The Crime Book

284

CALCULATED, CRUEL,

COLD-BLOODED

MURDERS

IAN BRADY AND MYRA HINDLEY, 1963–65

O

n 12 July 1963, 16-year-old

Pauline Reade was on her

way to a dance near

Manchester in northwest England,

when killer Myra Hindley pulled

over in her car and convinced the

teenager to get in.

Hindley, 21, drove the girl to a

nearby rural area, with her boyfriend

Ian Brady following closely behind

on his motorcycle. Brady then raped,

tortured, and sexually abused

Reade, before slitting her throat and

burying her body in the bogs of

Saddleworth Moor.

Monstrous obsession

Reade was the couple’s first victim

• but she would not be their last.
  Between 1963 and 1965, Brady and
  Hindley abducted, abused,
  tortured, and killed four more
  children in a case known as the
  Moors Murders. Four of their
  victims were discovered buried
  on Saddleworth Moor. One of them
  has never been found.
  Myra Hindley was 18 years old
  in 1961, when she began to date
  Ian Brady. He was 22. Despite
  regularly being dominated and
  abused by her boyfriend, Hindley
  became obsessed with him. In an
  attempt to please Brady, she began

to procure vulnerable children for

him to assault sexually, torture,

and strangle.

Months after Pauline Reade’s

murder, on a Saturday afternoon in

November 1963, the pair abducted

12-year-old John Kilbride. Brady

raped him and then strangled the

boy with a string.

Now jointly revelling in Brady’s

depravity, the couple abducted

their next victim, 12-year-old Keith

Bennett, while the boy was on his

way to visit his grandmother in

Manchester. On 16 June 1964,

Brady and Hindley drove Bennett to

Saddleworth Moor and buried him.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Saddleworth Moor, near

Manchester, UK

THEME

Toxic relationships

BEFORE

29 January 1958 Teenagers

Charles Starkweather and Caril

Ann Fugate are arrested after

a 60-day road trip across the

American Midwest, during

which they kill 11 people.

Fugate, aged 14 at the time of

the spree, later claims to have

been Starkweather’s hostage.

AFTER

17 February 1993 Canadian

rapist and killer Paul Bernardo

is sentenced to life in prison.

His wife, Karla Homolka,

participates in the murders,

but strikes a deal with the

police for a reduced sentence.

I would always be covered in

bruises and bite marks.

He threatened to kill my

family. He dominated

me completely.

Myra Hindley

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285

These iconic images of Ian Brady

and Myra Hindley were taken during

their trial for multiple murders in April

1966. Their volatile relationship was
      behind the deaths of five children.

See also: Ted Bundy 276–83 ■ Fred and Rosemary West 286–87 ■ Colin Pitchfork 294–97

SERIAL KILLERS

Despite extensive and systematic

searches of the moor, his body

remains undiscovered.

On 26 December, Brady and

Hindley visited a fairground, where

they approached 10-year-old Lesley

Ann Downey and asked her to

carry some packages. They

abducted Downey, bound her with

rope, and forced her to pose for

pornographic photographs. The

pair also made a 13-minute audio

recording of Downey screaming

and pleading for her life. She was

then strangled and buried.

Admission and downfall

By then, Brady had grown arrogant

and confided his murderous secrets

to David Smith, Hindley’s 17-year-

old brother-in-law. In October 1965,

after luring engineering student

Edward Evans, also 17, to their

home, Brady sent Hindley to fetch

Smith, hoping to involve him in the

murders. Brady then bludgeoned

Evans with an axe, while Smith

watched in horror. He helped Brady

and Hindley to clean up, then ran

home to his wife. The Smiths called

the police from a phone box, and

led them to Evans’s body.

Both Brady and Hindley were

arrested. During the search of the

couple’s home, police found the

pornographic photos and audio

recording of Downey, along with

a large collection of pictures that

were taken on Saddleworth Moor.

As many as 150 police officers were

assigned to conduct an extensive

search of the moor. There, they

discovered the bodies of Lesley

Ann Downey and John Kilbride.

In 1966, Ian Brady and Myra

Hindley were both found guilty

of three murders. Following their

conviction, they also confessed

to the murders of Pauline Reade

and Keith Bennett.

Aftermath

In 1987, after a 100-day-long search,

Pauline Reade’s decomposed body

was found buried in a shallow grave

on the moors. One of her killers,

Myra Hindley, died in prison on

15 November 2002, at the age of 60.

In 1985, Ian Brady was declared

criminally insane and confined to

a high-security hospital. He claims

that he has no desire to be released

and has repeatedly asked to be

allowed to die. ■

Serial killers in abusive relationships

Throughout history, women

with no previous criminal past

have participated in gruesome

crimes with their boyfriends and

husbands. In some of these

cases, the women later claimed

that they were dominated and

manipulated by their partners.

In an abusive relationship,

a manipulative partner may

attempt to isolate their lover

and destroy their self-esteem. In

some situations, this could lead

to physical, emotional, verbal,

mental, and sexual abuse. The

dominant partner will attempt

to control their victim, while

denying them of the right to

make their own decisions.

Whether this was the case

with Myra Hindley is fiercely

debated. The victims’ families

contend that she was a willing

participant in the murders.

However, in several interviews

Hindley claimed that she did

not have a compulsion to kill

and that she was emotionally

manipulated and physically

abused by Ian Brady.

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