[267][268], According to the 2020 television documentary Rose West & Myra Hindley: Their Untold Story with Trevor McDonald, Hindley and another British serial murderer, Rosemary West, "grew close in jail, bonding over their similar crimes, then had an affair, which cooled as they became rivals to be 'prison royalty.'"[269]. Ian Brady And The Grisly Moors Murders That Terrorized England First victim Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a . [35][40][a] Although Hindley was not a qualified driver (she passed her test on 7 November 1963 after failing three times),[43] she often hired a van, in which the couple planned bank robberies. Myra Hindley was born in England. [56] Despite a huge search, she was not found. 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. [174] He spent nineteen years in mainstream prisons before being diagnosed as a psychopath in November 1985 and sent to the high-security Park Lane Hospital, now Ashworth Hospital, in Maghull, Merseyside;[175] he made it clear that he never wanted to be released. According to Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide". [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. [54], Early on Boxing Day 1964, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative's house and refused to allow her back to Wardle Brook Avenue that night. Brady read books, including Teach Yourself German and Mein Kampf, as well as works on Nazi atrocities. The pair were convicted of murdering five children, although the true number will never be known. [249] Five years after their son was murdered, Sheila and Patrick Kilbride divorced. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley and Brady were brought to trial on April 27, 1966, where they pleaded not guilty to the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride. Myra Hindley, who became one of Britain's most hated women because of her involvement in a string of child killings in the 1960's, died today, the Prison Service said. Wearing a bread deliveryman's overall on top of his uniform, he asked Hindley at the back door if her husband was home. Hindley, along with her boyfriend Ian Brady . I wanted her to suffer like I have. [121], The sixteen-minute tape recording[97][c] of Downey, on which the voices of Brady and Hindley were audible, was played in open court. They were convicted of three murders in 1966, and confessed to two further. [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. Myra (painting) - Wikipedia [236], Maureen and her immediate family made regular visits to see Hindley, who reportedly adored her niece. Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are known to have killed at least five child victims. After the drowning death of a close male friend when she was 15, Hindley left school and converted to Roman Catholicism. She was present, under heavy sedation, at the funeral of her daughter on 7 August 1987. [178], Although Brady refused to work with Ashworth's psychiatrists, he occasionally corresponded with people outside the hospitalsubject to prison authorities' censorship[179] including Lord Longford, writer Colin Wilson, and various journalists. [208], Hindley was told that she should spend twenty-five years in prison before being considered for parole. [108] Other elaborate security precautions included a public address system costing 2,500 and 500 worth of telephone equipment. Their home was vandalised, they regularly received hate mail, and Maureen wrote that she could not let her children out of her sight when they were small. [84] As Brady was getting dressed, he said, "Eddie and I had a row and the situation got out of hand. Child killer Myra Hindley accused fellow Moors Murderer Ian Brady of drugging, raping and beating her. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the time, would have been considered explicit. [192] Twenty years of transcribing classical texts into braille came to an end when the authorities confiscated Brady's translation machine, for fear it might be used as a weapon. Hindley was furious, and accused the police of murdering the dog one of the few occasions detectives witnessed any emotional response from her. She was convicted, along with her accomplice Ian Brady, of murdering five children between July 1963 and October 1965 . Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. [136] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. Bob served in a parachute regiment during World War II so was absent for the majority of the first three years of Hindley's life. [130], On 3 July 1985, DCS Topping visited Brady, then being held at HM Prison Gartree in Leicestershire, but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders". Myra Hindley, 60, 'Moors Murderer' of Children - The New York Times [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. [144], Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. [149], Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had focused efforts on a specific area. Myra Hindley's private documents reveal graphic details of Ian Brady's Their crime was the most hideous and cruel in modern times. [234], After stabbing another man during a fight, in an attack he claimed was triggered by the abuse he had suffered since the trial, Smith was sentenced to three years in prison in 1969. [145], At about the same time, Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. On 11 October, she too was arrested and taken into custody, being charged as an accessory to the murder of Evans and was remanded at HM Prison Risley. ", "Book by Moors Murder witness David Smith recalls horror", "Man who helped jail Moors murderers dies of cancer", "Moors Murder mother Winnie Johnson in DVD appeal to Brady", "Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett, dies", "Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett's mother dies", "Police kept body parts of Moors murders victim without family's knowledge", "Moors Murders: Pauline Reade's remains reburied", "Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader", "Goreytelling Episode 5: The Loathsome Couple", "From Myra Hindley to Three Girls: Maxine Peake's life and career", "Rose West's life behind bars to feature in ITV documentary", The official Keith Bennett website (archived version), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moors_murders&oldid=1141405323, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 22:27. Ian Brady, who had been . Few outside the art world remember the name Marcus Harvey, but many recall his portrait of serial child killer Myra Hindley composed of children's handprints. BURY ST EDMUNDS, England -- Moors murderer Myra Hindley spent more than half her life in prison for crimes which shocked Britain and made her a national hate figure. [63] Sometime after 7:30 pm,[64] on Froxmer Street, Brady signalled Hindley to stop for 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a schoolmate of Hindley's sister Maureen on her way to a dance; Hindley offered Reade a lift. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered. [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. Ian Brady: The killer who showed no remorse - BBC News A number of authors stated that as a child he tortured animals, although Brady objected to these accusations. Hindley had been charged with the murders of Downey and Evans, and being an accessory to the murder of Kilbride. Myra Hindley was an English serial killer. In July 1963, they claimed their first victim, Pauline Reade. [35], In 1985, Brady allegedly told Fred Harrison, a journalist working for The Sunday People, that he had killed Reade and Bennett,[126] something the police already suspected as both lived near Brady and Hindley and had disappeared at about the same time as Kilbride and Downey. [172] On 7 October the police announced they had ended their search without finding any sign of human remains. He was lying with his head and shoulders on the couch and his legs were on the floor. [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. [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". Ian Brady's childhood: The young boy with a sadistic streak who Astrological Sign: Leo, Death Year: 2002, Death date: November 16, 2002, Article Title: Myra Hindley Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/myra-hindley, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: May 12, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. [4] The identity of Brady's father has never been reliably ascertained, although his mother said he was a reporter working for a Glasgow newspaper who died three months before Brady was born. [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". [232] During the trial, Maureeneight months pregnantwas attacked in the lift of the building in which she and Smith lived. Hindley and her solicitor left Cookham Wood at 4:30am, flew to the moor by helicopter from an airfield near Maidstone, and then were driven, and walked, around the area until 3:00pm. He did not refer directly to Bennett by name and did not claim he could take investigators directly to the grave, but spoke of the "clarity" of his recollections. "[85], Though Hindley was not initially arrested, she demanded to go with Brady to the police station, taking her dog. [207] With help from Cairns, and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. [7] Brady was accepted for Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils. [254], Manchester City Council decided in 1987 to demolish the house in which Brady and Hindley had lived on Wardle Brook Avenue, and where Downey and Evans were murdered, citing "excessive media interest [in the property] creating unpleasantness for residents". Myra Hindley was born on 23 July, 1942, in Crumpsall, a suburb in Manchester. The victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - the Guardian When police asked for the key to the locked spare bedroom, she said it was at her workplace; but after police offered to take her to retrieve it, Brady told her to hand it over. The murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade were not attributed to Myra Hindley and Ian Brady until 1985, after "Suffer Little Children" had already been released. [107], The 14-day trial began in a specially-prepared court room at Chester Assizes before Justice Fenton Atkinson, on 19 April 1966. During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she took part in the killings only because Brady had drugged her, was blackmailing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her, and had threatened to kill Maureen. Ian Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley sexually tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965. [173], Following his conviction Brady was moved to HM Prison Durham, where he asked to live in solitary confinement. Smith then went to the police with his story, including Brady having mentioned that more bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor. On 21 October they found the "badly decomposed" body of Kilbride, which had to be identified by clothing. 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. [239] Shortly before her death at the age of 70, Sheila said: "If she [Hindley] ever comes out of jail I'll kill her". Hindley returned with Smith and told him to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. Even on her death bed, Hindley refused to give . [35] She expressed concern at some aspects of Brady's character; in a letter to a childhood friend, she mentioned an incident where she had been drugged by Brady, but also wrote of her obsession with him. [213] Then Home Secretary David Waddington imposed a whole life tariff on Hindley in July 1990, after she confessed to having been more involved in the murders than she had admitted. [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. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot. [213][260] At the 1997 Sensation art exhibition, a reproduction composed of children's handprints caused controversy. She divorced Smith in 1973,[235] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady. The victims were children between the ages of 10 and 17, boys and girls. [222] Just prior to this, on 15November 2002, Hindley, aged 60 and a chain smoker, died from bronchial pneumonia at West Suffolk Hospital. [255], 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. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and Hindley was given two, plus a concurrent seven-year term for harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had murdered Kilbride. Keith Bennett Brady returned alone after about thirty minutes, and took Hindley to the spot where Reade lay dying; Reade's clothes were in disarray and she had been nearly decapitated[67] by two cuts to the throat, including a four-inch incision across her voice box "inflicted with considerable force" and into which the collar of her coat and a throat chain had been pushed. Ian Brady - Death, Victims & Myra Hindley - Biography Although Winnie Johnson's letter may have played a part, he believed that Hindley, knowing of Brady's "precarious" mental state, was concerned he might co-operate with the police and reap any available public-approval benefit. [134] She showed particular interest in photos of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said that it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the moor. Brady and Hindley suggested they take a detour to the Moors, because they needed help looking for a lost glove. Her subsequent applications for parole were denied. The investigation was headed by Superintendent Tony Brett, and initially looked at charging Hindley with the murders of Reade and Bennett, but the advice given by government lawyers was that because of the DPP's decision taken fifteen years earlier, a new trial would probably be considered an abuse of process. [12] As he was still under 18, Brady was sentenced to two years in a borstal for "training". [177] Hindley was not informed of the decision until 1994, when a Law Lords ruling obliged the Prison Service to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period they must serve in prison before being considered for parole. [57] By February 1965, Hodges had stopped visiting Wardle Brook Avenue, but Smith was still a regular visitor. [19], Hindley's father had served with the Parachute Regiment and was stationed in North Africa, Cyprus and Italy during the Second World War. Myra Hindley - Victims, Ian Brady & Facts - Biography [135] Home Secretary Douglas Hurd agreed with DCS Topping that a visit would be worth risking despite security problems presented by threats against Hindley. [82], Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Stalybridge police division went to Wardle Brook Avenue, accompanied by a detective sergeant. At the house Downey was undressed, gagged, and forcibly posed for photographs before being raped and killed, perhaps strangled with a piece of string. [143] He added that he "was struck by the fact that [in Hindley's telling] she was never there when the killings took place. She was only a toddler when her young mother, Mary, left home, married again, and began to raise a new family. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. Once presented with some of the details that Hindley had provided of Reade's abduction, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess, but on one condition: that immediately afterwards he be given the means to commit suicide, a request with which it was impossible for the authorities to comply. The prosecution's opening statement was held in camera rather than in open court,[103] and the defence asked for a similar stipulation but was refused. Children: Who Is Maureen Hindley Daughter? - Show Biz Cast [99] They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody. [132] It ended: "I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. Brady was an unusual person with a criminal background, which she was aware of. The BAFTA-winning actor was fresh from shooting a scene when he walked across a . Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick. As a child, she lived with Nellie Hindley in a little two-up, two-down semi-detached house. He left the academy aged 15 and took a job as a tea boy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. [39] They also read works by the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche[39] and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. Following the first . [157], Soon after his first visit to the moor, Brady wrote a letter to a BBC reporter, giving some sketchy details of five additional deaths that he claimed to have been involved in: a man in the Piccadilly area of Manchester, another victim on Saddleworth Moor, two more in Scotland, and a woman whose body was allegedly dumped in a canal. Each was brought before the court separately and remanded into custody for a week. Myra Hindley was an English serial killer. 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]. [256] In October 2018 her remains were re-buried at her grave in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester. Ian was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 2, 1938. . Born on July 23, 1942, in Manchester, England, Hindley grew up with her grandmother. [263], 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. When Brady arrived on his motorcycle, Hindley told Reade he would be helping in the search. [81], After the murder of Evans, Smith agreed to return the following morning with his baby's pram, to transport the body to the car, before disposing of it on the moor. After about thirty minutes Brady returned alone, carrying a spade that he had hidden there earlier, and, in response to Hindley's questions, said that he had sexually assaulted Bennett and strangled him with a piece of string. In partnership with Ian Brady, she committed the rapes and murders of five small children. Brady got introduced to Myra in the early 1960s, and she quickly fell in love with him. She took up a collection for a wreath; his funeral was held at St Francis's Monastery in Gorton Lane. Hindley did not approve of the marriage, and her mother was too embarrassed as Maureen was seven months pregnant. [264] Tabloid newspapers branded him a "loony" and a "do-gooder" for supporting Hindley, whom they described as evil. [152], DCS Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moor[151] before police called off their search on 24 August. Despite dating other people, Brady was always the man she wanted to be with, so the fascination was incredible. They approached her and deliberately dropped some shopping they were carrying, then asked her for help in taking the packages to their car, and then to Wardle Brook Avenue. By then, he claimed, he and Hindley had turned their attention to armed robbery, for which they had begun to prepare by acquiring guns and vehicles. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley: The Moors Murders | Bizarrepedia [80] Brady sprained his ankle in the struggle, and Evans's body was too heavy for Smith to carry to the car on his own, so they wrapped it in plastic sheeting and put it in the spare bedroom. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. Brady and Hindley killed five children - Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans all aged between 10 and 17, and at least four of whom were sexually. Maureen moved from Underwood Court to a single-bedroom property, and found work in a department store. Myra and Ian tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965 and the series shines a light on some of the never-previously-seen prison letters between the killers. In 1970, Hindley severed all contact with Brady and, still professing her innocence, began a lifelong campaign to regain her freedom. [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. When police returned to the living room they arrested Brady on suspicion of murder. [237] Sheila and Patrick Kilbride, who were by then divorced,[238] attended Maureen's funeral thinking that Hindley might be there; Patrick mistook Bill Scott's daughter from a previous relationship for Hindley and tried to attack her. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. Hindley plead not guilty to all of the murders. In 1960s Britain, people did not kidnap and murder children for fun. Some individuals with deceased relatives have continued to search for their physical remains after the deaths of the murderers. [98] That same day, already being held for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrates' Court charged with Downey's murder. [151], Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided that nothing would be gained by a further trial; as both were already serving life sentences no further punishment could be inflicted. [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. Hindley claimed that when Downey was being undressed she herself was "downstairs"; when the pornographic photographs were taken she was "looking out the window"; and that when Downey was being strangled she "was running a bath". [95], Officers making inquiries at neighbouring houses spoke to 12-year-old Patricia Hodges, who had on several occasions been taken to Saddleworth Moor by Brady and Hindley, and was able to point out their favourite sites along the A635 road. [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. Almost 20 years after being sent to prison, he confessed to killing two more. En route he suggested another detour, this time to search for a glove Hindley had lost on the moor. [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. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed, he was moved to the much tougher unit in Hull. [38] The couple were regulars at the library, borrowing books on philosophy, as well as crime and torture. [258] 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. (1942-2002) Who Was Myra Hindley? Greater Manchester Police (GMP) reopened the investigation, now to be headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).