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Soul mates are not always a 'positive' thing...Soul mates whose perverted ideas, of pain and pleasure, turned into a reality were to become the first pair of serial killers known to Britain...



Between 1962 and 1965, Ian Brady and his girlfriend, Myra Hindley, sexually abused and murdered children then buried their bodies along the Saddleworth Moor, in what became known as the Moors Murders.

[Saddleworth Moor]

It was the first time in British history that a woman had been involved in the serial sex murders of children. The public could not comprehend how any woman could take part in such a horrific crime; her involvement made the crimes seem even more incomprehensible and evil.

They sexually molested all their victims and took photographs while doing so, and audio recordings of one child's screams before her murder.

Brady was convicted of three murders and Hindley convicted of two. The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act had come into force during the time that Brady and Hindley were held in prison, abolishing the death penalty for murder, and therefore the judge passed the only sentence that the law allowed: life imprisonment. Brady was taken to Durham Prison and Hindley was sent to Holloway Prison.

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 her younger sister. Hindley died in 2002, aged 60 of Bronchial Pneumonia caused by heart disease.

In 2008, Hindley's solicitor, Andrew McCooey, reported that she had said to him:

"I ought to have been hanged. I deserved it. My crime was worse than Brady's because I enticed the children and they would never have entered the car without my role ... I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady..."

Brady claimed in 2005 that the Moors murders were:

"merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964".

Brady was declared criminally insane in 1985. He has made it clear that he never wants to be released, and has repeatedly asked that he be allowed to die. As of 2011, he remains incarcerated in Ashworth, a high-security prison.

"Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. I have had enough. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin".

Ian Brady was born, on 2 January 1938 in Gorbals, one of the roughest slums in Glasgow at the time.


With no husband to support her, and as she was often unable to afford a babysitter, Brady's mother would sometimes have to leave baby Ian at home alone. She advertised for a babysitter and soon, Brady was being looked after full-time by a young couple, after his mother signed over Brady's welfare payments to them. His mother stopped visiting him when he was around 12. He always felt that he didn't really belong. Throughout his childhood, he was lonely, difficult, and angry.

At an early age Ian Brady was fascinated by Nazi Germany and the atrocities that took place. He was particularly interested in the writings of Friedrich Nietzche and The Marquis de Sade. His sadomasochistic side intensified by reading books on sexual torture and sadistic practices.

Brady demonstrated an above average intelligence as a child but a series of small crimes as a youngster meant he was sent to Borstal, a secure school for troublesome teens. It is believed that he deliberately used his time incarcerated to educate himself about crime.



Myra Hindley was born on 23 July 1942 in Gorton, an industrial district of Manchester.


She was above average intelligence but performed poorly at school. As a teenager, she often babysat for neighbours and always showed herself to be genuinely interested in the children she looked after.

A childhood friend drowned and she blamed herself for not being there to save him. Some see that as a turning point for Myra. She became depressed, sullen, and turned to Catholicism, but took to going out drinking. She got a reputation for being 'easy'.

She talked about working as a nanny in America but never followed it through. She went off to London in search of a job, but that too came to nothing. In January 1961, she met Ian Brady for the first time.


Ian Brady and Myra Hindley:

The two became obsessed with Nazi paraphernalia, sadism, pornography and bondage. They took pornographic pictures of themselves but continuously found that that was not enough...

Many people expressed the view that of the two, Hindley was the "more evil". Encouraged by her blind obedience, Brady's ideas became even more outrageous, he is reported to have said to her that murder and rape were the "supreme pleasure."

Family and friends had noticed the effect that Brady had on her, and she had become increasingly secretive. Brady tested her by pretending to plan a robbery, and was gratified when she agreed without question.

On 12 July 1963 they murdered their first victim, 16-year-old Pauline Reade. Their next victim, John Kilbride, was killed on 23 November 1963. On 16 June 1964, 12-year-old Keith Bennett disappeared. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect, but was cleared of any involvement. Keith Bennett's body has never been found although there have been numerous searches for his body. Early on Boxing Day 1964, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a funfair in Ancoats. Edward Evans, aged 17 was killed on 6 October 1965.

On 7 October, David Smith (a friend of Brady and Hindley) contacted police about the murder of Edward Evans. The trial began on 21 April 1966...

The victims:

Pauline Reade, aged 16: murdered on 12 July 1963.
She got into a car with Hindley while Brady followed behind on his motorbike. Hindley pretended she had lost a glove and asked Pauline to help her find it at Saddleworth Moor. At the moor, Brady smashed Pauline's skull with a shovel, then raped her, afterwards slitting her throat with a knife. She was then buried in a grave not more than 3 feet deep. Her body was not discovered until the 1st of July, 1987.

John Kilbride, aged 12: murdered on 23rd November 1963.
Hindley approached him at a street market, asking him to help her with boxes to her car. Brady was sat in the back of the car and when they reached the moor, Brady took John with him while Hindley waited in the car. Brady sexually assaulted John and attempted to slit his throat with a serrated knife but failed. Brady strangled John, then buried him on the moor. The body was found on 21 October 1965.

[A photograph taken by Ian Brady of Myra Hindley, clutching Puppet, her puppy and crouching over John Kilbride's grave on Saddleworth Moor]

Keith Bennett, aged 12: murdered on 16th June 1964.

Keith vanished on his way to his grandmother's house. Once again, Hindley picked up a child and asked him to help search for a missing glove on the moor. Brady pounced and sexually assaulted Keith and strangled him with a piece of string. The body was buried with Hindley watching over. Despite extensive searching, Keith Bennett's body has never been found.

Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10: murdered on 26th December 1964.
Lesley Ann was abducted from a fairground and taken to a housing estate where she was forced to pose for pornographic photographs with a gag in her mouth, her hands bound and in one photo, kneeling as if in prayer. The whole scene was recorded on reel-to-reel audio tape. In the tape, recovered by police, Lesley Ann is heard retching, screaming, begging to be returned home, pleading for her life while Brady and Hindley threaten and cajole her. Lesley Ann was raped and strangled after being sexually molested by both Hindley and Brady. The following day, they buried her on the moor.

Edward Evans, aged 17: murdered on 6th October 1965.
Brady picked up Edward Evans, took him to Brady's house and tied him up. Brady invited a friend David Smith over, then smashed Edward Evans over the head with an axe to show Smith that he could 'do anything'. Smith was horrified and confessed to police what he had seen the following day.



**REFERENCES/Bibliography:

One Of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley (by Carol Ann Lee) Mainstream Publishing (2010)

The Moors Murders: The Trial of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, (by Jonathan Goodman) David & Charles Publishers (1986)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2512000/2512119.stm

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/system/topicRoot/The_Moors_Murders/