[145], At about the same time, Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. The victims were five childrenPauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evansaged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. [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". Keith Bennett [167], On 30 September 2022, Greater Manchester Police began a search for human remains on the moor after receiving information from amateur investigator and author Russell Edwards,[168][169] who had reportedly found a skull. Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. British criminal and perpetrator of the infamous "Moors murders". She worked as a clerk at an . Some individuals with deceased relatives have continued to search for their physical remains after the deaths of the murderers. Brady took their family name and became known as Ian Sloan. In July 1963, they claimed their first victim, Pauline Reade. [99] They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody. 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. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Reade and Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken fifteen years earlier, a new trial would probably be considered an abuse of process. Hindley, who had not replied to the first letter, responded by thanking Johnson for both letters, explaining that her decision not to reply to the first resulted from the negative publicity that surrounded it. In Brady's account, Hindley was not only present for the attack, but participated in the sexual assault. The BAFTA-winning actor was fresh from shooting a scene when he walked across a . Hindley and Brady murdered five children, aged between 10 and 17, in the Greater Manchester area between July 1963 and October 1965. [121], On 6 May, after having deliberated for a little over two hours,[123] the jury found Brady guilty of all three murders, and Hindley guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans. [91] Inside one of the cases wereamong an assortment of costumes, notes, photographs and negativesnine pornographic photographs taken of Downey, naked and with a scarf tied across her mouth, and a sixteen-minute audiotape recording of a girl identifying herself as "Lesley Ann Weston"[b] screaming, crying, and pleading to be allowed to return home to her mother. I deserved it. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."[22]. On the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1964, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a local fairground. [209] In February 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Brittan that his proposed minimum sentences of thirty years for Hindley and forty years for Brady were too short, saying, "I do not think that either of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. [150] Brady had been co-operating with the police for some time, and when this news reached him he made a formal confession to DCS Topping,[151] and in a statement to the press said that he too would help police in their search. [21] Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has written that Hindley's "relationship with her father brutalised her She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady. [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. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) reopened the investigation, now to be headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID). [16], Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942[17][18] to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester dominated by Victorian slum housing. [195], The mother of the remaining undiscovered victim, Keith Bennett, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 in which, she said, he claimed that he could take police to within 20 yards (18m) of her son's body but the authorities would not allow it. [176], The trial judge recommended that Brady's life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries agreed with that decision. Born on July 23, 1942, in Manchester, England, Hindley grew up with her grandmother. Hindley, along with her boyfriend Ian Brady . 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. 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. [186] Brady subsequently went on hunger strike, but while English law allows patients to refuse treatment, those being treated for mental disorders under the Mental Health Act 1983 have no such right if the treatment is for their mental disorder. Amidst strong media interest Lord Longford pleaded for her release, writing that continuing her detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Ian was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 2, 1938. [11], Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught with a sack full of lead seals he had stolen and was trying to smuggle out of the market. Myra Hindley was a serial killer of small children, murders she committed in partnership with boyfriend Ian Brady. [119] Brady admitted to striking Evans with the axe, but claimed that someone else had killed Evans, pointing to the pathologist's statement that his death had been "accelerated by strangulation"; Brady's "calm, undisguised arrogance did not endear him to the jury [and] neither did his pedantry", wrote Duncan Staff. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed, he was moved to the much tougher unit in Hull. [98] That same day, already being held for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrates' Court charged with Downey's murder. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. What they were doing was out of the scope of most people's understanding, beyond the comprehension of the workaday neighbours who were more interested in how they were going to pay the gas bill or what might happen in the next episode of Coronation Street or Doctor Who. [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]. 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. She was the first child of Bob Hindley and his wife, Hettie. [135] Home Secretary Douglas Hurd agreed with DCS Topping that a visit would be worth risking despite security problems presented by threats against Hindley. [256] In October 2018 her remains were re-buried at her grave in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester. Hindley drove to a lay-by on Saddleworth Moor and Brady went off with Bennett, supposedly looking for a lost glove. [136] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. Brady and Hindley became friendly with Patricia Hodges, an 11-year-old girl who lived at 12Wardle Brook Avenue. BBC reports on death of Moors Murderer Ian Brady The serial killer - who died of lung disease aged 79 on Monday - murdered at least five children with partner in crime Hindley. Their living situation deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946, and the following year five-year-old Myra was sent to live nearby with her grandmother. Their home was vandalised, they regularly received hate mail, and Maureen wrote that she could not let her children out of her sight when they were small. Myra and Ian tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965 and the series shines a light on some of the never-previously-seen prison letters between the killers. Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942 [17] [18] to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester dominated by Victorian slum housing. Smith then went to the police with his story, including Brady having mentioned that more bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor. [228][229] The Manchester Evening News reported on possible fears that this would result in visitors choosing to avoid or vandalise the park. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley admitted that her attitude towards Downey was "brusque and cruel", but claimed that was only because she was afraid that someone might hear Downey screaming. 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. Hindley had difficulty connecting what she saw to her memories, and was apparently nervous of the helicopters flying overhead. Best Known For: Myra Hindley was a serial killer of small children, murders she committed in partnership with boyfriend Ian Brady. Despite dating other people, Brady was always the man she wanted to be with, so the fascination was incredible. [257], The photographs and tape recording of the torture of Downey exhibited in court, and the nonchalant responses of Brady and Hindley, helped to ensure their lasting notoriety. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans. By then, he claimed, he and Hindley had turned their attention to armed robbery, for which they had begun to prepare by acquiring guns and vehicles. 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. [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. [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. They were convicted of three murders in 1966, and confessed to two further. [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". [207] With help from Cairns, 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. 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",[76] and left him in the kitchen saying that he was going to collect the wine. I don't think anything could hurt me more than this has. 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. Following the first . 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. None of Maureen's relatives attended. In 1970, Hindley severed all contact with Brady and, still professing her innocence, began a lifelong campaign to regain her freedom. When Myra was young, her father beat her up regularly, but he also trained her how to battle. 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. [29] She soon became infatuated with Brady, despite learning that he had a criminal record. In private documents handed over hours before her death, Hindley describes violent. [246][247], In 1977, a BBC television debate discussed arguments for and against Hindley's release, with Lord Longford, a Catholic convert, on the side who argued that she should be released, and Downey's mother arguing against her release and threatening to kill her were the release to occur. [48], By June 1963, Brady had moved in with Hindley at her grandmother's house in Bannock Street, and on 12 July, the two murdered their first victim, Pauline Reade, who had attended school with Hindley's younger sister Maureen, and had also been in a short relationship with David Smith, a local boy with three criminal convictions for minor crimes. [110] The Attorney General, Sir Elwyn Jones, led the prosecution, assisted by William Mars-Jones. Various authors have stated that he tortured animals, although Brady objected to such accusations. Almost 20 years after being sent to prison, he confessed to killing two more. [39] They also read works by the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche[39] and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. [134] She showed particular interest in photos of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said that it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the moor. Brady was an unusual person with a criminal background, which she was aware of. [220] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered the GMP to find new charges against Hindley to prevent her release from prison. She, along with her partner Ian Brady, killed five children burying them on the Manchester Mo [238] Downey's mother died in 1999 from cancer of the liver. On 26th December 1964, another child, Lesley Ann Downey, ten years of age, went missing from the local fair and was never found. [245] Smith died from cancer in Ireland in 2012. [198], After receiving end-of-life care, Brady died of restrictive pulmonary disease at Ashworth Hospital on 15 May 2017;[199] the inquest found that he died of natural causes and that his hunger strike had not been a contributory factor. Hindley, 60 . In total, Brady and Hindley murdered five children. In 1987, Hindley again became the center of media attention, with the public release of her full confession, in which she admitted her involvement in all five murders. Brady was diagnosed as a psychopath in 1985 and confined in the high-security Ashworth Hospital. In partnership with Ian Brady, she committed the rapes and murders of five small children. Myra Hindley did not have a child at the time. He arrived home around 3:00a.m. and asked his wife to make a cup of tea, which he drank before vomiting and telling her what he had witnessed. [178], Although Brady refused to work with Ashworth's psychiatrists, he occasionally corresponded with people outside the hospitalsubject to prison authorities' censorship[179] including Lord Longford, writer Colin Wilson, and various journalists. 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. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the time, would have been considered explicit. Brady read books, including Teach Yourself German and Mein Kampf, as well as works on Nazi atrocities. Even Hindley's mother insisted that she should die in prison, partly for fear for Hindley's safety. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [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. He was sent to Strangeways for three months. 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". Please, Miss Hindley, help me. [15], In January 1959, Brady applied for, and was offered, a clerical job at Millwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton. The case featured in two television dramas in 2006, See No Evil: The Moors Murders and Longford. [87] Over the next four days Hindley visited her employer and asked to be dismissed so that she would be eligible for unemployment benefits. I heard the blow, it was a terrible hard blow, it sounded horrible. Their next victim, John Kilbride, was killed on 23 November. Brady already owned a Box Brownie, which he used to take photographs of Hindley and her dog, Puppet, but he upgraded to a more sophisticated model, and also purchased lights and darkroom equipment. The four victims had . Brady made more than one copy of the tape recording; a reproduction composed of children's handprints, "Beware the cat killers: A revolution in tackling domestic violence has begun", "Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil", "Coroner commends police after Moors verdict", "Stepfather of Moors Murder Victim Lesley Ann Downey Dies", "Two women at "bodies on moors" trial cover their ears", "Prosecution tells how a youth of 17 died", "How The Chester Chronicle covered the infamous Moors Murders trial", "How Chester was the focus of the nation during Moors Murderers trial Pt1", "How The Chester Chronicle covered the infamous Moors Murders trial Pt2", "Boy tricked into seeing murder, moors trial Q.C. [159][160] Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. The victims were children between the ages of 10 and 17, boys and girls. Hindley and Brady were brought to trial on April 27, 1966, where they pleaded not guilty to the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride. [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 May 1966 Brady, then 28, was convicted, along with lover Myra Hindley, of murdering 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey and 17-year-old Edward Evans. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images, Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Myra Hindley, Birth Year: 1942, Birth date: July 23, 1942, Birth City: Manchester, Birth Country: England. [143] He added that he "was struck by the fact that [in Hindley's telling] she was never there when the killings took place. [35] Brady was taken to HM Prison Durham and Hindley was sent to HM Prison Holloway. While her older sister, Myra, moved next door with their grandma, Ellen Maybury. Ian Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley sexually tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965. Ian Brady was a Scottish serial killer who murdered multiple children with his girlfriend, Myra Hindley. [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. [56] Despite a huge search, she was not found. [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. . Yet on December 30, 1964,. [213] Then Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley in July 1990, after she confessed to having been more involved in the murders than she had admitted. The prosecution's opening statement was held in camera rather than in open court,[103] and the defence asked for a similar stipulation but was refused. [201] He was cremated without a ceremony, and his ashes disposed of at sea during the night. [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. [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. Her subsequent applications for parole were denied. [194] In 2006 officials intercepted 50paracetamol pills hidden inside a hollowed-out crime novel sent to Brady by a female friend. [187] He was therefore force-fed and transferred to another hospital for tests after he fell ill.[188] Brady recovered and in March 2000 asked for a judicial review of the legality of the decision to force-feed him, but was refused permission. Ian Brady was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, as Ian Duncan Stewart on 2 January 1938 to Margaret "Peggy" Stewart, an unmarried tea room waitress. With his girlfriend Myra Hindley, Ian Brady kidnapped, tortured, and murdered five children one as young as 10 in a series of notorious slayings known as the Moors Murders. In 1961, she met Ian Brady, a stock clerk who was recently released from prison. Once presented with some of the details that Hindley had provided of Reade's abduction, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess, but on one condition: that immediately afterwards he be given the means to commit suicide, a request with which it was impossible for the authorities to comply. Brady was found guilty of the murders of Downey, Kilbride and Evans, while Hindley was found guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans, and for harboring Brady, in the knowledge that he had killed Kilbride. As a child, she lived with Nellie Hindley in a little two-up, two-down semi-detached house. [51], Hindley's sister, Maureen, married David Smith on 15 August 1964. The phrase "Hindley wakes and Hindley says; Hindley wakes, Hindley wakes . [154] Brady was taken to the moor a second time on 8 December, and claimed to have located Bennett's burial site,[155][156] but the body was never found. [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". [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. [137], On 16 December 1986, Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of the moor. Bob served in a parachute regiment during World War II so was absent for the majority of the first three years of Hindley's life. 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. Her father was an alcoholic who was frequently violent towards his wife and children. [82], Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Stalybridge police division went to Wardle Brook Avenue, accompanied by a detective sergeant. Hindley returned with Smith and told him to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. [28], In January 1961, the 18-year-old Hindley joined Millwards as a typist. Brady was in the back of the van. They approached her and deliberately dropped some shopping they were carrying, then asked her for help in taking the packages to their car, and then to Wardle Brook Avenue. She fell in love with him and soon gave herself over to his total control. [19], Hindley's father had served with the Parachute Regiment and was stationed in North Africa, Cyprus and Italy during the Second World War. (1942-2002) Who Was Myra Hindley? On one of these occasions, she found an envelope belonging to Brady which she burned in an ashtray; she claimed she did not open it but believed it contained plans for bank robberies. see those alluring lights"). [35] The dock was fitted with bullet proof glass to protect Brady and Hindley because it was feared that someone might try and kill them. [144], Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.[59][60]. He complained bitterly about conditions at Ashworth, which he hated. [115] During the trial, the judge and defence barristers repeatedly questioned Smith and his wife about the nature of the arrangement. Now a new . She was found guilty of three murders and was jailed for life. For two harrowing years, Scottish serial killer Ian Brady terrorized Manchester, England with a string of grisly murders. [223] She had been diagnosed with angina in 1999 and hospitalised after suffering a brain aneurysm. Hindley was apparently jealous of their friendship, but became closer to her sister. Jones decided not to charge the News of the World on similar grounds. Few outside the art world remember the name Marcus Harvey, but many recall his portrait of serial child killer Myra Hindley composed of children's handprints. [151], Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett, the Director 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. He was taken to the moor on 3 July but seemed to lose his bearings, blaming changes in the intervening years; 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. [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. Characterised by the press as "the most evil woman in Britain",[1] Hindley made several appeals against her life sentence, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but was never released. Myra Hindley was born on the 23rd of July, 1942. 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. Bookmark. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick. According to Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide". Hindley later claimed that she waited in the van while Brady took Reade onto the moor. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. [106] Hindley wrote to her mother: I feel as though my heart's been torn to pieces. In 1982, the Lord Chief Justice Lord 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". The only consolation is that some moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him. [180] In one letter, written in 2005, Brady claimed that the murders were "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964". Hindley claimed that when Downey was being undressed she herself was "downstairs"; when the pornographic photographs were taken she was "looking out the window"; and that when Downey was being strangled she "was running a bath". The murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade were not attributed to Myra Hindley and Ian Brady until 1985, after "Suffer Little Children" had already been released. He made it clear that he never wished to be released and repeatedly asked to be allowed to die. One such victim was Stephen Jennings, a three-year-old West Yorkshire boy who was last seen alive in December 1962; his body was found buried in a field in 1988, but the following year his father, William Jennings, was found guilty of his murder.