American Board of Information Security and Computer Forensics

Between 1963 and 1965, Myra Hindley helped her lover select his victims, waited as he raped and murdered them, then helped him dispose of their bodies in Manchester, England. The brutal killings of five children left an emotional scar on Britain that lingers to this day, almost a decade after Hindley’s death from a chest infection in November 2002.

One reason for the enduring fascination with the case may be that the body of one of the victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, has never been found. In March 2010, after a public appeal for funds, a new search for the boy’s remains began on Saddleworth Moor, where Hindley and her partner in crime, Ian Brady, disposed of three other victims (Smith, 2010). So far, the search has proved fruitless.

Hindley and Brady were convicted in 1966 in the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, age 10, and Edward Evans, age 17, and sentenced to life in prison. The death penalty for murder had been abolished the previous year. Brady was also found guilty of the murder of 12-year-old John Kilbride, and Hindley was convicted of being an accessory. The two waited more than two decades to admit killing the other two victims, confessing in 1987 to the murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade, age 16.

Dubbed “the most evil woman in Britain” and “the most hated woman in Britain” for her role in what came to be known as the Moors Murders, Hindley nevertheless gained prominent supporters during her 30-plus years in prison, including Lord Frank Longford and David Astor, former editor of The Observer. She also fought tirelessly—and
unsuccessfully—for her own release.

Hindley and her defenders contend that her love for Brady led her to get caught up in his crimes. Hindley was 18 when she met Brady, an aloof stock clerk at the small chemical company where the two both worked. He had a minor criminal record and a fascination with Hitler and the writings of the Marquis de Sade.

According to a new biography of Hindley by Carol Ann Lee, titled One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley, her diary suggests she quickly became infatuated with Brady. By early 1962, Hindley wrote: “I hope Ian and I love each other all our lives and get married and are happy ever after” (Smith, 2010). In one of 150 letters to the producer of a 2000 BBC documentary on her case, Hindley wrote that Brady had “such a powerful personality, such an overwhelming charisma. If he’d told me the moon was made of green cheese or that the sun rose in the west I would have believed him” (“Hindley: I wish,” 2000).

The crimes themselves were horrendous, the victims lured into a van or car by Brady while Hindley drove him through working-class areas of Manchester. Some the victims were photographed in pornographic poses before being raped and killed (Smith, 2010). Some were strangled; the last, Edward, was strangled and attacked with a hatchet. A tape recording played at trial of Lesley Ann pleading with her captors made it clear that Hindley was present at the time (Morris, 2002) and helped seal Hindley’s fate.

Brady’s desire to involve others in his crimes helped bring the killings to an end. He befriended David Smith, Hindley’s brother-in-law, at first attempting to involve him in an armed robbery. While Smith was considering the robbery plan, he was summoned by Hindley to her house in Hattersley, where the two walked in to find Brady attacking Edward with an ax. Terrified, Smith played along with the “initiation,” even helping Brady hide the body. The couple was so confident in his loyalty that he was allowed to go home, where he promptly called the police to report what he had witnessed (Smith, 2010).

During the trial, Hindley’s defense argued that she had been subjected to threats, intimidation and violence from Brady (“Obituary: Myra Hindley,” 2002). The tactic didn’t work.

Incredibly, Hindley was apparently shocked at being sent to prison at the end of her trial, swaying as her sentence was announced. She reportedly asked her grandmother, “Do you remember how we both thought I’d be out on probation in no time? (Smith, 2010).

Hindley and Brady wrote each other love letters during their first five years of incarceration, although he later called her a manipulative liar who was as committed to the murders as he had been (“Obituary: Myra Hindley,” 2002). Brady claimed that Hindley had savored the murders, writing him letters in which she recalled them “lyrically,” and even regarded them as “a substitute marriage ritual” (Smith, 2010). The two never saw each other again after the trial.

Hindley’s argument that she had been corrupted by Brady appeared to have won her some sympathy. The judge who sentenced Hindley said, just two days after the trial, “Though I believe Brady is wicked beyond belief without hope of redemption, I cannot feel that the same is necessarily true of Hindley once she is removed from his influence” (“Obituary: Myra Hindley,” 2002). A similar statement was made by the detective to whom she made her 1987 confession, Inspector Geoff Knupfer: “Had she not met Ian Brady and fallen in love with him, she would have fallen in love and got married and had a family and been like any other member of the public” (Smith, 2010). But Hindley herself wrote in 1994 that she was “wicked and evil” and that  “without me, those crimes could probably not have been committed.” (“Obituary: Myra Hindley,” 2002).

In the 2000 BBC documentary, Hindley claimed she wished she had been hanged for her crimes. “It would have solved so many problems. The family of the victims would have derived some peace of mind and the tabloids would not have been able to manipulate them as they do to this day. I would have made a total confession to the priest before I hanged and would not still be half crippled by the burden of guilt that will not go away. But I didn’t hang” (“Hindley: I wish,” 2000).

The families of the victims were outraged by the documentary. Alan West, the father of Lesley Ann, asked: “Why can’t the families be spared the constant indignity of Hindley’s continuous publicity seeking?” (“Hindley, I wish,” 2000). But the BBC defended its coverage, which coincided with a national debate over the length of life sentences.

Hindley caused no trouble during her years in prison, pursuing studies with the Open University, embracing religion, and claiming to be reformed. But she remained so reviled in Britain that when she died in 2002, the prison service couldn’t find a local undertaker willing to handle her remains and had to use one 200 miles away, and even the linens from her hospital room were destroyed to eliminate all trace of her (Smith, 2010).

References

Hindley: I wish I’d been hanged. (2000, February 29). BBC News. Retrieved April 22, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/661139.stm

Morris, T. (2002, November 16). Myra Hindley: icon of homicidal infamy. The Independent. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/myra-hindley-604332.html

Obituary: Myra Hindley. (2002, November 15). BBC News. Retrieved  April 22, 2010, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4539785.stm

Smith, J. (2010, April 10). “One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley by Carol Ann Lee.” The (London) Times. Retrieved April 22, 2010, from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article7091709.ece n