True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, their evil crimes took place in the 1960s, both are now deceased but the evil legacy lives on because their story will forever remain a horrendous scar on British history due to what they carried out, who they were and the endless questions that remained unanswered when they both died. They took their evil secrets to the grave and the location of the remains of one of their innocent, young victims remains a mystery to this day. A beautiful location named Saddleworth Moor was turned from a peaceful, stunning beauty spot into a place of hell, a place of darkness where they created their own sickening graveyard and it is a place that is still home to the remains of 12 year old Keith Bennett. Keith is somewhere on that moor and he is the only known victim who's remains were never found. Time is not a healer for Keith's family and time will never make any of us forget this case and nor should it. I'm going to delve into this dark part of history that still remains part of our collective consciousness today. You can't talk about infamous true crime cases without mentioning Brady and Hindley, known as 'The Moors Murderers'. 

I've spoken about them briefly here on my blog previously but I will be focusing on them more in this third instalment. I will be sharing some truly disturbing details so please keep that in mind before continuing to read further. It is a harrowing case and one that, as I just mentioned, stirs up anger in those of us who care about children and human decency in general. It's also a case that strikes up much debate, just how involved was Hindley? why did she have 'supporters'?, Who was the leader and who was the follower? Were they both just at the same level of wickedness?. Whatever your thoughts are it is a case that divides on opinion. I will be sharing my thoughts a little bit later on, relating to this, in the post. 

The Moors Murders were before my time but I always heard about it growing up, there would be articles in the newspapers or reports, documentaries on TV about Brady and Hindley and I would see how members of my family would react as soon as they saw their faces on the screen or on the pages of the newspapers. Unfortunately, Ian Brady was Scottish so when I lived back home in Scotland, we'd hear and read about him a lot. Even though none of us were related to him or knew him personally, there was this sense of shame, embarrassment and anger that he had been from my country of birth. Scotland is often known as a beautiful, scenic and friendly place with warm people. It's like a lot of countries, it has it's good things about it and it's bad things but to know that someone so sick and evil could come from the place that you treasure so dearly, just makes one uncomfortable. I feel uncomfortable writing this and the fact that he was Scottish (It wouldn't have mattered where he came from, he wasn't human in my opinion, he was a monster and he still did those horrible things) it just makes you feel very strange and I'm sure you understand what I mean. 

Dipping into their childhood's briefly, I'll start with Ian, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland on the 2nd of January 1938 and spent his early years being brought up by a foster family in a notoriously rough part of Glasgow known as the Gorbals. The Sloane family stepped in to look after Ian after his mother (who was a single parent at the time and Ian never met his real father who reportedly died before he was born) was struggling to cope. There was no bad feeling when Ian moved into the Sloane household, they took amazing care of him, treated him like one of their own and his mother kept in contact and visited him from time to time. If he ever needed anything, books, shoes, school stuff etc, either the Sloane family or his mother took care of it. 

Whether it was the area he was brought up in or just his natural behaviour, Ian became a handful and a rather difficult child prone to moodswings and causing sheer chaos. Even though the Sloane family always did their best to make Ian feel included, as he grew a bit older, he was becoming more unsociable and very much a loner. His attitude towards people was negative and he had quite a high opinion of himself like he was far more intelligent that the kids around the neighbourhood. 

At school he was quite intelligent but had a difficult time joining in with the other kids. He did pass his exams but was not interested in anything or anyone. Nobody really knew what to make of him and pretty much left him to his own devices which saw him playing truant and smoking cigarettes. He seemed to be a boy who had a lot of intelligence and potential but for some reason there was this self destructive streak in him, he became bored easily and just threw his chances of growing and developing more academically out of the window. 

Ian's behaviour was soon spiralling out of control, he got a reputation for being a bully towards the younger children and would indulge in theft, breaking into people's houses and stealing valuable items. He also reportedly tortured animals but this is up for debate. Various sources will claim he did torture animals and others will claim that he didn't. Ian himself claimed that he never harmed an animal, saying he preferred them to humans. He and Myra both claimed to be animal lovers. It wasn't long before Ian found himself attending court hearings for his behaviour and petty crime. He was out of control and nobody knew what to do with him. It was suggested that he move to Manchester, England for a fresh start with his mother (who had moved down some time before as she had begun a new relationship). 

Ian was only 17 at this point but became heavily obsessed with Germany and in particular the history of Nazi Germany. Being in Manchester with a different accent also made him feel self conscious so again he went into himself and struggled to be sociable. He did manage to get a job as a butcher's assistant and spent all of his free time reading books such as, Mein Kampf and works by Marquis De Sade and Friedrich Nietzsche. He resorted to crime again and found himself in a borstal school and had a spell in the infamous Strangeways prison. 

Whilst in prison he continued to indulge in his love of books and decided to study bookkeeping. His plans on his prison release was to put together a plan of robbing a bank and making money by other illegal ways. However, when he did walk out of prison, his days were pretty much spent on the dole (ie: unemployed, living on welfare). He finally pulled himself together after a spell of drifting from job to job and seemed to have finally settled at a company called Millwards as a stock clerk. He'd managed to actually hold down this job and although his colleagues found him to be a bit odd, aloof and unsociable, they were happy with his work performance. 

After being in the role for a couple of years he'd heard that the company were going to be taking on a new member of staff. Myra Hindley joined the company as a shorthand typist. She was instantly attracted to Ian the minute she saw him and told friends later that he reminded her a bit of James Dean and Elvis. If he was interested in Myra, he certainly didn't show it although he may have had an idea that she was keen on him. For 12 months she practically drooled after him. She had a diary in which she wrote about him constantly, she'd come into work with her makeup and hair done, wearing tighter outfits and even resorted to getting some boring books out of the library that she had saw him reading in an attempt to impress him. She tried to find out everything she could about him which was quite hard as Ian never gave anything away and was a very private person. She made note of his favourite authors and set about getting a particular book she overheard him talking about. She spent months trying to get him to notice her and talk to her and she went through a constant roller coaster of emotions just trying to get his attention. When she walked into work one morning with this particular book, Ian suddenly noticed and walked over to her. He asked her if the book was any good and grabbed it out of her hand and said that he would have to borrow it from her sometime. 

Myra was in heaven at this moment and used this as a starting point for trying to get closer to him. Eventually they went on a date and Myra's obsession with Ian grew and grew. 

Myra Hindley was born on the 23rd of July 1942 in Manchester, England. Much has been said about her childhood but it wasn't as bad as she and her supporters led others to believe. Whilst Myra was in prison talking about writing her own autobiography, her supporters encouraged her to write about anything negative from her childhood and 'big it up' to gain some sympathy and a hope that it would possibly help her case in regards to parole. Myra did live in an area that had seen better days but she was quite better off than some of the other kids in the neighbourhood. In the beginning, she lived with her parents and sister but her father was strict and there would be a lot of tense arguments in the household. Myra was lucky enough to be able to leave her house whenever she wanted to as her grandmother lived near by. So near that she could look out the window of her parent's house and see her grandmother's home. Myra was spoiled rotten by her grandmother, she would be often given cakes and hearty meals so she never did without. 

Throughout my research, I would find myself shaking my head at the number of people who'd become obsessed with Myra Hindley and her release. There seemed to be this group of upper class 'more money than sense' people who would visit her and claim that they had gotten to know the real her and that she had changed and been rehabilitated. It all screamed 'freak show vibes' to me too, where rich people would go to roadshows in the past and pay money to see what they deemed to be 'human freaks'. It was like they all just wanted to brag about the fact that they had become close with the individual who was deemed 'The Most Evil Woman In Britain'. Myra was also inundated with gifts, flowers (can you believe it?) and a never ending line of people who wanted to write her life story. It was like she was a celebrity. 

So, she had a very run of the mill childhood but a traumatic event did occur when a boy that she had become close friends with, had tragically drowned in an accident. Michael Higgins was a shy, quiet boy who was often picked on by the other kids in the neighbourhood. Myra would stand up for him and saw him as a little brother. The story of Myra and Michael is one that is often twisted and even to this day, people believe that she had something to do with his death. The actual truth is, is that Myra wasn't with Michael on this rare occasion (the pair were usually quite inseparable), he went swimming with some other boys. She was with some other friends when one of the boys told her there had been a terrible accident involving Michael. When Myra heard that Michael had passed away she was devastated and blamed herself. She believed that if she had been there she would have been able to look after him and save him. In this situation there was genuine remorse and feeling from Myra and her feelings of guilt about Michael never left her. She had a difficult time trying to come to terms with Michael's death and the overwhelming feeling of guilt that even his mother was concerned for Myra. Even years later right up until she died, Myra would talk about Michael, claim that she had seen him in visions and dreams. I could understand this being a very traumatic event but it still doesn't explain or excuse her actions years later. If anything you would think it would have made her more of an empathetic person having been through that sense of loss and seeing what Michael's mother went through. 

Myra followed the Catholic faith and left school at 15 with the focus on getting a job. Fast forward a few years and she starts working at Millwards where she meets Ian Brady. So they began dating and she was hanging on his every word. Ian didn't believe in God and when she told him about what happened with Michael he basically said that God allowed that to happen. He was able to get inside of her head and twist a few things. He started teaching her German and getting her to read books on Nazis. They would watch films together that Ian had chosen, they were all about Nazis and other sorts or rubbish and propaganda. I can imagine Myra finding these things boring as well as quite disturbing and ridiculous (as most of us would) but she lapped it all up. Ian had his own ideas and beliefs set in stone but Myra didn't come to him as an innocent young girl with no views of her own. Myra was known to be quite racist herself and would often sneer and make comments about people and this was even before Ian was on the scene. 

She was that obsessed that even when she wasn't with him she was thinking about him, writing about him and talking about him. Myra would later talk about her obsession with Ian as if it was something normal that all young girls go through and that we would all do the same thing. I beg to differ, you could be the most handsome man on earth but if you start preaching Nazi propaganda to me and have an unsavoury interest in children then I'm out of the door, quick as a flash. Myra Hindley and her supporters had an excuse for everything and would often downplay her role in the crimes but she was willing, she took part and in some cases led the situation. 

The bond between Ian Brady and Myra Hindley deepened, she would do absolutely anything for him and in her, he found the perfect slave and accomplice. He knew the power he had over her and he exploited it. he never really loved her although he would tell her so to keep her sweet and continue her devotion to him. I don't think Ian Brady was capable of loving anybody. 

When he had completely got her indoctrinated to his way of thinking (he basically groomed her to some extent) he felt it safe to share his sexual fantasies with her, confidently knowing that she was under his complete control and would not run off and expose him. He told her that he was sexually attracted to children and had fantasies of molesting and murdering them. Instead of being absolutely horrified, running out the door and calling the police, she stayed with him and shared these sick fantasies and the pair even came up with a plan about abducting a child and creating ''The perfect murder''. Myra would often accompany him as he would sit outside of schools taking pictures of school children. 

So both of them planned and carried out this sick fantasy and Myra was the one who would entice these poor children into the vehicle and lead them to their rape and deaths. Myra would be driving in front of Ian who was on his motorbike. If he saw a child that he wanted, he would flash the lights and Myra would stop and talk to the child. On the first occasion that they did this Ian wanted an 8 year old child but Myra persuaded him not to because she thought that it would cause too much publicity, she suggested a slightly older child. Ian saw a young girl and flashed the lights again, this time it was someone that Myra knew. The girl was 16 year old Pauline Reade who went to school with Myra's younger sister, Maureen. Even though Myra knew this young girl she didn't seem to care and encouraged Pauline to get into the vehicle with the promise of a lift to a dance she was going to. Pauline, thinking it was safe because she knew Myra, felt comfortable to go along with her. At some point in the journey, Myra claimed that she had lost an expensive glove on Saddleworth Moor and asked Pauline if she wouldn't mind helping her look for it and she'd take her straight to the dance afterwards. Pauline went to the moors and saw Ian pull up, she asked who he was and Myra said that he was going to help them look for the glove. Myra claims that she saw Ian and Pauline go out onto the moors and she sat in the van and Ian returned after 30 minutes. Myra claimed that she saw Pauline lying deceased, almost decapitated with her clothes in disarray. When she asked Ian if he had raped Pauline he reportedly replied ''Of course I did.'' 

Myra later told the police that she went back to the van and waited whilst Ian buried Pauline. His version of events differed, he claimed that Myra was an active participant in the sexual assault and murder of Pauline. At this time (despite supposedly being obsessed with Ian and under his complete control and not able to make her own decisions for whatever reason - as she claimed) Myra was being a bit of a dark horse because she was having an affair with a police officer behind Ian's back. The police officer knew nothing of Ian, the plans to rape and murder or anything like that, he and Myra were just seeing each other and they were still seeing each other at the time of Pauline Reade's murder. So, Myra who claimed to be shocked and horrified about Pauline's murder and frightened of Ian, basically continued to see the police officer and not make any attempt to tell this man what had happened to Pauline or made any attempt to get help. The affair with the police officer fizzled out and Myra continued to see Ian and the evil pair planned the next murder. 

This time Ian was complaining that he wanted someone younger because Pauline had been difficult to deal with, he needed someone younger and weaker. Despite Myra moaning about how taking a younger child would attract too much attention, she went along with Ian's wishes and put on her black wig and headscarf. Their next victim was a little boy, 12 year old John Kilbride. Similar routine as before, they promised John a bottle of sherry if he helped them look for a expensive glove on Saddleworth Moor. Myra claimed that she stayed in the car whilst Ian took John out on to the moor where the child was sexually assaulted. Ian tried to cut John's throat but the knife was too blunt so he strangled him with a piece of chord. 

As Myra predicted, John Kilbride's disappearance did draw a lot of publicity and a huge search was undertaken with 2000 volunteers taking part in the search and hundreds of information posters placed around Manchester, put through letterboxes and placed in the windows of houses and local shops. The police reportedly spoke to around 700 people in their quest to find John. 

The public panic over John's disappearance didn't seem to phase Ian and Myra because they just carried on and selected their third 'known' victim who was another 12 year old boy, Keith Bennett. Keith was a kind little boy and we know this from the fact that when Myra asked him to help her carry some boxes into her mini van, Keith, who was on his way to visit his grandmother, stopped to help). This time, Ian was in the back of the van and they persuaded Keith to get in and they would take him to his grandmother's house. However, on the way to the grandmother's house they turned the other direction and told Keith they needed help looking for an expensive glove on the moors. Again, Myra claimed that she sat waiting in the vehicle whilst Ian raped and murdered another poor child. Ian returned to the van with a shovel saying that he'd raped and murdered Keith. He didn't bother using a knife this time, he strangled him with a piece of chord. 

Professor David Wilson (famous Criminologist in the UK) said that murderers often fantasise about what they would like to do with a potential victim for years before they actually commit a crime. He also said that once the killer has indulged in this fantasy once or twice, they begin to tire and look for other ways to get that gratification so in the next murder, they may use a different technique or select a different type of victim. 

With Myra and Ian, their next plan was to take a child back to the house they shared with Myra's grandmother at 16 Wardle Avenue in Hattersley (at this point they were living together). Myra had persuaded her grandmother to leave them the house for the night (with some lame excuse, probably told her that they were having a romantic evening or something). It was Boxing Day in 1964 and they drove to a funfair looking for a child and spotted a little girl who appeared to be on her own. Little Lesley Ann Downey was only 10 years old and was a very beautiful, almost doll like looking child. The details around her death are some of the most disturbing and heartbreaking to ever read or hear about. These monsters used their usual routine of Myra pretending to be a nice lady and tricked Lesley into the car. They drove Lesley to the house and took her upstairs where they forced the child to posed naked for pornographic photographs. She was also sexually assaulted and murdered by a combination of strangulation and smothering. Throughout this poor little girl's ordeal, Ian had a tape recorder in the background, so, not only was he taking sick phototgraphs, he was recording everything. This tape of this evil nightmare was later found in a suitcase by investigators who had to sit and listen to Lesley Ann Downey's last moments in that room with those two monsters. Grown men of a certain age, seasoned investigators, people who had years of experience dealing with all sorts of crimes...struggled to get through that tape. Anyone who worked on this case will tell you that the tape was horrendous and still haunts them to this day. The tape is deemed too harrowing to be released to the public and only parts of transcripts are available and even they are shocking enough. 

Myra lied through her teeth when later questioned about Lesley Ann Downey and claimed that she had no active part in the role of her murder or abuse. She made ridiculous excuses such as ''I was looking out of the window when the pictures were taken'' or ''I was downstairs'' and ''I was running a bath.'' The tape said it all as the investigators (and later on, the packed courtroom at their trial) heard. Lesley cried, pleaded and begged for them to stop and let her go home, Ian can be heard shouting at the little girl to ''Put it in'' and Myra could be heard being aggressive, cold, wicked and demanding of the child. There was no mistake about it, both were heavily involved in that evil, sadistic scene and it was this tape that helped expose Myra Hindley for the evil monster that she was. People were shocked because she was relying on the fact that she was a woman and these were the days that some people were still naive thinking that there was no way that a female could be so cruel and evil, especially to a child. People still had it in their heads that all women were maternal, mothering protectors who had this inbuilt need to care and comfort all children. Just like Ted Bundy scared people years later (having been this intelligent, well-spoken, handsome man who was actually a cold blooded monster) by proving that appearances can be deceptive, here was Myra showing that women could be just as evil and in some cases, more evil than men. 

Once Lesley was deceased they drove up to Saddleworth Moor the next morning and put the child's naked body in a shallow grave with her clothes in a bundle at her feet.

During Myra and Ian's relationship they would often take trips up to the moors for picnics and to take photographs. Ian would take pictures of Myra standing on or near the burial sites of the victims. One of the infamous pictures that is regularly seen is the one where she is stood on a mound of earth, holding her dog (Puppet) and looking down towards the mound of earth with a smirk on her face. 

As well as these trips, they would often spend time with Myra's younger sister Maureen and her partner, David Smith. Myra wasn't a big fan of David Smith, she didn't think he was suitable for her sister because he had a background of petty crime and had been on the wrong side of the law quite a few times. Myra tolerated him for the sake of her sister but Ian took a shine to him and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Just like Ian had done with Myra, David seemed to be quite taken in by Ian and would sit listening with fascination as he talked about politics and Nazism. Even worse, David actually agreed with a lot of the Nazi stuff that Ian was talking about. David and Ian would often talk about committing a bank robbery or murder together, it was soon clear that Ian had found himself another potential sidekick. Myra wasn't happy about any of this and felt that David was beginning to take centre stage with Ian. Suddenly, it was 'boys only' club and she found herself pushed to the side. 

As time went on, Ian started to feel that he was in a comfortable place with David and had plans in store for him. As well as being a Peadophile, Ian was also bisexual and would frequent gay bars unbeknown to Myra. It was at a gay bar that he met 17 year old Edward Evans and the pair would see each other now and again. Edward was reportedly their last known victim, Ian asked Myra to pick him and Edward up from a train station in Manchester. Ian told Edward that Myra was his sister and she played along. Ian later told police that he took Edward back to the house with the intention of having sex with him but they changed their minds and decided to kill him instead but make David part of proceedings. David, who claimed to have no idea what was about to happen, had been asked to come over to the house by Myra. When David arrived and was standing in the kitchen (the others were in the livingroom) he apparently heard Myra shout ''DAVID! HELP HIM''

David ran into the livingroom to find 17 year old Edward on the sofa being murdered by Ian Brady. When the horrific moment was done. Ian complained that he'd twisted his ankle and needed help moving the body to the spare room. David claims he was terrified and helped them move the body because he was in fear for his life. After Edward's body was wrapped up and placed in the spare room, Myra locked the door and kept the key then went to the living room and started cleaning. David said that Myra was frantically cleaning the living room and moaning about the mess in a comedic way. She also commented in a farcical way ''Did you see his eyes when you first hit him? he wasn't expecting that.'' 

After David finished help clean up the scene and had a cup of tea he pretended that all was well and that he would be back in the morning to help them take Edward's body up to Saddleworth Moor. 

As soon as David went home he told Maureen what had happened, they talked for hours and then contacted the police. Later that morning, the police knocked on the door of 16 Wardle Brook Avenue with one of the cops dressed as a 'Bread Delivery man'. When Myra answered the door she told him that they didn't want any bread, the policeman soon revealed himself and they all went into the house to see Ian sitting in the living room. 

The police asked them about a violent disturbance that had been heard the previous night. the pair claimed to not know what they were talking about. David had told the cops that Edward's body was in the spare room next to a closet where they kept a stash of guns. The police searched the house but the spare room door was locked, they asked Myra for the key, she claimed not to have it, that it was at work. The police said they would take her to her workplace and get the key. Knowing the game was up, Ian said ''Just give them the key.''

The police got into the room and found Edward's body and arrested Ian who claimed that Edward was killed after an argument got out of hand. Myra wasn't arrested at this point, they were questioning her. 

The police continued to search the house where they found a list of written names. On this list they saw 'John Kilbride' who they knew was a missing child. The police began to suspect that there could be the possibility that Ian and Myra could be responsible for John's disappearance. A ticket for a storage locker was also found and David told them that was a private stash of items that Ian wanted hidden away. The police found the locker which contained a suitcase, inside the suitcase was various pictures taken of Myra and Ian on the Moors, Nazi books, Other types of sickening books. The horrific tape of Lesley Ann Downey's murder was there and so was the sickening photographs they had taken of her. The police also arrested Myra. 

The pair were kept in custody and Ian was protecting Myra and she was still declaring her love for him. The police continued to investigate and started digging on Saddleworth Moor. David had told them that Ian often bragged that he had buried children up there. They found John Kilbride's remains after examining the photograph of Myra standing on what appeared to be a mound of earth with her dog. They also found Lesley Ann Downey's remains. The police took Myra's dog, Puppet and decided to check the dog's teeth to verify how old the dog actually was, to give them an indication of how old the photographs were. The dog was put to sleep as part of the examination but sadly passed away during the procedure. It was later revealed that the dog had an underlying health condition but Myra accused the police of being murderers. She was distraught over the death of her dog but showed no remorse for the murders she took part in.

The game was up for the both of them, the evidence was overwhelming. Ian confessed to the murders of Lesley, John and Edward. He was still protecting Myra and during all of this they were allowed to briefly keep in contact and even saw each other in person during hearings and solicitor meetings. There was even moments where the pair were able to see each other in person and have a cup of tea together in the canteen. On one occasion they shared a chocolate Easter egg before a court appearance and complained as they walked up to the dock that they felt sick cause they'd eaten so much. Their first Christmas behind bars, Myra's mother and grandmother bought up some food to the cells and Ian and Myra had dinner. Despite the horrific crimes they were accused of, both had support and regular contact with their families. 

''Nothing else matters as long as Ian is ok.'' -  Myra Hindley 

Their trial was a short one, beginning in April 1966, it was a major event with everyone wanting to get into the courtroom. Special arrangements were made for Ian and Myra to appear behind protective glass because so many people wanted to get their hands on them. Newspaper reporters and TV crews were everywhere and the hotel rooms were booked up by media and eager members of the public who stood outside the courthouse during the trial. Everyone was talking about it. 

They both pleaded not guilty but all of the damning evidence was shown in court, the evil tape was played in court of Lesley Ann Downey's death. On the 6th of May, the jury took just over two hours to come to the decision that both were guilty. Ian was sentenced to three life sentences and Myra was given two. They were not given the death penalty of hanging because it had been suspended at that point before finally being abolished in 1969. A lot of people were angry that Ian and Myra didn't face the hangman's noose for what they had done. 

''If I'd have known that I was being recorded, I would have been careful with what I said.'' -  Myra Hindley talking to a friend later about the Lesley Ann Downey tape. 

So they both went into their sentences at the beginning, defiant and under the belief that they were going to be free some day and they talked of getting married. They continued to write to each other but somewhere along the line the penny started to drop and the realisation that they were not going to see each other ever again, kicked in. Ian wasn't interested in being released he wanted to die in prison but Myra wanted out and decided to play the victim. As the years rolled by, Myra began having affairs with other women in prison and told people she no longer loved Ian and didn't want to write to him anymore. Ian had heard about Myra's new outside friends who were trying to campaign for her release and gathered from the lack of responses to letters that she was no longer in love with him. Myra eventually wrote him a letter telling him of her feelings. Myra became hell bent on getting out of prison and she knew she had to cut ties with Ian in order to portray herself as this innocent young girl who had been forced to do these things by an evil, controlling man. 

One wonders if Ian was envious of all of the fuss that Myra was getting cause nobody cared about him, he was seen as the monster, the one that was responsible for it all and as time went on and he learned more and more about Myra's support and her bid for freedom, the more the animosity grew. Ian decided to throw a  spanner in the works when word started heating up about the possibility of Myra getting out of prison. He spoke to a journalist in 1985 that he and Myra had also been responsible for the deaths of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Myra was devastated when she found out because she was hoping that because so many years went by that people would have partially forgotten what they did and she'd be able to get out. The news spread like wildfire and everything was brought back up again with searches taking place on Saddleworth Moor. 

Pauline Reade's body was eventually found in 1987 but Keith Bennett's remains have never been found despite his mother Winnie Johnson, writing letters to Ian and Myra for years, begging and pleading to them for the location so that she could bury her beloved son. They never told her where her son was buried, they went to their graves with their dark secrets and the answers to many, many questions. 

Myra continued her time in prison fighting to be released, claiming to be one of Ian Brady's victims. She claimed to have found God again and was a changed woman. She died her blonde hair dark and tried to distance herself from who she really was. For years she manipulated people, told people in the early days of her sentence that she was an innocent woman, only to turn around years later and confess. There were still some people who stood by her and it did look like she was going to be released at some point. I remember being fixated on the news reports at the time and there was talk of Myra being released and given a new identity. It was possible that it could happen especially as she had a lot of upper class people fighting her corner who had plenty of money. In another sickening revelation about this case which sounded too shocking to be true was that Myra had actually had an affair with Rose West whilst in the same prison together.  It sounded like a sick joke that someone made up but it was actually true, the evil pair bonded but it was a short affair.  She ended up with a number of health issues and on the 15th of November 2002 at the age of 60, Myra Hindley breathed her last. She died of bronchial pneumonia, she'd been suffering with ill health for years and even then, her supporters were campaigning that she get compassionate release. 

When it was announced that she had died, a lot of people didn't believe it. Some people believed that she had been smuggled undercover out of the prison at midnight and given a new identity. It sounds crazy but this has actually been done with other people so I don't blame people for thinking that. There was even drama in death for Myra Hindley because none of the local undertakers would accept her remains for cremation. Eventually the police had her cremated and one of her ex girlfriend's scattered her ashes in a country park. There was rumours that she requested to be scattered on Saddleworth Moor but this was false. 

When Keith Bennett's mother heard about Myra's death, she was devastated because she felt that it was a missed opportunity to find out where Keith's grave was. She never gave up hope and really wished that Myra would have had a change of heart and tell her but she never did. Winnie died in 2012 never knowing where Keith's remains were. Despite never being given that information she so desperately craved and deserved, she continued to take flowers up to Saddleworth Moor because she said she felt closer to Keith there. Winnie's family have vowed to never give up hope that Keith will be found one day. 

Ian Brady spent his sentence and final years being the pathetic cry baby that he always was. He had a huge fear of spiders and would often get Myra to take them away cause he couldn't deal with them. He was a typical coward who felt powerful picking on smaller people. He constantly craved attention and would go on hunger strike and threaten to commit suicide every 5 minutes just to get on the news. It got to the point where people were tired of hearing it. He'd go through stages of refusing to be interviewed and then he'd make a big announcement but nobody was interested in what he had to say. He didn't help Winnie Johnson either. He was seen as a waste of oxygen just using up tax payers money. 

A lot of ghoulish people wrote to him. A creepy guy once contacted me bragging that he had personal letters from Ian Brady as if that was something to be proud of. Why would anyone want to write to that monster who had raped and murdered these poor children? What could he possibly tell you? What would you want to know? No good could ever come of being in contact with that monster. If you're a Criminologist or a Criminal Profiler and you're writing to him for study purposes then fine but if you're just Joe Bloggs down the street who wants to just chat with him, that's just plain creepy and odd in my book. 

''Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I fight simply to die. I have had enough. I want nothing. My objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin.'' -  Ian Brady 

Ian Brady managed to live to the ripe old age of 79 and died in 2017 and not a tear was shed when he passed away. The only thing any of us cared about was that he never told Winnie where Keith's remains were. He couldn't do that one decent thing to help that lovely woman who never had a proper rest for decades. 

David Smith was heavily criticised because he had made a few deals with the press to sell his story in exchange for cash. He'd managed to make some money out of the situation and some people thought that it was in poor taste and were quite suspicious of him, just how much did he know or how much was he really involved in? Myra tried to imply for years that he was more involved than he let on. David passed away from cancer in 2012 at the age of 65. Myra's younger sister, Maureen had actually passed away in 1980 whilst Myra was serving her sentence, the pair remained close and in regular contact. Maureen died in 1980 due to a brain hemorrhage. 

I just want to take a moment to remember the known victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

RIP:

Pauline Reade

John Kilbride 

Keith Bennett

Lesley Ann Downey

Edward Evans 

Let's hope that Keith Bennett's remains are finally found. It was reported in October of 2022 that the police had been conducting a search and dig of a certain location on Saddleworth Moor after an Author claimed that he had found a skull. Under close examination it was determined that Keith's remains had not found and no human remains had been discovered. The case remains open. 

16 Wardle Brook Avenue was demolished in 1987. 

I wasn't even around in the 1960s and this case bothers me. I think it bothers anyone who knows about it. I've driven passed Saddleworth Moor at night and there's something very haunting about it. There's a horrible feeling that comes over you knowing the history of that place and the secrets it holds. A very dark, horrible history. I saw a little country pub near to the moors and I wondered, is that where those monsters stopped for a drink on one of their many trips there? There's something surreal and disturbing when you see something like that in real life, a crime scene. It almost tells the story of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady because they spent so much time there and took their victims there. 

Further Reading & Sources:

- One of Your Own: The Life & Death of Myra Hindley | Book by Carol Ann Lee

- Evil Relations | Book by Carol Ann Lee & David Smith

- The Encyclopedia of Serial killers (Second Edition) | Book by Michael Newton

- Born Killers | Book by Christopher Berry Dee

- A History of British Serial Killing | Book by David Wilson

- The Anatomy of Evil | Book by Michael H Stone

- The Killer Book of Serial Killers | Book by Michael & Tom Philbin

- Myra Hindley & Moors Murders Documentary

- Moors Murders | Wikipedia

- Saddleworth Moor | Wikipedia

- Myra Hindley | Article: Mirror

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- Ian Brady | Article: The Sun

- Keith Bennett | Article: Sky News

- The True Crime Dictionary | Book by Amanda Lees

- Winnie Johnson | Article: Manchester Evening News

- Serial Killers & The Phenomenon of Serial Murder | Book by David Wilson, Elizabeth Yardley & Adam Lynes

This was a lot to get through so again, like I have mentioned in previous posts, I appreciate you taking the time to join me through these cases and I hope you'll join me next week for the fourth instalment in my Partners In Crime series. In the meantime, I hope to see you on my Socials and if you enjoy my content, please help support my work by donating here!! Thank you!

Please stay safe and I'll see you in my next post x 

I'm back again in this second instalment of my Partners In Crime series and I'm afraid to say it's another hard one to stomach. As I mentioned in my last post, none of these cases (that have been requested) are in any particular order. After the last horrific post I was hoping to give you all a bit of a break and not write about a case that was too hard hitting but here we are, I don't think I've ever written about a case that hasn't been difficult. We'll just have to get through it together! This case though, is one that I'm sure you all know so you know this isn't going to be a jog in the park but it's a case that comes up time and again and I aim to give my readers what they want and even though this case is well known, you've told me that you want to read/hear my take on it so here I am. 

I've lost count of how many people have said to me that they've learned more about a case by reading my blog and honestly I love that because that's what it's all about, raising awareness and bringing something new to the table. I also learn myself, I thought I knew a lot about these cases but during my research I find out all sorts of details that I never knew before. 

So, this is a big case so I suggest cups of tea and biscuits to be at hand and comfortable seating arrangements (you can tell I've been watching far to many of these luxury fashion Youtube channels lol) but on a serious note, I just want you to be comfortable and as always I will try and be sensitive with the details. 

Let's get through this...

Fred Walter Stephen West came into the world on the 29th of September 1941 in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England. He was one of six children and the family struggled to make ends meet but were a hard working family who worked on the farmland. Fred was close to his mother (uncomfortably close some would say) but not with his father. His father was very strict and Fred feared him. His mother on the other hand practically wrapped Fred up in cotton wool and would treat him differently to the other children often letting him away with things that he would normally have been in trouble for. It was a difficult childhood with lots of hardships, violence at the hands of his father and a lot of sexual abuse (please be aware that I will be talking a lot about sexual abuse and things of such nature in this post). As Fred got a little bit older and went to school the other kids would make fun of him because of his clothes. Self grooming was never a high point for Fred even later on when he had money, he always looked very scruffy and unkempt and the kids would make fun of his voice too. They called him ''Country Bumpkin''. 

Fred claimed that during his childhood, his father would molest his sisters and he also claimed that he discovered sex through his own mother. Apparently his own mother had began sexually abusing him at the age of 12. He also later claimed that he'd be forced to partake in bestiality (sex with animals). The whole situation was horrendous in that family with the amount of violence and sexual abuse that reportedly went on and it was all kept quiet and treated as if it was a normal every day thing. Like a lot of young people in those days, Fred left school at 15, apart from all of the horrendous things we were to learn about him, nobody could say that he wasn't a hard worker. Fred knew how to graft when it came to manual labour. When he wasn't working, he and his younger brother John would go to a local youth club and even at that stage red flags were showing. Fred just couldn't keep his hands to himself and couldn't seem to take no for an answer when it came to girls. He was always acting creepy and trying to grab and touch people like he had some sort of compulsion to do it and he couldn't understand why people would be upset, he thought this was perfectly reasonable behaviour.

When he was 17 he got into quite a horrific motorcycle accident and this moment in his life is often commented on because some people believe that injuries he sustained (he had to have a metal plate put in his head) may have somehow contributed to his behaviour in the coming years. The argument here is that he'd already been showing signs of predatory behaviour and what I'm about to share with you in the next paragraph also shows that he was already on the way to what he became, accident or not. 

 It was discovered that Fred himself had been molesting his 13 year old sister (and it had been going on for years) and this caused outrage within the family. They turned against him and wanted to take the matter further with the authorities. Fred's mother stood by him in the beginning and made excuses for him, even volunteered to go to court and speak on his behalf but the rest of the family pressured her not to and she changed her mind. The case ended up getting dropped and Fred suddenly found himself estranged from his family but in time he and his parents, along with his younger brother John (who he was closest to out of his siblings) would reconcile. 

During his childhood and up to his early adulthood it's important to mention here that Fred was also quite fond of petty crime, he was always stealing something and to be honest, just writing about that seems tame to everything else he did and what he experienced during childhood. 

Another odd thing about Fred was that he never seemed to be short of female attention despite the unkempt appearance and his behaviour towards women and girls. His strange predatory behaviour was hard to understand because he did have girlfriends. In 1962 he bumped into a former girlfriend and they got back together again, her name was Catherine Rena Costello but everybody called her Rena. Things seemed to be working out with the pair (despite Rena being pregnant with another man's child but this didn't seem to bother Fred) so they decided to move up to Glasgow because Rena's family didn't approve of her being pregnant with a mixed race child and they got married. Fred managed to get a job and when I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke that he'd gotten a job as an ice cream man. They settled in Coatbridge (east of Glasgow city centre) and it wasn't long before Rena gave birth to a beautiful little girl called Charmaine. 

''Growing up in the Gorbals was tough....Fred West was our ice cream man.'' - Colin McFarlane (excerpt taken from the book: The Real Gorbals Story) 

Fred and Rena would tell people that Charmaine had been adopted incase anyone started asking questions about her ethnicity, They moved again to the Bridgeton area of Glasgow and Rena fell pregnant again and had another daughter, they named her Anna Marie. Fred seemed to be the doting father at first but that soon changed, he started being strict with the girls and his bizarre behaviour was showing itself again when he put bars on the children's bunk beds and ordered that they stay basically caged up whilst he was at home. He didn't seem to want his daughters around him and would only let them out when he was at work and didn't have to deal with them. Rena tried her best with the girls and she really did try to be a proper mother to them but Fred ruled the roost and whatever he said, went. To help Rena out they had a friend called Isa who would help her with the girls and shopping for groceries. 

Isa would sometimes bring her friend, Anne McFall along with her to the house and it was from here that Rena became good friends with both of them and they spent a great deal of time together. The relationship with Rena and Fred was becoming very strained and Rena was fed up with him always being away for long periods of time, it soon became clear that he had been having affairs behind her back and got one of the women pregnant. To get revenge, Rena turned to a man she knew had been keen on her, John McLachlan. The pair began an intense affair and all hell broke loose when Fred walked in on them one day. For some reason it was ok for Fred to have affairs and get people pregnant but he didn't like the same sort of treatment done to him. Despite the fact that he'd been uninterested in Rena and never showed her any affection, he was furious when he found out that she was having fun with another man. Fred charged into the room shouting obscenities and struck Rena in the face to which John grabbed Fred. Fred had a knife and it grazed across John's chest but not enough to do serious damage. John wasn't scared by this and continued to assault Fred who completely backed off in cowardly fashion. It was clear, Fred West had no problem beating women and children but when it came to men, he was weak! A typical coward and typical of a man who is a domestic abuser. 

It's unclear how they moved on after this incident but the situation of Rena and Fred living together continued and the affairs that both were having, carried on. Fred continued to beat Rena though and every time that John seen her she appeared to have more and more bruises, he was enraged and confronted Fred again giving him a severe beating. The cycle seemed to continue and although John gave Fred a good hiding, Fred never stopped his abuse. On another occasion, John later spoke of how he had witnessed Fred assault Charmaine after she simply asked him if she could have some ice cream. This infuriated John and he grabbed Fred yet again and assaulted him. 

Life in Glasgow was not going great at all for Fred, Rena or the girls and it all came to a head when a horrible 'accident' occurred. Fred claimed that he 'accidentally' ran over a young boy with his ice cream van. The child sadly died and although the police had basically let Fred get away with it, the locals were not that stupid (especially Glaswegians, they're not backwards at coming forward and they tell it like it is) and he knew his days were numbered especially in a place like the Gorbals. 

There was only one thing for it in Fred's mind, time to move again and this time he went to live in a caravan in Bishop's Cleve in Gloucestershire, England. He took the girls, Charmaine and Anna Marie with him and Rena soon followed. They were surprised to find some time later that Isa and Anne McFall decided to join them. Isa and Anne didn't have much of a life in Glasgow and struggled to make ends meet so they thought that coming to England would be a great opportunity, they were hoping to get some sort of employment. Fred always had a way of finding work and this time he'd managed to secure a position as a driver for a local abattoir. To think of them all in that caravan (I assume it must have been a standard sized caravan back in those days) one can't help but wonder how tight the space must have been, 5 females and one guy all under a small roof? It must have been tense. As will everything, Fred ruled the roost and Isa and Anne seemed to fall under his spell too. Whatever he wanted done, was done. 

Fred ruled by fear and it was reported at this time that he had begun sexually abusing Charmaine whilst trying to force Rena to take up prostitution. Fred's attitude towards women and girls was appalling. It all became too much for Rena (as it would do for anyone) and she needed help, she wanted to take her children and friends and get away from Fred. There was only one person she could call and that was John McLachlan, he wasn't scared of Fred, Fred was scared of him and he made her feel protected. 

A plan was put in place that John McLachlan, together with a man called John Trotter, were to drive a mini van down south and they were all to meet up and make a quick getaway. It was a great plan but of course someone had to spoil it. For some odd reason. Anne McFall became keen on Fred and the pair had been flirting for a while. In an attempt to show loyalty to him and get in his good books, Anne blabbed to Fred about the escape plan and hell broke loose yet again. The scene was a shambles with Fred grabbing hold of the children and Anne declaring that she wanted to stay with Fred and become an nanny to the children. There was a scuffle with John McLachlan trying to get Fred away from the girls but it was all no use. With all the commotion going on, someone called the police and Rena, John McLachlan, John Trotter and Isa all got into the van and drove off leaving Fred, Anne McFall and the two girls. Fred shouted that if he ever saw Rena again that he would kill her. 

Despite this horrible incident that must have been really traumatic to witness especially for the children and the threats that Fred had made to kill her, Rena would often visit the girls as Bishop's Cleeve for brief periods of time and the relationship between Rena and Anne became very frosty. Rena felt uncomfortable with the fact that Anne was now taking her place and trying to be a mother to her children, she also felt very betrayed by Anne. Rena was angry with both Fred and Anne and this was further demonstrated when she decided to steal a few items from Fred's caravan before taking off back to Scotland. Fred reported the thefts and Rena had to face the music, she was forced to return to England and sentenced to 3 years probation.

The situation between Rena and Fred was very confusing because after all of this drama she continued to go between living with Fred and going back to Glasgow. Anne McFall was still on the scene as well so he had both women at his beck and call. It was a really ridiculous situation with the women in competition with one another for Fred's affections. Anne (who was now pregnant with his child) begged Fred to divorce Rena so that they could get married but he was stalling, it seemed that he was quite happy with the arrangement as it was. 

In another strange turn of events, Anne McFall disappeared out of thin air, Fred didn't even bother to report her missing and with good reason. Unbeknown at the time, Fred had murdered Anne, why is the million dollar question? She was devoted to him and wanted to marry him but Fred didn't seem to have love for anyone (at that point in his life) and it seemed that he just wanted to get rid of her. It seemed to be a pattern in his life that he would just get rid of people and move from place to place. He wanted to control things and people and for his own selfish reasons, he wanted her gone. Her body wasn't found until 1994, he had dismembered her and reportedly the unborn child may or may not have been removed, it was a horrific and evil way to treat the mother of your child and your unborn child. For a long time he had denied that he murdered her but eventually confessed and his story was that he stabbed her to death, however, investigators claim this to be false as she had material on each of her wrists indicating that he had been restrained her prior to her murder. 

The on-off relationship with Rena continued, she had no knowledge of the murder of Anne, it's assumed that Fred possibly told her that Anne just decided to leave. Whatever the case, Rena continued to live with Fred for a period of time but soon took off again and left the girls behind for whatever reason, It's strange to think why she would leave the girls with Fred knowing what he was like. Fred struggled to take care of the girls on his own, at this point he had no other women living with him so he would place the girls in temporary care of the state whilst he was working. Quite a bold move on his part as any of the girls could have told social services about what had been happening but one imagines that because he was quite a fearful person and had been able to control older girls and women, that the children would also be under his control even to the point where he wasn't around. 

In early 1969 Fred was at a bus stop when he noticed a 15 year old girl that he instantly took a shine to, for him it was love at first sight. That girl was Rosemary Letts, She wasn't as impressed by him and thought of him as quite scruffy but he persisted. She wasn't that interested in him but the more that he persevered the more she gave in and the pair began dating. Rosemary preferred to be called 'Rose' and Fred would sometimes call her 'Rosie' or 'My Rosie', all sickly sweet but for some reason, even back then in the early days of the relationship, Rose had some kind of hold over Fred that no other person had. 

Rose fell for the sob story that Fred told her about how terrible it was for him that his wife had left him to be a single father. Rose (Rosemary Pauline Letts) who had been born in Devon, England on the 29th of November 1953 also came from a horrific childhood, her mother was manic depressive and was given electric shock treatment during her pregnancy with Rose. Her father also suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia and would sexually abuse her and her sister as well as being very strict and violent. It was later revealed that rose would sexually abuse her brothers. She was one of seven children and the family struggled financially too. So both Fred and Rose shared some things in common at the outset, Both had come from poor, difficult childhoods where sexual abuse and violence was rife and both had abused their siblings. It was a recipe for disaster and a meeting of two very messed up people. 

Rose moved in with Fred and helped him with the children, at first it seemed to go well and Rose was quite friendly with the girls and enjoyed taking them for walks to pick flowers but being just a child herself, she had no idea how to be a mother. They both fell in love (or their version of love) and Rose felt after months of being together that it was the right time to introduce Fred to their parents which didn't do down too well. Her parents were furious at her dating this older, scruffy man who they thought to be a 'pathological liar' and told her that under no circumstances was she to continue the relationship and they warned Fred to leave her alone. Both Rose and Fred continued to defy her parents and it got to the point where Rose's parents contacted social services and had Rose placed in a home for troubled teenagers. It had to be done in her parents minds because they had heard that Rose had been partaking in prostitution under instruction from Fred, they wanted her away from him as soon as possible and if it mean being in this care home for some time until she came to her senses, then so be it. 

The odd thing about this home for troubled teenagers is that they would let their occupants leave at weekends so Rose would go to stay with Fred which completely defeated the object of her being there in the first place. The more her parents wanted her to stay away from him, the more she wanted to see him. As soon as Rose turned 16 she was released from the home and had plans to go and live with Fred permanently, however, she was to learn that he was in prison for not paying fines and for theft. He was serving a 30 day sentence so her plan was to return to her parents for the time being and move in with Fred once he was out of prison. The girls had been in the care of social services at this time but as soon as Fred was released he went to collect them and Rose wasted no time in going back to Fred. Her parents were enraged especially when they found out that she was now pregnant (with this pregnancy it has always been doubted as to if Fred was really the biological father and some people speculate that Rose's own father could have been responsible for getting Rose pregnant at the time because she was still being abused by him). Rose had to return to the care home again but was released a month later under the agreement that she would have an abortion, cut ties completely with Fred and have a fresh start with her family. Rose did none of these things, she insisted that she was keeping the baby, returning to Fred and that was to be the end of the matter. Her father, who was furious,  told her that she was never to return to the family home again. 

Forever on the move, Fred moved himself, the girls and Rose to a flat in Cheltenham in 1970 where Rose finally gave birth to a little girl they called Heather Ann. For Rose, it was a lot to take on at such a young age, she was still a teenager and here she was, a mother with a baby and two young girls to take care of. It didn't help matters when Fred ended up in prison again for stealing a tax disc and car tyres. Rose struggled to manage looking after the children and her real personality began to show. She behaved like a monster towards the girls and she especially had a problem with Charmaine. For some reason, Rose disliked the little girl and would use any excuse to punish her in the most cruelest of ways. Fred was only serving just over 6 months but Rose couldn't handle that (not that the girls would have been any safer with Fred around). Rose must have witnessed Fred's treatment of the girls previously so felt quite comfortable to abuse them herself. 

The situation between Rose and Charmaine was getting worse. The little girl was quite feisty and would try to protect herself against Rose's abuse which enraged Rose even more. Even at the age of just 17, Rose was an evil individual who's cruelty knew no bounds. Charmaine began to answer back to Rose and say things like ''My real mummy wouldn't talk to us like that.'' and ''My mummy is going to come and get me.''. On one occasion a friend of Charmaine's came over to the house to see if she would like to come out and play only to be greeted by a very disturbing sight. The little girl, named Tracey Giles, said that she opened the door to see Charmaine standing naked on a chair with her hands tied behind her back with a gag around her mouth. Charmaine had no expression, almost like she was used to being treated this way. Heather was reportedly stood in another area of the room with a blank expression. Both of the girls gave off this impression that this had been done before. Rose was stood next to Charmaine holding a large wooden spoon. 

Rose always made an effort not to injure the girls on their faces or hands whilst abusing them and hitting them with objects but sometimes things would go beyond her control as on one of these horrible occasions, Charmaine had to be taken to hospital. She had suffered a very painful injury to her ankle which Rose told the Doctors was due to an accident at home. 

(Rose and Fred West. Picture credit: Financial Times)

With all the hell and abuse that Rose inflicted on Charmaine it sadly comes as no surprise that the poor child met her death at the hands of Rose. Fred was still in prison at the time of Charmaine's death so Rose put her body in the cellar. When her friend Tracey came to call on her at the house one day, Rose said to her ''She's gone to live with her mother and bloody good riddance.''  When Fred was released from prison, Rose told him what she had done and instead of being sickened and devastated as any normal father would have been, he seemed to be delighted about it and told Rose that he would get rid of Charmaine's body as he did so, he buried the child's naked body in the backyard. Rose covered her tracks with Charmaine's primary school by telling them that she had gone to live with her biological mother. In those days people would take kids out of school all the time and move around so nobody thought to check into this. When Heather and Anna Marie asked where Charmaine was, Fred and Rose told them the same story that Charmaine had gone to live with Rena. Anna Marie was upset by this news and asked why Rena didn't take her too, Fred callously told her ''She wouldn't want you love, you're the wrong colour.''

It was only a matter of time before Rena appeared on the scene again, she hadn't seen her daughters for a while and was wondering why contact had gone quiet. She was frantic with worry and contacted Fred's relatives to find out where they were. She was given the address and turned up on Fred and Rose's door step. The pair invited Rena in to the house and subjected her to a horrendous sexual assault and torture before they dismembered her remains which were then placed in plastic bags and buried in a field known well to Fred as Letterbox near to Much Marcle. 

Fred and Rose got married on the 29th of January 1972 and like his first marriage, the only guest was his younger brother, John, Rose quickly became pregnant again and they ended up moving to the infamous 25 Cromwell street where Fred was able to buy the three story house for £7,000. They made money by the odd jobs that Fred would do and they rented out the rooms to students. They turned the property into a guest house but had separate cooking and bathroom facilities for their tenants. They rented out the rooms on the upper floors and kept their living area private. They also kept the garden off limits to tenants too. 

The next child born into the nightmare that was the West family life, was a baby girl that they decided to call Mae June. She was given the middle name June due to her being born on the first of that month. It wasn't long after Mae's birth that Fred and Rose decided amicably to turn their 'fetish' into a money making scheme. Both Fred and Rose fantasised about sex with other people and Fred wanted to watch Rose with other men, especially black men. They had all sorts of horrendous fantasies that wasn't just your run of the mill BDSM. They were into torture, real torture, child abuse and bestiality. They had a collection of everything sordid that you can think of...and worse! They had bondage stuff, torture items, sex toys of every size, shape and model as well as a huge stack of videos which included your standard porn, then horrendous tapes which included child abuse and bestiality. They both agreed that Rose would work as a prostitute and set up a room in the house for men to come and pay for her 'services'.

Fred created a room for Rose which was off limits to everyone else and had a special key which she always wore around her neck. She would openly advertise her services in the local community and both she and Fred didn't care who knew. She would place regular adverts in a contact magazine and request for men who were black or Indian to come to her place for a 'good time'. Surprisingly, Rose made a lot of money and got quite a few customers, even regulars. Fred installed a private doorbell which the customers would be instructed to ring and a red light was placed outside of Rose's private room. If the light was on, it was an indication that she was busy with a customer. 

To add to this horrendous set up, Fred installed some 'peep holes' in the walls so that he could watch Rose having sex with other men. They also had baby monitors around the house and in Rose's private room so that Fred could listen to Rose with the other men. Sometimes the noise would be so loud that the tenants and the neighbours could hear but they didn't care. Rose was known to walk around the house in front of tenants wearing next to nothing and had even slept with some of them in the past. Rose was known to be 'sex mad' and was attracted to both men and women often indulging in threesomes with Fred. 

Rose was very dominant in all aspects of the sex sessions, Fred was always said to be 'not up to much and had a small penis'. Rose would be sadistic especially with the female partners, she would enjoy humiliating and torturing the women by using extremely large sex toys and when the women cried out in pain she'd laugh and say ''Are you not woman enough to take it?''

Rose controlled everything even the finances. Fred would hand over any money that he had made from his work and no questions were asked. Rose was the boss and that was it! 

Rose's father came back onto the scene and claimed that he wanted to build bridges with Rose and Fred. Fred and her father even had a go at going into business together by opening their own cafe but it soon proved to be a failure. Her father also became aware of the fact that Rose was a sex worker and instead of being horrified he would go regularly to the house to have sex with Rose which just.....I have no words!

When the West children had gotten to the age of 7 they were ordered to do daily chores around the home. Rose had eight children by this point (1983) three of which were by customers and the others were supposed to have been by Fred but there was always the question as to who Heather's biological father was because of the abuse at that time from her father. Rose was having that much sex with so many different people that it was difficult to tell who was who and Fred didn't seem to care, he had this obsession with mixed race or black babies. Fred would often say that black people bred better than white people. The children who were always fearful of their parents, would carry out their chores as asked but this didn't guarantee peace from Fred and Rose. The children would often find themselves being beaten for no reason and were reportedly taken to the hospital a total of 31 times for 'household accidents'. Rose would often take out her rage on the children but Fred was often at the receiving end too, especially on one occasion where she chased him around the house with a knife. When he manged to lock himself in a room, Rose plunged the knife into the door almost cutting her fingers off in the process. She didn't even flinch and calmly asked him to take her to the hospital. 

When Anna Marie turned eight, both Rose and Fred began sexually abusing the child. The details are horrendous and very disturbing. She'd be taken to the cellar and be forced to undress and if she refused, Rose would rip the clothes off of her. She'd be tied, gagged and assaulted by both parents. On the first occasion that it happened, the evil Rose took the child to the bathroom and laughed as the poor girl tried to clean up some of the blood from her intimate injuries. They made it clear that this was going to be a regular thing and that it was natural. As Anna Marie got a little bit older, Fred and Rose forced her into prostitution and she would be made to carry out sexual acts on Rose's customers. They (Rose and Fred) threatened to kill her if she didn't do what they wanted. Rose would tell the customers that Anna Marie was 16 years old (as if that was any better) and would be present in the room, not for safety reasons but to ensure that Anna Marie didn't tell the men her real age or try to refuse any of their requests. 

Another victim of their sickening sexual perversions was Caroline Owens who they claimed to be hiring as a nanny for the children but in reality they had evil designs on Caroline. Caroline agreed to do the Nanny job thinking that Fred and Rose were just a normal, friendly couple. However, when she actually spent some time at their house and realised what they actually wanted from her (they made it clear that they had a sexual interest in her) she politely said that she didn't want to take the nanny position. Both of them were angry that she had turned them down but pretended to be ok about it. They knew that Caroline would sometimes hitchhike a lift home or to go and visit her boyfriend. They decided to drive out and trick Caroline into their car with apologies for their behaviour, Caroline fell for it and ended up being subjected to Rose molesting her in the back seat and Fred punching her in the face. They took her back to Cromwell street where the hell continued and she was subjected to a horrendous sexual assault by both of them. At first she tried to fight back but realised that she would die at their hands if she continued to fight so she just let them do what they wanted hoping that they would let her go. When it was finally over, Caroline had to put on an act that everything was ok and that she enjoyed what happened. She was terrified and didn't know what they were going to do next. 

To keep up appearances, she didn't make a run for the door, she stayed at the house and had a cup of tea with them, even hoovered the floor and agreed to stay and be their nanny. Rose and Fred obviously felt like there was no danger in her running off and telling the police so Rose took Caroline to the launderette and it was here that Caroline made her escape. Caroline reported what happened to the police and Fred and Rose were due to face court but Caroline couldn't bring herself to face them and the case was thrown out with the Wests only receiving a fine. Caroline said the whole ordeal including what happened at court, made her feel worthless and she attempted to take her own life. 

Because of what happened with Caroline, one wonders if their decision to murder their future victims was because they were scared that they would get caught as they had a close shave with Caroline's escape. If she had tried to make a run for it whilst at the house they may have killed her. Things at the West household took a more evil turn when young girls who came to work for the Wests as a nanny or simply to stay in one of their vacant rooms, suddenly disappeared without trace. It turned out that each of these girls had been victims of torture and rape at the hands of Rose and Fred. The bodies would be dismembered and buried in the cellar or in the back garden under the patio. The children would later say that Fred used to joke about the patio especially about Heather, who also ended up going missing. Fred would joke that if the children didn't behave, he would bury them under the patio like he did with their sister, Heather. 

Heather was reportedly the last victim of Fred and Rose. On the 18th of June 1987, the remaining West children returned home from school to find Heather missing. Rose told them that Heather had been accepted for a job that she had applied for and had moved out. The children were puzzled because Heather had told them the night before that she didn't get the job and she was devastated about it because she wanted to so badly to escape. Heather had been through hell living in the West household and was repeatedly raped by Fred and he claimed that he had accidentally strangled her to death. Fred had this to say in a later interview about Heather's death: 

''I mean I thought the bloody world of Heather. So anyway I got to grips with it after a while, and the first thing that came into my mind was I'm gonna have to take this...and sort it out, which I did, all the messes Rose got herself into. I took the f**king rap for them, and helped 'em out....so anyway, I said 'You'll have to tell me exactly what happened'. She said that Heather was cut up. Well, I never felt so ill for a few seconds, a few more minutes before I could get to grips with myself, and I said: 'What on earth did you cut her up for?' She said 'She wouldn't fit in the dustbin!' Now the things that makes it hard, is that she cut Heather up and chucked her in a f**king dustbin. Her daughter, in a dustbin'' - Fred West (1994) 

(25 Cromwell Street. Picture credit: Gloucestershire Live)

What was going on in the West household with Rose's sex work was now common knowledge and even the school friends of the West children knew. People noticed that Heather was missing and the police questioned Rose about where Heather was and she would tell them ridiculous stories that changed from one moment to the next so they didn't know what to think. The abuse of the remaining West children continued and Fred began filming his 13 year old daughter Louise during a sexual assault. Louise told her friends at school and the authorities got involved when one of her friends told her mother and they contacted the police. Fred and Rose were investigated for child abuse and the remaining West children were taken into foster care. Fred and Rose were supposed to stand trial on the 7th of June 1993 but two of the witnesses couldn't go through with it and the case was dismissed. The police were not about to give up though, they had suspicions that something had happened to Heather and after hearing from social workers who had been with the West children and the repeated rumour of ''If you don't behave you'll end up under the patio like Heather.''

The police were able to get a search warrant for 25 Cromwell street and the property was searched from top to bottom as well as the cellar and the gardens, not surprisingly, human remains were found and Fred was arrested on the 25th of February he kept insisting that Rose was innocent and knowing the evidence presented, he confessed to Heather's murder. He told the police that he was to blame for everything. As more gruesome discoveries were made of more human remains, Fred confessed to another 9 murders. By now, Rose was in custody and being questioned too but she was claiming that she knew nothing and was completely innocent. 

On the 30th of June 1994, both Fred and Rose West stood in front of the court and both were charged with murder. Fred was charged with 11 murders which soon became 12 as he was charged afterwards for the murder of Anne McFall. Rose was charged with 9 of the murders which she claimed to be innocent of. During this court appearance, Fred was heartbroken because Rose wouldn't look at him, she tried to dissociate herself completely and tried to throw him under the bus but it didn't work, she was guilty as sin, just as much as he was, and everybody knew it. 

On the 1st of January 1995 whilst Fred West was on remand, he took his own life using bedsheets, He left a suicide note: 

To Rose West, Steve and Mae.

Well Rose it's your birthday on the 29th of November 1994 and you will be 41 and still beautiful and still lovely and I love you. We will always be in love.

The most wonderful thing in my life was when I met you. Our love is special to us. So, love, keep your promises to me. You know what they are. Where we are put together forever and ever is up to you. We loved Heather, both of us. I would love Charmaine to be with Heather and Rena. 

You will always be Mrs West, all over the world. That is important to me and to you.

I haven't got you a present, but all I have is my life. I will give it to you, my darling. When you are ready, come to me. I will be waiting for you - Fred West 

I'm not sure why the date on the suicide note of Rose's birthday is the year 1994 considering he wrote it in 1995 but it is as it stands. 

When Rose was informed of Fred's death she reportedly showed no emotion. She continued to play innocent and claimed to be a victim herself, a stance that she had never changed. She was found guilty anyway at her trial in October 1995 of all known 10 murders and given a whole life term meaning she will never be released from prison. 

It's difficult to know exactly how many people the Wests did murder because Fred buried his victims elsewhere not just at 25 Cromwell street. We may never know the exact number. What went on in that house was hell on earth. Anyone who had this misfortune of being anywhere near Fred and Rose West often suffered the worst of any nightmare imaginable. 

It's no surprise that when Rose found herself behind bars that she bumped into a fellow female monster and struck up a 'close friendship', with none other than Myra Hindley. I think both of them would tie in the award for 'Most Hated Woman in Britain' or 'The Most Evil Woman In Britain'. Both are the embodiment of pure evil. I will be talking more about Myra Hindley along with her equally sick and evil side-kick, Ian Brady, in another instalment in my Partners In Crime series so please look out for that. 

The case of Fred and Rose West and 25 Cromwell street, is a huge case and it's hard to tackle every last minute detail but I feel that I've done the story justice here, I think you get the picture of how evil this pair were and what they did and were capable of. However, if you want a really in depth, detailed description of each of the murders as well as everything else, I recommend the book by Howard Sounes Fred And Rose West: The Full Story of Fred And Rose West And The Gloucester House of Horrors. I listened to this book on Audible for 15 hours over the course of a few days, as part of my research for this post and I think it's an incredible piece of work and really detailed. If you want to know every last drop of detail and fact about this horrendous case, that is the book to read. 

I want to take a moment to remember the victims that we know about and thinking of the survivors. 

Anne McFall

Charmaine West 

Catherine 'Rena' West

Lynda Carole Gough

Carol Ann Cooper

Lucy Katherine Partington

Theresa Siegenthaler

Shirley Hubbard 

Juanita Marion Mott

Shirley Anne Robinson 

Alison Jane Chambers

Heather Ann West

And the little boy who Fred killed (in Glasgow)

RIP. 

Further Reading & Sources:

- Fred and Rose West: The Full Story of Fred And Rose West And The Gloucester House of Horrors | Book by Howard Sounes

- The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers (Second Edition) | Book by Michael Newton

- The Big Book of Serial Killers | Book by Jack Rosewood & Rebecca Lo

- Love. As Always. Mum | Book by Mae West

- Fred West | Murderpedia

- Rose West | Murderpedia

- Fred West | Wikipedia

- Fred & Rose West | Documentary

- Rose West: The Making of A Monster | Book by Jane Carter Woodrow

- 25 Cromwell Street: Article | Daily Mail

As of January 2023, Rose West is still alive and still maintains her innocence. She is said to be a model prisoner and enjoys baking. 

25 Cromwell street was demolished in 1996. 

Again, as I mentioned earlier, this was going to be another difficult case to get through but I appreciate you (as always) sticking with me. If you would like to share any thoughts on this case or any of the cases that I have covered, please feel free to comment below or send me an email at jocaledoniankitty@gmail.com 

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Thank you so much!

I hope you will join me next Sunday for the third instalment in my Partners in Crime series. In the meantime, you can find me on my Socials, Take care x