[137], On 16 December 1986, Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of the moor. [207] With help from Cairns, and the outside contacts of another prisoner, Maxine Croft, Hindley planned a prison escape, but it was thwarted when impressions of the prison keys were intercepted by an off-duty policeman. [2] The trial judge, Justice Fenton Atkinson, described Brady and Hindley in his closing remarks as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity". [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. [115] During the trial, the judge and defence barristers repeatedly questioned Smith and his wife about the nature of the arrangement. In Brady's account, Hindley was not only present for the attack, but participated in the sexual assault. Hindley, along with her boyfriend Ian Brady . [198], After receiving end-of-life care, Brady died of restrictive pulmonary disease at Ashworth Hospital on 15 May 2017;[199] the inquest found that he died of natural causes and that his hunger strike had not been a contributory factor. . [6] It was reported, for example, that Brady boasted of killing his first cat when he was aged just 10, and then went on to burn another cat alive, stone dogs and cut off rabbits' heads. Hindley returned with Smith and told him to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. [251][252][253] She died in August 2012. Although Winnie Johnson's letter may have played a part, he believed that Hindley, knowing of Brady's "precarious" mental state, was concerned he might co-operate with the police and reap any available public-approval benefit. [35] Brady was taken to HM Prison Durham and Hindley was sent to HM Prison Holloway. (1942-2002) Who Was Myra Hindley? She was born and raised in Manchester's Gorton, a working-class community. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at Sedgley Park, Prestwich, and visited the moor twice. But that would be to underestimate the astonishing depths of depravity depicted within, acts said to have inspired the unthinkable crimes of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. Ian was standing over him, facing him, with his legs on either side of the young lad's legs. As a child, she lived with Nellie Hindley in a little two-up, two-down semi-detached house. [138] Police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, some armed. In 1960s Britain, people did not kidnap and murder children for fun. [129] This followed claims in 2004 that Hindley had told another inmate that she and Brady had murdered a sixth victim, a teenage girl. After confessing to these additional murders, Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist in the search for the graves. MOORS Murderer, Myra Hindley was dubbed "the most hated woman in Britain" after her crimes. When she denied that she had a husband or that a man was in the house, Talbot identified himself. It has taken me five weeks labour to write this letter because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help. Between 1963 and 1965, Myra Hindley and her lover Ian Brady lured four children Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, and Lesley Ann Downey into their car under the pretense of giving them a ride home. When police returned to the living room they arrested Brady on suspicion of murder. [227] Four months later, her ashes were scattered by her ex-partner, Patricia Cairns, less than 10 miles (16km) from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park. Brady and his partner, Myra Hindley, tortured and murdered five children, aged 10 to 17, between July 1963 and October 1965, burying some of their victims' bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. When Brady arrived on his motorcycle, Hindley told Reade he would be helping in the search. 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. [221], On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. She divorced Smith in 1973,[235] and married a lorry driver, Bill Scott, with whom she had a daughter. [97], Also among the photographs in the suitcase were a number of scenes of the moors. "[85], Though Hindley was not initially arrested, she demanded to go with Brady to the police station, taking her dog. At first, Smith refused to name the newspaper, risking contempt of court; when he eventually identified the News of the World, Jones, as Attorney General, immediately promised an investigation. 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. 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. [245] Smith died from cancer in Ireland in 2012. [204] She corresponded with Brady by letter until 1971, when she ended their relationship. Brady met Myra in the mid-1960s, and she immediately developed passionate feelings for him. [69], In the early evening of 23 November 1963, at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne, Brady and Hindley offered 12-year-old John Kilbride a lift home, saying his parents might worry that he was out so late; they also promised him a bottle of sherry. [32] (Many sources state that the film was Judgment at Nuremberg, but Hindley recalled it as King of Kings. [131] Police nevertheless decided to resume their search of Saddleworth Moor, once more using the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley to help them identify possible burial sites. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Astrological Sign: Leo, Death Year: 2002, Death date: November 16, 2002, Article Title: Myra Hindley Biography, Author: Biography.com Editors, Website Name: The Biography.com website, Url: https://www.biography.com/crime/myra-hindley, Publisher: A&E; Television Networks, Last Updated: May 12, 2021, Original Published Date: April 2, 2014. [165] In 2012, it was claimed that Brady may have given details of the location of Bennett's body to a visitor; a woman was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful excuse, but a few months later the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there was insufficient evidence to press charges. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder. The child had been earning some pocket money in the market, and was offered a lift home by Hindley. [152], DCS Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moor[151] before police called off their search on 24 August. Ian was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 2, 1938. She was the first child of Bob Hindley and his wife, Hettie. [144], Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. [146] Hindley made her second visit to the moor in March 1987. [191], According to Cowley, Brady regretted Hindley's imprisonment and the consequences of their actions, but not necessarily the crimes themselves. [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. [56] Despite a huge search, she was not found. Brady was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and locked up in a Ashworth secure mental hospital, on Merseyside. [3] Their crimes were the subject of extensive worldwide media coverage. "Suffer Little Children" is a song by the English rock band the . Before the trial, the News of the World newspaper offered 1,000 to Smith for the rights to his story; the American People magazine made a competing offer of 6,000 (equivalent to about 20,000 and 120,000 respectively in 2021). The 14-year-old girl had suffered a turbulent childhood. [36] In her 30,000-word plea for parole, written in 1978 and 1979 and submitted to Home Secretary Merlyn Rees, Hindley said:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, Within months he [Brady] had convinced me that there was no God at all: he could have told me that the earth was flat, the moon was made of green cheese and the sun rose in the west, I would have believed him, such was his power of persuasion. Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law tipped off the police about her crimes. She was only a toddler when her young mother, Mary, left home, married again, and began to raise a new family. [256] In October 2018 her remains were re-buried at her grave in Gorton Cemetery, Manchester. [38] The couple were regulars at the library, borrowing books on philosophy, as well as crime and torture. [263], Lord Longford, a Catholic convert, campaigned to secure the release of "celebrated" criminals, and Hindley in particular, which earned him constant derision from the public and the press. [230], David Smith became "reviled by the people of Manchester"[231] for financially profiting from the murders. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. [217][218], When in 2002 another life sentence prisoner challenged the Home Secretary's power to set minimum terms, Hindley and hundreds of others, whose tariffs had been increased by politicians, looked likely to be released. When the signal came, Smith knocked on the door and was met by Brady, who asked if he had come for "the miniature wine bottles",[76] and left him in the kitchen saying that he was going to collect the wine. Cairns was sentenced to six years in jail for her part in the plot. EXCLUSIVE: Sam Brown vividly recalls her visceral reaction to Steve Coogan. [136] Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police.