IAN BRADY AND MYRA HINDLEY

IAN BRADY AND MYRA HINDLEY

May 6, 1966 - Chester, England: Ian Brady (left) and his blonde mistress, Myra Hindley, 

were found guilty May 6 of murder, in the sensational "Bodies of the Moor" trial. 

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Moors Killings

 

Brady was responsible for the murders of five children during the 1960s. In August 1987 he claimed 

to police that he had carried out another five killings and even said where he had buried the bodies, 

but the police were never able to prove whether these claims were true.

The five murders that Brady admitted carrying out were committed with Myra Hindley as his accomplice. 

These were the infamous Moors Murders, which are still some of the most reviled crimes in Britain 

decades after they happened. As a result, Brady and Hindley became two of the most hated 

individuals in British criminal history.

On July 12, 1963, the couple claimed their first victim. 16-year-old Pauline Reade was enticed into 

Hindley's minivan while Brady followed behind on his motorcycle. They drove up to Saddleworth 

Moor where Hindley asked Pauline to help her look for a lost glove. They were busy "searching 

the moors" when Brady pounced upon Pauline and raped her. He then smashed her skull in with 

a shovel and slashed her throat so violently that she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried 

Pauline's body on the moor, where it remained for over 20 years.

On November 23, Hindley lured 12-year-old John Kilbride into her car from a market place in 

Ashton-under-Lyne, and drove him to Saddleworth Moor. Brady was waiting there and ordered 

Hindley to wait for him in a nearby village in their hired Ford Anglia. While Hindley waited in 

her car, Brady attempted to stab the boy with a knife, but the weapon was too blunt. Brady lost 

his temper and strangled him to death with a string before burying his body in a shallow grave.

On June 16, 1964 their third victim was another 12-year-old boy, Keith Bennett, whom they 

enticed from a street in Chorlton and drove to Saddleworth Moor. Hindley stood and watched 

from the top of an embankment while Brady sexually assaulted Keith in a ravine before 

strangling him to death with a piece of string and burying his body. It has never been found.

The fourth victim, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, was lured from a fairground in Ancoats. 

Brady took nine obscene photographs of her, showing her naked, bound and gagged (which 

were later found in a suitcase in a left luggage locker). Hindley recorded the scene of the 

child's rape and torture by Brady on audio tape. The tape clearly records the voices of Brady, 

Hindley and the child, who is heard to scream and protest and asks to be allowed to go 

home and plead for her life. It is believed she was killed by Brady. The following morning, 

Brady and Hindley drove Lesley's body to Saddleworth Moor where it was buried 

in a shallow grave.

On October 6, 1965, the couple claimed their fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. 

They enticed him from Manchester Central Railway Station to their house in Hattersley, where 

Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith was visiting. Brady then crept up on Edward 

in the kitchen and smashed his head in with an axe. He ordered Smith to help him carry the 

corpse to an upstairs bedroom and tie it up ready for disposal, but Smith then ran home and 

contacted the police. Smith explained later that, while apparently giving assistance to 

cleaning up, his sole concern was to escape the house alive.