The Monstrous Moors Murders | Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
A couple of sadistic killers that lured five children to their brutal murders under the promise of pocket money. They were buried in Saddleworth Moor.
Before Ian Brady and Myra Hindley met, their lives were drastically different.
Brady was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, as Ian Duncan Stewart on the 2nd of January 1938. His mother, Margaret “Peggy” Stewart, claimed that his father was a reporter for a Glaswegian newspaper who died around three months before his birth.
Margaret tried raising Brady alone, but she had little support, and after a few months, she was forced to hand Brady over to the Sloans, Mary and John. The couple already had four biological children and willingly took in Brady, who took on their last name. Peggy would visit Brady throughout his childhood until the Sloan family were moved to an overspill estate at Pollok; Brady was around nine years old.
It was around this time when reports claimed Brady began harming animals; he later denied that he ever touched animals. The reports say that, at age ten, Brady bragged about killing his first cat. They then go on to say he burnt another alive, stoned many different cats, and cut the heads off of rabbits.
Brady would be accepted into Shawlands Academy, where his behaviour would only worsen.
He would appear in juvenile court for housebreaking, meaning he would break into a building without committing any other crimes.
At fifteen, Brady left the academy to work as a tea boy in Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. He was there for nine months before becoming a butcher’s messenger boy. While there, he had a girlfriend, Evelyn Grant; their relationship ended after Brady pulled a flick knife on her for dancing with another boy.
Brady would appear in court again with nine separate charges against him; he would be given probation on the condition he live with his mother, Peggy. She had moved to Manchester and married an Irish fruit merchant, Patrick Brady. Patrick would get Brady a job as a fruit porter at the Smithfield Market. He is also where Ian Sloan became Ian Brady.
Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught trying to smuggle a sack full of stolen lead seals out of the fruit market. He was sent to Strangeways for three months as he was under eighteen. Brady would be sentenced to two years in a borstal, getting sent to Latchmere House in London, and then he was sent to Hatfield Borstal. After being discovered drunk from the alcohol he had brewed, Brady was moved to a tougher unit in Hull.
Brady was released on November 14th 1957; he returned to Manchester and began working a labouring job he hated. He was dismissed from another job in a brewery. Deciding now to “better himself”, Brady obtained a set of instruction manuals on book-keeping from the local library.
In January 1959, Brady began a clerical job at Milwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton. His co-workers described him as quiet and punctual but short-tempered. Brady would also read many books; these included pieces describing the Nazi atrocities.
Brady would meet Hindley in January 1961; before we continue with that, let’s look at Hindley’s upbringing.
Hindley was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, on July 23rd 1942, to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley. She was raised in Gorton, a then working-class Manchester area dominated by Victorian slum housing. The family lived in overcrowded conditions, Hindley’s single bed pressed beside her parents’ double. Their conditions worsened when Maureen Hindley was born in August 1946, and Hindley was moved to her grandmother’s for space.
Bob was an abusive alcoholic who was struggling with the after-effects of serving in WW2. He would teach Hindley how to fight, but he encouraged her to retaliate instead of just defending herself.
When she was eight, Hindley was attacked by a young boy; he scratched her cheek and drew blood. She ran home crying but was sent away by Bob, he told her to retaliate or he would “leather” her. Hindley found the boy and punched him repeatedly until he fell to the ground. She wrote about this event and described it as her “first victory”.
(leather is a northern English slang term to beat severely)
In June 1957, one of Hindley’s close friends, Michael Higgins, a thirteen-year-old boy, invited Hindley to go swimming at a local disused reservoir. Hindley denied the offer, already having plans with other friends to go out. Michael drowned in the reservoir. Hindley blamed herself for not being there to save him.
Shortly after Michael’s death, Hindley became more involved with religion, increasingly drawn to the Roman Catholic Church. Hindley took on the confirmation name Veronica and received her First Communion in November 1958.
She began her first job not long after; she worked at a local electrical engineering firm as a junior clerk. She would run errands, type, and make teas, and she was generally well-liked by the other girls working there. In her first week, Hindley lost her first wage packet, and the other girls took up a collection to replace it.
Hindley took weekly Judo lessons at a local school but struggled to find partners to train with as she was known to be slow at releasing her grips.
At seventeen, Hindley was engaged after a very short courtship. She called it off after a few months after deeming the young man immature and unable to provide her with the life she wanted.
After leaving her fiance, Hindley began a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe engineering company in Gorton but was dismissed after six months for absenteeism.
In January 1961, she began working as a typist at Milwards, soon becoming infatuated with Brady despite learning of his criminal history. Around this time, she began a diary, writing about her dates with other men but how she always fantasised about Brady during those dates.
Seven months later, on July 27th, they first spoke, and over the following months, Hindley wrote about her disappointment that Brady wasn’t living up to her imagined standards, that was, until their first date.
On December 22nd, Brady took Hindley on a date to the cinema; they watched an X-rated movie and returned to Hindley’s to drink German wine. This would be the same for all their following dates.
Brady started giving Hindley reading materials. The pair spent their lunch breaks reading aloud to each other; Some of these pieces were about the Nazi atrocities. Hindley began emulating the “ideal Aryan perfection”; she bleached her hair blonde, wore thick red lipstick and started to dress provocatively for the times.
Hindley wrote a letter to her childhood friend in which she expressed concerns about some aspects of Brady’s character. She mentioned how he drugged her but also wrote of her obsession with him. A few months later, she wrote back to the friend requesting she destroy the original letter.
Though Hindley wasn’t qualified to drive, she often hired a van, driving around with Brady as they planned bank robberies together. These wouldn’t amount to anything more than plans.
She also befriended George Clitheroe, President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, on her many trips to local shooting ranges. George arranged for her to buy a .22 rifle from a merchant in Manchester, but when she asked to join the pistol club, he denied claiming she was a poor shot and often bad-tempered. Despite his refusal, Hindley purchased a Webley .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 from other members of the club. These weapons were intended to be used for their robbery plans.
A big reason that the plans never went through was Brady became interested in photography. He would take pictures of Hindley with her dog Puppet, and she would occasionally take pictures of him; most of their imagery was considered explicit.
In June 1963, Brady moved in with Hindley at her grandmother’s home on Bannock Street.
Hindley claimed that Brady began talking about “committing the perfect murder” the following month, and he often spoke to her about Meyer Levin’s novel Compulsion, based on the murder of Bobby Franks.
On July 12th 1963, Brady and Hindley went to commit their idea of a “perfect murder” he instructed Hindley to drive a borrowed van around while he followed on his bike. He would flash his headlight when he saw a suitable victim that she would bike up.
The first he picked was as they travelled down Gorton Lane; Hindley continued driving because she had recognised the little girl as her mother’s eight-year-old neighbour, and she believed that the disappearance of an eight-year-old would draw more attention.
At around 7:30 pm on Froxmer Street, Brady signalled again and this time Hindley listened. Sixteen-year-old Pauline Reade was heading to a school dance when Hindley pulled over to offer her a lift. It’s believed that Pauline was more trusting of Hindley as she recognised her as a classmate’s older sister.
Various accounts are given about what happened; most of what is known comes from Hindley’s account.
Remember that confessions given by the perpetrators are often altered versions of events to make themselves appear more innocent or intimidating.
Once Pauline was inside the van, Hindley asked for her help searching Saddleworth Moor for an expensive glove she had lost. Pauline agreed, and they drove there with Brady following on his bike. When Pauline asked, Hindley explained that he would help with the search.
Hindley claimed she waited in the van while Brady and Pauline went off together. After thirty minutes, Brady returned alone and took Hindley to where Pauline’s body lay dead. Her clothes were in disarray, and two cuts to her throat had nearly decapitated her. One cut was four inches across her voice box, which had the collar of her coat and a necklace stuffed inside. Brady admitted to raping Pauline after Hindley questioned him.
She claimed to wait with Pauline’s body while Brady got a spade he had hidden nearby on one of their previous visits; Hindley reportedly returned to the van while Brady buried Pauline.
Brady’s account of it was similar, except that Hindley was not only present in the attack, but she had participated in the sexual assault.
The police could not find any leads towards Pauline’s disappearance; no one had witnessed Pauline disappear. They questioned a partner or ex-boyfriend of hers, fifteen-year-old David Smith. He was cleared of involvement. That was all of their leads, and soon the case went cold.
In the early evening of November 23rd, Brady and Hindley were at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne. There they offered twelve-year-old John Kilbride a life home, telling him his parents might worry that he was out so late. They also promised to give him a bottle of sherry as well.
Once John was in Hindley’s hired Ford Anglia car, Brady said they had to take a detour to their home to get him the sherry. They suggest another detour to search for Hindley’s lost glove on the moor. John agreed to help them search.
At the moor, Brady took John with him while Hindley allegedly waited in the car. Brady sexually assaulted John and tried sliting his throat with a six-inch serrated blade before stranging the boy with something like string or shoelace.
A huge search went underway the second John was noticed missing. Police took an estimated 700 statements, and around 500 flyers were printed. After eight days after John failed to return home, around 2000 volunteers scoured waste grounds and derelict buildings for him. Nothing was found of the twelve-year-old.
Before the next murder took place, Hindley bought a second-hand Austin Traveller but traded it for a MINI van. She had not long gotten her driver’s license when she purchased the vehicles.
On June 16th 1964, Hindley asked twelve-year-old Keith Bennett for help loading some boxes into her car, offering to drive him home after they were done. Keith was walking to his grandmother’s home in Longsight. Hindley drove the boy to a lay-by on Saddleworth Moor, leaving Keith with Brady to look for her missing glove.
Thirty minutes later, Brady returned carrying a shovel. He claimed to have sexually assaulted Keith before strangling him with string.
Keith’s stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, was the first suspected in the disappearance. In the two years that Kieth was missing, Jimmy was taken in for questioning four different times. Police searched under the family house floorboards and found the houses connected, so they had to search the entire street. They found nothing of Keith or any of the other children missing from the area.
Hindley’s sister Maureen would marry David Smith, the same boy that was questioned about Patrica Reade’s disappearance, on August 15th 1964. It was a hastily arranged marriage performed at a register office; none of their relatives showed.
Reportedly, Hindley disapproved of the marriage, and their mother was embarrassed as Maureen was seven months pregnant. They allegedly disapproved of David as well since he had a list of criminal convictions from when he was eleven. At eleven, he committed actual bodily harm, an assault that caused wounds like bruises.
After the wedding, they moved into David’s father’s home.
The following day, on the 16th, Brady would suggest the two couples take a four-day trip to Windermere, the first time Brady would meet David. They supposedly got along well, having casual conversations about society, wealth and the possibility of robbing a bank; Brady also paid for everything David ate or any wine he drank the entire day.
Their trip to the lake district was the first of many outings; Hindley reportedly became jealous of Brady’s new friend despite it bringing her and her sister closer.
In 1964, Hindley, her grandmother, and Brady were rehoused as a part of the postwar slum clearances in Manchester; they were moved to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley.
A neighbour four doors down, at house number 12, became close with Brady and Hindley. Patricia Hodges, an eleven-year-old girl, would accompany the couple to Saddleworth Moor when they went to collect peat for the gardens. It was a common practice done by local house-owners as the soil in their gardens was destroyed by construction rubble. Brady or Hindley never harmed Patricia; she lived too close to them and could’ve easily been linked back to them.
During the early hours of December 26th, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative’s house and refused to let her back in the Wardle Brook home for the night. Later in the day, Brady and Hindley went to a funfair in Ancoats, intending to find another victim.
Ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey was at the fair, seemingly alone, when they approached her, deliberately dropping some of the shopping they carried at her feet. Hindley asked her to help them carry it to their car; she then asked if Lesley would accompany them to Wardle Brook and help them take it inside their home.
At the house, Lesley was forcibly undressed, gagged and posed for pornographic photos. She was raped and killed, likely strangled by string or some other string-like piece of fabric.
Hindley claimed she was never actively present for the atrocities that happened to Lesley, only returning to find the aftermath. She claimed she went to fill the bath for Lesley when she was murdered, returning to her body.
Brady would argue that Hindley was the one to kill Lesley.
Lesley was noticed missing from the fair, and, once again, despite the huge search for her, no one had witnessed where she had disappeared to, nor had anyone found anything pointing towards where she had gone.
On the 27th, Brady and Hindley took Lesley’s body to Saddleworth Moor and buried her in a shallow grave with her clothes piled at her feet. Right after, Hindley brought her grandmother back home.
During the evening of October 6th 1965, Hindley drove Brady to the Manchester Central Railway Station so he could find a new victim. She waited outside. Brady returned after a few minutes with seventeen-year-old Edward Evans following him; Brady claimed that he had lured Edward to the car through the offer of a sexual encounter. Brady introduced Hindley as his sister to Edward; the three returned to the Wardle Brook home and relaxed over a bottle of wine.
Brady reportedly told Hindley to fetch David, which she complied with. David was told to wait outside until signalled to come inside. The signal was a flashing light; David knocked on the door when it came. He was met with Brady asking if he had come for “the miniature wine bottles” Brady left him in the kitchen, claiming he was getting the wine.
Smith later described the moment after being left alone in the kitchen to the police.
“I waited about a minute or two then suddenly I heard a hell of a scream; it sounded like a woman, really high-pitched. Then the screams carried on, one after another really loud. Then I heard Myra shout, “Dave, help him,” very loud. When I ran in I just stood inside the living room and I saw a young lad. He was lying with his head and shoulders on the couch and his legs were on the floor. He was facing upwards. Ian was standing over him, facing him, with his legs on either side of the young lad’s legs. The lad was still screaming … Ian had a hatchet in his hand … he was holding it above his head and he hit the lad on the left side of his head with the hatchet. I heard the blow, it was a terrible hard blow, it sounded horrible.”.
David watched as Brady strangled Edward with an electrical cord after hitting him around fourteen times with a hatchet. In the struggle, Brady sprained his ankle and couldn’t move Edward’s body. David couldn’t carry Edward to the car alone, so they, it’s unclear who exactly was involved, wrapped Edward in a plastic sheet and left him in the spare bedroom.
David made it back home at around 3 am after vowing to return in the morning to help take Edward’s remains to the moor; he said he’d bring his baby’s pram with him. Maureen made David a cup of tea, after which he vomited and revealed everything that had happened at her sister’s home.
Around 6 am, David armed himself with a screwdriver and a bread knife before walking to a phone box on the estate; he was terrified that Brady was watching him. David called the police. He was picked up by a police car from the phone box and taken to Hyde Police Station, where he told officers everything he had witnessed.
After his confession, a superintendent, Bob Talbot, and a detective sergeant went to the house. To not spook Brady or Hindley, Talbot dressed in a bread deliveryman’s overalls and knocked on the back door.
Hindley answered, denying there being a man in the house or having a husband, but once Talbot identified himself, Hindley relented and let him inside.
Brady sat in the living room, lying on a divan while writing about his ankle injury to his employer. Hindley denied the claims of violence taking place the evening prior and allowed the officer to search the home. When Talbot reached the spare bedroom, the door locked, he asked for the key, but Hindley claimed she had left it at her workplace. Talbot offered to drive her to work to gather the key before they would return. Brady ordered Hindley to hand over the key.
Inside the room, Edward’s body was found wrapped in plastic. Brady was arrested on suspicion of murder; he claimed he and Edward and a “row and the situation got out of hand”.
On October 11th, Hindley was arrested for accessory to the murder of Edward Evans.
Police searched the home again. They found an old exercise book with the name “John Kilbride” on the front, linking Brady and Hindley to the disappearance. This led them to suspect that Brady and Hindley may have been involved with other young people’s disappearances.
David Smith told the police that Brady had requested that he return anything incriminating before packing it into suitcases; the police hadn’t found any suitcases in the home. David continued that Brady “had a thing about railway stations,” so they searched the nearby stations.
At Manchester Central Railway Station, the police found suitcases in the left-luggage office. They would find a claim ticket for the same area inside Hindley’s prayer book.
Inside one of the suitcases, they found an assortment of costumes, notes, pictures, negatives, and a tape recording. Within the photographs and negatives, nine were of Lesley Downey in pornographic settings. The tape recording was sixteen minutes long of the same girl who identified herself as Lesley Ann Weston; she was screaming, crying and begging to be returned to her mother. Lesley’s mother identified it to be her daughter.
Among the photos were scenes of Saddleworth Moor, David explaining that the pictures were likely the photographic proof Brady bragged he had of his multiple murders. Officers questioned Brady’s need to remove the seemingly innocent landscape pictures from the house in his attempt to purge anything incriminating.
Officers questioned neighbours, speaking to Patricia Hodges in particular; she further confirmed the couple’s favourite spots along the A635 road.
October 16th, an arm protruding from the peat was found and later identified as Lesley. Her mother would identify the clothing buried at her feet as Lesley’s.
After the discovery, officers used the locations pictured to try and find anything else; they enlisted the help of locals to help find the areas. This led to the discovery on October 21st. The badly decomposed body of John Kilbride was found; he was identified by his clothing. On the same day, Brady and Hindley were officially charged with Lesley’s murder.
Police suspected that Hindley and Brady had been involved in the disappearance of other children and teens who had disappeared in and around Manchester. But, they had to call off searches as November hit.
In an attempt to date the images at Saddleworth Moor, investigators took Hindley’s dog, Puppet, to a veterinary surgeon to determine his age. The surgeon put Puppet under general anaesthesia, but sadly, he didn’t wake from the surgery.
Hindley accused police of murdering her dog; officers said that Puppet’s death was the only time that they had witnessed Hindley react emotionally the entire time she had been in custody.
Both Brady and Hindley had entered pleas of not guilty, but after fourteen days at the trial, they were sentenced.
Brady was found guilty of the three murders police knew of at the time, Edward Evans, Lesley Downey and John Kilbride. He was sentenced to three life sentences set to run concurrently at HM Prison Durham, he would’ve received death, but that had been abolished not long after Brady was arrested.
Hindley was found guilty of two murders, Lesley and Edward, and for harbouring Brady with the knowledge of John’s murder. She was sentenced to two life sentences for the murders as well as a seven-year term for harbouring Brady, all of which were to run concurrently. She was to serve in HM Prison Holloway.
With Hindley, Brady and David Smith helping to search the moor throughout the years, police found Patricia Reade’s body. It was on July 1st 1987, after over 100 days of searching, that police found her three feet below the surface and around 75 to 100 yards from where Lesley was found. They have never found Keith Bennett’s body.
Pauline Reade was 16 years old when she was murdered on July 12th 1963. Her body was recovered on July 1st 1987. She is now buried in the Gorton Cemetery in Manchester.
John Kilbride was 12 years old when he was murdered on November 23rd 1963. His body was recovered on October 21st 1965. He is now buried in the Hurst Cemetery in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Keith Bennett was 12 years old when he was murdered on June 16th 1964. His body was never recovered, and it is believed that Keith is still buried on Saddleworth Moor.
Lesley Ann Downey was 10 years old when she was murdered on December 26th 1964. Her body was recovered on October 16th 1965. She is now buried in Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy.
Edward Evans was 17 years old when he was murdered on October 6th 1965. His body was recovered on October 7th 1965. He is now buried in Southern Cemetery in Chorlton-Cum-Hardy
That’s all for the Moors murders. Thank you for reading the stories of Pauline, John, Keith, Lesley, and Edward.
