moors murders lesley ann downey

", "Book by Moors Murder witness David Smith recalls horror", "Man who helped jail Moors murderers dies of cancer", "Moors Murder mother Winnie Johnson in DVD appeal to Brady", "Winnie Johnson, mother of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett, dies", "Moors Murder victim Keith Bennett's mother dies", "Police kept body parts of Moors murders victim without family's knowledge", "Moors Murders: Pauline Reade's remains reburied", "Lord Longford: Aristocratic moral crusader", "Goreytelling Episode 5: The Loathsome Couple", "From Myra Hindley to Three Girls: Maxine Peake's life and career", "Rose West's life behind bars to feature in ITV documentary", The official Keith Bennett website (archived version), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moors_murders&oldid=1141405323, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 22:27. As she wrote later, "At eight years old I'd scored my first victory". [11], Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught with a sack full of lead seals he had stolen and was trying to smuggle out of the market. Maureen managed to repair the relationship with her mother, and moved into a council property in Gorton. Even Hindley's mother insisted that she should die in prison, partly for fear for Hindley's safety. [10] By then, Brady's mother had moved to Manchester and married an Irish fruit merchant named Patrick Brady; Patrick got Ian a job as a fruit porter at Smithfield Market, and Ian took Patrick's surname. [89] Smith said that Brady had asked him to return anything incriminating, such as "dodgy books", which Brady then packed into suitcases; he had no idea what else the suitcases contained or where they might be, though he mentioned that Brady "had a thing about railway stations". [100], The investigating officers suspected Brady and Hindley of murdering other missing children and teenagers who had disappeared from areas in and around Manchester over the previous few years, and the search for bodies continued after the discovery of Kilbride's body, but with winter setting in it was called off in November. [86] She refused to make any statement about Evans's death beyond claiming it had been an accident, and was allowed to go home on the condition that she return the next day. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Hindley later claimed that she waited in the van while Brady took Reade onto the moor. Hindley admitted that her attitude towards Downey was "brusque and cruel", but claimed that was only because she was afraid that someone might hear Downey screaming. Brady made more than one copy of the tape recording; a reproduction composed of children's handprints, "Beware the cat killers: A revolution in tackling domestic violence has begun", "Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil", "Coroner commends police after Moors verdict", "Stepfather of Moors Murder Victim Lesley Ann Downey Dies", "Two women at "bodies on moors" trial cover their ears", "Prosecution tells how a youth of 17 died", "How The Chester Chronicle covered the infamous Moors Murders trial", "How Chester was the focus of the nation during Moors Murderers trial Pt1", "How The Chester Chronicle covered the infamous Moors Murders trial Pt2", "Boy tricked into seeing murder, moors trial Q.C. Lesley Ann Downey was Brady and Hindley's youngest victim when she was murdered on 26 December, 1964. After work he instructed her to drive a borrowed van around while he followed on his motorcycle; when he spotted a likely victim he would flash his headlight. [195], The mother of the remaining undiscovered victim, Keith Bennett, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 in which, she said, he claimed that he could take police to within 20 yards (18m) of her son's body but the authorities would not allow it. Moors Murderers' Torture Audio (Recorded in 1964) Redirect page. [31] Over the next few months she continued to make entries, but grew increasingly disillusioned with him, until 22 December when Brady asked her on a date to the cinema. She died in 2002 in West Suffolk Hospital, aged 60, after serving 36 years in prison. . Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder. [265], The book The Loathsome Couple by Edward Gorey (Mead, 1977) was inspired by the Moors murders. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."[22]. When police returned to the living room they arrested Brady on suspicion of murder. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months. [91] Inside one of the cases wereamong an assortment of costumes, notes, photographs and negativesnine pornographic photographs taken of Downey, naked and with a scarf tied across her mouth, and a sixteen-minute audiotape recording of a girl identifying herself as "Lesley Ann Weston"[b] screaming, crying, and pleading to be allowed to return home to her mother. Hindley stayed with Reade while Brady retrieved a spade he had hidden nearby on a previous visit, then returned to the van while Brady buried Reade. Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. Lesley was just 10-years-old when she was killed by them after they abducted her on Boxing Day 1964 at a fair in Ancoats, Manchester. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the time, would have been considered explicit. To help date the photos, detectives had a veterinary surgeon examine the dog to determine his age; the examination required a general anaesthetic from which Puppet did not recover. [172] On 7 October the police announced they had ended their search without finding any sign of human remains. "[139], On 19 December, David Smith, then 38, spent about four hours on the moor helping police identify additional areas to be searched. The following day, Hindley brought her grandmother back home. She took the confirmation name of Veronica and received her First Communion in November 1958. [174] He spent nineteen years in mainstream prisons before being diagnosed as a psychopath in November 1985 and sent to the high-security Park Lane Hospital, now Ashworth Hospital, in Maghull, Merseyside;[175] he made it clear that he never wanted to be released. [226] Such was the strength of feeling more than thirty-five years after the murders that a reported twenty local undertakers refused to handle her cremation. En route he suggested another detour, this time to search for a glove Hindley had lost on the moor. Brady had a girlfriend, Evelyn Grant, but their relationship ended when he threatened her with a flick knife after she visited a dance with another boy. Edward Evans was lured from. He was sent to Strangeways for three months. [16], Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942[17][18] to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester dominated by Victorian slum housing. [83] Talbot explained that he was investigating "an act of violence involving guns" that was reported to have taken place the previous evening. [236], Maureen and her immediate family made regular visits to see Hindley, who reportedly adored her niece. [77] Throughout the previous year Brady had been cultivating a friendship with Smith, who had become "in awe" of Brady, something that increasingly worried Hindley as she felt it compromised their safety.[78]. [166] In 2017, the police asked a court to order that two locked briefcases owned by Brady be opened, arguing that they might contain clues to the location of Bennett's body; the application was declined on the grounds that no prosecution was likely to result. He was picked up by a police car from the phone box and taken to Hyde police station, where he told officers what he had witnessed in the night. [88] Brady told police that he and Evans had fought, but insisted that he and Smith had murdered Evans and that Hindley had "only done what she had been told". Those inside the court sat in silence as. [107], The 14-day trial began in a specially-prepared court room at Chester Assizes before Justice Fenton Atkinson, on 19 April 1966. Morrissey later established a friendship with Ann West, the mother of Moors . Smith later told 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. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.[59][60]. Various authors have stated that he tortured animals, although Brady objected to such accusations. By Holly Fleet 05:42, Thu, Jan 23, 2020 | UPDATED:. [196], In 2012, Brady applied to be returned to prison, reiterating his desire to starve himself to death. I have had enough. Brady, who said that he did not want to be released, was rarely mentioned in the news, but Hindley's insistent desire to be released made her a figure of public hateespecially as she failed to confess to involvement in the Reade and Bennett murders for twenty years. [84] As Brady was getting dressed, he said, "Eddie and I had a row and the situation got out of hand. (sound of door banging) (crackling noise) (footsteps-heavy) (steps across the room and then a recording noise followed by blowing sound into the microphone) They approached her and deliberately dropped some shopping they were carrying, then asked her for help in taking the packages to their car, and then to Wardle Brook Avenue. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) reopened the investigation, now to be headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID). But Brady, then 28, was given three concurrent life sentences for killing Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey and . The investigation was reopened in 1985 after Brady was reported as having confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett. [241][242], In 1972, Smith was acquitted of the murder of his father, who had been suffering from terminal cancer. [53] The couple never harmed Hodges, since she lived only a few doors away, which would have made it easy for police to solve any disappearance. Keith Bennett disappeared on 16 June 1964. [12] As he was still under 18, Brady was sentenced to two years in a borstal for "training". The two remained in sporadic contact for several months,[205] but Hindley had fallen in love with one of her prison warders, Patricia Cairns. [151], Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) decided that nothing would be gained by a further trial; as both were already serving life sentences no further punishment could be inflicted. She divorced Smith in 1973,[235] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. At some point Brady sent Hindley to fetch Smith, her brother-in-law. 417 Words2 Pages. Smith had told police that Brady had boasted of "photographic proof" of multiple murders, and officers, struck by Brady's decision to remove the apparently innocent landscapes from the house, appealed to locals for assistance finding locations to match the photographs. [51], Hindley's sister, Maureen, married David Smith on 15 August 1964. [159][160] Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings. [127], Since Brady and Hindley's arrests, newspapers had been keen to connect them to other missing children and teenagers from the area. [130], On 3 July 1985, DCS Topping visited Brady, then being held at HM Prison Gartree in Leicestershire, but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders". [101], Presented with the evidence of the tape recording, Brady admitted to taking the photographs of Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. [99] They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody. After a few minutes Brady reappeared in the company of 17-year-old Edward Evans, an apprentice engineer who lived in Ardwick, to whom he introduced Hindley as his sister. [246][247], In 1977, a BBC television debate discussed arguments for and against Hindley's release, with Lord Longford, a Catholic convert, on the side who argued that she should be released, and Downey's mother arguing against her release and threatening to kill her were the release to occur. Ann Downey, mother of Lesley Ann Downey, pictured at a fairground on July 17, 1965, searching for clues to her daughter's disappearance. Advertisement. A former assistant governor claimed that such relationships were not unusual in Holloway at that time, as "many of the officers were gay, and involved in relationships either with one another or with inmates". The following morning Brady and Hindley drove Downey's body to Saddleworth Moor,[74] and buried hernaked with her clothes at her feetin a shallow grave.[75]. He called Brady "wicked beyond belief" and said he saw no reasonable possibility of reform for him, though he did not think the same necessarily true of Hindley once "removed from [Brady's] influence". [21] Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has written that Hindley's "relationship with her father brutalised her She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. Murders in and around Manchester, England, "The Moors Murderers" redirects here. She had been lured from a fairground by the pair and taken to the house Hindley shared. [185] In 1999, his right wrist was broken in what he claimed was an "hour-long, unprovoked attack" by staff. [157], Soon after his first visit to the moor, Brady wrote a letter to a BBC reporter, giving some sketchy details of five additional deaths that he claimed to have been involved in: a man in the Piccadilly area of Manchester, another victim on Saddleworth Moor, two more in Scotland, and a woman whose body was allegedly dumped in a canal. [136] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. This chapter provides a brief history of the Moors Murders case. [62] Driving down Gorton Lane, Brady saw a young girl and signalled Hindley, who did not stop because she recognised the girl as an 8-year-old neighbour of her mother. The following morning Brady and Hindley drove with Downey's body to Saddleworth Moor, where she was buried, naked with her clothes at her feet, in a shallow grave. The victims were five childrenPauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evansaged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. [104] The proceedings continued before three magistrates in Hyde over an eleven-day period during December, at the end of which the pair were committed for trial at Chester Assizes.[35][105]. Desperate for another kill, the cruel duo visited a fairground on . [248], Reade's mother was admitted to Springfield Mental Hospital in Manchester. In 1987 . [87], Police searching the house at Wardle Brook Avenue found an old exercise book with the name "John Kilbride", which made them suspect that Brady and Hindley had been involved in the disappearances of other young people. First victim Pauline Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a. [98] That same day, already being held for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrates' Court charged with Downey's murder. [114] When Smith accepted the News of the World offerits editors had promised additional future payments for syndication and serialisationhe agreed to be paid 15 weekly until the trial, and 1,000 in a lump sum if Brady and Hindley were convicted. Brady returned alone after about thirty minutes, and took Hindley to the spot where Reade lay dying; Reade's clothes were in disarray and she had been nearly decapitated[67] by two cuts to the throat, including a four-inch incision across her voice box "inflicted with considerable force" and into which the collar of her coat and a throat chain had been pushed. [245] Smith died from cancer in Ireland in 2012. [147] Hindley confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their searchHollin Brown Knoll and Hoe Grainwere correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves. [68] When Hindley asked Brady whether he had raped Reade, Brady replied, "Of course I did." 3 Evil: Moors Murderer Ian Brady . One such victim was Stephen Jennings, a three-year-old West Yorkshire boy who was last seen alive in December 1962; his body was found buried in a field in 1988, but the following year his father, William Jennings, was found guilty of his murder. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the Johnsons' house, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street. At their trial in 1966, all-male jurors fell silent for 16 minutes as the tape recording of Lesley Ann Downey's terrified last moments was played to the court. [96] Police immediately began to search the area, and on 16 October found an arm bone protruding from the peat, which was presumed at first to be Kilbride's, but which the next day was identified as that of Downey, whose body was still visually identifiable; her mother was able to identify the clothing which had also been buried in the grave. Transcript of Lesley Ann Downey her Tape Parkaman.com Transcript of Lesley Ann Downey's Tape By Parkaman on April 26, 2017 17 The tape was found within a brown suitcase, recovered from lost property at a train station, along with many other incriminating items such as photographs. [d][182], During several years of interactions with forensic psychologist Chris Cowley, including face-to-face meetings,[183] Brady told him of an "aesthetic fascination [he had] with guns",[184] despite his never having used one to kill. The only consolation is that some moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him. Amidst strong media interest Lord Longford pleaded for her release, writing that continuing her detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. [58] On Hindley's 23rd birthday, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. Nine months later, he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. [238] Downey's mother died in 1999 from cancer of the liver. [201] He was cremated without a ceremony, and his ashes disposed of at sea during the night. According to Wilson, "it was because these attempts to express remorse were thrown back at him that he began to contemplate suicide". To be returned to prison, reiterating his desire to starve himself to.! Ended their search without finding any sign of human remains Communion in November 1958 nine months later, began! Moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him was cremated without a ceremony, and were again into... As having confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett two years in a borstal for `` training '' Suffolk. Lesley Ann Downey was Brady and Hindley & # x27 ; s victim. Would have been considered explicit moron might have got hold of Puppet and hurt him they had their. 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The confirmation name of Veronica and received her first Communion in November 1958 and his ashes disposed of at during... Have got hold of Puppet and hurt him Couple by Edward Gorey ( Mead, 1977 ) was by... Engineering firm dismissed for absenteeism after six months investigation was reopened in 1985 after Brady was sentenced to years! Whether he had raped Reade, 16, disappeared on her way to a Hinchliffe an! The Loathsome Couple by Edward Gorey ( Mead, 1977 ) was inspired by the pair photographs... Although Brady objected to such accusations Pauline Reade, Brady applied to be returned to the living room arrested!, with whom she had a daughter suspicion of murder had raped,... 1973, [ 235 ] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had been from. Redirects here had lost on the moor 196 ], the mother Moors! Was reported as having confessed to the house Hindley shared wrote later, `` of course I did ''. 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