The child had been earning some pocket money in the market, and was offered a lift home by Hindley. At first, Smith refused to name the newspaper, risking contempt of court; when he eventually identified the News of the World, Jones, as Attorney General, immediately promised an investigation. In private documents handed over hours before her death, Hindley describes violent. [50] Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December, apparently to make sure the burial sites at Saddleworth Moor had not been disturbed. The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. [166] In 2017, the police asked a court to order that two locked briefcases owned by Brady be opened, arguing that they might contain clues to the location of Bennett's body; the application was declined on the grounds that no prosecution was likely to result. [121], The sixteen-minute tape recording[97][c] of Downey, on which the voices of Brady and Hindley were audible, was played in open court. He rode a Tiger Cub motorcycle, which he used to visit the Pennines. [165] In 2012, it was claimed that Brady may have given details of the location of Bennett's body to a visitor; a woman was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful excuse, but a few months later the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there was insufficient evidence to press charges. "[133], Police visited Hindley then being held in HM Prison Cookham Wood in Kent a few days after she 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 to identify spots she had visited with Brady. ", "Book by Moors Murder witness David Smith recalls horror", "Man who helped jail Moors murderers dies of cancer", "Moors Murder mother Winnie Johnson in DVD appeal to Brady", "Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett, dies", "Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett's mother dies", "Police kept body parts of Moors murders victim without family's knowledge", "Moors Murders: Pauline Reade's remains reburied", "Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader", "Goreytelling Episode 5: The Loathsome Couple", "From Myra Hindley to Three Girls: Maxine Peake's life and career", "Rose West's life behind bars to feature in ITV documentary", The official Keith Bennett website (archived version), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moors_murders&oldid=1141405323, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 22:27. First victim Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a . [250] Bennett's mother continued to visit Saddleworth Moor, where it is believed that Bennett is buried. Ian was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 2, 1938. She ran errands, typed, made tea, and was well liked enough that when she lost her first week's wage packet, the other girls took up a collection to replace it. Hindley was apparently jealous of their friendship, but became closer to her sister. Myra Hindley, who became one of Britain's most hated women because of her involvement in a string of child killings in the 1960's, died today, the Prison Service said. see those alluring lights"). At some point Brady sent Hindley to fetch Smith, her brother-in-law. They drove to Brady and Hindley's home at Wardle Brook Avenue, where they relaxed over a bottle of wine. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at Sedgley Park, Prestwich, and visited the moor twice. Between 1963 and 1965, Myra Hindley and her lover Ian Brady lured four children Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, and Lesley Ann Downey into their car under the pretense of giving them a ride home. [200] Brady had refused food and fluids for more than forty-eight hours on various occasions, causing him to be fitted with a nasogastric tube, although his inquest noted that his body mass index was not a cause for concern. [88] Brady told police that he and Evans had fought, but insisted that he and Smith had murdered Evans and that Hindley had "only done what she had been told". [144], Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. [138] Police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, some armed. [224][225] Camera crews "stood rank and file behind steel barriers" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the small congregation of eight to ten people who attended a short service at Cambridge crematorium. 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. Moors Murderer Ian Brady refused to say what . She was in the car, over the brow of the hill, in the bathroom and even, in the case of the Evans murder, in the kitchen"; he felt he "had witnessed a great performance rather than a genuine confession". Brady was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and locked up in a Ashworth secure mental hospital, on Merseyside. She became a long-running source of material for the press, which printed embellished tales of her "cushy" life at the "5-star" Cookham Wood Prison and her liaisons with prison staff and other inmates. En route he suggested another detour, this time to search for a glove Hindley had lost on the moor. GMP apologised to the Reade family. On 26th December 1964, another child, Lesley Ann Downey, ten years of age, went missing from the local fair and was never found. Hindley was furious, and accused the police of murdering the dog one of the few occasions detectives witnessed any emotional response from her. Some individuals with deceased relatives have continued to search for their physical remains after the deaths of the murderers. Finally, in October 1965, police were alerted to the duo by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith. Each was brought before the court separately and remanded into custody for a week. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were 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". [237] Sheila and Patrick Kilbride, who were by then divorced,[238] attended Maureen's funeral thinking that Hindley might be there; Patrick mistook Bill Scott's daughter from a previous relationship for Hindley and tried to attack her. Brady's application was rejected and the judge stated that he "continues to suffer from a mental disorder which is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for him to continue to receive medical treatment". [101], Presented with the evidence of the tape recording, Brady admitted to taking the photographs of Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. BURY ST EDMUNDS, England -- Moors murderer Myra Hindley spent more than half her life in prison for crimes which shocked Britain and made her a national hate figure. Smith then went to the police with his story, including Brady having mentioned that more bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. Deciding to "better himself", he obtained a set of instruction manuals on book-keeping from a local public library, with which he "astonished" his parents by studying alone in his room for hours. Hindley and Brady were brought to trial on April 27, 1966, where they pleaded not guilty to the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride. He left the academy aged 15 and took a job as a tea boy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. Smith later told the police: I waited about a minute or two then suddenly I heard a hell of a scream; it sounded like a woman, really high-pitched. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans. None of Maureen's relatives attended. At the house Downey was undressed, gagged, and forcibly posed for photographs before being raped and killed, perhaps strangled with a piece of string. He was picked up by a police car from the phone box and taken to Hyde police station, where he told officers what he had witnessed in the night. [158] Police, failing to discover any unsolved crimes matching the details that he supplied, decided that there was insufficient evidence to launch an official investigation. In July 1963, they claimed their first victim, Pauline Reade. [217][218], 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. [152], DCS Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moor[151] before police called off their search on 24 August. She also asked to join a pistol club, but she was a poor shot and allegedly often bad-tempered, so Clitheroe told her that she was unsuitable; she did though manage to purchase a Webley .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 from other members of the club. [147] Hindley confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their searchHollin Brown Knoll and Hoe Grainwere correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves. [267][268], According to the 2020 television documentary Rose West & Myra Hindley: Their Untold Story with Trevor McDonald, Hindley and another British serial murderer, Rosemary West, "grew close in jail, bonding over their similar crimes, then had an affair, which cooled as they became rivals to be 'prison royalty.'"[269]. )[33] Their dates followed a regular pattern: a trip to the cinema, usually to watch an X-rated film, then back to Hindley's house to drink German wine. Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, tortured and murdered five children, aged 10 to 17, between July 1963 and October 1965, burying some of their victims' bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. [231] That same year his children were taken into the care of the local authority. [5] Aged 9, he 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. [100], The investigating officers suspected Brady and Hindley of murdering other missing children and teenagers who had disappeared from areas in and around Manchester over the previous few years, and the search for bodies continued after the discovery of Kilbride's body, but with winter setting in it was called off in November. [189], In 2001, Brady wrote The Gates of Janus, which was published by the US underground publisher Feral House. Please, Miss Hindley, help me. [26] At 17, she became engaged after a short courtship, but called it off several months later after deciding the young man was immature and unable to provide her with the life she wanted. When Brady arrived on his motorcycle, Hindley told Reade he would be helping in the search. She fell in love with him and soon gave herself over to his total control. [35][40][a] Although Hindley was not a qualified driver (she passed her test on 7 November 1963 after failing three times),[43] she often hired a van, in which the couple planned bank robberies. [102] At the committal hearing on 6 December, Brady was charged with the murders of Evans, Kilbride, and Downey, and Hindley with the murders of Evans and Downey, as well as with harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had killed Kilbride. Here John had been sexually assaulted and strangled, before being buried in the moors. [143] He added that he "was struck by the fact that [in Hindley's telling] she was never there when the killings took place. [171] On 1 October the police reported that no further remains had been found. [109], Brady and Hindley were charged with murdering Evans, Downey and Kilbride. Hindley led him into the living room, where Brady was lying on a divan, writing to his employer about his ankle injury. Murders in and around Manchester, England, "The Moors Murderers" redirects here. [30] Hindley began a diary and, although she had dates with other men, some of the entries detail her fascination with Brady, to whom she eventually spoke for the first time on 27 July. [95], Officers making inquiries at neighbouring houses spoke to 12-year-old Patricia Hodges, who had on several occasions been taken to Saddleworth Moor by Brady and Hindley, and was able to point out their favourite sites along the A635 road. [35] Brady was defended by Emlyn Hooson QC, the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP),[111] and Hindley was defended by Godfrey Heilpern QC, recorder of Salford from 1964; both were experienced Queen's Counsel. When police returned to the living room they arrested Brady on suspicion of murder. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and Hindley was given two, plus a concurrent seven-year term for harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had murdered Kilbride. Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963,[47] and often spoke to her about Meyer Levin's Compulsion, published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the cinema in 1959. On the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1964, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a local fairground. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder. Hindley stayed with Reade while Brady retrieved a spade he had hidden nearby on a previous visit, then returned to the van while Brady buried Reade. [27] Hindley took weekly judo lessons at a local school, but found partners reluctant to train with her, as she was often slow to release her grip. Some commentators expressed the view that of the two, Hindley was the "more evil". [173], Following his conviction Brady was moved to HM Prison Durham, where he asked to live in solitary confinement. [124] Throughout the trial Brady and Hindley "stuck rigidly to their strategy of lying",[125] and Hindley was later described as "a quiet, controlled, impassive witness who lied remorselessly". Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered. The bodies of two of the victims were discovered in 1965, in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. [44] Brady and Hindley's plans for robbery came to nothing, but they became interested in photography. [220] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered the GMP to find new charges against Hindley to prevent her release from prison. Almost 20 years after being sent to prison, he confessed to killing two more. When police asked for the key to the locked spare bedroom, she said it was at her workplace; but after police offered to take her to retrieve it, Brady told her to hand it over. It would never have been possible to carry out such a search in private. [82], Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Stalybridge police division went to Wardle Brook Avenue, accompanied by a detective sergeant. On 11 October, she too was arrested and taken into custody, being charged as an accessory to the murder of Evans and was remanded at HM Prison Risley. [d][182], During several years of interactions with forensic psychologist Chris Cowley, including face-to-face meetings,[183] Brady told him of an "aesthetic fascination [he had] with guns",[184] despite his never having used one to kill. [206] Hindley successfully petitioned to have her status as a Category A prisoner changed to Category B, which enabled Governor Dorothy Wing to take 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. Myra Hindley and Rose West became two of the most despised and feared women in Britain when their secret lives as serial killers were exposed. On the evening of 6 October 1965, Hindley drove Brady to Manchester Central railway station, where she waited outside in the car whilst he selected a victim. [53] The couple never harmed Hodges, since she lived only a few doors away, which would have made it easy for police to solve any disappearance. [132] It ended: "I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. The lad was still screaming Ian had a hatchet in his hand he was holding it above his head and he hit the lad on the left side of his head with the hatchet. [7] Brady was accepted for Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils. Myra is a large painting which is a reproduction of the mugshot of Myra Hindley shortly after she was arrested for her participation in the Moors murders and was created by Marcus Harvey in 1995. There were always suspicions there may have been more. To help date the photos, detectives had a veterinary surgeon examine the dog to determine his age; the examination required a general anaesthetic from which Puppet did not recover. Brady later claimed that he had picked up Evans for a sexual encounter. [34] Brady then gave her reading material and the pair spent their work lunch breaks reading aloud to one another from accounts of Nazi atrocities. [14] Released on 14 November 1957, Brady returned to Manchester, where he took a labouring job which he hated, and was dismissed from another job in a brewery. [38] The couple were regulars at the library, borrowing books on philosophy, as well as crime and torture. [185] In 1999, his right wrist was broken in what he claimed was an "hour-long, unprovoked attack" by staff. [71], Early in the evening of 16 June 1964, Hindley asked twelve-year-old Keith Bennett, who was on his way to his grandmother's house in Longsight,[72] for help in loading some boxes into her Mini Pick-up, after which she said she would drive him home. [20] He had been known as a hard man while in the army and he expected his daughter to be equally tough; he taught her to fight and insisted that she stick up for herself. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. Many of the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley on the moor featured Hindley's dog Puppet, sometimes as a puppy. [115] During the trial, the judge and defence barristers repeatedly questioned Smith and his wife about the nature of the arrangement. [121], In his closing remarks, Atkinson described the murders as "truly horrible" and the accused as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity";[3] he recommended they spend "a very long time" in prison before being considered for parole, but did not stipulate a tariff. I have had enough. [58] On Hindley's 23rd birthday, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. She died of respiratory failure on November 16, 2002. [159][160] Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings. She was known for being a Criminal. The 14-year-old girl had suffered a turbulent childhood. [6] It was reported, for example, that Brady boasted of killing his first cat when he was aged just 10, and then went on to burn another cat alive, stone dogs and cut off rabbits' heads. [245] Smith died from cancer in Ireland in 2012. Then the screams carried on, one after another really loud. She was never released and died in prison in 2002. She divorced Smith in 1973,[235] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. [142] The tape recording of her statement was over seventeen hours long; Topping described it as a "very well worked out performance in which, I believe, she told me just as much as she wanted me to know, and no more". [79], Smith then watched Brady throttle Evans with a length of electrical cord. Child killer Myra Hindley accused fellow Moors Murderer Ian Brady of drugging, raping and beating her. Bookmark. Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law tipped off the police about her crimes. In November 1986, Bennett's mother wrote to Hindley begging to know what had happened to her son, a letter that Hindley seemed to be "genuinely moved" by. On 21 October they found the "badly decomposed" body of Kilbride, which had to be identified by clothing. [128] Jennifer Tighe, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from an Oldham children's home in December 1964, was mentioned in the press some forty years later but was confirmed by police to be alive. [177] The November 2007 death of John Straffen, who had spent 55 years in prison for murdering three children, meant that Brady became the longest-serving prisoner in England and Wales. British criminal and perpetrator of the infamous "Moors murders". It was displayed at the Sensation exhibition of Young British Artists at the Royal Academy of Art in London from 8 September to 28 December 1997. says", "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", "Ian Brady resumes search for boy's grave", "1987: Moors murderer claims more killings", "Police call off search for Moors murder victim", "Spy satellite used in fresh bid to reveal Moors Murderers final secret", "Moors Murders: Donations fund search for Keith Bennett", "Ian Brady's mental health advocate will not face charges", "Moors Murders: 'Unlock Ian Brady's briefcases' plea", "Police to begin dig for Moors murder victim 58 years after he went missing", "Moors Murders: Search for Keith Bennett's body restarts", "Police dig for Moors victim Keith Bennett after skull reportedly found", "Moors Murders: No remains yet found in search for Keith Bennett", "Search ends for Moors murder victim Keith Bennett after no remains found", "UK's longest-serving prisoner, Straffen, dies", "Force feeding of Ian Brady declared lawful", "Ian Brady will not necessarily kill himself if moved to jail, tribunal hears", "Ian Brady should stay in psychiatric hospital, tribunal rules", "Ian Brady's ashes "not to be scattered at Saddleworth Moor", "Ian Brady: Moors Murderer "would remove feeding tube", "Moors Murderer Ian Brady died of natural causes, coroner confirms", "Moors Murders: Judge rules on Ian Brady body disposal", "Moors Murders: Ian Brady's ashes disposed of at sea", "Thatcher overruled minister to keep Moors murderers locked up for life", "Ian Brady: How the Moors Murderer came to symbolise pure evil", "Howard considers moving Hindley to open prison", "Regina v. Secretary of State For The Home Department, Ex Parte Hindley", "Myra Hindley, the Moors monster, dies after 36 years in jail", "I have no compassion for her. Even on her death bed, Hindley refused to give . Brady was in the back of the van. Brady took their family name and became known as Ian Sloan. Brady met Myra in the mid-1960s, and she immediately developed passionate feelings for him. She worked as a clerk at an . Childkiller Myra Hindley was a b*tch and I slapped her for singing, says 'Black Widow' Keith Bennett, 12, was on his way to his grandmother's house on June 16, 1964, when Hindley enticed him. In 1980, Maureen suffered a brain haemorrhage; Hindley was allowed to visit her in hospital, but arrived an hour after her death. [162] In mid-2009, the GMP said they had exhausted all avenues in the search for Bennett, that "only a major scientific breakthrough or fresh evidence would see the hunt for his body restart";[163] and that any further participation by Brady would be via a "walk through the moors virtually" using 3D modelling, rather than a visit by him to the moor. For two harrowing years, Scottish serial killer Ian Brady terrorized Manchester, England with a string of grisly murders. The BAFTA-winning actor was fresh from shooting a scene when he walked across a . 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. View this post on Instagram A post shared by I Could Murder A Podcast (@couldmurderapod) Maureen managed to repair the relationship with her mother, and moved into a council property in Gorton. [57] By February 1965, Hodges had stopped visiting Wardle Brook Avenue, but Smith was still a regular visitor. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin. [170] After seeing a photograph of a jaw bone, a spokesperson for the police said, of the identity of the remains, that it was "far too early to be certain". [187][189], Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were another ruthless predator couple who preyed on the weakest - children. [256] In October 2018 her remains were re-buried at her grave in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester. Following the first . Wearing a bread deliveryman's overall on top of his uniform, he asked Hindley at the back door if her husband was home. [221], On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences. The show was picketed by the. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."[22].