Editing Moors murders (section)

== Background ==
===Ian Brady===
'''Ian Brady''' was born in the [[Gorbals]] area of [[Glasgow]] as '''Ian Duncan Stewart''' on 2 January 1938 to Margaret "Peggy" Stewart, an unmarried [[tea room]] waitress.{{sfnp|Keightley|2017|p=24}} The identity of Brady's father has never been reliably ascertained, although his mother said he was a reporter working for a Glasgow newspaper who died three months before Brady was born. Stewart had little support and after a few months was forced to give her son into the care of Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own. Brady took their family name and became known as '''Ian Sloan'''. His mother continued to visit him throughout his childhood.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=17–19|ps=none}} 

At age 9, Brady visited [[Loch Lomond]] with his family, where he reportedly discovered an affinity for the outdoors. A few months later the family moved to a new [[council house]] on an [[overspill estate]] at [[Pollok]]. Various authors have stated that Brady [[zoosadism|tortured animals]]. 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/domestic-violence-animal-cruelty-abuse-neglect-murder-children-dogs-a9018071.html|title=Beware the cat killers: A revolution in tackling domestic violence has begun|date=2 August 2019|website=The Independent}}</ref> Brady, however, denied any accusations of animal abuse specifically.{{sfnp|Cowley|2011|p=28|ps=none}}

Brady's behaviour worsened when he attended [[Shawlands Academy]], a school for above-average pupils.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=19–20|ps=none}} As a teenager he twice appeared before a [[juvenile court]] for housebreaking. Brady left the academy aged 15 and took a job as a tea boy at a [[Harland and Wolff]] shipyard in [[Govan]]. Nine months later, he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. 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. He again appeared before the court, this time with nine charges against him,{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=20–21|ps=none}} and shortly before his 17th birthday he was placed on [[probation]] on condition that he live with his mother.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=24|ps=none}} 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.{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=122|ps=none}}

Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught with a sack full of [[Seal (emblem)#Modern tamper-proofing|lead seals]] he had stolen and was trying to smuggle out of the market. He was sent to [[Manchester (HM Prison)|Strangeways Prison]] for three months.{{sfnp|Cowley|2011|p=29|ps=none}} As he was still under age 18, Brady was sentenced to two years in a [[borstal]] for "training."{{sfnp|Staff|2007|pp=122–123|ps=none}} He was sent to [[Latchmere House]] in [[London]],{{sfnp|Cowley|2011|p=29|ps=none}} and then [[Hatfield, South Yorkshire|Hatfield]] borstal in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]]. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed, Brady was moved to the much tougher unit in [[Kingston upon Hull|Hull]].{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=249|ps=none}} Released on 14 November 1957, Brady returned to Manchester, where he took a labouring job which he hated, and was dismissed from another job in a brewery. Deciding to "better himself," he obtained a set of instruction manuals on bookkeeping from a local public library, with which he "astonished" his parents by studying alone in his room for hours.{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=123|ps=none}}

In January 1959, Brady applied for, and was offered, a clerical job at Millwards Merchandising, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in [[Gorton]]. He was regarded by his colleagues as a quiet, punctual, but short-tempered young man. Brady read books, including ''[[Teach Yourself|Teach Yourself German]]'', ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', and books about [[Nazi atrocities]]. He was partly inspired by the life and works of French author [[Marquis de Sade]], whose name was the [[etymology|etymological]] inspiration for the term "sadism". He rode a [[Triumph Tiger Cub|Tiger Cub motorcycle]], which he used to visit the [[Pennines]].{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=23–25|ps=none}}

===Myra Hindley===
'''Myra Hindley''' was born in [[Crumpsall]] on 23 July 1942{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=2|ps=none}}{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=30|ps=none}} to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley, and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester dominated by [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[slum]] housing. Her father was an [[alcoholism|alcoholic]] who was frequently violent towards his wife and children. The family home was in poor condition, and Hindley was forced to sleep in a single bed next to her parents' double bed. Their living situation deteriorated further when Hindley's younger sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946. The following year, five-year-old Myra was sent to live nearby with her grandmother.{{sfnp|Staff|2007|pp=39–46|ps=none}}

Hindley's father had served with the [[Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)|Parachute Regiment]] and was stationed in North Africa, Cyprus and Italy during the [[Second World War]].{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=38|ps=none}} He had been known as a hard man while in the army and he expected his daughter to be equally tough; he taught her to fight and insisted that she stick up for herself. When Hindley was aged about eight, a local boy scratched her cheeks, drawing blood. She burst into tears and ran to her father, who threatened to "leather" her if she did not retaliate; Hindley found the boy and knocked him down with a series of punches. As she wrote later, "At eight years old I'd scored my first victory."{{sfnp|Staff|2007|pp=49–50|ps=none}} Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of [[forensic psychiatry]] at [[Cardiff University]], has written that Hindley's "relationship with her father brutalised her&nbsp;... She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=50|ps=none}}

In June 1957,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?scan=1&r=215255690:8947&d=bmd_1620111208 |title=FreeBMD: Deaths: June 1957|publisher=freebmd.org.uk |date=19 September 2001 |access-date=9 May 2021}}</ref> one of Hindley's closest friends, 13-year-old Michael Higgins, invited Hindley to go swimming with friends at a local disused reservoir, but she instead went out elsewhere with another friend. Higgins drowned in the reservoir; and Hindley{{mdashb}}a good swimmer{{mdashb}}was deeply upset and blamed herself. She took up a collection for a wreath; his funeral was held at [[Gorton Monastery|St Francis's Monastery]] in Gorton Lane.

The monastery where Hindley had been [[baptism|baptised]] a Catholic as an infant in 1942 had a lasting effect on her.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=7|ps=none}} Hindley's father had insisted she have a Catholic baptism; her mother agreed on the condition that she not be sent to a [[Catholic school]], believing that "all the monks taught was the [[Catechism#Catholic catechisms|catechism]]".{{sfnp|Staff|2007|p=36|ps=none}} Hindley was increasingly drawn to the [[Roman Catholic Church]] after she started at Ryder Brow [[secondary modern school|Secondary Modern]] and began taking instruction for formal reception into the Church soon after Higgins' funeral. She took the [[Confirmation in the Catholic Church|confirmation]] name of Veronica<!--Staff page 80 gives the name Therese--> and received her [[First Communion]] in November 1958.

Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. She ran errands, typed, made tea and was well liked enough that when she lost her first week's wage packet, the other women took up a collection to replace it.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=8|ps=none}} At 17, Hindley became engaged after a short courtship but called it off several months later after deciding the young man was immature and unable to provide her with the life she wanted.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=12–13|ps=none}} She took weekly [[judo]] lessons at a local school but found partners reluctant to train with her as she was often slow to release her [[Chokehold|grip]]. Hindley took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=14|ps=none}}

===As a couple===
In January 1961, the 18-year-old Hindley joined Millwards as a typist.{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=69|ps=none}} She soon became infatuated with Brady.<ref name="The Scotsman—Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil">{{cite news|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/uk-news/death-at-60-for-the-woman-who-came-to-personify-evil-2509989|title=Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil|last=McVeigh|first=Karen|date=16 November 2002|newspaper=[[The Scotsman]]|access-date=17 February 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> Hindley began a diary and, although she had dates with other men, some of the entries detail her fascination with Brady, to whom she eventually spoke for the first time on 27 July.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=27|ps=none}} Over the next few months she continued to make entries but grew increasingly disillusioned with Brady, until 22 December when he asked her on a date to the cinema.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=29|ps=none}} (Many sources state that the film was ''[[Judgment at Nuremberg]]'', but Hindley recalled it as ''[[King of Kings (1961 film)|King of Kings]]''.){{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=76|ps=none}} 

Brady and Hindley's dates followed a regular pattern: a trip to the cinema{{ndash}}usually to watch an [[X-rated#United Kingdom|X-rated]] film{{ndash}}then back to Hindley's house to drink German wine.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=31|ps=none}} Brady then gave Hindley reading material, and the pair spent their work lunch breaks reading aloud to one another from accounts of Nazi atrocities. She began to emulate an ideal of [[Aryan race|Aryan]] perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick.<ref name="HindleyODNB">{{cite ODNB|last=Davenport-Hines|first=Richard|title=Hindley, Myra (1942–2002)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/77394|access-date=5 July 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> Hindley occasionally expressed concern at some aspects of Brady's character; in a letter to a childhood friend, she mentioned an incident where she had been drugged by Brady but also wrote of her obsession with him. A few months later, she asked her friend to destroy the letter.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=32|ps=none}} In her 30,000-word plea for [[parole]] submitted to [[Home Secretary]] [[Merlyn Rees]], Hindley said:{{blockquote|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.{{sfnp|Carmichael|2003|p=6|ps=none}}|author=|title=|source=}}

Hindley began to change her appearance further, wearing clothing considered risqué such as high boots, short skirts and leather jackets. The couple became less sociable to their colleagues.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=32–33|ps=none}} They were regulars at the library, borrowing books on [[philosophy]] as well as crime and torture.{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=93}} They also read works by the [[Marquis de Sade]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=93}} and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s ''[[Crime and Punishment]]''.<ref name="HindleyODNB" />{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=35|ps=none}}{{efn|Brady told the police thirty years later that everything he had ever done was in ''Crime and Punishment.''{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=89}} Brady also claimed that Dostoevsky and Nietzsche were his biggest influences.{{sfnp|Keightley|2017|p=36}}}} Although Hindley was not a qualified driver (she passed her test on 7 November 1963 after failing three times),{{sfnp|Lee|2010|p=126}} she often hired a van, in which the couple planned [[bank robbery|bank robberies]]. 

Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the president of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local [[shooting range]]s. Clitheroe, although puzzled by her interest, arranged for her to buy a [[.22 caliber|.22]] [[rifle]] from a gun merchant in Manchester. She also asked to join a pistol club, but she was a poor shot and allegedly bad-tempered, so Clitheroe told her that she was unsuitable. She did, however, manage to purchase a [[Webley & Scott|Webley]] [[.45 caliber|.45]] and a [[Smith & Wesson]] [[.38 caliber|.38]] from other members of the club.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=37–40|ps=none}} Brady and Hindley's plans for robbery came to nothing, but they became interested in photography. Brady already owned a [[Brownie (camera)|Box Brownie]], which he used to take photographs of Hindley and her dog, Puppet, but he upgraded to a more sophisticated model, and also purchased lights and [[darkroom]] equipment. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the period, would have been considered explicit. For Hindley, this demonstrated a marked change from her earlier, more shy and prudish nature.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=40–41|ps=none}}

===As murderers===
{{Quote box
| width = 25em
| bgcolor = #FFFFF0
| quote = What they were doing was out of the scope of most people's understanding, beyond the comprehension of the workaday neighbours who were more interested in how they were going to pay the gas bill or what might happen in the next episode of ''[[Coronation Street]]'' or ''[[Doctor Who]]''. In 1960s Britain, people did not kidnap and murder children for fun. It was simply beyond the realms of most people's comprehension, and this is why they managed to get away with it for so long.
| salign = right
| source = Chris Cowley{{sfnp|Cowley|2011|p=140|ps=none}}
}}
Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963,{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=81|ps=none}} and often spoke to her about [[Meyer Levin]]'s [[Compulsion (Levin novel)|''Compulsion'']], published as a novel in 1956 and [[Compulsion (1959 film)|adapted for the cinema]] in 1959. The story tells a fictionalised account of the [[Leopold and Loeb]] case, two young men from wealthy families who attempt to commit the perfect murder of a 12-year-old boy, and who escape the [[death penalty]] because of their age.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=80|ps=none}}

By June 1963, Brady had moved in with Hindley at her grandmother's house in Bannock Street, Gorton, and on 12 July the two murdered their first victim, 16-year-old Pauline Reade. Reade had attended school with Hindley's younger sister Maureen and had also been in a short relationship with David Smith, a local teenager with three criminal convictions for minor crimes. Police found nobody who had seen Reade immediately before her disappearance, and although the 15-year-old Smith was questioned by police, he was cleared of any involvement in her death.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=41–45|ps=none}}

Their next victim, 12-year-old John Kilbride, was lured away from a market in the town of [[Ashton-under-Lyne]] on 23 November and murdered on [[Saddleworth Moor]], where his body was buried. A huge search was undertaken, with over 700 statements taken and 500 "missing" posters printed. Eight days after he failed to return home, 2,000 volunteers scoured waste ground and derelict buildings.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=46–47|ps=none}} Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December, apparently to make sure the burial sites at Saddleworth Moor had not been disturbed. In February 1964, she bought a second-hand [[Austin Motor Company|Austin Traveller]] but soon after traded it for a [[Mini#Mini Van (1960–1983)|Mini van]].

Keith Bennett, also aged 12, disappeared in the [[Longsight]] district of Manchester on 16 June 1964. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the family home, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=50–55|ps=none}}

Maureen Hindley married David Smith on 15 August 1964. The marriage was hastily arranged and performed at a [[register office]]. None of Maureen's relatives attended. Hindley did not approve of the marriage, and her mother was embarrassed, as Maureen was then seven months pregnant. The newlyweds moved into Smith's father's house. The next day, Brady suggested that the four take a day-trip to [[Windermere]]. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. The two talked about society, the distribution of wealth and the possibility of robbing a bank. The young Smith was similarly impressed by Brady, who throughout the day had paid for his food and wine. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. Hindley was apparently jealous of their friendship but became closer to her sister.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=56–58|ps=none}}

[[File:16 wardle brook avenue.jpg|right|thumb|alt=A roadside view of several 20th-century British houses. The houses are set high above the roadside. A grass slope is visible to the lower left of the image, and a tall brick wall to the lower right. A gap in the centre of the image indicates the absence of a single house|The empty plot where 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in [[Hattersley]] once stood. Manchester City Council decided in 1987 to demolish the house.]]
In 1964, Hindley, her grandmother and Brady were rehoused as part of the postwar [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]]s in Manchester, relocating to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in the new overspill estate of [[Hattersley]], near the [[Cheshire]] town of [[Hyde, Greater Manchester|Hyde]]. Brady and Hindley became friendly with Patricia Hodges, an 11-year-old girl who lived at 12 Wardle Brook Avenue. Hodges accompanied the couple on their trips to Saddleworth Moor to collect [[peat]], something that many householders on the new estate did to improve the soil in their gardens, which were full of clay and builder's rubble.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=137|ps=none}} The couple never harmed Hodges, since she lived only a few doors away, which would have made it easier for police to solve any disappearance.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=62–65|ps=none}}

Early on [[Boxing Day]] 1964, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative's house and refused to allow her back to Wardle Brook Avenue that night.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=65|ps=none}} That same day, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a [[funfair]] in [[Ancoats]].{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=67|ps=none}} Despite a huge search, she was not found. Her stepfather, Alan West, was treated as a suspect by police and repeatedly questioned over her disappearance, but no evidence was uncovered and the disappearance remained unsolved for nearly a year. The following day, Hindley brought her grandmother back home.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=69|ps=none}} 

By February 1965, Hodges had stopped visiting Wardle Brook Avenue, but Smith was still a regular visitor. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=70–71|ps=none}} On Hindley's 23rd birthday in July 1965, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a new multi-storey block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=73|ps=none}}{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=71–73|ps=none}}

During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she took part in the killings only because Brady had drugged her, was [[blackmail]]ing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her and had threatened to kill Maureen.<ref name="The Scotsman—Death at 60 for the woman who came to personify evil"/> In 2008 her [[solicitor]], Andrew McCooey, reported that she told him:{{Blockquote|I ought to have been hanged. I deserved it. My crime was worse than Brady's because I enticed the children and they would never have entered the car without my role... I have always regarded myself as worse than Brady.<ref>{{cite news |last=Edge |first=Simon |title=Evil of the Lady Killers |newspaper=The Express |date=11 October 2008 |url=http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:EXSC&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=123C64B3A12DC640&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=1054640702C8DBC0 |access-date=10 September 2009 |mode=cs2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>}}