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The Moors Murderers: Ian Brady & Myra Hindley

A Cathoilc woman, finding a picture of the Virgin Mary on her pancake, might well be soon playing host to a procession of the faithful. Likewise, a devout Muslim, who finds the name of Allah in an aubergine, can prepare himself to welcome a veritable Haj of pilgrims.

But if I had found a picture of the Blessed Myra on my fridge and news got out, I would not sleep nights for wondering who would come calling!

Maybe just the ghost of Lord Longford. :?

edit: some rephrasing, needs more!

edit2: more given.
 
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Debby obviously keeps a very clean house (maybe she could have done the dishes before taking the picture) but she seems unaware the Virgin Mary is living in her kitchen bin.

To me, the perception of the Myra Hindley thing seems to lie very much in the eye of the beholder.
For the record, I see an advert for the Phantom of the Opera at the top and a bug-eyed floppy-haired shadowy goth at the bottom. God only knows what nightmarish kid's drawings are stuck on the front.

I think this case can teach us Forteans a lot in our future investigations. Clean as you go - do the dishes, put the packets in the bin instead of spending hours gazing at a face in your fridge which stares back at you with the tormented evil guilt of a foul and condemned soul.

That's what Transformers movies are for.
 
I think I'd just be moving the fridge.

I'd hate to see that one morning after a night's sleep on too much cheese.
 
Ten years on:

Ian Brady 'reveals location' of Keith Bennett's body

Moors Murderer Ian Brady has revealed information about where one of his victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, is buried, detectives believe.
Police think Brady gave details to a visitor to his psychiatric hospital.
A woman arrested in south Wales on suspicion of preventing a lawful burial of a body was named by Press Association sources as his legal advocate, Jackie Powell.

Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five children between 1963 and 1965.
Keith's is the only body never found.

They kidnapped, tortured and murdered the children, whose bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester.
Brady, 74, was jailed for life in 1966 at Chester Assizes for the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and Edward Evans, 17.
He has spent the past 25 years at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside and has been tube-fed since refusing food 12 years ago.

Hindley, who died in prison in November 2002, aged 60, was given a life sentence for the murders of Lesley Ann and Edward and for shielding Brady after John's murder.

In 1987 they admitted killing Keith and 16-year-old Pauline Reade, whose bodies had not been found. Both were taken back to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the missing victims but only Pauline's body was found.
The director of public prosecutions at the time decided prosecuting Brady and Hindley for the final two killings would not be in the public interest.
Police abandoned the hunt for Keith's body in 2009 and officers said they would need fresh evidence to resume the search.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "On 30 July 2012, Greater Manchester Police received information that led officers to believe that Ian Brady had recently given details of the location of Keith Bennett's body to one of his long-term visitors.
"Officers in the cold case unit made inquiries to the accuracy of this report and have since had extensive contact with Ashworth Hospital and Keith's close family.
"As a result, warrants obtained under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act were executed at Ashworth Hospital and a private address in South Wales.
"A 49-year-old woman has been arrested in South Wales on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful exercise and remains in police custody for questioning. Searches of both locations are ongoing."

Keith was abducted on his way to visit his grandmother in Manchester on 16 June 1964.
His mother Winnie Johnson, 78, has fought a long campaign to get Brady to reveal the location of her son's grave.

Last month Brady, who was born in Glasgow, was due to go before a mental health tribunal to consider his application to be transferred to a Scottish prison and be allowed to die. But it was postponed when he suffered a seizure.

Last December Mrs Johnson, from Longsight, Manchester, said she wanted to attend the planned hearing to face Brady.
"I would like to go to hear it myself," she said.
"I want to listen to what he has got to say, if he is going to say anything important.
"I have never seen him face to face.
"It would hurt but the point is I want to be there. The only way I can find out is going and facing him."

But in the days leading up to the tribunal, before it was called off, she said it would be too traumatic for her to attend.

Her solicitor John Ainley said: "Winnie has made it perfectly clear over the years that she considers Ian Brady should remain in a mental hospital for the remainder of his natural life and not be transferred to a prison either in England or Scotland.
"Presumably, the intention would be to go on hunger strike with a view to ending his own life. She does not consider this should be his prerogative.
"She has only one question to ask Ian Brady, that is 'Where is my son Keith?'
"Her one and only desire is to give her son a proper family burial during her lifetime."

In February 2006 Mrs Johnson said she had received a letter from Brady in which he complained of his treatment in the high-security hospital and claimed he was being kept alive by force-feeding for "political purposes".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19292164
 
The Telegraph adds:
Speaking in the Daily Mirror, Powell said: "He says he doesn’t wish to take his secrets to the grave and within the sealed envelope is a letter to Winnie Johnson.
“Within that is the means of her possibly being able to rest."

She said Brady had previously described to her a mental map of Keith's grave. It is believed to be somewhere on Saddleworth Moor outside Manchester.

...

The existence of the letter is also revealed in a Channel 4 documentary, Ian Brady: End Games of a Psychopath, which is due to be aired on Monday at 9pm.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... uried.html
Click to expand...
 
He knows where Keith is buried. When he was taken back to the moors years ago to help find Keith's and Pauline Reade's bodies, I believe that he was hoping to walk over Keith's grave once more and possibly be photographed there, as he and Hindley liked to do when they were free. For him, giving up one body would be a fair price for this.

So with any luck Keith's body will be found and buried before his mother herself dies in the hospice. This means that Brady will have forced her to feel grateful to him on her deathbed. How cruel. He'd love that. :(
 
Somebody should open up that letter now!

It's probably the verbal equivalent of a raspberry, knowing that the man is a psychopath and has no guilt feelings.
 
Yup, I reckon it's probably 'GOTCHA!' scribbled on a scrap of prison toilet paper.

I'm still convinced that he does know where the body is though, and that he enjoyed visiting it in the 80s.
 
Police and family fear Moors murder letter may be latest Ian Brady ruse
A claim that the Moors Murderer Ian Brady has disclosed the location of one of his victims might have been a “ruse" orchestrated by the killer, police fear.
By Martin Beckford, and Sam Marsden
10:00PM BST 17 Aug 2012

A woman who represents the serial killer in his high-security hospital was arrested after claiming in a television documentary that he gave her a sealed letter explaining where Keith Bennett’s body was buried almost 50 years ago.

Detectives who have searched Jackie Powell’s house as well as Brady’s room have found no trace of the document.
The mental health advocate claims she returned it to him instead of giving it to the dead boy’s mother as instructed.

Suspicions are growing that it might have been another attempt by the 74-year-old murderer to manipulate the authorities and torment the grieving relatives of his victims. However, police are continuing to examine seized documents.

Martin Bottomley, head of investigative review at Greater Manchester Police's major and cold case crime unit, said: “I want to be explicitly clear about this: Ian Brady has not revealed to police the location of Keith's body.
“What we are looking at is the possibility, and at this stage it is only a possibility, that he has written a letter to Keith's mum, Winnie Johnson, which was not to be opened until after his death.
“We do not know if this is true or simply a ruse but we clearly have a duty to investigate such information on behalf of Keith's family.”

Mrs Powell, who was arrested on Thursday before being bailed, herself admitted in the documentary, to be broadcast next week: “Well to be perfectly honest with you there might be nothing in the letter – many games have been played before. That is the mind of a psychopath.”
But she also said: “Every human being, whoever they are, should be treated with some amount of dignity and respect.”

John Ainley, the solicitor representing Keith’s mother, said any information about the location of his body should be handed over but added: “The family are very sceptical as to whether there is a letter and as to the contents of it.”
He said Mrs Johnson, who has cancer, has always believed that Brady knows exactly where the body lies and added: “It beggars belief that he would not want to pass that information on.”

David Kirwan, another solicitor who formerly represented the family, agreed: “I believe Ian Brady knows the exact whereabouts of Keith Bennett's grave and is capable of directing police to it.
“However, it is important to remember who we are dealing with and how he seems to enjoy bizarre mind games and manipulation.”

Keith’s brother, Alan Bennett, wrote on his website: “Until some definite information is found regarding Keith's whereabouts we do not want to raise our hopes too high at this stage. Nonetheless, it is a very important development.”

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -ruse.html
 
Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett's mother dies

So sad :(

The mother of Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett has died without ever finding out where her son was buried.

Winnie Johnson, 78, died on Friday night after a long campaign to get her son's killer, Ian Brady, to reveal the location of his body.

Twelve-year-old Keith was abducted on his way to visit his grandmother in Manchester on 16 June 1964.

Mrs Johnson's death comes after police said they were looking at claims Brady had revealed details about his grave.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-19305055
 
One small consolation is that Brady will be absolutely livid. He'd probably hoped to time his latest 'revelation' (if that's what it is) to coincide with Winnie's final decline, and so gain the fresh attention he craves so much.
 
Obviously it was unavoidable in this case, but this is why the way the media obsess over Brady makes me very uncomfortable because it's playing right into his hands and his twisted delusions of grandeur.
 
Yup, the tabloids love him. They loved Myra too. Bet there was some mourning when she died. No more lurid Myra stories, how tragic for them. :(

In this case though it's the TV company who have seen the potential for some lucrative exploitation of the letter in the context of Winnie's terminal illness. Bet they're cursing her for inconsiderately dying before they could engineer that final dig on the right spot on Saddleworth Moor. Now she's gone, nobody can film her face when the poor little bones are found.

Yes, I'm cynical.
 
Am I alone in thinking it hugely coincidental that she dies the day after this whole carry on with the letter etc. I'm not saying there are is conspiracy afoot but it just seems odd.

In other news my friend assisted with Myra Hindly's autopsy. I do have the strangest claims to fame!
 
The reason it'a all blown up now is that although the letter may have been in existence for 10 years or more, its existence was only recently reported to the police by a production company. You know, the same one that made the documentary about Brady that's on tomorrow night. They asked this Jackie to hand it over to the police but she refused so the grassed her up themselves.

Winnie had been ill for some time. Any news about her is good news for the documentary makers.
 
Very sad news indeed. :(
 
BBC Radio Manchester has an interview with a friend of the family at 07:45 today - BBC Radio

There's a red 'Live' link on the right of the page.

Edit - it was an interview with a very dignified lady, the mother of Helen McCourt.

Helen disappeared in 1988 and the landlord of the pub where she worked, Ian Simms, was convicted of her murder. Her mother became friends with Winnie Johnson through a charity called SAMM (Support after Murder and Manslaughter) and would discuss the pain of not having the body of their child recovered for burial.

Mrs McCourt wrote one letter to Simms a couple of years after his conviction, asking to be told where her daughter's body is hidden. He sent back a 'terrible' reply.
We weren't told of its contents but one assumes that it does not express remorse. It wasn't a clever move, as it's kept on his file, ready for inspection by the parole board.

She showed the letter to a psychologist who told her that any further communication would be futile. As she put it, Simms would treat her like a cat playing with a mouse. Sounds very much like Brady's way of thinking.

Mrs McCourt is now on BBC Breakfast TV discussing her daughter's murder.
 
The sooner they stop giving Brady the oxygen of publicity and the longer they keep him alive, the better.
 
Without Winnie, there's not going to be much tabloid interest. The family will still be hoping for news but the grieving mother's face is the money shot.

Incidentally, Winnie's family and other volunteers still dig on the moors for clues - it's an ongoing effort. You never see that in the tabloids though. Years of mud and grim determination don't come across too well, compared to a bereaved mother's tears.

Brady should be forgotten now. However, as his ego is constantly fed by his many creepy penpals he is always going to feel important.

I used to be a member of a moors murders-themed Yahoo discussion group. Most subscribers were generally interested in the subject - it was a huge news story all those years ago, after all, just after the abolition of the death penalty - but a few were truly alarming. They were Brady penpals and would brag about having letters and cards from him, and would comment on his dry sense of humour.

The group was closed by its owner after one of Keith's brothers joined and was presumably horrified by the 'Brady bunch'. It was the right thing to do.
 
escargot1 said:
Brady should be forgotten now.
Click to expand...

Preferably dropped into a deep oubliette and the key thrown away.
 
That's more or less where he is now, except that the tabs keep rattling his cage. And ours.
 
The sooner they stop giving Brady the oxygen of publicity and the longer they keep him alive, the better.
Click to expand...

Why even bother indulging our own petty appetites to see him suffer in some way, or to believe that he is. :(

Less trouble to let this universe and everyone in be free of him. Even if the worms have to hold their breath for a while.
 
According to the BBC TV news, Brady will be 'appearing before the public for the first time in four decades' during this appeal. I can't find an up-to-date BBC news source for the story online so here's a Daily Mirror one, with a mention of a forthcoming TV documentary:

Moors murderer Ian Brady: Right to die legal bid starts today as serial killer wants to starve to death

Moors murderer Ian Brady will appear in court today to demand the right to die.

A mental health tribunal will examine the serial killer’s claim that he is sane and should be allowed to starve himself to death.

Brady, 75, has been on hunger strike for 13 years but is force fed because he is sectioned under the Mental Health Act, meaning he is not deemed fit to make a decision about ending his own life.

His appeal comes as a TV documentary is set to claim that photos taken in the 60s by Brady and accomplice Myra Hindley could reveal where they buried 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

The programme will say the child killers used the pictures to mark the locations of their victims’ graves.

One photo shows Brady smiling as he poses with a dog at a beauty spot called Ramshaw Rocks near Leek, Staffs.
etc
Click to expand...

(I used to know Ramshaw Rocks well! :shock: )
 
escargot1 said:
According to the BBC TV news, Brady will be 'appearing before the public for the first time in four decades' during this appeal. I can't find an up-to-date BBC news source for the story online so here's a Daily Mirror one, with a mention of a forthcoming TV documentary:

Moors murderer Ian Brady: Right to die legal bid starts today as serial killer wants to starve to death

Moors murderer Ian Brady will appear in court today to demand the right to die.

A mental health tribunal will examine the serial killer’s claim that he is sane and should be allowed to starve himself to death.

Brady, 75, has been on hunger strike for 13 years but is force fed because he is sectioned under the Mental Health Act, meaning he is not deemed fit to make a decision about ending his own life.

His appeal comes as a TV documentary is set to claim that photos taken in the 60s by Brady and accomplice Myra Hindley could reveal where they buried 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

The programme will say the child killers used the pictures to mark the locations of their victims’ graves.

One photo shows Brady smiling as he poses with a dog at a beauty spot called Ramshaw Rocks near Leek, Staffs.
etc
Click to expand...

(I used to know Ramshaw Rocks well! :shock: )
Click to expand...

I think I know it.....is it in the Peak District? Or is it in a book I once read? I definitely know the name.....
 
The whole case was significantly before my time and I've never read much about it. I didn't realise until I read it on the BBC yesterday that Bradey and Hindley took their neighbour - a young girl - out for a picnic on the moors and brought her home safely. That throws up so many questions I'd like answering. Was it a test run? Was it before or during the series of confirmed murders?
 
theyithian said:
The whole case was significantly before my time and I've never read much about it. I didn't realise until I read it on the BBC yesterday that Bradey and Hindley took their neighbour - a young girl - out for a picnic on the moors and brought her home safely. That throws up so many questions I'd like answering. Was it a test run? Was it before or during the series of confirmed murders?
Click to expand...

Yes, I noticed that too...curious.

Another question that I have is, at what point did one or the other of them propose the outrageous suggestion that they would like to kill a child? I mean, if one suggested it, the other could have been shocked and horrified. How did they know they were both a pair of psychos? Do psychos have a secret 'recognition code'? It would certainly help the police if something like this happened.
 
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