Ian Brady and Myra Hindley July 1963 – October 1965 in Manchester area
These two letters have become the personification of evil for many people – they committed horrific crimes and have shown little remorse, not even letting grieving relatives know where at least one victim is buried. Like many killer couples, they drove each other to worse and worse behaviour, torturing and killing children.
Ian Brady showed deviant behaviour from an early age. As he moved from one foster home to the next, he took revenge by torturing animals and then young children. This and petty crime meant he spent much of his teens on probation or in Borstal.
Myra Hindley had a more conventional, almost boring, childhood, and it was only when she met Ian Brady at work that she started to think about torture, playing up to Brady’s fantasies about Nazi concentration camp guards and sado-masochistic pornography.
Brady and Hindley had a close relationship with Myra’s sister Maureen and her husband David Smith. Brady even boasted to Smith that he had killed 3 or 4 people (although that may not have been true then).
THEIR VICTIMS
Pauline Reade
12 July 1963
Brady told Hindley he wanted to commit a murder, and Hindley drove a van while Brady rode his motorbike, looking for a victim. Eventually Brady told Hindley to pick up 16-year old Reade, who was a friend of Maureen Hindley. Hindley said she needed Reade’s help finding a lost glove on nearby Saddleworth Moor. Brady joined them and took Reade away onto the Moor, returning 30 minutes later, taking Hindley to see the dying Reade, who had been raped and then her throat cut so deeply she was almost decapitated. They then buried the body (this is Hindley’s version of events: Brady said Hindley took part in the rape and murder).
John Kilbride
23 November 1963
Hindley and Brady offered 12 year old Kilbride a lift home from Ashton under Lyne market. They again used the story of the lost glove to take their victim to the Moor, where Brady took Kilbride away form the car, attempted to rape him and cut his throat, before strangling him with a shoelace.
Keith Bennett
16 June 1964
Hindley asked Keith to help her load some boxes into a van, and that she would give him a lift home. Brady was hiding in the back of the van. Hindley drove to Saddleworth Moor, and again Brady took Bennett away alone. The returned after about 30 minutes, carrying the spade he used to bury the child’s body, telling Hindley he was sexually assaulted and then strangled him.
Lesley Ann Downey
26 December 1964
Hindley and Brady were at a fairground on Boxing Day 1964, and noticed 10-year-old Downey, apparently alone. They asked her to help them carry some shopping to their car and then their house. At the house, Brady made tape recordings and took photographs as Downey was assaulted, raped and then killed. Hindley said she went to run a bath and came back to find Downey was dead, but Brady said Hindley killed Downey. The following day they drove to the Moor and buried her body.
Edward Evans
6 October 1965
The final murder victim was a 17 year old gay man called Edward Evans, who Brady picked up on the streets of Manchester. He drove Evans back to Hattersley, Brady and Hindley’s home, and invited Smith over. When Smith arrived, he found Brady killing Evans with axe blows to the head.
Smith had played along with Brady’s fantasies but when he saw a murder firsthand, it became too much for him and after a sleepless night, he went to the police the following morning.
THE TRIAL
Police forced their way into the house, and found Evans’ dead body, as well as two left luggage locker tickets that led them to find suitcases containing weapons, but also photographs and sound recordings of the torture and murder of their victims. The investigation quickly led to the trial.
Brady and Hindley pleaded not guilty to the murder of Evans, Kilbride and Downey, but the trial was over within a couple of weeks. Both were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. There was not enough evidence to try them for the murders of Bennett and Reade at the time.
The case horrified the public, especially with the details of the crimes committed against the children, the sadism and the recoding on tape and photographs. The mug shots of Brady and Hindley have appeared so often in the media, and there have been so many reports on TV and books about the murders, that they are the most famous serial killings in Britain in modern times.
Since they were jailed, Hindley has made many claims that she is reformed, but despite a high-profile campaign by Lord Longford, she has not been granted parole. In 1986, Hindley finally confessed to the murders of Bennet and Reade. The body of Pauline Reade was found the following year, but the body of Keith Bennett has never been found, despite Brady agreeing to go to the Moor to show police the grave site.
Hindley died in jail in 2002. Brady’s mental health disintegrated and he was held in a high-security hospital until his death in 2017.