Witness To Murder
Superintendent Talbot was to be leaving on a much-needed vacation on the morning that he received an unexpected call from Detective Inspector Wills.Wills had been reluctant to make the call, but this was important.
Sitting in the Inquiry room at Hyde Police Station, were 17-year-old David Smith, and his young wife. They had called the police early that morning with an incredible story. Talbot assured his wife that he would soon return and they would begin their two-week vacation as planned. What Superintendent Talbot did not know then was that he was about to become involved in one of Britain's most notorious criminal cases, The Moors Murders. The date was October 7, 1965.
When Talbot arrived at Hyde Police Station, he was shown into the Inquiry room where the distressed couple sat drinking tea. David Smith, with the help of his wife Maureen, proceeded to tell his story.
The previous night his sister-in-law, Myra Hindley, had visited the home where he lived with Maureen, his bride of little more than a year, and her mother. Myra had told him that she was afraid to walk home alone in the dark so he agreed to walk with her. When they arrived at Myra's home, at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, Manchester, she asked him to come inside as her live-in boyfriend, Ian Brady, had some miniature bottles of wine for him. He agreed and after entering she left him standing in the kitchen with the wine.
As he read the label on one of the bottles, Smith heard a long, loud scream. Myra yelled to him from the living room. When he first entered the room, he saw Ian Brady holding what David initially thought was a life-size rag doll. As it fell against the couch, not more than two feet away from him, the realisation dawned upon him that it was a young man and not a doll at all. As the young man lay sprawled, face down on the floor, Ian stood over him, his legs apart, holding an axe in his right hand.
The young man groaned. Ian lifted the axe into the air, and brought it down upon the man's head. There was silence for a couple of seconds, and then the man groaned again, only it was much lower this time. Lifting the axe high above his head, Ian brought it down a second time. The man stopped groaning. The only sound he made was a gurgling noise.
Ian then placed a cover over the youth's head and wrapped a piece of electric wire around his neck. As he repeatedly pulled on the wire, Ian kept saying "You fucking dirty bastard," over and over again. When the man finally stopped making any noise, Ian looked up and said to Myra, "That's it, it's the messiest yet."
As Myra made them all a cup of tea, she and Brady joked about the look on the young man's face when Brady had struck him. They laughed as they told David about another occasion when a policeman had confronted Myra while they had been burying another of their victims on Saddleworth Moor. Ian had told David that he had killed some people before but David thought it was just a sick fantasy. This was real. He was horrified and scared for his own safety. He decided that the best thing he could do was to keep calm and go along with them. He helped them to clean up the mess, tie up the body and put it in the bedroom upstairs. It was not until the early hours of the morning that he had been able to escape, promising to return in the morning to help dispose of the body. Safely back at home, he was violently sick. He told Maureen everything and together they went to a public phone box to call the police.
Immediately upon hearing this bizarre story, Superintendent Talbot and Detective Sergeant Carr went over to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue. Two-dozen additional officers were called to the area, just in case. Any concerns that there may be a confrontation were quickly put to rest. Myra reluctantly gave him a key to the upstairs bedroom, the only room in the house that was locked, where the body of a young man was found wrapped in a grey blanket. The axe described by Smith as the murder weapon was found in the same room.
Ian Brady was arrested immediately. At the police station, Brady told police that there had been an argument between himself, David Smith and the victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. A fight had ensued which soon got out of control. Smith had hit Evans and kicked him several times. There had been a hatchet on the floor, which Brady said he had used to hit Evans. According to Brady, he and Smith alone had tied up the body. Myra had nothing to do with Evans's death.
When Myra was questioned, she supported Brady's story, describing how she had been horrified and frightened by the ordeal. She was not arrested until four days later, after police had found a three-page document in her car that described in explicit detail how she and Brady had planned to carry out the murder.
The investigation would probably have gone no further if Smith had not told police of Brady's claim that he had buried other bodies on Saddleworth Moor. Other references to the same area confirmed Smith's story. A twelve-year-old girl, Pat Hodge, told police that she had often gone with Hindley and Brady up to the moors on picnics, and numerous photos of the moors were found in their home.
Once the area where Brady and Hindley frequented was pinpointed, the digging began. Police believed that the bodies of four children who had mysteriously disappeared over the past two years might have been buried in the moors. They were proved right on 10 October 1965 when the body of 10-year-old Lesley Anne Downey was found. Lesley had disappeared without a trace on 26 December 1964. Eleven days after the first discovery, the body of 12-year-old John Kilbride was found. John had disappeared without a trace, on November 11, 1963.
In 1965, a case such as this was unique. It was the first time in British history that a woman had been involved in a killing partnership that had involved the serial sex murders of children. The public could not comprehend how any woman could take part in such a horrific crime; her involvement made the crimes seem even more evil and unforgivable.
Update of the Myra Hindley Story by Patrick Bellamy
Campaign for freedom
In 1997, 31 years after she was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, Myra Hindley began a campaign for her early release. A news story, featured in BBC’s Online Crime Archive, detailed how Hindley believes she has “atoned” for her crimes and should be released from prison.
A month earlier, Sir Frederick Lawton, a former Appeals Court judge, had said the Home Secretary Jack Straw was wrong in his decision that Hindley should never be released as he did not take into consideration the parole board's view that Hindley had “confronted her offending behavior and was no longer a risk to the public.”
Her original sentence, set in 1985 by the British Home Office, was for 30 years, which meant she would have been due for release in 1996.
However in 1990, the then Conservative Home Secretary, David Waddington, decreed, "Life should mean life," meaning Hindley would die in prison. ,p.In 1994, Waddington’s decision was confirmed by the then Home Secretary, Michael Howard, and again when Jack Straw took office after Labor’s election victory in May 1997.
Lawton also said he believed that if the decision had been left to the judges, justice would have been done and Myra Hindley would be free, regardless of the outcry such a decision would have caused.
Based on these and other comments, Hindley's lawyers launched an appeal against the original ruling but on Thursday, December 18, 1997, the appeal was rejected.
Following the decision Hindley was placed on a “suicide watch” at Durham Prison.
Life Behind Bars
Although Hindley continues to fight for her release she is aware that her life would be far from normal outside of prison as relatives of her victims have vowed vengeance if she is ever released. She has gained a degree in humanities, spends most of her time reading and studying languages and, according to her prison counselor, “deeply regrets her involvement with Brady.”
Since “rediscovering” her faith in Catholicism during the 70’s, Hindley continues to express sorrow and remorse for her crimes. "I ask people to judge me as I am now and not as I was then," she has stated.
During her years in prison she has attracted a long list of supporters including Lord Longford, solicitor Andrew McCooey, the Reverend Peter Timms, and David Astor, a former editor of The Observer.
Regardless of their varying backgrounds they all believe that Hindley has served more than double the usual sentence for murder, has been on good behavior for the duration of that sentence and therefore is overdue for release. "She had shown no criminal tendencies until her involvement with Brady, and she has shown none since," David Astor has said.
Her lawyers have also argued that she has been assessed by psychiatrists, doctors, prison officials and chaplains who all agree she is no longer a threat to society. This, together with the guidelines set up under the parole system of the 1960’s means she has more than qualified for early release.
A public poll, conducted by BBC Radio 5Live, disagrees, with 66% of listeners voting that she should never be released, compared to 34% who believe that Hindley should have some chance for freedom. The mother of Keith Bennett, one of Hindley’s victims, agrees with the poll results: "The Government must listen to what the people are saying and never let her go."
Failing Health
On Friday, December 19, 1997, according to the {BBC Online} archive, Hindley was taken to Dryburn hospital in County Durham for undisclosed tests. During her stay in hospital she was kept in a single room under armed guard.
A month later she was moved to Highpoint medium security prison in Suffolk which has the reputation of being more like a holiday camp than a prison.
Hindley, who is classed as a category ‘A’ prisoner as she is considered to pose the greatest risk of escape, is normally subject to the most stringent security measures.
Her supporters saw the move to the lower security prison as a “breakthrough in her quest for release.”
In September 1999, Hindley was diagnosed as having angina, a direct result of years of heavy smoking. According to a report in the Sun newspaper, the doctor who examined her considered her heart condition as “advanced” and warned that it “could kill her at any time.”
The British Prison Service made no comment following the report, but a prison source confirmed that Hindley is a very heavy smoker. "She has been told on numerous occasions that if she's suffering from angina and smokes as heavily as she does, then she's bound to be putting herself at risk."
Hearing the news of Hindley’s failing health, Winnie Johnson, mother of victim Keith Bennett, called on Hindley to tell authorities where her son's body was buried “before it’s too late.” She added that she hoped Hindley suffered before she died.
On Friday, 7 January, 2000, after two further trips to hospital, Myra Hindley was scheduled for emergency surgery at a specialist brain center, to cure a cerebral aneurysm, a potentially fatal brain swelling.
Her condition was described as “serious” with doctors saying that, without treatment, it could prove fatal.
Three days later, Hindley asked doctors to “let her die” if the operation on her brain failed. The request came after she had asked her lawyers to draw up a will.
The surgery was later deemed a success but doctors continued to describe Hindley’s condition as “fragile.”
On Tuesday, 29 February 2000, BBC TV announced it would air a documentary that depicted Hindley saying she wished she had been hanged for her crimes. The documentary, titled Modern Times showed Hindley asking, "whether some crimes are so terrible that the people who commit them should die behind bars".
The program also features an actress reading from the hundreds of letters that Hindley sent to the show’s producer telling the story of her meeting and relationship with Ian Brady.
One letter states: "I knew I was a selfish coward but I could not bear the thought of being hanged, although over the years I wish I had been. 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."
In the letters Hindley also detailed how the strength of her love for Ian Brady had been part of the reason she allowed herself to be pushed into murder. She described him as having "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."
The victims' families objected to the program being screened describing it as "a disgrace and an insult". Alan West, father of Hindley victim Leslie Ann West, was interviewed and asked, "Why can't the families be spared the constant indignity of Hindley's continuous publicity seeking?"
Alex Holmes, BBC Executive producer, defended the programme, saying: "This film is not a platform for Hindley but an attempt to reach some understanding of the terrible crimes that happened. It's investigating whether life should mean life, an important and current debate that is going on.”
On Thursday, 30 March 2000, Hindley’s bid for freedom suffered a serious set back when an appeal to the House of Lords for her early release was defeated. A panel of five lords ruled that her life sentence "must mean life" in view of her "exceptionally wicked and uniquely evil" crimes. Commenting on the ruling Lord Steyn said, "Even in the sordid history of crimes against children the murders committed by Hindley, jointly with Ian Brady, were uniquely evil."
On hearing the decision, Hindley’s lawyers said they planned a further legal challenge in the European Court of Human Rights.
On Monday, 23 April, 2001, media outlets throughout the U.K. carried reports that Myra Hindley was suffering from advanced lung cancer and had only weeks to live. Prison officials later denied the claims.
The public has since become more familiar with that singular social malady known as "Feminism," however.