Introduction
This chapter provides a brief history of the Moors Murders case.
In 1966, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were convicted of the abduction, sexual assault and murder of Lesley Ann Downey (10), John Kilbride (12) and Edward Evans (17). Lesley Ann Downey’s and John Kilbride’s bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor outside of Manchester. The Moors Murders, as the case came to be known, is the most high profile murder case in Britain in the twentieth century. Two other children Pauline Reade (16) and Keith Bennett (12) had gone missing in Manchester in the period when Hindley and Brady had committed these murders. It was always felt Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett had been victims of the Moors Murderers but despite a huge search, their bodies were not found in the initial investigation of the case. In 1985, Brady and Hindley eventually confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. In a huge police operation, they were taken back to the Moors in an attempt to find the missing bodies. Pauline Reade’s body was found, but at the time of writing, the body of Keith Bennett has never been found. This short chapter provides an overview of the most significant events in the case. It is not an attempt to give a definitive history—such an undertaking is not possible. However, this chapter provides a basis for the discussion in later chapters of the key themes of the book, for example, the notion of the serial killer as celebrity, the symbiotic relationship between the media and serial killing and the ways that serial killers have become modern cultural icons.
The timeline at the end of this chapter outlines key events in relation to the crimes as well as subsequent related events, including, for example, decisions by the Parole Board. It also includes the publication of influential works about or inspired by the events that took place in Manchester in the early 1960s. The timeline illustrates the extent to which the case has been a recurring feature of British cultural life. At his MHRT hearing, Brady flippantly called the case a soap opera and said it had been running longer than Coronation Street. The long running soap opera which has such an influence on representations of Northern Britain was actually first broadcast in 1960. It would be demeaning to the families and victims to make such a comparison, which is presumably why Brady did so. However, the timeline shows some of the many twists and turns that have occurred since David Smith’s phone call in October 1965, which marked the beginning of the end of Brady and Hindley’s criminal career.
16 Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley, October 1965
Early in the morning of 7 October 1965 the Police in Hyde, Greater Manchester, received a phone call from a young man, David Smith. He was in a very agitated and frightened state. He told the police that the night before, he had witnessed a murder at 16, Wardle Brook Ave, Hattersley. The property was occupied by Smith’s sister-in-law Myra Hindley and her lover Ian Brady. Hindley’s grandmother also lived at the property. The police went to the address that morning and found the body of 17-year-old Edward Evans. They immediately arrested Brady. Four days later, Hindley was arrested. On 15 October 1965, the police recovered two suitcases belonging to Brady at Manchester Central Station. The suitcases contained photographs and the tape of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey. Lesley Ann Downey had gone missing from a fair, on Boxing Day 1964. Her body and that of John Kilbride were recovered from the Moors above Manchester. John Kilbride had been reported missing in November 1963. He had disappeared after helping stall holders clear up at Ashton Market. Thus began one of the most notorious criminal cases in British penal history.
The Trial and Its Aftermath
Brady and Hindley’s trial began on 19 April 1966 at Chester Assizes. This was the first high profile murder case since the passing of The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act (1965) which suspended the death penalty for five years. At the end of the trial in May 1966 Brady was found guilty of the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. Hindley was convicted of two murders and being an accessory in the murder of John Kilbride. During the trial, the tape that Brady and Hindley had made of their abuse and torture of Lesley Ann Downey was played in open court. The presiding judge, Justice Fenton Atkinson described this as a truly horrible case. He regarded Brady as wicked beyond belief with no possibility of reform. He felt that if Hindley was removed from Brady’s influence then there was the possibility that she could be rehabilitated. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. The abolition of the death penalty meant that the trial judge also recommended a tariff—a period that prisoners should serve before being eligible for consideration for parole.
At the time of the trial, it was suspected that Brady and Hindley had been involved in the disappearance of two other local children, Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. In February 1965, before the arrest of Brady and Hindley, under the headline ‘Do You Remember These Missing People?’ The Manchester Evening News published an article calling for the establishment of a missing persons’ bureau. The photographs of Pauline Reade, Keith Bennett, John Kilbride and Lesley Ann Downey appeared in the article. This was the first time that these now famous photographs of Brady and Hindley’s victims appeared on the same page. Greater Manchester Police did not exist at that time; so the disappearances were being investigated by different forces. No links were made between the cases. Brady and Hindley eventually confessed to the abduction and murder of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett some 20 years after their conviction. In 1986, in two separate police operations, Brady and Hindley were taken to the Moors to assist in the search. Pauline Reade’s body was discovered in August 1987. The search for Keith Bennett’s body continues to this day.
The first responses to the cases have many echoes to the views of the trial judge. Brady was regarded as an evil individual, who had some sort of hold over Hindley. Reflecting the social and cultural attitudes of the time, most commentators found it difficult if not impossible to contemplate that a woman would be involved in such barbaric acts. The notion of evil becomes self-explanatory. Hansford Johnson (1967) placed great emphasis on the influence of pornography. The crimes were seen as the result of the moves towards a more liberal society. It should be noted that the most famous social reforms—the legalisation of abortion and reforms in the law on homosexuality—of the period were passed after their trial and conviction.
As discussed in Chap. 5, serial killing and the serial killer, not terms used at the time of the arrest and trial of Brady and Hindley, have now become deeply embedded in modern culture. The Moors Murders and its aftermath has been a persistent feature of the media and wider cultural life in the UK for over 50 years. The pictures of Brady and Hindley taken at the time of their arrest must be among the most reproduced images in modern media. The picture of Hindley—with her dyed blonde hair, part of a tribute to her lover’s obsession with Nazi atrocities—has become an iconic image. The case has been a stable feature of the UK news media since Brady and Hindley were arrested. There are many contributory factors here: the brutal horror of the murders, the fact that a woman was involved, the continued search for the bodies of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade and the fact that Hindley and Brady were on remand when the House of Commons effectively abolished the death penalty mean that this is a story that has never left the news media cycle.
The above offers a partial and not complete explanation of societal fascination with the case. In this work, we argue that the Moors Murders and our responses form a sort of template for modern media and societal responses to such awful crimes. There have been numerous books, plays and TV documentaries about the murderers, from the publication of Emlyn Williams’s seminal 1967 book Beyond Belief to the excellent 2006 Granada TV drama See No Evil (Menaul 2006), in which Maxine Peake played Hindley. The focus of these works has overwhelmingly been on the motivations of the killers and the minutiae of the offences themselves. The suffering and pain of the victims’ families are rarely examined in depth. The case became a conduit for debate on questions about crime and punishment, the nature of evil and other social issues such as the role of the press. These issues are discussed throughout the book, highlighting the way that the crimes of Brady and Hindley have become a reference point.
In the immediate aftermath, the crimes were seen by some commentators as a consequence of the more liberal social attitudes of 1960s Britain. The novelist C. P. Snow in The Sleep of Reason (1968:17) argued that ‘permissive attitude’ was the ‘earth out of which this poisonous flower grew’. The continued search for the bodies of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, the peer Frank Longford’s campaign for Hindley’s parole, and Brady’s hunger strike have all fed the media’s voracious interest in stories about the murders. Seltzer (1997) has argued that public culture has become addicted to violence. He uses the term wound culture to refer to this fascination with these public displays of the impact of trauma and defiled bodies.
Despite the above factors, there is still the nagging question as to why Brady and Hindley continue to remain in the public gaze. It cannot simply be the nature of their crimes. The public is far more aware of some rather than others who amongst those prisoners have been sentenced to whole life tariffs, that is, told that they will never be released. For example, Robert Maudsley who has been convicted of four murders including three whilst in prison and has effectively been in solitary confinement for nearly 40 years, is relatively unknown (Appleyard 2009). Gekoski et al.’s (2012) study confirms that despite being the most newsworthy of crimes, not all homicides receive the same level of media coverage or interest.
Wilson et al. (2010), in their discussion of the crimes of Trevor Hardy, note that some cases of serial killing fade from the public consciousness. Hardy died in prison in 2012. He was sentenced to life for the murders of three young women, Janet Stewart (15), Wanda Skalia (18) and Sharon Mosoph (17). All three of his victims were subjected to the most appalling and degrading violence. When sentencing him, Judge Caulfield described Hardy as hopelessly evil. This case had a number of features in common with the Moors Murders, including a female accomplice and appalling sexual violence. Wilson et al. (2010) interviewed four journalists based in Manchester, who covered the case. The key question was why a killer like Hardy and his crimes remain relatively unknown or little discussed, particularly as there had been such an explosion in the interest in and coverage of these sorts of crimes. The journalists suggest that Hardy being only identified as a serial killer at his trial will have reduced the impact of his crime. The murders had not been linked in press coverage prior to this. The second point highlights the symbiotic relationship between the media and crime. Hardy did not have a catchy nickname, perhaps surprisingly he was not labelled the Manchester Ripper. There were no photographs of Hardy that could be used thus denying the tabloid press of its favourite—the face of evil picture.
Following their convictions, Brady and Hindley exchanged letters in prison for five years. In 1969, Hindley was visited in prison by Lord Longford. Hindley had requested the visit. Longford and David Astor, the editor and then trustee of The Observer, campaigned in the face of much public hostility for Hindley’s parole. The basis for their argument was that, like the trial judge, they saw Hindley as being under Brady’s influence. Longford was a devoted Roman Catholic and was convinced that Hindley had discovered faith in prison and was now a reformed character who no longer posed any danger to society. At the time that this parole campaign began, Brady and Hindley had not confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Brady and Hindley’s final admission that they had murdered Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett did not alter Astor’s view that Hindley should be paroled.
The prison lives of famous offenders are a staple feature of the tabloid media. Stories about Brady and Hindley always received high prominence. These stories are a very odd mixture. For example, debates about whether Hindley should be released, which is a hugely important moral and penal policy, appear alongside lurid stories of prison lesbianism. Hindley, in particular, became an increasing source of fascination for the press. In 1971, there was a furore when Hindley, then a Category B prisoner, was taken for a walk on Hampstead Heath by Holloway’s Governor Dorothy Wing. In 1974, she was part of a plot to escape. Throughout her period of incarceration, right up until her death she was seeking to be released on life licence. Despite the fact that she became, certainly in the last years of her life, something of a model prisoner, there was little, if any, real prospect of this happening.
Brady never sought release from prison. He was transferred to Ashworth Special Hospital in 1985 because of his deteriorating mental health. The provisions of the Mental Health Act (1983) allow for prisoners, who are experiencing mental health problems, to become patients in secure forensic hospitals. Ashworth is one of three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England. In 2013, when the MHRT rejected Brady’s appeal against his detention under the Mental Health Act, the verdict included a detailed outline of the deterioration of his mental health during his imprisonment (Cummins et al. 2016). Throughout the early years of his imprisonment, the assessment of Brady was that he was clearly psychopathic but though some of his behaviour was suggestive of a formal mental illness, a formal diagnosis was not confirmed. In 1975, Brady’s refusal of food was seen as a purely manipulative attempt to engineer a transfer to a secure hospital. Brady clearly was a very high profile prisoner. Given the nature of his crimes, there was the constant possibility that he would be assaulted by other prisoners or that he might assault others. In 1978, Hindley was attacked in prison and required facial plastic surgery. Brady spent long periods essentially in isolation for his own protection. He was also moved from one maximum security prison to another. In 1983, he was a prisoner at Gartree. It was noted that he became withdrawn and there was some indication that he felt the Home Office was controlling his thoughts. There is a shift in the view of Brady’s presentation towards an eventual diagnosis of schizophrenia. He is variously described as withdrawn, depressed, losing weight and unable to concentrate. There are also some elements of bizarre behaviour, for example, he uses unusually large amounts of salt in his food.
In September 1999, Brady began to refuse food. The protest began after his transfer to a different ward at Ashworth. The fact that Brady was detained under the Mental Health Act meant that he was fed through a gastric tube. This was essentially the position when he appealed to the MHRT. At the tribunal hearing, Brady argued that he had never been mentally ill and had been faking symptoms. This was part of his plan to be transferred from prison. He now wished to return to prison so that he could be allowed to starve himself to death (Cummins et al. 2016).
Peter Stanford, biographer of Lord Longford, argues there is a moral requirement for society to be as he puts it better than Brady. This requirement means that whatever the nature of the crimes, Brady is entitled to the same legal rights, including the rights of appeal under the Mental Health Act, as other patients. This is something that is often overlooked in the tabloid media frenzy surrounding the case and Brady’s ‘appearance’ at the MHRT. The ruling in the tribunal (http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/ian-brady-mh-tribunal-240114.pdf) emphasised this point stating that His views must be taken into account as he will spend the rest of his life in prison or hospital with no possibility of being discharged. The media coverage, perhaps not too surprisingly, concentrated not on Brady’s mental state but on whether the tribunal might provide a final opportunity for Brady to reveal the whereabouts of Keith Bennett’s body. This proved not to be the case. Brady attempted to use the hearing as one final occasion for grandstanding. The verdict of the MHRT was that Brady should remain a patient at Ashworth, which he did until his death on 15 May 2017.
Conclusion
There have been waves of media interest in the Moors Murders since David Smith’s fateful phone call. The trial and convictions, the campaign for Hindley’s parole from the mid-1970s onwards, Brady and Hindley’s confessions to the murder of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, the return to the Moors in 1986, the discovery of Pauline Reade’s body in 1987, the deaths of Hindley in 2002 and Brady 2017 can be seen as peaks of media interest. However, the case has rarely, if ever, been out of the headlines. Rupert Thompson’s novel Death of a Murderer (Thomson 2007) involves a prison officer sent to guard the body of a female killer. Thomson (2007:86) writes of ‘how deeply that series of murders had embedded itself in the nation’s psyche. No one who had been alive at the time could ever be entirely free of it.’
The Moors Murders: A Timeline
2.1.1938: Brady was born Ian Duncan Stewart in Glasgow. His mother was Margaret ‘Peggy’ Stewart. His biological father has never been reliably identified. It is widely believed that he died before Brady was born. Brady was informally adopted by a local couple Mary and John Sloan. Brady appeared twice before the juvenile court for housebreaking. He left school at 15 and worked as a messenger boy for a local butcher’s. Just before his 17th birthday, Brady was sentenced to probation on condition that he lived with his biological mother who had moved to Manchester. She had married and her son took her new surname—Brady. Brady worked as a porter at Smithfield market.
23.7.1942: Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall, Manchester. Her family lived in Gorton, a working class area of the city. In August 1946, Hindley’s sister Maureen was born. Hindley’s father was a former paratrooper, who by her account was a violent alcoholic. In 1947, Hindley was sent to live with her grandmother.
1955: Brady sentenced to two years borstal for stealing lead.
1957: Brady released and returns to work in Manchester. He had a series of labouring jobs—often being dismissed for poor timekeeping. He decides to teach himself book keeping to get a better job.
1957: A close school friend of Hindley’s drowns in an accident at a local reservoir.
1959: Brady starts work at Millwards a chemical firm in Gorton, Manchester.
1961: Hindley joins Millwards as a typist. In her diary, she records an increasing fascination with Brady.
27.7.1961: Hindley records that she has spoken to Brady.
22.12.1961: Hindley and Brady go on their first date.
1963: By the summer of 1963, Brady had moved in to live with Hindley and her grandmother.
12.7.1963: Pauline Reade a 16-year-old neighbour of Hindley’s is abducted and murdered. Her body is buried on Saddleworth Moor outside Manchester.
23.11.1963: John Kilbride is abducted by Brady and Hindley from Ashton Market where he had been helping stallholders tidy up. He is murdered and buried on Saddleworth Moor outside Manchester.
1964: Hindley and Brady along with Hindley’s grandmother are rehoused at 16, Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley.
16.6.1964: Keith Bennett is abducted by Brady and Hindley as he is on his way to his grandmother’s house. Brady and Hindley confessed to this murder in the 1980s. His body has never been found. The search continues.
26.12.1964: The abduction and murder of Lesley Ann Downey.
19.2.1965: Under the headline ‘Do You Remember These Missing People?’ The Manchester Evening News publishes an article calling for the establishment of a missing persons’ bureau. The photographs of Pauline Reade, Keith Bennett, John Kilbride and Lesley Ann Downey appear in the article. Greater Manchester Police did not exist at that time so the disappearances were being investigated by different forces.
July 1965: David Smith and Maureen Hindley are rehoused in Underwood Court in a flat not far from Wardle Brook Avenue.
15.8.1965: Maureen Hindley marries David Smith.
6.10.1965: The murder of Edward Evans at 16, Wardle Brook Ave.
7.10.1965: David Smith calls the police. The police find Edward Evans’ body in a bedroom at Wardle Brook Avenue and arrest Brady.
11.10.1965: Hindley is arrested.
15.10.1965: The police recover two suitcases belonging to Brady at Manchester Central Station. The suitcases contain photographs and the tape of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey.
16.10.1965: Lesley Ann Downey’s body is discovered on the Moors.
21.10.1965: John Kilbride’s body is discovered on the Moors.
28.10.1965: Sydney Silverman’s Private Member’s Bill to suspend the death penalty received the Royal Assent.
9.11.1965: The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act suspended the death penalty for five years.
November 1965: Search on the Moors called off.
19.4.1966: Trial begins at Chester Assizes.
6.5.1966: Brady is found guilty of the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. Hindley is convicted of two murders and being an accessory in the murder of John Kilbride. The judge, Justice Fenton Atkinson described this as a truly horrible case. He regarded Brady as wicked beyond belief with no possibility of reform. He felt that if Hindley was removed from Brady’s influence, then there was the possibility that she could be rehabilitated. They were sentenced to life imprisonment. The abolition of the death penalty meant that the trial judge also recommended a tariff—a period that prisoners should serve before being eligible for consideration for parole.
1966–71: Brady and Hindley exchange letters in prison.
1967: Criminal Justice Act establishes the Parole Board.
1967: Publication of Beyond Belief by Emlyn Williams a true crime account of the case heavily influenced Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.
1968: The Sleep of Reason. C. P. Snow. The trial of two women charged with the torture and murder of a child takes place during the novel. Snow saw the Moors Murders as a result of the permissive society ‘Put reason to sleep and all the stronger forces were let loose … and that … meant a chance of hell’.
1968: On Iniquity: Some Personal Reflections Arising Out of the Moors Murder Trial. Pamela Hansford Johnson.
1969: David Smith is sentenced to three years for attacking a man with a kitchen knife. Smith argued that this incident had been triggered by the abuse he had suffered since the trial.
1969: Lord Longford visits Hindley at her request. Longford a long time advocate of prison reform becomes convinced that she has reformed and becomes a campaigner for her release. Longford was a devout Roman Catholic and Hindley’s conversion appears to have been a factor in his support for her. Longford was subject to ridicule and abuse for his support of Hindley’s applications for parole.
March 1971: Hindley who is now a Category B prisoner is taken for a walk on Hampstead Heath by Holloway’s Governor Dorothy Wing.
1972: David Smith appears in court, accused of the murder of his father who had incurable cancer. Smith had given his father a glass of milk laced with barbiturates. He was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to two days’ imprisonment, Smith was immediately released.
1973: Maureen and David Smith divorce.
1973: Chairman of the Parole Board decides that Hindley’s case should be reviewed after nine years.
1973: The Moors Murders: The Trial of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady. Jonathan Goodman.
1974: Hindley part of a plot to escape. She is sentenced to an additional year’s imprisonment to run concurrently.
1975: Parole Board and Home Office agree to review Hindley’s case in two years’ time.
6.7.1977: Lord Longford who was campaigning for Hindley’s release appears on a TV debate with Ann West, Lesley Ann Downey’s mother.
1977: Punk sees a short lived band called the Moors Murderers featuring Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Steve Strange (Visage). They record one single Free Hindley.
1978: Hindley attacked in prison and requires facial plastic surgery.
1978: Parole Board and Home Office accept that Hindley’s case for parole should be formally reviewed.
1980: Hindley transferred to Durham Prison.
1982: Hindley had applied for parole. Lord Justice Lane: ‘this is the case if ever there is to be one when a man should stay in prison till he dies’. LJ Lane agrees that Hindley should serve 25 years before being considered for parole.
1984: Suffer Little Children final track on the Smiths debut album includes the line Oh Manchester so much to answer for … Morrissey claims that the band took their name from David Smith.
January 1985: Leon Brittan (Home Secretary) increased the tariff to 30 years.
February 1985: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tells Brittan that the tariffs were too low. She thought that Brady should never be released—not that he was applying for parole.
1985: Brady speaks to a Sunday People journalist, Fred Harrison and outlines his involvement in the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett.
July 1985: Peter Topping Head of GMP CID visits Brady at Gartree Prison.
November 1985: Brady transferred to Ashworth Special Hospital.
November 1986: Keith Bennett’s mother, Winnie Johnson, writes to Hindley asking for her information about what happened to her son and where his body is buried.
December 1986: A huge police operation is mounted as Brady and Hindley are taken on separate visits to Saddleworth Moor.
30.6.1987: The body of Pauline Reade is discovered.
6.8.1987: Pauline Reade’s funeral takes place in Manchester.
1987: Manchester City Council destroys 16 Wardle Brook Ave—no tenants had agreed to live there since the arrest of Brady and Hindley.
1987: Hindley changes her account of her role in the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans; she also confesses to the murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade.
August 1987: Brady writes to the BBC with sketchy details of five additional murders that he claims to have committed.
1988: Myra Hindley: Inside the Mind of a Murderess. Jean Ritchie.
1989: For the Love of Lesley: Moors Murders Remembered by a Victim’s Mother. Ann West.
1989: Topping: The Autobiography of the Police Chief in the Moors Murder Case. Peter Topping.
1990: David Waddington (Home Secretary) imposes a whole life sentence—Hindley was not actually informed of this decision.
1991: Alma Cogan: A Novel by Gordon Burn. Burn imagines that Cogan did not die of cancer in 1966 but is living out a life of obscurity in mid-1980s Britain. An obsessive fan tracks down Cogan and arranges to meet her. He brings along a tape and plays it. It is a recording of the sexual torture and murder of Lesley Ann Downey.
1994: Law Lords ruling meant that the Prison Service had to inform all life sentence prisoners of the minimum period that they must serve before any parole application would be considered.
1997: Hindley is deemed low risk by the Parole Board and it is recommended that she is moved to an open prison.
1997: Sensation—an exhibition at the Royal Academy includes Marcus Harvey’s painting Myra. The painting is a representation of the Hindley arrest photograph but made up of children’s handprints. The exhibition is picketed and the painting is vandalised.
12/1997–3/2000: Hindley made three separate appeals against the whole life tariff.
1999: Ann West dies of liver cancer.
1999: Brady begins his hunger strike and is force fed.
2000: R v. Secretary of State for the Home Dept. ex parte Hindley finds that retribution alone is a justification for a whole life sentence.
2002: Legal challenge to the Home Secretary’s power to set a minimum term. When there was the possibility that Hindley would be released, David Blunkett (Home Secretary) tried to force GMP to charge Hindley with perverting the course of justice. Government lawyers advised this would be an abuse of process.
15.11.2002: Hindley dies.
25.11.2002: Law Lords rule that judges not politicians should make the final decisions about how long life sentence prisoners should spend in prison before being eligible to apply for parole.
early 2003: Hindley’s ashes are scattered in a country park.
2006: TV drama Longford—tells of Longford’s (Jim Broadbent) campaign in support of Hindley (Samantha Morton). Andy Serkis plays Brady.
2006: TV Drama See No Evil—The Moors Murders stars Joanne Froggatt as Maureen Smith, Sean Harris as Ian Brady, Maxine Peake as Myra Hindley, and Matthew McNulty as David Smith. It is watched by over six million viewers and wins the 2007 BAFTA for best drama.
2006: Outcasts’ Outcast: A biography of Lord Longford. Peter Stanford.
2007: The Lost Boy: The definitive story of the Moors Murder. Duncan Staff.
2007: Brady’s ‘analysis’ of serial killers The Gates of Janus is published.
2007: Death of a Murderer. Rupert Thomson’s novel involves a prison officer sent to guard the body of a female killer 2010: One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley. Carol Ann Lee.
2011: Witness: The Story of David Smith, Chief Prosecution Witness in the Moors Murders Case. David Smith and Carol Ann Lee.
2011: Face to Face with Evil: Conversations with Ian Brady. Christopher Cowley.
2012: Myra Beyond Saddleworth. Jean Rafferty.
2012: Brady applied to a Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) with a view to being returned to prison.
5.5.2012: David Smith dies in Ireland.
July 2012: MHRT delayed as Brady collapsed and required hospital treatment. The hearing was due to be open with a live TV stream from Ashworth Special Hospital to Civil Justice Centre in Manchester.
18.8.2012: Winnie Johnson, Keith Bennett’s mother, dies.
20.8.2012: Endgames of a Psychopath is broadcast on Channel 4. Brady’s mental health advocate, Jackie Powell, was arrested following her appearance in the documentary. She told filmmakers that she had been given a letter by Brady, which was to be given to Winnie Johnson, Keith Bennett’s mother. The letter was only to be passed to Mrs. Johnson after Brady’s death. This prompted a raft of speculation that this letter contained details of where Hindley and Brady had buried Keith Bennett’s body.
16.6.13: extensive media coverage as Brady ‘appears’ at the MHRT via a TV link.
January 2014: MHRT decides that Brady should remain detained under the Mental Health Act.
15.5.2017: Brady dies.
21.9.2017: Inquest verdict—Brady died of natural causes.