Moors murders

Overview

The Moors murders refer to a series of child killings committed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in and around Manchester, England, between July 1963 and October 1965. The five known victims — Pauline Reade (16), John Kilbride (12), Keith Bennett (12), Lesley Ann Downey (10) and Edward Evans (17) — were aged between 10 and 17, and at least four are believed to have been sexually assaulted. The bodies of two victims were found in 1965 in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was located there in 1987, more than two decades after the trial. Bennett's body is thought to be buried on the moor but has never been recovered despite repeated searches.

The killings

Reade disappeared on 12 July 1963 after being offered a lift by Hindley; Brady later killed her on the moor. Kilbride was lured from a market in Ashton-under-Lyne on 23 November 1963 and killed and buried on the moor. Bennett disappeared in Longsight on 16 June 1964 under a similar pattern involving a decoy request for help before Brady took him onto the moor. Downey was abducted from a funfair in Ancoats on 26 December 1964, taken to the couple's house, where she was photographed, assaulted and killed; an audio recording of the attack was later recovered by police. Evans was killed at the couple's home on 6 October 1965, an attack witnessed in part by Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith, who subsequently contacted police.

Investigation and trial

Smith's call to police in the early hours of 7 October 1965 led to Brady's arrest after Evans's body was found at the couple's Wardle Brook Avenue house. Hindley was arrested days later. A search of left-luggage suitcases at Manchester Central station uncovered photographs and an audio tape linked to Downey's murder, and subsequent searches of Saddleworth Moor located the bodies of Downey and Kilbride. Brady and Hindley were charged only with the murders of Kilbride, Downey and Evans. At a fourteen-day trial at Chester Assizes beginning 19 April 1966, both entered not guilty pleas. On 6 May 1966, the jury convicted Brady of all three murders and Hindley of the murders of Downey and Evans; both received life sentences, the only sentence available following abolition of the death penalty six months earlier.

Later developments

The investigation was reopened in 1985 after Brady reportedly told a journalist he had also killed Reade and Bennett. Hindley, who had maintained her innocence, confessed to all five murders in 1987, and both were separately taken to Saddleworth Moor to assist searches; a third grave containing Reade's remains was subsequently located, but Bennett's body has never been found. Hindley died in 2002 at West Suffolk Hospital, aged 60, having served thirty-six years in custody. Brady, diagnosed as a psychopath in 1985 and held at Ashworth high-security hospital, died in 2017 aged 79, having served fifty-one years. Neither was ever released.