Online Encyclopedia
Moors murders
The Moors murders were committed in and around Greater Manchester, England from 1962 to 1965 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. The Moors Murders are named as such because the victims were buried along the Saddleworth Moor.
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Hindley meets Brady
Brady and Hindley began their relationship in 1961 while working at Millwards, a chemical factory in Manchester. By virtually all accounts, Hindley was an eager participant in Brady's nefarious activities. She changed her look to match that of his ideal woman: high boots and mini skirts. She bleached her hair and the whole ensemble was created so that she would appear more German. He urged Hindley to join a shooting club and get a gun license so they could rob banks.
The Mind of Ian Brady
Brady's philosophy included the idea that superior creatures had the right to control (and destroy, if necessary) weaker ones. He was increasingly becoming enamored with a philosophy that championed cruelty, torture and the superiority of the ubermensch. He was an avid fan of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in particular Nietzsche's concept of the Will to Power. Brady had, since a young boy, been fascinated and obsessed with Nazi pageantry and symbology. Later, he would become fixed upon various books depicting violent Censored pages. Brady and Hindley photographed themselves in Censored page acts as well as at the burial sites of several of their victims.
Pauline Reade
Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a neighbor of Hindley's, who disappeared on her way to a social club in the Crumpshall district on July 12, 1963. She got into a car with Hindley while Brady secretly followed behind on his motorbike.
When the van reached Saddleworth Moor, Hindley stopped the van and got out before asking Pauline to help her find a missing glove. They were busy 'searching' the moors when Brady pounced upon Pauline and smashed her skull with a shovel. He then subjected her to a savage rape before slitting her throat with a knife, her spinal cord was severed and she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried her body, and it would not be discovered for more than 20 years.
John Kilbride
On November 23, 1963, Brady and Hindley struck again. This time the victim was 12-year-old John Kilbride. Like most children, he had been warned not to go away with strange men but not strange women. So when he was approached by Hindley at a market in Ashton under Lyme, he agreed to go with her when she asked him to help carry boxes.
Brady was sitting in the back of the car and when they reached the moors, he took John with him while Hindley waited in the car. On the moor, Brady subjected John to a sexual assault and attempted to strangle him with a length of string but it didn't work so he stabbed him to death and buried his body in a shallow grave.
Keith Bennett
The third victim was 12-year-old Keith Bennett who vanished on his way to his grandmother's house in Gorton on June 16, 1964. He accepted a lift off Hindley and she drove to the Moors and asked him to help search for a lost glove. Brady then lured Keith into a ravine and strangled him to death before burying his body. Hindley stood above the ravine and watched the murder taking place. Keith's body has never been found.
Lesley Ann Downey
The fourth victim was 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey who vanished from an Ancoats fairground on Boxing Day 1964. She had been lured back to Brady and Hindley's house on the Hattersley estate to 'help them carry boxes'. But they enticed her into a bedroom and subjected her to sexual abuse and torture. They tape recorded Lesley's screams for mercy and took pornographic photographs of her. She was eventually strangled to death by one of the two - Lesley's mother always insisted that Hindley was the killer. Brady and Hindley then dumped Lesley's naked body in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor.
Edward Evans
The fifth and final victim was 17-year-old Edward Evans, on October 6, 1965, who was lured to Brady and Hindley's house and hacked to death with an axe by Brady. But the crime was witnessed by Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith. He had been invited to get involved in the murder but refused and ran to the police.
Arrest
Brady was immediately arrested and charged with the murder of Edward Evans. Hindley was only arrested several days later when police found the pair's suitcase full of evidence in a locker at Manchester Central Station. Apart from the photographs and tape recording of Lesley's torture, there was also a notebook in which John's name was found. Both bodies were soon discovered and Brady and Hindley were faced with three charges of murder.
Verdict
On May 6, 1966, at Chester Crown Court, Brady was found guilty of murdering John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and given three concurrent terms of life imprisonment (the death penalty had been abolished a year earlier). Hindley was found guilty of murdering Lesley and Edward and given two life sentences, plus seven years for being an accessory to Brady in the murder of John.
Postscript
Parole bids quashed
In the late 1970s, Hindley began a campaign for parole, headed by Labour MP Lord Longford, while Brady was moved to a mental hospital and made it clear that he had no desire to be released. Since 1999 he has been force-fed after going on hunger strike. Hindley's trial judge had recommended a 25-year minimum term, which would allow her to be released in 1991. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with this recommendation in 1982.
Then, in 1986, Brady and Hindley confessed to the murders of two more missing children. They helped uncover Pauline Reade's body but Keith Bennett's was never found. Shortly after confessing to these murders, the Home Secretary increased Hindley's tariff to 30 years. This meant she would not be let out of prison until at least 1996.
Public furor unabated
The majority of the British public was strongly opposed against Hindley being released, and relatives of the victims vowed to kill her if she was ever let out. In 1990, Home Secretary David Waddington agreed with what the voters were saying and imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley, which meant she would never be released.
In December, 1997, November, 1998, and March, 2000, Hindley made appeals against the tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger, but the High Court rejected each one. Hindley's best chance of parole came in May 2002, when the Law Lords and European Court of Human Rights said that politicians should no longer decide how long a life sentence prisoner can remain in prison before being considered for parole. Her release seemed imminent and plans were already underway for her to be given a new identity.
Hindley Dies
On November 15, 2002, Myra Hindley died in a West Suffolk Hospital from a heart attack. She was 60 years old. Just 11 days later, the Home Secretary was officially stripped of his power to set minimum sentences, so the ruling came too late for Hindley.
Brady and the right to die
In 1999, Brady initiated a hunger strike while incarcerated in the high-security Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital his home since 1985. Brady took ill and was transported to another hospital for tests. He eventually recovered and was considering suing the hospitals for force-feeding him.
Brady the author
In 2001, Feral House books, an underground publishing house based in Portland, published Brady's book, The Gates of Janus. Brady examined the crimes and psychologies of several prominent serial killers, including Peter Sutcliffe, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy. He also investigates the natures of good and evil, morality, and human depravity. He did not, however attempt to look into the nature of his own crimes.