Most Frequently Asked Questions
HOW MANY MURDERS ARE FRED AND ROSE WEST SUSPECTED OF COMMITTING?
There is no evidence to support claims that Fred or Rose West committed any other murders, although it must remain a possibility. Their joint addiction to sexual depravity in which Rose West appears to have eventually exceeded her husband and which was to end in murder has no consistent pattern as regards timing and no reason is apparent for the irregular gaps between the known offences.
While the disappearance of Mary Bastholm has distinct similarities to that of at least four of the victims found at Cromwell Street and Fred West frequented Gloucester’s Bristol Road area from where she went missing in January 1968, he never admitted to the police knowing her or having any involvement in her disappearance, though others allege he did to them. Rose was just 15 years old when Mary disappeared and did not know Fred then.
West was clearly involved in murder before he met Rose Letts, who was only 13 years old when Ann McFall was killed. This was a murder charge he would have faced alone and one which he maintained until death he had not committed, though he is said to have mentioned knowing of it at about the time she disappeared.
Equally it seems that Rose West was capable of murder in her own right as the evidence gathered pointed to the likelihood of Charmaine being killed while West was still in prison.
Fred West is known to have told other people, but not the police, that he and Rose committed more murders but none of these claims can be authenticated. Neither can the similar and vague descriptions of these offences, or where they took place, which were not consistent. It is believed that he was purposely giving similar information but different locations to see which version reached the media and so establish in whom he could safely confide.
HOW DID THE VICTIMS DIE AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MISSING BONES?
It is not known how the victims met their death. Fred West’s account of the murders and the circumstances he said surrounded them was inconsistent as he continually attempted to exculpate his wife, who remains in denial. The artefacts found with the remains, for most of which he never offered a rational explanation, did not corroborate what he said happened.
It is not known what happened to the missing bones, though had they been where the victims were buried they would have been found. Fred West vaguely mentioned that this was an attempt to prevent identification; in the circumstances, this does not appear credible. There are some similarities in what is missing, victim to victim, and it is therefore possible they were retained and taken elsewhere.
ARE OTHER HIGH-PROFILE INVESTIGATIONS LIKELY TO SUFFER THE SAME MEDIA INTRUSION?
While the media remains self-regulated it has tightened up considerably its codes of conduct to restrict its involvement with and payment of potential witnesses in criminal investigations, and is required to disclose this to the prosecution and defence. It is still the case that if it can be shown that ‘it is in the public interest’ such involvement might be justified. A more responsible attitude now seems to prevail but it must be likely that if these codes are regularly transgressed without justification that further legislation will follow.
COULD SUCH A SERIES OF OFFENCES AND MURDERS BE COMMITTED TODAY?
In the wake of the West and other recent high-profile murder cases, many lessons have been learned. The West murders spanned twenty-seven years during which communication, methods and technology which would have possibly identified the crimes was either nonexistent or in its infancy. Today procedures and legislation for monitoring sexual offenders and identifying those who may have the potential to commit or graduate to committing such crimes have been put in place, combined with the sharing of information and the coordination of the caring and investigative agencies. Further, there have been changes in the way missing persons are recorded and investigated which increase the potential for early recognition of abuse and series crime, as well as major advances in forensic science and the use of DNA to aid identification.
While it is hoped that such crimes, the way they were carried out and the fact that they remained undiscovered for so long is a thing of the past, there can be no room for complacency. The deviousness and cunning of those like the Wests is universally known to be limitless.