Her killing was the most notorious because of the details about her death that were presented in court. Brady read books, including Teach Yourself German and Mein Kampf, as well as works on Nazi atrocities. [101], Presented with the evidence of the tape recording, Brady admitted to taking the photographs of Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. Ann died from cancer in 1999. Moors Murders Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images [112][113], Smith was the chief prosecution witness. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. "[139], On 19 December, David Smith, then 38, spent about four hours on the moor helping police identify additional areas to be searched. [19], Hindley's father had served with the Parachute Regiment and was stationed in North Africa, Cyprus and Italy during the Second World War. Brady was also convicted of murdering John Kilbride, while Hindley was convicted of being an. [71], Early in the evening of 16 June 1964, Hindley asked twelve-year-old Keith Bennett, who was on his way to his grandmother's house in Longsight,[72] for help in loading some boxes into her Mini Pick-up, after which she said she would drive him home. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."[22]. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. [159][160] Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings. [226] Such was the strength of feeling more than thirty-five years after the murders that a reported twenty local undertakers refused to handle her cremation. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the Johnsons' house, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street. Moors Murderers' Torture Audio (Recorded in 1964) 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. [87] Over the next four days Hindley visited her employer and asked to be dismissed so that she would be eligible for unemployment benefits. [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". [13] He was sent to Latchmere House in London,[12] and then Hatfield borstal in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Speaking in 2012, Mr West said Mr Brady's death would help him. [108] National and international journalists covering the trial booked up most of the city's hotel rooms. The two remained in sporadic contact for several months,[205] but Hindley had fallen in love with one of her prison warders, Patricia Cairns. [84] Hindley denied there had been any violence, and allowed police to look around the house. [121], In his closing remarks, Atkinson described the murders as "truly horrible" and the accused as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity";[3] he recommended they spend "a very long time" in prison before being considered for parole, but did not stipulate a tariff. [233] After declining to prosecute the News of the World, Attorney General Sir Elwyn Jones came under political pressure to impose new regulations on the press, but was reluctant to legislate on "chequebook journalism". Transcript of the tape with recorded murder of Lesley Ann Downey Man - This is track four. He again appeared before the court, this time with nine charges against him,[9] and shortly before his 17th birthday he was placed on probation on condition that he live with his mother. [222] Just prior to this, on 15November 2002, Hindley, aged 60 and a chain smoker, died from bronchial pneumonia at West Suffolk Hospital. He left the academy aged 15 and took a job as a tea boy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. The real tape of Lesley-Ann Downey, 10, crying for her . At the house Downey was undressed, gagged, and forcibly posed for photographs before being raped and killed, perhaps strangled with a piece of string. When Hindley was aged about eight, a local boy scratched her cheeks, drawing blood. [117], Both Brady and Hindley entered pleas of not guilty;[118] Brady testified for over eight hours, Hindley for six. He was sent to Strangeways for three months. Hindley led him into the living room, where Brady was lying on a divan, writing to his employer about his ankle injury. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot. [220] Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered the GMP to find new charges against Hindley to prevent her release from prison. They even tape-recorded the last moments of her life. 317 The Moors Murders Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images [137], On 16 December 1986, Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of the moor. Hindley was apparently jealous of their friendship, but became closer to her sister. Family's fury as arsonist who killed brother and niece of Moors Murder Instead, the pair took them to Saddleworth Moor, an isolated area some 15 miles outside of Manchester. Clitheroe, although puzzled by her interest, arranged for her to buy a .22 rifle from a gun merchant in Manchester. Brady made more than one copy of the tape recording; a reproduction composed of children's handprints, List of serial killers in the United Kingdom, "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. [14], In 2003, the police launched Operation Maida, and again searched the moor for Bennett's body,[161] this time using sophisticated resources such as a US reconnaissance satellite which could detect soil disturbances. When Brady arrived on his motorcycle, Hindley told Reade he would be helping in the search. [231] That same year his children were taken into the care of the local authority. [62] Driving down Gorton Lane, Brady saw a young girl and signalled Hindley, who did not stop because she recognised the girl as an 8-year-old neighbour of her mother. 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. The monastery where, as an infant in 1942, Hindley had been baptised a Catholic, had a lasting effect on her. [240] It was a threat repeated by her son Danny. [213][259] At the 1997 Sensation art exhibition, a reproduction composed of children's handprints caused controversy. He died in 2017, at Ashworth, aged 79. Many of the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley on the moor featured Hindley's dog Puppet, sometimes as a puppy. [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. . [217][218], When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others, whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released. None of Maureen's relatives attended. At 6:10a.m., having waited for daylight and armed himself with a screwdriver and bread knife in case Brady was planning to intercept him Smith called police from a phone box on the estate. Brother of Moors murderers' victim Lesley Ann Downey admits he will Their next victim, John Kilbride, was killed on 23 November. [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. Various authors have stated that he tortured animals, although Brady objected to such accusations. [124] Throughout the trial Brady and Hindley "stuck rigidly to their strategy of lying",[125] and Hindley was later described as "a quiet, controlled, impassive witness who lied remorselessly". I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick. The murders have this name because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, more than 20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in . Lesley was raped and murdered by the evil pair before being dumped in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor, where she lay undiscovered until October 1965, over nine months later. Visitors to the burial site of 10 year-old murder victim Lesley Ann Downey on Saddleworth Moor in the South Pennines, circa 1965. Amidst strong media interest Lord Longford pleaded for her release, writing that continuing her detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Since her daughter's death, she had campaigned to ensure that Hindley remained in prison, and doctors said that the stress had contributed to the severity of her illness. [238] Downey's mother died in 1999 from cancer of the liver. Ann Downey, mother of Lesley Ann Downey at fairground, searching for a clue to her daughter's disappearance, 17th July 1965. Lesley Ann Downey was Brady and Hindley's youngest victim when she was murdered on 26 December, 1964. [185] In 1999, his right wrist was broken in what he claimed was an "hour-long, unprovoked attack" by staff. [44] Brady and Hindley's plans for robbery came to nothing, but they became interested in photography. [254], In November 2017 it was revealed that, without the knowledge of her family, some of the remains of Pauline Reade, including her jaw bone, had been kept at the University of Leeds by Greater Manchester Police. [221], On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences. [139] On 10 February 1987 Hindley formally confessed to involvement in all five murders,[141] but this was not made public for more than a month. At least four of them were sexually assaulted. Once Kilbride was inside Hindley's hired Ford Anglia car, Brady said they would have to make a detour to their home for the sherry. [214] In 1996, the Parole Board recommended that Hindley be moved to an open prison. For The Love Of Lesley: Moors Murders Rem, West, Ann - eBay [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. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. Her father was an alcoholic who was frequently violent towards his wife and children. 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. Brady, who was born in Glasgow but later moved to Manchester, was jailed in 1966 for the murders of John Kilbride, aged 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17. Moors Murders: Search for Keith Bennett's body restarts Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. [265] Manchester band The Smiths' song "Suffer Little Children", from their 1984 self-titled debut album, was also inspired by the case. Stewart had little support and after a few months was forced to give her son into the care of Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own. [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. [7] Brady was accepted for Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils. [200] Brady had refused food and fluids for more than forty-eight hours on various occasions, causing him to be fitted with a nasogastric tube, although his inquest noted that his body mass index was not a cause for concern. [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. Pictures of. [53] The couple never harmed Hodges, since she lived only a few doors away, which would have made it easy for police to solve any disappearance. 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. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to two days' detention. [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. On his release from prison, Smith moved in with a 15-year-old girl who became his second wife and won custody of his three sons. [136] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. [165] In 2012, it was claimed that Brady may have given details of the location of Bennett's body to a visitor; a woman was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful excuse, but a few months later the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there was insufficient evidence to press charges. The Moors Murders: A Notorious Couple and Their Young Prey [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. [106] Hindley wrote to her mother: I feel as though my heart's been torn to pieces. In 2011, he co-authored the book Witness with biographer Carol Ann Lee. The marriage was hastily arranged and performed at a register office. [35] Brady was taken to HM Prison Durham and Hindley was sent to HM Prison Holloway. Visitors to the burial site of 10 year-old murder victim Lesley Ann Downey on Saddleworth Moor in the South Pennines, circa 1965. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.[59][60]. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months. Police found no one who had seen Reade before her disappearance, and although the 15-year-old Smith was questioned by police, he was cleared of any involvement in her death.[49]. Lesley Ann Downey's Grave & More | CRIME | MOORS MURDERS - YouTube [99] They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody. After a few minutes Brady reappeared in the company of 17-year-old Edward Evans, an apprentice engineer who lived in Ardwick, to whom he introduced Hindley as his sister. In June 1957,[23] one of Hindley's closest friends, 13-year-old Michael Higgins, invited Hindley to go swimming with friends at a local disused reservoir, but she instead went out elsewhere with another friend. [6] It was reported, for example, that Brady boasted of killing his first cat when he was aged just 10, and then went on to burn another cat alive, stone dogs and cut off rabbits' heads. [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. Moors murders: Spade clue could help locate Keith Bennett's body [176], The trial judge recommended that Brady's life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries agreed with that decision. It was simply beyond the realms of most people's comprehension, and this is why they managed to get away with it for so long. 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. A NEW drama will feature a recreation of the shocking Moors Murders tape which recorded the torture and death of one of the child victims. [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. [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. [116] Comparing Smith's testimony with his initial statements to police, Atkinsonthough describing the paper's actions as "gross interference with the course of justice"concluded it was not "substantially affected" by the financial incentive. She burst into tears and ran to her father, who threatened to "leather" her if she did not retaliate; Hindley found the boy and knocked him down with a series of punches. GMP apologised to the Reade family. [230], David Smith became "reviled by the people of Manchester"[231] for financially profiting from the murders. She did, though, later remember that as Reade was being buried she had been sitting next to her on a patch of grass and could see the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky. [257] Hindley's role in the crimes also violated gender norms: her betrayal of the maternal role fed public perceptions of her "inherent evil", and made her a "poster girl" for moral panics about serial murder and paedophilia in subsequent decades. E39: The Moors Murders - Lesley Ann Downey Plus an Update on Gabby [39] They also read works by the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche[39] and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Once Kilbride was inside Hindley's hired Ford Anglia car, Brady said they would have to make a detour to their home for the sherry. The twisted pair were convicted of kidnapping, torturing, and murdering five kids as well as sexually assault four - one as young as ten. 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. [260] Given Hindley's status as co-defendant in the first serial murder trial held since the abolition of the death penalty,[261] retribution was a common theme among those who sought to keep her locked away. Tragic legacy of Lesley Anne Downey's lonely trip to a the fair [d][182], During several years of interactions with forensic psychologist Chris Cowley, including face-to-face meetings,[183] Brady told him of an "aesthetic fascination [he had] with guns",[184] despite his never having used one to kill. [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. [84] As Brady was getting dressed, he said, "Eddie and I had a row and the situation got out of hand. He rode a Tiger Cub motorcycle, which he used to visit the Pennines. Getty Images The mother of one of the Moors murder victims has died after a long battle against liver cancer. When linked to the sites where the bodies of three of the other Moors murder victims - John Kilbride, 12, Pauline Reade, 16 and Lesley Ann Downey, 10 - were found the location of the spade . [132] It ended: "I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. [114] When Smith accepted the News of the World offerits editors had promised additional future payments for syndication and serialisationhe agreed to be paid 15 weekly until the trial, and 1,000 in a lump sum if Brady and Hindley were convicted. [262], Lord Longford, a Catholic convert, campaigned to secure the release of "celebrated" criminals, and Hindley in particular, which earned him constant derision from the public and the press. The little girl's voice was full of fear. [31] Over the next few months she continued to make entries, but grew increasingly disillusioned with him, until 22 December when Brady asked her on a date to the cinema. [28], In January 1961, the 18-year-old Hindley joined Millwards as a typist. The only consolation is that some moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him. [76] Hindley's family had not approved of Maureen's marriage to Smith, who had several criminal convictions, including actual bodily harm and housebreaking, the first of which, wounding with intent, occurred when he was 11. [107], The 14-day trial began in a specially-prepared court room at Chester Assizes before Justice Fenton Atkinson, on 19 April 1966. Pilot) RM G63PEE - A police-mounted search of Saddleworth Moor, near Woodhead, for the bodies of the victims of the Moors Murderers. Ann west, mother of Lesley Ann Downey, 1990. [245] Smith died from cancer in Ireland in 2012. [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. [202][203], Hindley lodged an unsuccessful appeal against her conviction immediately after the trial. [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. Even Hindley's mother insisted that she should die in prison, partly for fear for Hindley's safety. Victim: Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10, whose body was found in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moors ( Image: PA) Victim: John Kilbride, aged 12, whose remains were also discovered on the. Moors murders - Wikipedia [29] She soon became infatuated with Brady, despite learning that he had a criminal record. Downey's mother was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until her death in February 1999, she regularly gave television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured. Fisher persuaded Hindley to release a public statement, which touched on her reasons for denying her guilt previously, her religious experiences in prison, and the letter from Johnson. [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". [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". [73], Brady and Hindley visited a funfair in Ancoats on 26 December 1964 and noticed that 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey was apparently alone. [97], Also among the photographs in the suitcase were a number of scenes of the Moors. [5] Aged 9, he visited Loch Lomond with his family, where he reportedly discovered an affinity for the outdoors. [149], Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had focused efforts on a specific area. [26] At 17, she became engaged after a short courtship, but called it off several months later after deciding the young man was immature and unable to provide her with the life she wanted. Chester, England, 22nd April 1966, David Smith brother in-law of Myra . According to Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide". He was regarded by his colleagues as a quiet, punctual, but short-tempered young man. [24] Hindley's father had insisted she have a Catholic baptism, and her mother agreed, on the condition that she not be sent to a Catholic school; Nellie Hindley believed that "all the monks taught was the catechism". She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans. Mrs Ann Downey watching the police search Saddleworth moors for the body of her daughter Lesley, a victim of the Moors Murderers Ian Brady and Myra. [50] Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December, apparently to make sure the burial sites at Saddleworth Moor had not been disturbed. [15], In January 1959, Brady applied for, and was offered, a clerical job at Millwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton. [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". [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. Proceed at own risk. While reading a book about serial killers, I have come across the Moors Murders involving Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were gay, and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates". In Brady's account, Hindley was not only present for the attack, but participated in the sexual assault. After work he instructed her to drive a borrowed van around while he followed on his motorcycle; when he spotted a likely victim he would flash his headlight. I don't think anything could hurt me more than this has. More to explore: Murder Casebook Magazines, Murder in Mind Magazines, She was present, under heavy sedation, at the funeral of her daughter on 7 August 1987. [127] This followed claims in 2004 that Hindley had told another inmate that she and Brady had murdered a sixth victim, a teenage girl. The pair had lured Lesley away from a funfair on Boxing day in 1964, a day when most families were out enjoying the fresh air. The investigation was reopened in 1985 after Brady was reported as having confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett. Serial killer shock: The final desperate last words to sadistic Moors [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. The death of Lesley Ann Downey at the hands of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in 1964 conferred a life sentence on her mother, who tells her story in this book. [194] In 2006 officials intercepted 50paracetamol pills hidden inside a hollowed-out crime novel sent to Brady by a female friend. Ian Brady's briefcases (lost personal documents of Moors Murderer; 1963-2017) Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. He described Hindley as a "delightful" person and said "you could loathe what people did but should not loathe what they were because human personality was sacred even though human behaviour was very often appalling". [191], According to Cowley, Brady regretted Hindley's imprisonment and the consequences of their actions, but not necessarily the crimes themselves. [51], Hindley's sister, Maureen, married David Smith on 15 August 1964.