(1942-2002) Who Was Myra Hindley? One such victim was Stephen Jennings, a three-year-old West Yorkshire boy who was last seen alive in December 1962; his body was found buried in a field in 1988, but the following year his father, William Jennings, was found guilty of his murder. How many children did Ian Brady and Myra Hindley kill? [223] She had been diagnosed with angina in 1999 and hospitalised after suffering a brain aneurysm. [166] In 2017, the police asked a court to order that two locked briefcases owned by Brady be opened, arguing that they might contain clues to the location of Bennett's body; the application was declined on the grounds that no prosecution was likely to result. [104] The proceedings continued before three magistrates in Hyde over an eleven-day period during December, at the end of which the pair were committed for trial at Chester Assizes.[35][105]. [164] Donations from the public funded a search by volunteers from a Welsh search and rescue team in 2010. [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. [91] Inside one of the cases wereamong an assortment of costumes, notes, photographs and negativesnine pornographic photographs taken of Downey, naked and with a scarf tied across her mouth, and a sixteen-minute audiotape recording of a girl identifying herself as "Lesley Ann Weston"[b] screaming, crying, and pleading to be allowed to return home to her mother. [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. He died in 2017, at Ashworth, aged 79. [2] The trial judge, Justice Fenton Atkinson, described Brady and Hindley in his closing remarks as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity". The following day, Hindley brought her grandmother back home. She was born and raised in Manchester's Gorton, a working-class community. The monastery where, as an infant in 1942, Hindley had been baptised a Catholic, had a lasting effect on her. I have had enough. The lad was still screaming Ian had a hatchet in his hand he was holding it above his head and he hit the lad on the left side of his head with the hatchet. Jones decided not to charge the News of the World on similar grounds. Brady met Myra in the mid-1960s, and she immediately developed passionate feelings for him. None of Maureen's relatives attended. Many of the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley on the moor featured Hindley's dog Puppet, sometimes as a puppy. The BAFTA-winning actor was fresh from shooting a scene when he walked across a . According to Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide". On the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1964, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a local fairground. [256] In October 2018 her remains were re-buried at her grave in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester. Maureen managed to repair the relationship with her mother, and moved into a council property in Gorton. [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. In 1961, she met Ian Brady, a stock clerk who was recently released from prison. As a child, she lived with Nellie Hindley in a little two-up, two-down semi-detached house. She fell in love with him and soon gave herself over to his total control. [170] After seeing a photograph of a jaw bone, a spokesperson for the police said, of the identity of the remains, that it was "far too early to be certain". 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". [149], Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had focused efforts on a specific area. [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. The case featured in two television dramas in 2006, See No Evil: The Moors Murders and Longford. [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. [239] Shortly before her death at the age of 70, Sheila said: "If she [Hindley] ever comes out of jail I'll kill her". When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. [213][260] At the 1997 Sensation art exhibition, a reproduction composed of children's handprints caused controversy. All Rights Reserved. [187][189], Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. The Moors Murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. To help date the photos, detectives had a veterinary surgeon examine the dog to determine his age; the examination required a general anaesthetic from which Puppet did not recover. 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. [128] Jennifer Tighe, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from an Oldham children's home in December 1964, was mentioned in the press some forty years later but was confirmed by police to be alive. Nine months later, he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. [68] When Hindley asked Brady whether he had raped Reade, Brady replied, "Of course I did." She also asked to join a pistol club, but she was a poor shot and allegedly often bad-tempered, so Clitheroe told her that she was unsuitable; she did though manage to purchase a Webley .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 from other members of the club. [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. [138] Police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, some armed. Testing her blind allegiance, Brady hatched plans of rape and murder. [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. They were both jailed for life. [177] By that time Hindley claimed to be a reformed Catholic. Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963,[47] and often spoke to her about Meyer Levin's Compulsion, published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the cinema in 1959. [87] Over the next four days Hindley visited her employer and asked to be dismissed so that she would be eligible for unemployment benefits. [251][252][253] She died in August 2012. After confessing to these additional murders, Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist in the search for the graves. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. [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. [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. With his girlfriend Myra Hindley, Ian Brady kidnapped, tortured, and murdered five children one as young as 10 in a series of notorious slayings known as the Moors Murders. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are two of the most infamous murderers in British history.. [219] Hindley's release seemed imminent and plans were made by supporters for her to be given a new identity. They were convicted of three murders in 1966, and confessed to two further. Smith had told police that Brady had boasted of "photographic proof" of multiple murders, and officers, struck by Brady's decision to remove the apparently innocent landscapes from the house, appealed to locals for assistance finding locations to match the photographs. [148], In April 1987, news of Hindley's confession became public. In Brady's account, Hindley was not only present for the attack, but participated in the sexual assault. Myra and Ian tortured and murdered five children between 1963 and 1965 and the series shines a light on some of the never-previously-seen prison letters between the killers. Myra Hindley did not have a child at the time. "[85], Though Hindley was not initially arrested, she demanded to go with Brady to the police station, taking her dog. 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. Clitheroe, although puzzled by her interest, arranged for her to buy a .22 rifle from a gun merchant in Manchester. [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. She divorced Smith in 1973,[235] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. [57] By February 1965, Hodges had stopped visiting Wardle Brook Avenue, but Smith was still a regular visitor. The four victims had . Myra Hindley was an English serial killer. ", "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. [14] Released on 14 November 1957, Brady returned to Manchester, where he took a labouring job which he hated, and was dismissed from another job in a brewery. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images, Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: Myra Hindley, Birth Year: 1942, Birth date: July 23, 1942, Birth City: Manchester, Birth Country: England. Her father was an alcoholic who was frequently violent towards his wife and children. [106] Hindley wrote to her mother: I feel as though my heart's been torn to pieces. [52], In 1964, Hindley, her grandmother, and Brady were rehoused as part of the post-war slum clearances in Manchester, to 16Wardle Brook Avenue in the new overspill estate of Hattersley, Cheshire. 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. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick. 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. Brady was also convicted of the murder of. Between December 1997 and March 2000, Hindley made three separate appeals against her life tariff, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but each was rejected by the courts. Hindley and Brady were brought to trial on April 27, 1966, where they pleaded not guilty to the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride. Hodges accompanied the two on their trips to Saddleworth Moor to collect peat, something that many householders on the new estate did to improve the soil in their gardens, which were full of clay and builder's rubble. 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. [55] On the same day, Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a funfair in Ancoats. At some point Brady sent Hindley to fetch Smith, her brother-in-law. She worked as a clerk at an . I wanted her to suffer like I have. Hindley and Brady murdered five children, aged between 10 and 17, in the Greater Manchester area between July 1963 and October 1965. The pair were charged only for the murders of Kilbride, Downey and Evans, and received life sentences under a whole life tariff. She was never released and died in prison in 2002. "[133], Police visited Hindley then being held in HM Prison Cookham Wood in Kent a few days after she received the letter, and although she refused to admit any involvement in the killings, she agreed to help by looking at photographs and maps to try to identify spots she had visited with Brady. 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. [240] It was a threat repeated by her son Danny. Brady was found guilty of the murders of Downey, Kilbride and Evans, while Hindley was found guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans, and for harboring Brady, in the knowledge that he had killed Kilbride. [222] Just prior to this, on 15November 2002, Hindley, aged 60 and a chain smoker, died from bronchial pneumonia at West Suffolk Hospital. [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. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. For the punk band, see, Brady and Hindley after their arrests in October1965, Brady told the police thirty years later that everything he had ever done was in. [189], In 2001, Brady wrote The Gates of Janus, which was published by the US underground publisher Feral House. [77] Throughout the previous year Brady had been cultivating a friendship with Smith, who had become "in awe" of Brady, something that increasingly worried Hindley as she felt it compromised their safety.[78]. When Hindley was aged about eight, a local boy scratched her cheeks, drawing blood. 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. [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. [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. [115] During the trial, the judge and defence barristers repeatedly questioned Smith and his wife about the nature of the arrangement. 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. There were always suspicions there may have been more. 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. [171] On 1 October the police reported that no further remains had been found. Myra Hindley and Rose West became two of the most despised and feared women in Britain when their secret lives as serial killers were exposed. As she wrote later, "At eight years old I'd scored my first victory". [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. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed, he was moved to the much tougher unit in Hull. Finally, in October 1965, police were alerted to the duo by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith. [172] On 7 October the police announced they had ended their search without finding any sign of human remains. She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans. Their living situation deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946, and the following year five-year-old Myra was sent to live nearby with her grandmother. 1 Comments. [257], The photographs and tape recording of the torture of Downey exhibited in court, and the nonchalant responses of Brady and Hindley, helped to ensure their lasting notoriety. [180] In one letter, written in 2005, Brady claimed that the murders were "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964". Hindley, along with her boyfriend Ian Brady . In 1960s Britain, people did not kidnap and murder children for fun. [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. The excursion caused a furore in the national press and earned Wing an official rebuke from the then-Home Secretary Robert Carr. [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. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased her tariff to thirty years. 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. 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. Wearing a bread deliveryman's overall on top of his uniform, he asked Hindley at the back door if her husband was home. Myra Hindley was born on 23 July, 1942, in Crumpsall, a suburb in Manchester. Keith Bennett On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A few months later, she asked her friend to destroy the letter. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months. Brady's application was rejected and the judge stated that he "continues to suffer from a mental disorder which is of a nature and degree which makes it appropriate for him to continue to receive medical treatment". [215] She rejected the idea and in early 1998 was moved to the medium-security HM Prison Highpoint;[216] the House of Lords ruling left open the possibility of later freedom. He saw no point in making any kind of public apology; instead, he "expresse[d] remorse through actions".