The Crime Book

286

MORE TERRIBLE

THAN WORDS

CAN EXPRESS

FRED AND ROSEMARY WEST, 1971–87

I

n October 1972, 17-year-old

Caroline Owens met Fred and

Rosemary West while she was

hitchhiking out of Gloucester. The

Wests picked her up in their grey

Ford Poplar, got chatting, and soon

offered her a job as a nanny for their

children. Owens moved in the next

day. However, profoundly disturbed

by invitations to join the couple’s

“sex circle”, Owens quit her job and

left the Wests’ house within weeks.

In December, the Wests saw

Owens walking alone again. They

asked her to come home with them

for a cup of tea, to apologize for

their earlier indiscretion. Owens

accepted. The couple then

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Gloucester, UK

THEME

Killer couples

BEFORE

1890–93 Australian couple

John and Sarah Jane Makin

run an orphanage at their

home. They take payments

from unwed mothers, but kill

the babies in their care and

bury them on their property.

AFTER

1986–89 An elderly couple,

Faye and Ray Copeland, kill

drifters whom they hire to

work as farmhands on their

Missouri ranch.

January–February 1987

Michigan couple Gwendolyn

Graham and Cathy Wood kill

five elderly women in the

nursing home where they both

work. They perform necrophilic

acts on their victims.

Pick up female

hitchhikers in

their car

Kill victims if they threaten to leave the house

or report the Wests’ crimes

Trap victims in their house for extended sessions

of sexual torture and abuse

Invite friends

and prostitutes

to their house

for parties

Turn on

their own

children

Dismember victims’ bodies and bury them in

their garden and local fields

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287

MORE TERRIBLE

THAN WORDS

CAN EXPRESS

FRED AND ROSEMARY WEST, 1971–87

An artist’s impression of Fred

and Rosemary West at Gloucester

Magistrates Court on 30 June 1994.

Fred was charged with 12 murders, but

Rosemary was only charged with 10.

See also: Ted Bundy 276–83 ■ Ian Brady and Myra Hindley 284–85 ■ Colin Pitchfork 294–97

SERIAL KILLERS

subjected her to a horrifying

12-hour ordeal in which they bound

and raped the 17-year-old. After

the assault, Owens broke down in

tears. This had some effect on Fred

West, who said that she could

leave, provided she promised to

return and continue working as

their nanny.

Traumatized, Caroline Owens

fled back to her mother’s house

and called the police. However,

Owens was too ashamed to report

the rape, and so in 1973, the Wests

were charged at Gloucester

Magistrates Court with the lesser

offence of indecent assault, fined

£100, and released.

Continuing nightmare

This initial case merely hinted at

the criminal depravity that went

unnoticed inside the Wests’ home

at Cromwell Street, Gloucester,

for almost 20 years. The couple

“harvested” their victims by hiring

teenage girls as nannies, renting

rooms to young women, and

abusing their own children.

In the summer of 1992, social

workers and police officers once

again visited the Wests’ home,

alerted by reports of both child

I met Rose at sixteen

and trained her to

what I wanted.

Fred West

abuse and a missing girl. They

searched the house and removed

five children from the home, placing

them in foster care.

However, another year elapsed

before social workers called police

to report comments from the

rescued children about 16-year-old

Heather West – daughter of Fred

and Rosemary. During the search

of the house the children indicated

that Heather was “under the patio”.

This began what became the

investigation of Britain’s most

notorious killers.

Police excavated the garden at

25 Cromwell Street and discovered

not only the remains of Heather and

Fred West’s eight-year-old daughter

Charmaine, but also the skeleton

of Charmaine’s mother, Catherine

Costello. Charmaine is believed to

have been the Wests’ first victim,

killed by Rosemary in 1971 in order

to sever links with Costello, who

was Fred’s first wife. Costello was

subsequently killed by the couple

when they feared she suspected

what they had done to Charmaine.

Fred and Rosemary’s daughter

Heather suffered a lifetime of

molestation and beatings and was

eventually murdered in June 1987

by Rosemary, in her husband’s

absence, after a “blazing row”.

In total, nine bodies were found

buried at 25 Cromwell Street. One

more was discovered at the Wests’

previous home in Gloucester, and

two others were buried nearby in

a remote field. The couple were

accused of collectively killing

12 people in the span of 20 years.

Fred West confessed his guilt,

but used a blanket in his cell to

asphyxiate himself, 10 months before

his trial. Rosemary maintained her

innocence, but she was eventually

convicted of 10 murders, and

sentenced to life imprsonment. ■

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