape after police had discovered the body of her missing 10-year-old daughter, and confirmed that it was a recording of her daughter's voice.[23]

Police searching the house at Wardle Brook Avenue also found an old exercise book in which the name "John Kilbride" had been scribbled, which made them suspicious that Brady and Hindley may have been involved in the unsolved disappearances of other youngsters.[24] A large collection of photographs was discovered in the house, many of which seemed to have been taken on Saddleworth Moor. A close neighbour, 11-year-old Pat Hodges, had on several occasions been taken to the Moor by Brady and Hindley, and she was able to point out their favourite sites. One hundred and fifty officers were drafted to search the Moor, looking for locations that matched the photographs. On 16 October a female arm bone was found sticking out of the peat. Clothing recovered from the grave was shown to Ann Downey—Lesley Ann's mother, later Ann West after her marriage to Alan West—and identified as having belonged to her missing daughter.[9][13][25]

A crouched blonde woman in thick jacket, trousers, and boots, holding a small dog.
A photograph taken by Ian Brady of Myra Hindley with her dog, Puppet, kneeling over John Kilbride's grave on Saddleworth Moor.

Detectives were also able to identify another location on the opposite side of the A635 road from where Downey's body was discovered, and five days later they found the "badly decomposed" body of John Kilbride, which they identified by his clothing. His jeans and underpants had been pulled down to mid-thigh and his underpants appeared to have been knotted at the back.[13] That same day, already on remand for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrate's Court charged with Lesley Ann Downey's murder. Each was brought before the court separately and remanded into custody for a week.[26] They made a two-minute appearance again on 28 October, and were remanded for a further week.[27]

The search for further bodies continued, but with winter setting in it was called off in November.[28] Presented with the evidence of the tape recording, Brady admitted to taking the pornographic photographs of Lesley Ann Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. Brady and Hindley were remanded in custody on 11 November 1965, three days after the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act came into force and abolished the death penalty. Brady was charged with the murders of Edward Evans, John Kilbride, and Lesley Ann Downey, and Hindley with the murders of Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey, as well as harbouring Brady knowing he had killed John Kilbride.[29] Committal proceedings were heard in front of three magistrates in Hyde over an 11-day period during December, at the end of which the pair were committed for trial at Chester Assize Crown Court.[30]

Trial

The trial was held over 14 days beginning on 19 April 1966, in front of Mr Fenton Atkinson.[30] Such was the public interest that the courtroom was fitted with security screens to protect Brady and Hindley.[31] The pair were each charged with three murders, those of Evans, Downey, and Kilbride, as it was considered there was by then sufficient evidence to implicate Hindley in Kilbride's death. The prosecution was led by the Attorney General, Frederick Elwyn Jones.[30] Brady was defended by the Liberal Member of Parliament Edwin Hoosen, and Hindley was defended by Godfrey Heilpern, recorder of Salford from 1964—both experienced QCs.[32][33] David Smith was the chief prosecution witness, but during the trial it was discovered that he had agreed a deal with a newspaper he refused to name—even under intense questioning—guaranteeing him £1,000 (equivalent to about £20,000 as of 2024) for the syndication rights to his story if Brady and Hindley were convicted, something the trial judge described as a "gross interference with the course of justice".[34][35] By the time of the trial Smith had already enjoyed a foreign holiday, and was accommodated at a five-star hotel for the duration of the trial, both at the newspaper's expense.[36]

Brady and Hindley pleaded not guilty to the charges against them; both were called to give evidence, Brady for over eight hours and Hindley for six.[37] Although Brady admitted to hitting Evans with an axe, he did not admit to killing him, arguing that the pathologist in his report had stated that Evans' death was "accelerated by strangulation". Under cross examination by the prosecuting counsel all Brady would admit was that "I hit Evans with the axe. If he died from axe blows, I killed him."[38] Hindley denied any knowledge that the photographs of Saddleworth Moor found by police had been taken near the graves of their victims,[39] described as "a quiet, controlled, impassive witness who lied remorselessly".[30]

The tape recording of Lesley Anne Downey, on which the voices of Brady and Hindley were clearly audible, was played in open court. Hindley admitted that her attitude towards the child was "brusque and cruel", but claimed that was only because she was afraid that someone might hear Downey screaming.[39] Hindley explained that when Downey was being undressed she was "downstairs"; when the pornographic photographs were taken she was "looking out the window"; and that when the child was being strangled she "was running a bath". Throughout the trial Brady and Hindley "stuck rigidly to their strategy of lying".[40]

On 6 May 1966, after having deliberated for a little over two hours,[41] the jury found Brady guilty of all three murders and Hindley guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment and Hindley was given two concurrent life sentences, plus a concurrent seven-year term for harbouring Brady knowing that he had murdered John Kilbride.[30] Brady was taken to Durham Jail and Hindley was sent to Holloway Prison.[39]

The judge in his closing remarks described the murders as a "truly horrible case", and condemned the accused as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity".[42] He recommended that both Brady and Hindley spend "a very long time" in prison before being considered for parole but did not stipulate a tariff. He stated that Brady was "wicked beyond belief" and that he saw no reasonable possibility of reform. He did not consider the same was necessarily true of Hindley however, "once she is removed from [Brady's] influence".[43]

Later investigation

File:Keith bennett.jpg
Keith Bennett

In 1985 Brady allegedly confessed to Fred Harrison—a journalist working for The Sunday People—that he had been responsible for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett,[44] something that the police already suspected, as both children lived in the same area as Brady and Hindley and had disappeared at about the same time as their other victims. The subsequent newspaper reports prompted the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to reopen the case, in an investigation headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, who had been appointed Head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) the previous year.[45]

On 3 July 1985 Topping visited Brady at Gartree Prison, but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders".[46] Police nevertheless decided to resume their search of Saddleworth Moor, once more using the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley to help them identify possible burial sites. Meanwhile, in November 1986 Winnie Johnson, Keith Bennett's mother, wrote a letter to Hindley begging to know what had happened to her son, a letter that Hindley seemed to be "genuinely moved" by.[47] It ended:

I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. It has taken me five weeks labour to write this letter because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help. Please, Miss Hindley, help me.[48]

Police visited Hindley, then being held in Cookham Wood, a few days after she had received the letter, and although she refused to admit any involvement in the killings, she agreed to help by looking at photographs and maps to try and identify spots she had visited with Brady.[49] She showed particular interest in photographs of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the Moor.[50] The security considerations for such a visit were significant; there were threats made against her, should she visit the moors, but Home Secretary Douglas Hurd agreed with Topping that it would be worth the risk.[51]

Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of Saddleworth Moor on 16 December 1986.[52] Four police cars left Cookham Wood at 4.30 am. At about the same time police at Saddleworth closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, 40 of them armed. Hindley and her solicitor arrived by helicopter from an airfield near Maidstone, touching down at 8.30 am. Wearing a donkey jacket and balaclava, she was driven, and walked around the area. It was difficult for Hindley to make a connection between her memories of the area and what she saw on the day, and she was apparently nervous of the helicopters flying overhead. At 3 pm she was returned to the helicopter, and taken back to Cookham Wood.[51] Topping was criticised by the press, who described the visit as a "fiasco", a "publicity stunt", and a "mindless waste of money".[53] He was forced to defend the visit, pointing out its benefits:

We had taken the view that we needed a thorough systematic search of the moor [...] It would never have been possible to carry out such a search in private.[53]

Topping continued to visit Hindley in prison, along with her solicitor Michael Fisher and her spiritual counsellor, the Reverend Peter Timms, who had been a prison governor before resigning to join the Methodist Church.[53] She made a formal confession to police on 10 February 1987, admitting her involvement in all five murders,[54] but news of her confession was not made public for more than a month.[55] Police visited Brady in prison again, and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. Once presented with some of the details Hindley had provided of Pauline Reade's abduction however, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess on one condition; that he was immediately afterwards given the means to commit suicide, a request that was impossible for the authorities to comply with.[56]

A flat, desolate, moorland under a cloudy sky, covered in long grass. A road runs from left to right in the distance.
Hollin Brown Knoll, the area where Pauline Reade's body was discovered in 1987

At about the same time, Winnie Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley, who had not replied to the first letter, responded by thanking Johnson for both letters, explaining her decision to not reply to the first resulted from the negative publicity that surrounded it. She also claimed that had Johnson written to her 14 years earlier, she would have confessed, and helped the police. She also paid tribute to Topping, and thanked Johnson for her sincerity.[57] Hindley made her second visit to the Moor in March 1987. This time, the security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at Sedgley Park, and visited the moor twice.[57] She confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their search—Hollin Brown Knoll and Hoegrain—were correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves.[58] She did though later remember that as Pauline Reade was being buried she had been sitting next to her on a patch of grass and could see the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky.[59]

In April 1987 news of Hindley's confession became public. Amidst strong media interest, Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, commonly known as Lord Longford, pleaded for her release, writing that her continuing detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Fisher convinced Hindley to release a public statement, in which she explained her reasons for denying her complicity in the murders, her religious experiences in prison, the letter from Johnson, and that she saw no possibility of release. She also exonerated David Smith from any part in the murders, except that of Edward Evans.[60]

Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had been sufficient to allow the police to focus their efforts on a specific area. After more than 100 days of searching, on the afternoon of 1 July 1987 they found a body lying in a shallow grave 3 feet (0.91 m) below the surface, only 100 yards (91 m) from the place where Lesley Ann Downey had been found.[61][59] Brady had been co-operating with the police for some time, and when news that Reade's body had been discovered reached him he made a formal confession to Topping.[62] He also issued a statement to the press, through his solicitor, saying that he too was prepared to help the police in their search. Brady was taken to the Moor on 3 July, but he seemed to lose his bearings, blaming changes that had taken place in the intervening years, and the search was called off at 3:00 pm, by which time a large crowd of press and television reporters had gathered on the Moor.[63]

Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moors,[64] and a few days after his visit Brady wrote a letter to BBC television reporter Peter Gould, giving some sketchy details of five additional murders he claimed to have carried out.[65] Brady though refused to identify his alleged victims, and the police failed to discover any unsolved crimes matching the few details he supplied.[66] Hindley told Topping she knew nothing of these killings.[64]

Hoe Grain leading to Shiny Brook, the area in which Bennett's undiscovered body is believed by the police to be buried[67]

On 24 August 1987 police called off their search of Saddleworth Moor, despite not having found Keith Bennett's body.[68] Brady was taken to the Moor for a second time on 1 December, but he was once again unable to locate the burial site. Keith Bennett's body remains undiscovered as of 2009, although his family continues to search the Moor, over 40 years after his disappearance.[69]

Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided that nothing would be gained by a further trial; as both were already serving life sentences, no further punishment could be inflicted, and a second trial may even have helped Hindley's case for parole by giving her a platform from which to make a public confession.[70]

The BBC reported on 1 July 2009 that Greater Manchester Police had officially given up the search for Keith Bennett, saying that "only a major scientific breakthrough or fresh evidence would see the hunt for his body restart".[71]

Personal backgrounds

Brady

Main article: Ian Brady

Ian Brady was born Ian Duncan Stewart on 2 January 1938 to Maggie Stewart, an unmarried 28-year old tea room waitress. The identity of Brady's father has never been reliably ascertained, although his mother claimed he was a reporter working for a Glasgow newspaper, who died three months before Brady was born. Stewart had little support, and after a few months was forced to give her son into the care of Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own. Brady took their name, and became known as Ian Sloan. His mother continued to visit him throughout his childhood.[72] As a young child he took pleasure in torturing animals; he broke the hind legs of one dog, set fire to another, and decapitated a cat.[73] Aged nine, Brady visited Loch Lomond with his family, where he reportedly discovered an affinity for the outdoors, and a few months later the family moved to a new council house on an overspill estate at Pollok. He was also accepted for the Shawlands Academy, a school for above average pupils.[74] As he grew older Brady's "brutality escalated", and soon he was hurting children smaller than himself.[73] At Shawlands his behaviour worsened; as a teenager he twice appeared before a juvenile court for housebreaking. He left the academy aged 15, and took a job as a teaboy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. Nine months later he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. He also had a girlfriend, Evelyn Grant, but when he threatened her with a flick knife after she visited a dance with another boy, the relationship ended. He again appeared before the court, this time with nine charges against him,[75] and shortly before his 17th birthday a Scottish court put him on probation on the condition that he went to live with his mother, who had by then moved to Manchester and married an Irish labourer called Pat Brady.[76]

He took a job at a local meat market, but within a year of moving to Manchester was again in court, and was sentenced to two years in a borstal in Hatfield. For misbehaviour he was moved to another borstal at Hull. During his time in borstal he trained as a bookkeeper, and upon his release he returned to Manchester, where he took a labourer's job at a brewery. Six months later he was made redundant, but subsequently obtained a clerical job at Millwards Merchandising,[77] a chemical distribution company on the outskirts of Manchester.[30]

Hindley

Main article: Myra Hindley

Hindley (born 23 July 1942)[78] was brought up in Gorton, then a tough, working class area of Manchester, the daughter of Nellie and Bob Hindley. Her mother and alcoholic father beat her regularly as a young child. The small house the family lived in was in such poor condition that Hindley and her parents had to sleep in the only available bedroom, she in a single bed next to her parents' double. The family's living conditions deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in 1946. Shortly after the birth Hindley, then aged five, was sent by her parents to live with her grandmother, who lived nearby.[79]

Hindley's father had fought in North Africa, Cyprus, and Italy during the Second World War, and had served with the Parachute Regiment.[80] He had been known in the army as a "hard man" and he expected his daughter to be equally tough; he taught her how to fight, and insisted that she "stick up for herself". When Hindley was aged 8, a local boy approached her in the street and scratched both of her cheeks with his fingernails, drawing blood. She burst into tears and ran into her parents' house, to be met by her father who demanded that she "Go and punch him [the boy], because if you don't I'll leather you!" Hindley found the boy and succeeded in knocking him down with a sequence of punches, as her father had taught her. As she wrote later, "at eight years old I'd scored my first victory".[81]

Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has suggested that the fight, and the role that Hindley's father played in it, may be "key pieces of evidence" in trying to understand Hindley's role in the Moors murders:

The relationship with her father brutalized her [...] She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. When this happens at a young age it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life.[82]

One of her closest friends was 13-year old Michael Higgins, who lived in a nearby street. In June 1957 he invited her to go swimming with friends at a local disused reservoir. A good swimmer, Hindley chose not to go and instead went out with a friend, Pat Jepson. Higgins drowned in the reservoir, and upon learning of his fate Hindley was deeply upset, and blamed herself for his death. She collected for a funeral wreath, and his funeral at St Francis' Monastery in Gorton Lane had a lasting effect on her.[83] She had been drawn to the Catholic church since she started at Ryder Brow, but began taking instructions soon after Higgins' funeral. She was given a new name, Veronica, and her first communion was in November 1958. She was also made a godmother to Michael's nephew, Anthony John.[84][85] It was also at about this time that Hindley first began bleaching her hair.[86]

Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. She ran errands, made tea, and typed. She was well liked at the firm, enough so that when she lost her first week's wage packet, the other girls had a collection to replace it.[87] She had a short relationship with Ronnie Sinclair from Christmas 1958, and became engaged aged 17. The engagement was however called off several months later; Hindley apparently thought Sinclair immature, and unable to provide her the life she envisioned for herself. She had also recently been made redundant, and later travelled to London, looking for work.[88]

Shortly after her 17th birthday she died her hair pink. She took judo lessons once a week at a local school, but found partners reluctant to train with her, as she was often slow to release her grip. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe in Gorton, but was sacked for absenteeism 6 months later. It was then that she took a job at Millwards Merchandising in Levenshulme Road.[89]

As a couple

In the two years before Hindley joined Millwards, Brady was regarded as a quiet, punctual, but short-tempered young man. He read books like Teach Yourself German, and also Mein Kampf, along with other books regarding Nazi atrocities. He was a member of the library at Longsight (where he now lived with his family), and rode a Tiger Cub motorcycle which he used to visit the Pennines.[90] Brady was fascinated by the Nazis and the writings of the Marquis de Sade.[30]

In 1961, the 18-year-old Myra Hindley joined Millwards Merchandising as a typist. There she met Brady, who was employed as a store clerk,[30] and soon became infatuated with him, despite learning that he had a criminal record.[91] Although Hindley had dates with other men, she started to keep a diary. Some of the entries detail her fascination with Brady, who she eventually spoke to for the first time on 27 July 1961.[92] Over the next few months she continued to make entries, and grew increasingly disillusioned with him, until 22 December when Brady asked her on a date to the cinema[93] where they watched a film about the Nuremberg Trials.[30] Their dates together followed an unchanging pattern; a trip to the cinema, usually to watch an adult film, and then back to Hindley's house to drink German wine.[94] Brady then gave her reading material, and the pair spent their work lunch breaks reading aloud to one another from accounts of Nazi atrocities. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, dying her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick.[30] Hindley expressed concern at some aspects of Brady's character; in a letter to a childhood friend she mentioned an incident where she had been drugged by Brady, but she also wrote of her obsession with him, and a few months later she asked her friend to destroy the letter.[95] "Within months", Hindley said, "he [Brady] had convinced me that there was no God at all".[96]

Hindley began to change her appearance further, wearing clothing considered risqué such as high boots, short skirts, and leather jackets. The two became less sociable to their work colleagues.[97] Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963,[98] and often spoke to her about a book called Compulsion, published in 1956. The book tells the story of two children from well-to-do families who attempt to carry out the perfect murder of a 12-year-old boy, and who escape the death penalty because of their age,[99] a fictionalised account of the Leopold and Loeb case of 1924.

Eighteen months after the pair had become lovers Hindley had also become Brady's accomplice in the first of a series of child murders, that of 16-year-old Pauline Reade.[91] During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she only took part because Brady had drugged her, was blackmailing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her, and had threatened to kill her younger sister, Maureen.[91]

During a television documentary series on female serial killers broadcast on ITV3 in 2008, Hindley's solicitor, Andrew McCooey, reported that she had said to him:

I ought to have been hanged. I deserved it. My crime was worse than Brady's because I enticed the children and they would never have entered the car without my role [...] I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady.[100]

Incarceration

Brady

Ashworth Hospital, where Ian Brady is incarcerated as of 2009

Brady spent 19 years in mainstream prisons before he was declared criminally insane in November 1985 and sent to the high-security Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital;[101] he has since made it clear that he never wants to be released.[102] The trial judge had recommended that his life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision. In 1982 Lord Chief Justice Lane said of Brady: "this is the case if ever there is to be one when a man should stay in prison till he dies".[103]

In contrast to the common belief that serial killers often continue with their crimes until they are caught, Brady claimed in 2005 that the Moors murders were "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964". By then, he went on to claim, he and Hindley had turned their attention to armed robbery, for which they had begun to prepare by acquiring guns and vehicles.[104]

As of 2009, Brady remains incarcerated in Ashworth. After he began a hunger strike in 1999 he was force fed, fell ill, and was transferred to another hospital for tests. He eventually recovered and considered suing the hospitals for force-feeding him. In early 2006, prison authorities intercepted a package addressed to Brady from a female friend, containing 50 paracetamol pills hidden inside a hollowed out crime novel.[105]

Hindley

Brady and Hindley remained in contact by letter until 1971, shortly after Hindley had met and fallen in love with one of her prison officers, Patricia Cairns. Such a relationship was not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were gay, and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates".[106] Hindley's decision to break contact with Brady so impressed the prison governor, Dorothy Wing, that she decided to take Hindley with her on a walk round Hampstead Heath, part of her unofficial policy of reintroducing her charges to the outside world when she felt they were ready. The excursion caused a furore in the national press and an official rebuke from the then Home Secretary, Robert Carr.[106] With Cairns' assistance and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot.[107]

Hindley was told that she should spend 25 years in prison before being considered for parole. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased her tariff to 30 years.[103] By that time, Hindley claimed to be a reformed Roman Catholic. Ann West, the mother of Lesley Ann Downey, was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until West's death in February 1999 she gave regular television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured.[108]

In 1990, then Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley, after she confessed to having a greater involvement in the murders than she had previously admitted.[103] Hindley was not informed of the decision until 1994, when a Law Lords ruling obliged the Prison Service to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period they must serve in prison before being considered for parole.[109] In 1997 the Parole Board ruled that Hindley was low risk and should be moved to an open prison.[103] She rejected the idea and was moved to a medium security prison, however the House of Lords ruling left open the possibility of later freedom. Between December 1997 and March 2000 Hindley made three separate appeals against her life tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but each was rejected by the courts.[110][111]

When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released from prison.[112] Hindley's release seemed imminent and plans were made by supporters for her to be given a new identity.[113] Lord Longford, a devout Roman Catholic, campaigned to secure the release of "celebrated" criminals, and Myra Hindley in particular, which earned him constant derision from the public and the press. He described Hindley as a "delightful" person and said "you could loathe what people did but should not loathe what they were because human personality was sacred even though human behaviour was very often appalling".[114] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered Greater Manchester Police to find new charges against her, to prevent her release from prison. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken 15 years earlier a new trial would probably be considered an abuse of process.[115]

Aftermath

Looking down a grassy valley with a wooden bridge over a small stream in the foreground.
Part of Stalybridge Country Park, where Hindley's ashes were scattered in 2003

Hindley died as the result of a heart attack at the age of 60 on 15 November 2002.[43] Cameras "crowded the pavement" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the congregation of six who attended a short service at Cambridge crematorium, as they were living anonymously in Manchester under assumed names.[116] In February 2003 Hindley's ashes were scattered by a former lover, a woman she had met in prison,[117] less than 10 miles (16 km) from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park. Such was the strength of feeling more than 35 years after the murders that fears were expressed the news might result in visitors choosing to avoid the park, a local beauty spot, or even to the park being vandalised.[118]

Less than two weeks after Hindley's death, on 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and thus stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences.[119]

David Smith became "reviled by the people of Manchester", despite having been instrumental in bringing Brady and Hindley to justice. His home was vandalised and it was impossible for him to find employment. After knifing another man during a fight, in an attack he claimed was triggered by the abuse he had suffered since the trial, Smith was sentenced to three years in jail in 1969. While in prison his wife Maureen divorced him, and their three children were taken into care. Maureen died of a brain haemorrhage in 1977, and Smith moved to Lincolnshire in an attempt to rebuild his life.[120]

Manchester band The Smiths wrote and recorded a popular song commemorating the murders called "Suffer Little Children", released on their eponymously named album in 1984. The song caused a brief media controversy until the mother of one of the victims voiced her support for the band.[121]

The house in which Brady and Hindley lived on Wardle Brook Avenue, and where Edward Evans was murdered, was demolished by the local council, although tours continued to frequent the area.[122]

References

Notes
  1. ^ Hindley Hindley: I wish I'd been hanged, BBC News, 29 February 2000, retrieved 2009-08-11 {{citation}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Staff 2007, p. 7
  3. ^ Staff 2007, p. 294
  4. ^ Gibson & Wilcox 2006, p. 64
  5. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 90–92
  6. ^ Staff 2007, p. 170
  7. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 95–96
  8. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 101–105
  9. ^ a b Topping 1989, p. 34
  10. ^ a b Staff 2007, pp. 184–186
  11. ^ Staff 2007, p. 173
  12. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 183–184
  13. ^ a b c Ian Brady & Myra Hindley, murderuk.com, retrieved 2009-02-17
  14. ^ a b Staff 2007, p. 186
  15. ^ Gibson & Wilcox 2006, p. 67
  16. ^ Topping 1989, p. 121
  17. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 120–121
  18. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 193–194
  19. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 122–123
  20. ^ Topping 1989, p. 122
  21. ^ Topping 1989, p. 107
  22. ^ Topping 1989, p. 35
  23. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 35–36
  24. ^ Topping 1989, p. 33
  25. ^ "Two women at 'bodies on moors' trial cover their ears" (subscription required), The Times, no. 56616, Times Digital Archive, p. 9, 27 April 1966, retrieved 2009-08-11 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |column= ignored (help)
  26. ^ "Couple of Moors Murder Charge" (subscription required), The Times, no. 56459, Times Digital Archive, p. 8, 22 October 1965, retrieved 2009-08-11 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |column= ignored (help)
  27. ^ "Couple in Court Two Minutes" (subscription required), The Times, no. 56465, Times Digital Archive, p. 15, 29 October 1965, retrieved 2009-08-11 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |column= ignored (help)
  28. ^ Topping 1989, p. 37
  29. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 37–38
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Davenport-Hines, Richard, "Hindley, Myra (1942–2002)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (subscription required), retrieved 2009-07-05
  31. ^ Staff 2007, p. 222
  32. ^ Staff 2007, p. 225
  33. ^ Mr Godfrey Heilpern (Registration required), The Times, 1973-05-05, p. 14 {{citation}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |column= ignored (help)
  34. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  35. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 225–226
  36. ^ Topping 1989, p. 143
  37. ^ Topping 1989, p. 38
  38. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 227–228
  39. ^ a b c Topping 1989, p. 39
  40. ^ Staff 2007, p. 229
  41. ^ "Life sentences on couple in moors case" (subscription required), The Times, Times Digital Archive, 7 May 1966, retrieved 2009-07-29 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  42. ^ Carmichael 2003, p. 2
  43. ^ a b Obituary: Myra Hindley, BBC News, 15 November 2002, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  44. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 252
  45. ^ Topping 1989, p. 10
  46. ^ Topping 1989, p. 13
  47. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 260–261
  48. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 42–43
  49. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 262
  50. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 43–52
  51. ^ a b Ritchie 1988, pp. 264–265
  52. ^ Topping 1989, p. 55
  53. ^ a b c Ritchie 1988, p. 266
  54. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 72–75
  55. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 268
  56. ^ Topping 1989, p. 158
  57. ^ a b Ritchie 1988, p. 269
  58. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 160–164
  59. ^ a b Topping 1989, pp. 171–172
  60. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 270–274
  61. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 274
  62. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 276
  63. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 188–196
  64. ^ a b Ritchie 1988, p. 276
  65. ^ Topping 1989, p. 206
  66. ^ Topping 1989, p. 232
  67. ^ Topping 1989, p. 253
  68. ^ Topping 1989, p. 223
  69. ^ Staff 2007, p. 298
  70. ^ Topping 1989, p. 249
  71. ^ Moors body search is called off, BBC News, 1 July 2009, retrieved 2009-07-01 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  72. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 17–19
  73. ^ a b Furio 2001, pp. 67–68
  74. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 19–20
  75. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 20–21
  76. ^ Topping 1989, p. 24
  77. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 22–23
  78. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 2
  79. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 39–46
  80. ^ Staff 2007, p. 38
  81. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 49–50
  82. ^ Staff 2007, p. 50
  83. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 7
  84. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 11
  85. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 77–80
  86. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 9
  87. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 8
  88. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 12–13
  89. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 14
  90. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 23–25
  91. ^ a b c McVeigh, Karen (16 November 2002), "Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil", The Scotsman, retrieved 2009-02-17 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  92. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 27
  93. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 29
  94. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 31
  95. ^ Ritchie 1988, p. 32
  96. ^ Staff 2007, p. 141
  97. ^ Ritchie 1988, pp. 32–33
  98. ^ Topping 1989, p. 81
  99. ^ Topping 1989, p. 80
  100. ^ Edge, Simon (11 October 2008), "Evil of the Lady Killers" (subscription required), The Express, retrieved 20090-09-10 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  101. ^ Ian Brady: A fight to die, BBC News, 10 March 2000, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  102. ^ Ian Brady seeks public hearing, BBC News, 7 October 2002, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  103. ^ a b c d What will Hindley's lawyers argue?, BBC News, 7 December 1997, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  104. ^ Gould, Peter (27 October 2005), Brady claims murders 'had ended', BBC News, retrieved 2009-08-11 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  105. ^ Brady drugs smuggling bid foiled, BBC News, 28 January 2006, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  106. ^ a b Staff 2007, p. 250
  107. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 250–253
  108. ^ Last wish of Moors murder mother, BBC News, 11 February 1999, retrieved 2009-7-05 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  109. ^ "Timetable of Moors murders case", The Guardian, 15 November 2002, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  110. ^ Regina v. Secretary of State For The Home Department, Ex Parte Hindley, House of Lords, 30 March 2000, retrieved 2007-03-16 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  111. ^ 1966: Moors murderers jailed for life, BBC News, retrieved 2007-06-12
  112. ^ Killer challenges 'whole life' tariff, BBC News, 21 October 2002, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  113. ^ "Hindley could be freed 'in months'", Evening Standard, 10 September 2002 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  114. ^ Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader, BBC News, 3 August 2001, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  115. ^ Staff 2007, pp. 17–18
  116. ^ Staff 2007, p. 18
  117. ^ Staff 2007, p. 18
  118. ^ "Hindley 's ashes "scattered in park"" (subscription required), Manchester Evening News, 27 February 2003, retrieved 2009-08-08 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  119. ^ Raising killers' hopes of freedom, BBC News, 25 November 2002, retrieved 2007-06-12 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  120. ^ Topping 1989, pp. 64–65
  121. ^ Larkin, Colin (ed.), "Smiths", Encyclopedia of Popular Music (subscription required), Oxford Music Online, retrieved 2009-07-05 {{citation}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  122. ^ Bennett, David (16 November 2002), "A death that will go unmourned", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 2009-07-05 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
Bibliography

Further reading

  • Goodman, Jonathan (1986), The Moors Murders: The Trial of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, David & Charles, ISBN 0-7153-9064-3
  • Hansford Johnson, Pamela (1967), On Iniquity, Macmillan.
  • Harrison, Fred (1986), Brady and Hindley: The Genesis of the Moors Murders, Grafton, ISBN 0-906798-70-1
  • Potter, John Deane (1967), The Monsters Of The Moors, Ballantine Books
  • Robins, Joyce, Serial Killers and Mass Murderers: 100 Tales of Infamy, Barbarism and Horrible Crime, ISBN 1-85152-363-4. {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  • Boar, Roger; Blundell, Nigel (1988), The World's Most Infamous Murders, Mass Market Paperback, ISBN 0-425-10887-2
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