Latest / The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories / Serial Killer Documentary - Birth Of A Child Killer： Myra Hindley's Early Years

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Serial Killer Documentary - Birth Of A Child Killer： Myra Hindley's Early Years · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:05
Speaker 1: We know how the story of the Moore's murderers, Myra
0:08
Speaker 1: Hindley and Ian Brady ends, But what do we know
0:11
Speaker 1: of how it began? How did an ordinary working class
0:15
Speaker 1: Manchester girl end up killing five children. Those who grew
0:19
Speaker 1: up alongside her, those who studied her mind, and the
0:22
Speaker 1: families of Myra's victims shed new light on her descent
0:25
Speaker 1: into darkness.
0:26
Speaker 2: Mayra's dad said to my dad, I've made a monster, John,
0:30
Speaker 2: I've made a monster.
0:31
Speaker 1: From their testimony, we've dramatized the events that turned her
0:35
Speaker 1: into an icon of evil. Inseparable from Ian Brady, she.
0:41
Speaker 3: Was very submissive to him.
0:43
Speaker 4: Whether she thought she was getting the love she deserved
0:48
Speaker 4: and that's what she thought love was, I don't know.
0:51
Speaker 1: Myra's childhood was toughened by a lack of life.
0:54
Speaker 5: Rather than having a soft and giving mother to kind
0:57
Speaker 5: of balance out the rather domineering father, her mother was
1:02
Speaker 5: also combative.
1:03
Speaker 1: Myyra encountered death at an early age.
1:06
Speaker 6: He was gray, he was white. I put my eyes
1:09
Speaker 6: into the coffin and I just looked away.
1:13
Speaker 1: Hindley's unpublished autobiography reveals intimate details of her relationship with Brady.
1:18
Speaker 7: It was clear to her for the moment that he
1:20
Speaker 7: pressed his mouth to her, that he never kissed anyone
1:23
Speaker 7: before he bruised her with his teeth. He hurt her.
1:26
Speaker 1: This is the story of a love affair turned toxic,
1:30
Speaker 1: of a couple withdrawn into a secret world of perverted
1:34
Speaker 1: and violent fantasy made reality, and of how they devised
1:37
Speaker 1: a plan for murder which would draw five children to
1:40
Speaker 1: their death. During Mayra's childhood, money was short, but community
1:57
Speaker 1: spirit was strong. Born in nineteen forty two, she lived
2:00
Speaker 1: in Gorton, one of the poorest districts in Manchester. Liz Cummins,
2:06
Speaker 1: the cousin of Moore's victim Pauline Reed, lived just across
2:09
Speaker 1: the road.
2:12
Speaker 2: There was the happiest days of my life growing up
2:15
Speaker 2: in Gorton. We had nothing but everybody. It was like
2:18
Speaker 2: one big family, but for.
2:21
Speaker 1: Myra, For anyone on those streets, violence was there if
2:25
Speaker 1: you went looking for it. Not everyone did. Not everyone
2:29
Speaker 1: stood their ground when they found it. Not everyone grew
2:32
Speaker 1: into a child killer.
2:35
Speaker 4: The area where Maria lift, which was near the monastery,
2:40
Speaker 4: was very small houses. You could hear everything that was
2:44
Speaker 4: set next.
2:45
Speaker 1: Door through the walls.
2:47
Speaker 3: They were suppose what you called today slums.
2:50
Speaker 8: It got to the stairs where we were all sleeping
2:53
Speaker 8: in Samburg, the girls as well as the diegon Or.
2:56
Speaker 8: We all got just sleeping in Salemburg until growlingly grand
2:59
Speaker 8: and moved over.
3:00
Speaker 1: That was so close we were.
3:02
Speaker 8: You'd always were left horn kids running out of everybody's houses,
3:05
Speaker 8: and that it was called nothing got touch.
3:09
Speaker 1: But this was post war Manchester and the heavy industry
3:13
Speaker 1: on which many families depended was in decline.
3:17
Speaker 9: People did argue.
3:18
Speaker 6: I remember dad's even having arguments on streets and over kids,
3:25
Speaker 6: and then and then the dad's never spoke and the
3:28
Speaker 6: kids got friends again. It was that type of community.
3:32
Speaker 6: Myra was a little bit older than me.
3:35
Speaker 1: But in the same group of friends.
3:37
Speaker 6: Myra was probably the loudest in the group, and bold
3:41
Speaker 6: and brush.
3:43
Speaker 1: She and her younger sister Maureen were brought up by
3:46
Speaker 1: their mother Nelly and their father Bob, just back from
3:49
Speaker 1: the war.
3:51
Speaker 6: You would hear Nelly at the end of the street
3:52
Speaker 6: because she's out. I think that's where Mala gets the
3:58
Speaker 6: loudness from.
4:02
Speaker 1: Much of the information about Myra's childhood comes from Myra
4:06
Speaker 1: herself when she was in jail. Her accounts should be
4:09
Speaker 1: treated with caution. She was seeking to make excuses shape
4:13
Speaker 1: public opinion, and when released from prison, she described her
4:17
Speaker 1: childhood to Duncan's staff. A journalist give an exclusive access
4:21
Speaker 1: to her papers and unpublished autobiography in which she blames
4:25
Speaker 1: her father for the way he shaped her personality.
4:29
Speaker 7: She disliked him intensely. On the other hand, she could
4:32
Speaker 7: see herself in him. He was a tough man, a
4:34
Speaker 7: hard man. He'd fought in North Africa, and when he
4:37
Speaker 7: came home he was working in a menial job, doing
4:40
Speaker 7: manual labor. He simply wasn't able to cope with the adjustment.
4:43
Speaker 7: He dealt with this by drinking very heavily and by
4:46
Speaker 7: slapping Mayra's mother around. He also hit Myra, whereas he
4:50
Speaker 7: was softer on more.
4:51
Speaker 5: They felt they couldn't really cope with Myra. For whatever reason,
4:55
Speaker 5: it may have been within Myra that the problem actually lay,
4:59
Speaker 5: or may have been that the parents were very poor
5:02
Speaker 5: at coping.
5:04
Speaker 1: To ease tensions. Myra, but not Maureen, was sent to
5:07
Speaker 1: live with her grand around the corner.
5:10
Speaker 5: Myra would have seen this as the arrival of Maureen
5:14
Speaker 5: and she being rejected pushed away.
5:17
Speaker 7: She loved her grandmother and was very happy there, but
5:19
Speaker 7: she felt alienated in a sense from her family background.
5:22
Speaker 7: And from the world which had created her.
5:26
Speaker 1: Myra claimed her father increasingly turned to drink, often that
5:29
Speaker 1: the steel works tavern, which still stands. She said, tensions
5:34
Speaker 1: between her parents deepened.
5:36
Speaker 7: He'd come back from the steel workers or steely and
5:39
Speaker 7: hit Mara's mum Nelly. Every night.
5:49
Speaker 3: I could go with a drink.
6:01
Speaker 7: Maya and her grandmother would wait outside and would listen
6:05
Speaker 7: with the sound of raised voices and a start for fight.
6:08
Speaker 7: Then they dash in and Mara would try and pull
6:10
Speaker 7: Bob off Nelly, while her grandmother hit her father repeatedly
6:16
Speaker 7: to try and end the fight.
6:19
Speaker 1: Myra herself was often shouted at for her trouble.
6:23
Speaker 5: Rather than having a soft and giving mother to kind
6:27
Speaker 5: of balance out the rather violent, domineering father. Her mother
6:31
Speaker 5: was also combative.
6:34
Speaker 1: There was one way in which Bob Hendley must have
6:36
Speaker 1: felt he was helping his daughter.
6:40
Speaker 7: He taught her how to fight. He taught her how
6:43
Speaker 7: to do the type of thing that he himself was
6:45
Speaker 7: doing to Mayra's mother.
6:48
Speaker 1: She picks out his reaction to one street fight in
6:50
Speaker 1: particular as a turning point. She recounts in detail the
7:04
Speaker 1: exchange that followed.
7:08
Speaker 5: Myra expected her father to protect her and stand up
7:11
Speaker 5: for her because he was this powerful figure within her life.
7:15
Speaker 9: He did the reverse.
7:16
Speaker 1: I'm gonna thought to yourself, because you're a big girl.
7:18
Speaker 3: Now, Myra, I'll tell you what.
7:21
Speaker 7: You're gonna go out there.
7:22
Speaker 8: You're gonna lead him Bye.
7:24
Speaker 7: I'm gonna let it, you dount.
7:32
Speaker 1: She was on her own, but armed with her father's
7:35
Speaker 1: fighting technique. Decades later, she could still recall the exact
7:39
Speaker 1: sequence of blows. A left to the head, a right
7:44
Speaker 1: to the stomach, a left to the temple, which led
7:47
Speaker 1: to victory.
7:48
Speaker 5: She learned that dominating someone was an important part of
7:52
Speaker 5: establishing herself and her own self worth.
7:57
Speaker 7: She'd done what her father had asked of her, and
8:00
Speaker 7: he ruffled her hair, He congratulated her, He gave her approval,
8:03
Speaker 7: and this is what Myra craved.
8:06
Speaker 5: She was rewarded by her father, who basically had created
8:11
Speaker 5: a loop within her to realize that you could influence
8:15
Speaker 5: the world outside by brutal force.
8:19
Speaker 1: Though Myra made much of this, her father wasn't unique.
8:23
Speaker 1: Mary Smith, who grew up nearby, is the widow of
8:26
Speaker 1: the man once married to Myra's sister Marien.
8:29
Speaker 10: If you came home and you'd been tied in, and
8:32
Speaker 10: the first question out of her mum's mouth would be
8:34
Speaker 10: did you win? And if you didn't win, then you'd
8:36
Speaker 10: be sent out to go out and to win, and
8:39
Speaker 10: so you'd have to stand your ground. You'd have to do.
8:43
Speaker 1: Myra may claim to have been toughened by the lack
8:45
Speaker 1: of love from her parents, but it would be Ian
8:48
Speaker 1: Brady who would unleash her darkest desires. He though was
8:53
Speaker 1: still years away, and other tragic events awaited Myra before
8:57
Speaker 1: the two would meet. As a child, Myra Hindley built
9:05
Speaker 1: a reputation as a street fighter. In her unpublished autobiography,
9:10
Speaker 1: she insists this tough background and her violent father provided
9:14
Speaker 1: an excuse for what was to come. But that doesn't
9:17
Speaker 1: wash with Mary Smith, widow of the man who was
9:20
Speaker 1: once Mayer's brother in law.
9:22
Speaker 10: I would find that absolutely ridiculous, because then more than
9:28
Speaker 10: half ninety percent of all girls and boys that was
9:33
Speaker 10: reared in that day and age should have become serial
9:37
Speaker 10: killers then, because we was all sent out to look
9:39
Speaker 10: after ourselves.
9:41
Speaker 1: The truth, according to those who knew Myra, is that
9:44
Speaker 1: something in her personality set her apart.
9:47
Speaker 4: She had no empathy for anybody else. If somebody hurt themselves,
9:52
Speaker 4: it wouldn't upset her or anything like that, and if
9:56
Speaker 4: anybody upsets her, she'd lash out and hit them.
10:00
Speaker 3: And that's how she was.
10:01
Speaker 2: I think she could handle her self mirror.
10:06
Speaker 9: Very much.
10:07
Speaker 2: She wasn't scared of anything or anybody.
10:11
Speaker 1: Mayra's reputation as a fighter made her a target. Other kids,
10:16
Speaker 1: often bigger, wanted to prove themselves against her. On one occasion,
10:20
Speaker 1: a boy heard she'd been treated for knits n nell.
10:28
Speaker 1: Initially he got the better of her. She shouted at
10:31
Speaker 1: him to break.
10:34
Speaker 7: She recalled how he had failed to beat obay the
10:37
Speaker 7: street fighting rules when he should have broken, He didn't
10:40
Speaker 7: break and continued to hit her. So she punished him
10:44
Speaker 7: for this by grabbing him by the head and slamming
10:46
Speaker 7: it repeatedly into the ground.
10:48
Speaker 5: She was going to pumbl him beyond his life's worth.
10:52
Speaker 5: There was a potential that was not restrained by emotional expression,
10:56
Speaker 5: which could point to a deficit that was always there
10:59
Speaker 5: in Myra. That coolness, that callous lack of empathy. That
11:05
Speaker 5: meant she had the potential all the way through her
11:08
Speaker 5: life to do serious damage.
11:11
Speaker 1: Myra claimed her prowess gave her a new role on
11:14
Speaker 1: the streets.
11:15
Speaker 7: She cheated certain status and took upon herself the role
11:18
Speaker 7: of protector.
11:20
Speaker 1: Often it would be her sister Maureen she protected with
11:26
Speaker 1: tragic irony. She did the same for Maureen's friend Pauline Reed,
11:30
Speaker 1: but just a decade later, Myra would choose Pauline to
11:34
Speaker 1: become the first Mau's victim. If Myra was fiercer than
11:41
Speaker 1: many children, she was also brighter.
11:44
Speaker 7: An interesting question is whether a better education would have
11:48
Speaker 7: saved Myra Hindley.
11:49
Speaker 1: She escaped inwardly from the turbulence of her life into
11:52
Speaker 1: a world of fiction. She'd shut herself away with the
11:55
Speaker 1: children's classics of the time, Beatrix Potter and Enid Blyton,
12:00
Speaker 1: than the Secret Garden and Swallows in Amazons.
12:04
Speaker 5: She sought something beyond, something that was beyond the ordinary life.
12:10
Speaker 5: She wanted to touch on a greater power. She tried
12:13
Speaker 5: this with religion, but she also saw in literature to
12:16
Speaker 5: go beyond the simple reality.
12:19
Speaker 1: Myra went to Sunday School at Saint Francis's Monastery nearby.
12:22
Speaker 1: She and her father wanted her to go there for
12:25
Speaker 1: her secondary education, but her mother disagreement. In the end,
12:34
Speaker 1: Mayra's mother got her way. Myra was entered for the
12:37
Speaker 1: eleventh plus, but recalled. She had to sit the exam
12:41
Speaker 1: at a school for middle class children in another part
12:43
Speaker 1: of Manchester. She claimed she felt overwhelmed and failed. As
12:49
Speaker 1: her mother had wished, She was sent to the local
12:51
Speaker 1: multi faith Secondary Modern. Now a teenager, much in demand
12:59
Speaker 1: as a babysitter, Myra took a back seat at school,
13:02
Speaker 1: still enjoying English literature, but truanting regularly.
13:06
Speaker 3: She wasn't a very community person. Even at school.
13:11
Speaker 4: She didn't mix very well. It was if she was
13:15
Speaker 4: looking for something and couldn't find it.
13:17
Speaker 1: She tended to avoid girls and hang around with boys,
13:21
Speaker 1: including Alan Grafton.
13:23
Speaker 6: Myra was, in my opinion, more of a tomboy than
13:28
Speaker 6: the other girls. Don't think that many of the lads
13:32
Speaker 6: at that time really took a fancy to Myra, as
13:36
Speaker 6: she was loud, she could fight. They just didn't want
13:42
Speaker 6: to get involved, I don't think. But at that particular time,
13:45
Speaker 6: Myra had this crush on one of our friends called
13:49
Speaker 6: Michae Higgins. Nice lad was Michael, and everybody liked Michael.
13:54
Speaker 1: At thirteen, was two years younger than Myra. The pair
13:57
Speaker 1: were inseparable.
14:00
Speaker 9: Was always together, very good friends.
14:03
Speaker 2: You used to take him to the park and you
14:05
Speaker 2: used to take him swiming, and the same initials as well,
14:08
Speaker 2: which made a difference.
14:09
Speaker 8: You know.
14:10
Speaker 1: Myra was a strong swimmer and looked after Michael tragedy
14:14
Speaker 1: struck the day she decided not to go with him.
14:17
Speaker 6: Unfortunately, Michael, on one sunny day went to Dubdale Parking
14:21
Speaker 6: Garden where they've got some reservoirs and went for a
14:25
Speaker 6: swim with some friends.
14:28
Speaker 1: And Michael never come home.
14:31
Speaker 6: Apparently the currents of that reservoir took his life's.
14:48
Speaker 1: Michael, who'd been with two other boys, had swum far
14:51
Speaker 1: out from the bank and got cramp in the deep
14:53
Speaker 1: cold water. Police frogmen recover his body.
15:00
Speaker 2: That evening, she was devastated about Michael's death. Everybody was
15:07
Speaker 2: devastated about him because he was a lovely lad.
15:11
Speaker 5: She felt that she should have been there. She said
15:13
Speaker 5: she would be there. She was, and she would have
15:14
Speaker 5: saved him if she was there. That's the scenario.
15:18
Speaker 1: That night, Mayra climbed into bed with her gram in
15:21
Speaker 1: a nightmare about Michael. She was diving underwater trying to
15:25
Speaker 1: save him, grabbing his hair, but it was too short
15:28
Speaker 1: and then she too was sinking, gulping lungfuls of water.
15:33
Speaker 5: Mara describes many nightmares and almost surreal moments where she
15:40
Speaker 5: felt she was re enacting the scenario of Michael's death
15:44
Speaker 5: as if really trying to physically place her presence at
15:49
Speaker 5: the scene and do something about it. But she also
15:53
Speaker 5: had it as an obsessive, intrusive thought, almost as something
15:58
Speaker 5: which would normal people would want to push away. But
16:02
Speaker 5: I think Myra actually saw this as a kind of
16:05
Speaker 5: vision of another world, a world in which she could
16:08
Speaker 5: perhaps almost do supernatural things.
16:11
Speaker 6: In morning, he can remember everybody knocking film people's doors
16:15
Speaker 6: saying Michael Wiggins is drowned. And Myra was very, very
16:20
Speaker 6: upset about that, because Myra, i think, in All the Girls,
16:24
Speaker 6: was the closest to Michael.
16:26
Speaker 1: Michael's body was laid out in his front room. His
16:29
Speaker 1: friends were invited in.
16:31
Speaker 6: He was gray, he was white. I put my eyes
16:35
Speaker 6: into the coffin and I just looked away, and I
16:39
Speaker 6: tried to get out of the house as soon as
16:41
Speaker 6: I could. I was that upset and shocked about seeing
16:44
Speaker 6: the body in the coffin. I've never been to see
16:47
Speaker 6: anybody else.
16:49
Speaker 1: Myra too was shown the body.
16:53
Speaker 7: She described in great and very unusual detail, the sight
16:57
Speaker 7: of Michael lying in the coffin, the light falling on
17:02
Speaker 7: his face, and how she could see a sliver of
17:04
Speaker 7: his eye. It's very striking. This detailed this almost obsession
17:09
Speaker 7: with death.
17:10
Speaker 1: Michael's mother pulled the rosary beads from his fingers and
17:13
Speaker 1: handed them to her. Though Myra had blamed herself, after
17:17
Speaker 1: seeing Michael's body, her reaction to the death changed.
17:21
Speaker 5: It became something which fired up anger, which was directed
17:24
Speaker 5: as others, not at herself.
17:26
Speaker 9: She wanted to take.
17:28
Speaker 5: Out her feelings hair of frustrations on others. She forcefully
17:33
Speaker 5: gathered money for a wreath, often in a very threatening
17:37
Speaker 5: and menacing way, which was disturbing considering the fact that
17:41
Speaker 5: she should have been distraught, quiet and sorrowful.
17:45
Speaker 1: She wasn't. One evening, she was convinced she'd seen Michael
17:53
Speaker 1: staring at her. She ran to him, but he'd vanished.
18:02
Speaker 1: Detailed and vivid descriptions of death abound in Myra's unpublished autobiography.
18:07
Speaker 1: A dog she found decapitated by a railway line, a
18:11
Speaker 1: boy she watched bleeding to death after being crushed by
18:14
Speaker 1: a lorry, a cat torn in half by two dogs.
18:17
Speaker 7: The reason it was never published is that her supporters
18:20
Speaker 7: looked at this material. They saw it that in fact
18:23
Speaker 7: betrayed her. It did her damage because it showed that
18:25
Speaker 7: she was an unusual person who was familiar with and
18:30
Speaker 7: comfortable with scenes of extreme violence and death.
18:33
Speaker 1: After Michael's death, Myra immersed herself in religion.
18:37
Speaker 7: She became obsessed about it. She visited the church all
18:40
Speaker 7: the time. Once she'd focused on something, she'd locked onto
18:44
Speaker 7: it totally.
18:46
Speaker 1: But her friends felt she still hadn't found what she
18:48
Speaker 1: was seeking. A new Myra emerged. She left school, took
18:59
Speaker 1: a job as a typist, and infamously dyed her hair
19:03
Speaker 1: peroxide blonde.
19:05
Speaker 4: It as if she was looking for love, and all
19:08
Speaker 4: I can think is that she didn't get sist at home,
19:10
Speaker 4: so she's tried to find it.
19:13
Speaker 3: But she wanted a male of nothing else.
19:15
Speaker 1: After a series of relationships, she ended up with a
19:18
Speaker 1: boy called Ronnie Sinclair. Despite Mayra's reputation, he had dared
19:23
Speaker 1: to tug her hair in the cinema.
19:24
Speaker 7: Ronnie asked her would he marry her, and they got
19:28
Speaker 7: rings and they're engaged to be married. But Mara felt
19:30
Speaker 7: that the relationship was moving forward in a way that
19:33
Speaker 7: was expected or further, somehow she would have to marry
19:36
Speaker 7: Ronnie and she didn't really want that.
19:38
Speaker 1: At home, Myra's sister Maureen also had a new boyfriend,
19:42
Speaker 1: and the dynamic of the family was changing forever. After
19:47
Speaker 1: a stroke which left him a semi invalid and embittered,
19:50
Speaker 1: Mayra's father, Bob, was continuing to vent his frustration on
19:54
Speaker 1: Myra's mother, Maureen, knew the consequences if Myra found out.
20:01
Speaker 1: Maureen's boyfriend, David Smith, would later play a pivotal role
20:05
Speaker 1: in bringing the Moore's murderers to justice. He's going to
20:11
Speaker 1: listen to me.
20:12
Speaker 9: For me, it's not mildthread.
20:15
Speaker 10: He didn't really want to go to the house because
20:17
Speaker 10: he didn't want to get involved with it.
20:22
Speaker 1: In his memoirs, David Smith describes in detail the moment
20:25
Speaker 1: he witnessed the Hindley family and Myra in their true colours. David,
20:31
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old, was being asked to soothe matters
20:34
Speaker 1: before Myra got wind of what had happened. He was
20:37
Speaker 1: too late.
20:38
Speaker 5: David went there just in time to see that Myra
20:42
Speaker 5: enter the situation, marchinging and in immediately dominating the household
20:47
Speaker 5: and her father, humiliating him, stating that if he made
20:53
Speaker 5: one move again, she would not only strike him back,
20:55
Speaker 5: she would put him into hospital or even the cemetery.
20:58
Speaker 5: The intent and the dominance and the callous disregard for
21:03
Speaker 5: another human being, which it includes her own parent was
21:07
Speaker 5: already there. This reversed the early childhood dominance by her father. Okay,
21:19
Speaker 5: this was in defense of her mother. However, here she
21:23
Speaker 5: was showing the same callous regard for her own father
21:28
Speaker 5: that once upon a time he showed her.
21:37
Speaker 1: Years later, Myra described how she was feeling trapped at
21:41
Speaker 1: this time, age nineteen. She tried changing jobs and a
21:45
Speaker 1: ride for interview at a company in Gorton called Millwood's Merchandising.
21:51
Speaker 7: That was finees simily, this will be your desk.
21:55
Speaker 1: Her friend had already told her of a shy, intriguing
21:58
Speaker 1: man who worked.
22:00
Speaker 5: When humans initially bond, we're going back to primordial times.
22:03
Speaker 5: We don't have time for long winded introductions. In fact,
22:07
Speaker 5: we often will make immediate emotional bonding contact with someone
22:12
Speaker 5: within a split second.
22:14
Speaker 7: Myras is Ian, Ian is Myra.
22:20
Speaker 5: This happened with Myra Hindley when she first saw Ian
22:23
Speaker 5: Brady to meet. He was not just simply a fairly
22:29
Speaker 5: good looking guy, but he had a strange aloof cool nature,
22:34
Speaker 5: one where he would be more elusive than engaging, one
22:38
Speaker 5: where he would look quite dismissive rather than interested. This
22:43
Speaker 5: drew her in.
22:43
Speaker 7: Mara Hindley was instantly smitten with Ian Brady, and when
22:46
Speaker 7: she met her friends that night, she couldn't stop talking
22:49
Speaker 7: about him. It was Ian this, e and that, and
22:51
Speaker 7: that went on for a very long time afterwards.
22:55
Speaker 1: In her autobiography, she describes walking home, glancing through wind
23:00
Speaker 1: and seeing hum drum scenes of the ordinary life she
23:03
Speaker 1: could expect if she married Ronnie. It no longer felt enough.
23:08
Speaker 1: Each step was now taking her in a new and
23:10
Speaker 1: lethal direction. When Mara Hindley arrived for her first day
23:18
Speaker 1: at Millwood's merchandising in January nineteen sixty one, she already
23:23
Speaker 1: knew what she wanted out of the job. It didn't
23:27
Speaker 1: immediately go to plan.
23:29
Speaker 7: In her unpublished autobography, Mara Hindley wrote, and she was
23:32
Speaker 7: completely smitten by Ian, but she simply couldn't understand the
23:35
Speaker 7: way he responded to her.
23:38
Speaker 9: Thank you for your corporation, etc. And etc.
23:42
Speaker 7: She was used to boys, so if they fancied you,
23:44
Speaker 7: they immediately told you that they fancied you. Ian held
23:47
Speaker 7: himself completely aloof.
23:51
Speaker 9: Thank you simply.
23:52
Speaker 7: Mara Hindley in later life described this as him deliberately
23:55
Speaker 7: exerting controlling behavior because she was trying to paint a
23:58
Speaker 7: picture of herself as somebody who was being manipulated by
24:01
Speaker 7: Ian Brady from the start. I'm not sure that's right,
24:04
Speaker 7: but there's no doubt that he was cold to her.
24:07
Speaker 1: To those who had grown up with her in Gordon,
24:10
Speaker 1: it was clear Myra had moved on from her street
24:12
Speaker 1: fighting days, but her domineering personality remained.
24:19
Speaker 4: She used to stand outside Millwood's and we'd be my
24:24
Speaker 4: boyfriend except my husband. I'd be walking down lemon Zoom
24:30
Speaker 4: Road and even though she knew you, she'd look through you.
24:35
Speaker 4: She wouldn't acknowledge that you were there. She just had
24:38
Speaker 4: a face of look why marble stone, whatever you want
24:44
Speaker 4: to call it.
24:45
Speaker 1: To those who knew Myra, Ian who came from Glasgow
24:49
Speaker 1: appeared an outsider.
24:51
Speaker 4: She probably could have thought he was handsome, but he
24:53
Speaker 4: wasn't my type. He was and he was older than
24:57
Speaker 4: her as well. He wasn't in our if you know
25:01
Speaker 4: what I mean, most people you went around with people
25:04
Speaker 4: if your own age, not somebody a lot older than yourself.
25:08
Speaker 9: It was very posh.
25:09
Speaker 3: He used to look very smart.
25:12
Speaker 2: I'm not saying Garden people didn't look smart, but he
25:15
Speaker 2: was overdressed for being in garden.
25:18
Speaker 6: Now I can always remember this Laod in a corner
25:21
Speaker 6: with l for bitter and a war book, And eventually
25:27
Speaker 6: that turned out to be Ian Brady. He had a
25:29
Speaker 6: moltorbike and no kids had motorbikes, and Maria was interested
25:33
Speaker 6: in this ladd on a moltarbike.
25:35
Speaker 7: Like Myra Hindley, Ian Brady came from a poor working
25:38
Speaker 7: class background, but his background was even more difficult than Myra's.
25:42
Speaker 7: His mother was called Peggy, and she was a t
25:44
Speaker 7: shop waitress and she got pregnant, It's rumored by a
25:47
Speaker 7: newspaper reporter in Glasgow, and she wasn't able to cope
25:50
Speaker 7: with the fact she had a young child and advertise
25:52
Speaker 7: him for adoption in a Newsasians window. So, like Myra,
25:56
Speaker 7: he had a sense of dislocation, a sense of rejection
25:59
Speaker 7: by by his family.
26:01
Speaker 1: Brady was fostered and from an early age began stealing,
26:05
Speaker 1: acquiring a string of convictions.
26:07
Speaker 5: He was someone who actually again pleasure and thrill from
26:11
Speaker 5: committing crimes as opposed to simply profit. This was something
26:15
Speaker 5: that he was going to be doing for the rest
26:17
Speaker 5: of his life.
26:18
Speaker 1: Eventually, a court gave him a choice go to a
26:21
Speaker 1: young offenders institution or join his birth mother in Manchester.
26:25
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty four, Ian caught the train from Glasgow
26:29
Speaker 1: to Manchester's Victoria station. Six years later, he met Myra
26:33
Speaker 1: Hindley at Millwood's. She soon saw another side to the
26:37
Speaker 1: cool aloof Ian. At lunchtime, he'd go out to place
26:40
Speaker 1: bets and would later call the bookies to get the results.
26:44
Speaker 7: His best name was Gorgan Zola later changed to Gorgan,
26:47
Speaker 7: and he was fine when he'd won, but when he'd lost,
26:50
Speaker 7: he just exploded off christ sick. In these fascis of temper,
26:57
Speaker 7: Myra saw something that she was familiar with. It was
27:00
Speaker 7: the behavior of her father, and on the one hand
27:03
Speaker 7: it repelled her. But on the other hand, it was
27:05
Speaker 7: the familiar. It was something that she understood and knew
27:07
Speaker 7: how to deal with, so it didn't put her off him,
27:10
Speaker 7: and in an odd way, it drew her towards him.
27:15
Speaker 1: At other moments. When he did speak, it was not
27:18
Speaker 1: to take part in banter, but to expound ideas on
27:21
Speaker 1: philosophy and literature, making clear he was a part and superior.
27:26
Speaker 1: Myra was fascinated, but Ian appeared oblivious.
27:31
Speaker 5: It was not Ian that was actually trying to pick
27:33
Speaker 5: up on Myra, or see a potential victim or a colleague.
27:37
Speaker 5: Here it was Myra who pursued Ian initially and for
27:41
Speaker 5: quite a long time.
27:44
Speaker 1: For a time, she effectively stalked Ian, borrowing her aunt's
27:48
Speaker 1: baby son and wheeling him up and down Ian Street,
27:51
Speaker 1: but she never saw him. Eventually, she decided to show
27:55
Speaker 1: Ian she too was interested in big ideas. She went
27:59
Speaker 1: to Gorton Library and found a book of Wordsworth poetry
28:02
Speaker 1: which she remembered from school. She recalled in detail the
28:05
Speaker 1: conversations which followed.
28:14
Speaker 9: Word's worth Any good marvus actually, especially long ones might
28:28
Speaker 9: get a copy.
28:32
Speaker 7: It was a blissful moment for her. This was a
28:34
Speaker 7: moment she was determined to capitalize on, and she did
28:37
Speaker 7: everything she could to make sure that once he had
28:39
Speaker 7: noticed her, he would never stop noticing her, and that
28:41
Speaker 7: she would form a relationship with him.
28:44
Speaker 9: Do you listen to music?
28:47
Speaker 7: Of course, she wanted Ian more than she wanted anything.
28:50
Speaker 1: Which all sorts, bit of pop, classical, big bonds.
28:59
Speaker 7: Ian Brady used little things to set himself apart from
29:02
Speaker 7: his working class background.
29:04
Speaker 11: I prefer more craft of music. Sometime the recording from
29:08
Speaker 11: the TV library to him. These were tremendously important things.
29:12
Speaker 11: So he didn't drink beer, He drank red wine. He
29:15
Speaker 11: didn't listen to pop, he listened to classical music.
29:19
Speaker 1: You can borrow some sporores if you like technology. Fascinated
29:23
Speaker 1: Ian Brady. He had his own recording equipment, his own
29:26
Speaker 1: photographic kit and darkroom. Myra began saving for her own
29:30
Speaker 1: tape recorder. Years later, she described her obsession with Ian
29:35
Speaker 1: to her prison chaplain father, Michael Teeder.
29:38
Speaker 12: He introduced her to a different way of life. He
29:41
Speaker 12: took her really out of that very poor, working class
29:45
Speaker 12: background that she was growing and he showed her other things,
29:48
Speaker 12: and I think he was probably an exciting man.
29:51
Speaker 7: She had locked her beam onto him. She had an
29:54
Speaker 7: unusual personality in that she became obsessed by things.
29:58
Speaker 1: She called off her engagement to Ronnie Sinkle, who was distraught.
30:01
Speaker 1: He wrung her daily, but she was totally focused on Brady.
30:04
Speaker 7: In later years, she came to realize, and she wrote
30:07
Speaker 7: me about this, that this was a critical moment in
30:10
Speaker 7: her life. Had she gone on, had she married Ronnie Sinclair,
30:13
Speaker 7: she would probably have grown up an ordinary mother in
30:15
Speaker 7: a working class area of Manchester and led a happy life.
30:19
Speaker 1: But it was not until the office Christmas party in
30:22
Speaker 1: December nineteen sixty one, almost a year after she joined Millwood's,
30:26
Speaker 1: that Myra Hindley's relationship with Ian Brady truly ignited. He
30:30
Speaker 1: asked her to dance.
30:32
Speaker 7: The Christmas party at Millwood's Merchandise was a hard drinking affair.
30:36
Speaker 7: They were having a party in a pub. Mayra was
30:38
Speaker 7: sitting by the edge of the dance door, feeling a
30:40
Speaker 7: little bit unsteady, and then Ian staggered towards her. He
30:44
Speaker 7: asked her she'd like to dance, and pulled her to
30:46
Speaker 7: her feet, and they lurched around the dance floor, with
30:49
Speaker 7: him trampling all over her feet. But it was the
30:51
Speaker 7: happiest moment of Myra Hindley's life so far.
30:55
Speaker 1: After the party, Ian suggested they go on for a drink.
30:58
Speaker 1: Then he walked her home.
31:01
Speaker 9: Am I coming in.
31:03
Speaker 3: Now my grand's?
31:07
Speaker 7: Myra wrote in detail about her first kiss with Ian Brady.
31:11
Speaker 7: It was clear to her for the moment that he
31:13
Speaker 7: pressed his mouth to her that he'd never kissed anyone before.
31:16
Speaker 7: He bruised her with his teeth. He hurt her. This
31:19
Speaker 7: was a man who had never had any physical affection before.
31:22
Speaker 1: He can't go.
31:25
Speaker 9: You no longer wanted.
31:28
Speaker 3: Ah.
31:35
Speaker 1: But if Myra thought she and Ian were an item,
31:38
Speaker 1: he had other ideas. A long pattern of circling each other,
31:42
Speaker 1: playing on each other's trust, drawing the other inn began
31:45
Speaker 1: to unfold. This remained at the core of their relationship
31:49
Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives.
31:51
Speaker 12: He wouldn't speak to her, he wouldn't recognize her in
31:53
Speaker 12: the office, and then he would suddenly come back and
31:58
Speaker 12: then pick her up again and make fuss of her
32:01
Speaker 12: and buyer things and take her out and make her
32:03
Speaker 12: feel special. Then he would drop her and he'd do
32:06
Speaker 12: exactly the same thing again. And I think this is
32:09
Speaker 12: a grooming pattern. It's a way of gaining control over
32:12
Speaker 12: another person. And I think that that was a systematic
32:15
Speaker 12: way that he dealt with her, until finally he felt
32:18
Speaker 12: that he had controlled over her and that she needed him.
32:23
Speaker 1: When she did agree to have sex with Ian, the
32:26
Speaker 1: encounter was brutal.
32:28
Speaker 7: He bit her repeatedly, rather than be a warm, loving moment.
32:35
Speaker 7: She described in great detail to me how violent this was,
32:40
Speaker 7: how he was rough with her. Now, she was trying
32:42
Speaker 7: to portray herself as somebody who was irresistibly drawn to
32:46
Speaker 7: a man with a dark side, but Whereas most young
32:50
Speaker 7: women confront of the boyfriend who was violent to them
32:52
Speaker 7: when they lost their virginity, they'd end the relationship. Mara didn't.
32:56
Speaker 5: There was something brutal about him that fascinated Myra, that
33:00
Speaker 5: actually engaged her, that resonated somewhat with her exchanges with
33:05
Speaker 5: her father, something that was feeding her need to go
33:11
Speaker 5: beyond what others would attain.
33:15
Speaker 1: Myra's acceptance of the dark side of his personality encouraged
33:19
Speaker 1: him to reveal more. Leiah by Leah Brady drew her
33:22
Speaker 1: deeper into his fantasies.
33:24
Speaker 12: I think it was a damn and spiral as far
33:26
Speaker 12: as she was concerned.
33:29
Speaker 9: Do you know all there was when I kill my
33:31
Speaker 9: cross can.
33:35
Speaker 1: Ken?
33:37
Speaker 12: He changed her, He groomed her. And it's a word
33:41
Speaker 12: which probably wasn't used at the time, but I think
33:43
Speaker 12: we know the meaning of that word now.
33:45
Speaker 9: Threw it from a tower block, screamed all the way down.
33:51
Speaker 7: He had a script in his head and he needed
33:53
Speaker 7: to get her to a point where she was helping
33:56
Speaker 7: to act it out.
34:00
Speaker 9: Couldn't do that anymore. Eh on the O people, Now
34:08
Speaker 9: it's on a higher plaim.
34:12
Speaker 1: Bit by bit Ian revealed to Myra the books, the
34:15
Speaker 1: ideas through which his fantasies had taken shape, including the
34:19
Speaker 1: Marquis De'ssard, the high priest of Sadism, who preached that violence,
34:23
Speaker 1: and especially sexual violence, were justified because they were pleasurable
34:28
Speaker 1: and natural.
34:30
Speaker 9: Do you know what I thought when I first started
34:31
Speaker 9: not to keep the sad saw?
34:38
Speaker 7: Ian Brady viewed dark, abnormal behavior as something that separated
34:43
Speaker 7: him from his working class background, so he was interested
34:47
Speaker 7: in the Marquis Dessard. He was interested in Pasado Masochism.
34:51
Speaker 7: This is very unusual now. Mara Hindley was able to
34:54
Speaker 7: enter into this world partly because she saw in Ian
34:57
Speaker 7: Brady a mirror image of her father. So were her
35:00
Speaker 7: father had beaten her from a young age. Ian Brady
35:02
Speaker 7: beat her during sex, so her childhood had in a
35:05
Speaker 7: sense prepared her to enter this world. With Ian Brady.
35:10
Speaker 1: They withdrew into a private world, apart from a society
35:14
Speaker 1: whose rules they increasingly scorned, but those around them caught
35:18
Speaker 1: glimpses of how their relationship was developing.
35:22
Speaker 4: She was very submissive to him. Whether she thought she
35:25
Speaker 4: was getting the love she deserved and that's what she
35:31
Speaker 4: thought love was, I don't know. But if he told
35:34
Speaker 4: us to stand on the head. She'd stand on the head.
35:38
Speaker 9: What do you look like here?
35:40
Speaker 4: One summer she was outside Millwood's and she had, you know,
35:45
Speaker 4: fancy top in the shorts gut and he didn't like it,
35:49
Speaker 4: and he made to take it off, and.
35:51
Speaker 3: She took it off to go off now there and
35:58
Speaker 3: then yeah, in the street.
36:02
Speaker 1: Or what was she left with?
36:04
Speaker 4: Wearing an underskirt, a full anthem to skirt, an over.
36:09
Speaker 3: Hour and pants.
36:10
Speaker 4: If he said coal was white, coal was white. And
36:14
Speaker 4: she got on the back of the bank without the
36:16
Speaker 4: clothes on.
36:19
Speaker 7: He gave her a book called The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins,
36:23
Speaker 7: which describes in graphic and sickening detail, the rape of
36:27
Speaker 7: a fifteen year old girl.
36:30
Speaker 1: Ian took from the book the notion that rape, incest,
36:33
Speaker 1: and pedophilia were adventures.
36:36
Speaker 9: If a mine gets the chance to perform running his
36:38
Speaker 9: axe murder, he should take care.
36:48
Speaker 1: The couple began to play out their dreams of violence.
36:51
Speaker 1: Although Ian had previously reveled in being cruel to animals,
36:55
Speaker 1: he now decided to become their protector. The couple would
36:58
Speaker 1: read reports of people guilty of animal cruelty, then go
37:02
Speaker 1: on vigilante trips, taking revenge.
37:05
Speaker 5: Ian could justify just being basically vicious and damaging and
37:09
Speaker 5: sadistic towards the people who suppose perpetrators of this.
37:17
Speaker 1: Ian would give those responsible a beating or throw a
37:20
Speaker 1: brick through a window. He and Myra were constructing a
37:23
Speaker 1: world where they did to others as they wished. With
37:26
Speaker 1: each new venture, the next step became imaginable. Many would
37:30
Speaker 1: suffer as a result. Ian Brady was a planner to
37:41
Speaker 1: his fantasies of violent crime. He brought meticulous forethought, but
37:46
Speaker 1: he needed Myra Hindley to make his most horrific fantasies real.
37:55
Speaker 9: Thus heed it.
37:57
Speaker 1: He found a book called Compulsion about the real life
38:01
Speaker 1: abduction and murder of a Chicago schoolboy by two wealthy,
38:04
Speaker 1: good looking young men who thought the committed the perfect crime,
38:08
Speaker 1: but they were caught.
38:09
Speaker 7: And probably committed the Ian Brady used the book called
38:11
Speaker 7: Compulsion by Maya Levin as a perverse blueprint for the
38:15
Speaker 7: Moore's murders. The book was written as an argument against
38:18
Speaker 7: capital punishment, but Ian Brady read it completely differently. All
38:21
Speaker 7: he did was look at the mistakes that were committed
38:25
Speaker 7: by Leopold and Low of the murderers in the way
38:28
Speaker 7: they carried out the killing. So they abducted somebody from
38:31
Speaker 7: close to their house. They buried them in a drainage
38:34
Speaker 7: ditch where the body would be found when they burnt
38:38
Speaker 7: the face with acid. They didn't do it properly so
38:40
Speaker 7: the victim could still be recognized.
38:42
Speaker 5: He saw their efforts as being futile, immature, error ridden,
38:49
Speaker 5: and not having the great foresight that he himself thought.
38:53
Speaker 1: He heard they were.
38:54
Speaker 9: Seen at the abduction, had the body blocked properly. Idiots.
39:01
Speaker 1: Years later, Myra described the conversation, it's why you.
39:05
Speaker 9: Do it, your plan. You need to make sure the
39:09
Speaker 9: body is never discovered.
39:11
Speaker 1: They outlined a plan for Mayra to wear a disguise
39:14
Speaker 1: and pick up a child. They then drive to Saddleworth Moore,
39:17
Speaker 1: where the child would be raped, murdered and buried.
39:24
Speaker 9: No, this is going to be the perfect matter.
39:35
Speaker 1: You are gone. They began driving around, picking out potential victims,
39:52
Speaker 1: taking photos and rehearsing what they do.
40:01
Speaker 13: No idea to that, inged Mara Henley, in her later
40:08
Speaker 13: descriptions of the run up to the murders, painted a
40:11
Speaker 13: picture of herself being forced into the killings and being
40:16
Speaker 13: forced to go out scouting for children.
40:19
Speaker 7: But this went on over a period of time, and
40:22
Speaker 7: it's striking that she didn't pull out, she didn't walk away.
40:26
Speaker 1: The idea of the perfect murder became part of her
40:29
Speaker 1: sex life. As time went on, what had started as
40:32
Speaker 1: a fantasy became a real possibility. But at this point
40:36
Speaker 1: in Myra's account, she claimed she needed one final push
40:40
Speaker 1: towards murder and that one day she got it. This
40:44
Speaker 1: is her version of what happened.
40:49
Speaker 7: She wrote how one night she began to feel unwell,
40:53
Speaker 7: she became drowsy, and then she woke up with an
40:55
Speaker 7: appalling hangover, and it transpired. What happened was he drugged
40:59
Speaker 7: her use her grandmother's nembutae tablets, and then raped her
41:03
Speaker 7: and photographed her and bitten her.
41:07
Speaker 9: That to be the sleeping tablets? What's sleeping tablets? As
41:13
Speaker 9: completely out of it? You will off of the faeries,
41:16
Speaker 9: you bastard, because you're mine, you're alcohol because I could
41:26
Speaker 9: do whatever I wanted.
41:34
Speaker 1: It's entirely possible. She was a willing, fully awake participant
41:38
Speaker 1: in the photo session and concocted the drugging story to
41:42
Speaker 1: suggest she was at Ian's mercy. She said, a few
41:45
Speaker 1: days later he showed her the photos.
41:48
Speaker 9: I see what I aked and that's tric Dear you're
42:01
Speaker 9: ow gold.
42:05
Speaker 1: Mayra claimed she was so scared she wrote a letter
42:08
Speaker 1: to be given to the police if she disappeared. She
42:11
Speaker 1: said her body would be found in a shallow grave
42:14
Speaker 1: on Saddleworth More. But there's no further evidence of the letter,
42:18
Speaker 1: and she said she later retrieved and destroyed it.
42:21
Speaker 7: There's a question as to whether that letter ever existed
42:24
Speaker 7: or not. Was it a real letter or was it
42:26
Speaker 7: simply her trying to portray herself once again as a
42:29
Speaker 7: victim once again. Something didn't really want to carry out
42:32
Speaker 7: these killings, but there's no getting away from the fact
42:35
Speaker 7: that she did carry on. She kept the relationship with
42:39
Speaker 7: Ian Brady going, and she did help carry out the
42:41
Speaker 7: most murders.
42:42
Speaker 5: The only explanation for her going through with this was
42:46
Speaker 5: that she had actually swallowed the whole idea of Ian's
42:51
Speaker 5: aims in life, that his philosophy was okay, but also
42:56
Speaker 5: that she was completely on the side of Ian and
43:00
Speaker 5: therefore safe from being a victim.
43:05
Speaker 1: It was a very.
43:06
Speaker 5: Scorpion like relationship between Myra and Ian, in that one
43:12
Speaker 5: would not particularly want to turn their back on the
43:14
Speaker 5: other in case that rather vicious and sadistic character could
43:18
Speaker 5: turn on them and they could become the victim.
43:22
Speaker 1: The pair were now in this together. Next time, how
43:29
Speaker 1: Myra helped plan and cover up the deaths of five
43:31
Speaker 1: children with military precision. We reveal her role in the abduction,
43:36
Speaker 1: rape and murder of each child victim.
43:39
Speaker 2: And my dad said that Mayra has done a murdering
43:41
Speaker 2: actors la and there's more bodies on the moors and
43:43
Speaker 2: my mum said, that's where our Pauline is then, and
43:48
Speaker 2: Bob said, yeah, I've made a monster, and made a
43:50
Speaker 2: monster Maggie.
43:54
Speaker 1: And we tell the stories of the ones that got away,
43:58
Speaker 1: including the teenager they trust too much, who would witness
44:02
Speaker 1: their final murder and bring about that downfall