Myra Hindley

Myra Hindley (23 July 1942 – 15 November 2002) was an English serial killer involved in the "Moors murders" with her partner Ian Brady.

Early life

Hindley was born in Crumpsall, Manchester, and raised by her grandmother Ellen Maybury. She was believed to have been beaten by her alcoholic father, Bob Hindley, a paratrooper in the RAF during World War II, who was also alleged to have been violent towards her mother Nellie. Bob and Nellie Hindley divorced in 1965, around the time of Myra's arrest, and her mother subsequently married a man named Bill Moulton. Her younger sister Maureen was born in August 1946.

Hindley had an IQ of 107, not much above average, and failed her Eleven-plus exam. She therefore attended the Ryder Brow Secondary Modern school, where she was in the top streams despite poor attendance. She could write creatively, was quite athletic, and was considered a responsible girl, in demand as a babysitter.

At 15, Hindley experienced a significant tragedy. Her close friend Michael Higgins, 13, drowned in a reservoir. Hindley's grief was tinged with guilt owing to the fact that she'd been asked, but had been unable, to go swimming with Higgins that day. A strong swimmer, she believed that she could have saved him had she been with him. Hindley converted to Roman Catholicism, in honour of her friend (who had been a catholic), and neglected her schoolwork. She was devastated and for months after the drowning was frequently inconsolable, lighting candles daily for her friend's soul.

Hindley left school in 1957. Her first job was as a junior clerk at Lawrence Scott and Electrometers, an electrical engineering firm. In 1959, she became engaged to a local boy named Ronnie Sinclair, but she later called the engagement off. On 16 January 1961, she started work as a typist for a chemical firm called Millward's, also based in Manchester.

It was at Millward's that she met Ian Brady, a Scottish-born man four years her senior with a history of violence and a string of burglary convictions, for which he had spent time in borstal during the early 1950s. Brady was the stock clerk, having been with the company since February of 1959. Hindley was immediately attracted to him, but Brady was cool and aloof and steadfastly ignored her for nearly 12 months. During 1961, she kept a diary in which she chronicled her growing infatuation with Brady; it was later discovered by police following their arrest in October 1965.

At the Christmas office party, on 22 December 1961, Brady, his tongue loosened by a few drinks, asked Hindley out; she accepted immediately. That first night he took her to see the war film Judgement at Nuremberg. As the weeks passed, he played her records of National Socialist marching songs and encouraged her to read some of his favourite books – Mein Kampf, Crime and Punishment, and the works of the Marquis de Sade. Brady apparently encouraged Hindley to help him with bank robberies (although no known bank robberies committed by the two are recorded), asking her to join a shooting club and purchase firearms for him, since he could not obtain a gun license due to his convictions for violence. Hindley was also told to learn to drive as Brady needed a get-away driver. She began driving lessons, joined the Cheadle Rifle club, and purchased two guns.

Brady convinced Hindley that there was no God, and she stopped going to church. She absorbed his philosophies, adopted his interests, and altered her appearance to suit him, bleaching her hair and wearing Germanic clothes. She had no qualms about allowing him to take pornographic pictures of her and of the two of them having sex. They intended to crack the pornographic market but failed. Brady nicknamed her "Hessy" - a double pun on [[Pianist|pianist] Myra Hess, and the surname of Hitler's deputy.

Moors Murders

By mid-1963, Brady had lost interest in bank robberies and was now intent on becoming a murderer for his own sexual gratification. Together, Brady and Hindley took part in the abduction, sexual abuse, torture, and murder of five children between July 1963 and October 1965.

Arrest

Brady was arrested after the discovery of the body of their final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans, at the house he shared with Hindley at 16 Wardlebrook Avenue. The murder had been witnessed by Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith, who had notified the police, and Brady admitted in a police statement that he had murdered Evans. Hindley was arrested five days later when a suitcase containing incriminating evidence was recovered from the left-luggage depot at Manchester Central Station.

During the time of the police investigation as well as her subsequent trial, Hindley's demeanor was one of resolute arrogance and defiance. The police detectives, court officials, newspaper reporters and other observers were all impressed that Hindley remained steadfastly loyal to Brady and she even seemed to share his apparent confidence that she would not be convicted of any crime. She consistently denied any wrongdoing, made repeated efforts to incriminate Smith and exculpate Brady, and even continued to endorse Brady's version of events as her own for nearly five years after the two of them were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1966. In a 2006 television documentary about Hindley's years behind bars, Police secretary Sandra Wilkinson said that she distinctly remembered Hindley and her mother Nellie, leaning against the wall of the courthouse and eating a cream cake. While her mother appeared to be in obvious distress, Hindley seemed to be almost indifferent to her situation.

Without the suitcase evidence, the "Moors" trial might never have taken place. It was recovered only because of the keen observation of a police officer who, while searching the house, had spotted the luggage claim ticket hidden in the spine of Myra's prayer book. In the locker were two suitcases containing pornographic and sadistic materials. These included nine photographs of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, showing her naked, bound and gagged in Myra Hindley's bedroom. The details of the bed seen in some of the pictures established their location and Hindley's fingerprints were present on the surface of the photographs themselves. A tape recording was also found. On it, the voice of a young girl could be heard screaming, crying, and begging for her life. Two other voices, one male and one female, could be heard threatening the child. Police identified the adult voices as Brady's and Hindley's, but they needed the assistance of Lesley Ann's mother, Ann West, to identify the voice of the child. She was forced to listen in horror to her terrified daughter's last moments.

When asked later why he had kept such an incriminating tape, Brady responded only that he had done so because "it was unusual."

By the end of the month, the bodies of Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride had been discovered, and Brady and Hindley were charged on three counts of murder. The police had overwhelming evidence for the Lesley Ann Downey murder charge, as the suitcase had contained the pornographic photographs and the tape recording. The Chester Assizes judge, Mr. Justice Fenton Atkinson, ordered all women to leave the court while the tape was played in evidence. John Kilbride's name had been written in one of Brady's notebooks (on a page entitled murder plan), and a photograph of Hindley with her dog was later identified as having been taken at John Kilbride's grave.

Trial

On 21 April 1966, the trial began at Chester Assizes. Prosecuting counsel was Sir Elwyn Jones. It ended on 6 May. Brady was convicted on all three murder charges and sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment. The judge described Brady as "wicked beyond belief" and "beyond hope of redemption", suggesting that he should never be released. However, the judge also stated his belief that this was not necessarily true of Hindley — and that, with the removal of Brady's presence and his influence over her, she might indeed be capable of a measure of rehabilitation at some point in the future.

Hindley was convicted of murdering Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey and received two life sentences. She also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for being an accessory in the John Kilbride murder. Mr Justice Atkinson recommended that Hindley should serve a "very long time".

Hindley was sent to Holloway prison. Although she and Brady wrote to each other during their first few years in prison, and at one stage were refused a request to marry each other, in May 1972 Hindley broke off all contact with Brady. A year later, Hindley attempted to escape, with the help of Patricia Cairns, a lesbian warder who was said to have fallen in love with her. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Hindley was transferred to Cookham Wood in Kent.

In November 1986 – more than 20 years after the crimes – Brady and Hindley confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, who had both gone missing during the first half of the 1960s. It is thought that the initiative came from Brady, who also confessed to the murders. Shortly afterwards, they returned to the moors, under heavy guard, to help police locate the graves. Pauline Reade's body was discovered the following July. Keith Bennett's has never been found.

Brady and Hindley were never charged in connection with the Reade/Bennett murders, but Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased Hindley's minimum term to 30 years, which would keep her behind bars until at least 1995.

By this time, Hindley claimed to have reformed and maintained that she had acted under the influence of the sadistic Brady. A small group of supporters, led by Lord Longford, who had championed Hindley's cause almost since her conviction, began campaigning for her release. However, the majority of the British public doubted that Hindley's remorse was genuine. There were also death threats made to Hindley from both members of the public and relatives of her victims, who vowed to kill her if she was ever released. In July 1990, Home Secretary David Waddington decided that both Brady and Hindley should never be freed. Four years later, Waddington's successor Michael Howard also said that Hindley must spend the rest of her life behind bars.

In 1994, a Law Lords' ruling stated that life sentence prisoners should be informed of the minimum period they must spend in prison before being considered for parole. This announcement was welcomed by victims' families and backed by the majority of the public, but Hindley challenged the ruling. In December, 1997, November, 1998, and March, 2000, she made appeals to the House of Lords to be released, claiming that she was no longer a danger to the public and that she had been acting under Brady's influence. When the third of these appeals was rejected, she appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

Reports by prison officials and the parole board commented on Hindley's progress during incarceration, suggesting that she was repentant and no longer a danger. Her hopes of release were given a boost in May of 2002, when the House of Lords ruled that the Home Secretary could no longer overrule the parole board's recommendations concerning release dates. It seemed likely that the Home Secretary would also lose his power to set minimum sentences and that an estimated 270 prisoners, including Hindley, whose minimum terms had been increased by politicians, would be released earlier than expected. Hindley was also one of about 70 life sentence prisoners who had served longer than their original minimum sentence.

Death

On 15 November 2002, at the age of 60 and after several previous health problems, Hindley died in West Suffolk Hospital after a heart attack. She had spent 37 years in custody.

During that time, she had earned an Open University degree and claimed to have returned to Roman Catholicism, to which she had ostensibly converted at the age of 15. She was Britain's longest-detained female prisoner, and one of just two women (the other being Rose West) to receive whole life sentences. She was given the last rites before she died.

Her lawyers told the press that Hindley had been truly sorry for her crimes. She had always portrayed herself as a remorseful sinner but understood that few people were willing to forgive her. Those who had campaigned for her release said that she should not have ended her life behind bars. Heading this group was a former prison governor, Peter Timms, who admitted that there was no question that Hindley's crimes had been terrible but felt the real issue was that she had been treated differently from any other life-sentence prisoner.

None of Hindley's relatives – not even her elderly mother – were among the dozen or so mourners at her funeral at Cambridge City Crematorium on 20 November. Apart from one woman from nearby Soham – a community that had only recently endured a double child murder – who left a sign reading "Burn in Hell" at the crematorium entrance, the public stayed away from the funeral, which had tight police security. Hindley was cremated, and her ashes scattered at an undisclosed location.

An inquest was held into her death in January 2003, and it was revealed that she had asked doctors not to resuscitate her if she stopped breathing. Ironically, Myra Hindley could have been freed under a Law Lords ruling made two weeks later.

Three days after Hindley's death, Greater Manchester Police revealed that they had been considering bringing charges against her for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, to which Hindley had confessed but for which she had not been charged. The police believed that a successful prosecution for these murders would have kept her in prison no matter how long she had lived^[1]. In May of 2003, the Crown Prosecution Service said that there was no realistic prospect of Ian Brady being charged with the two murders, since it was extremely unlikely that he would ever be released. Brady himself has always insisted that he never wants to be released.

Among many such programmes, the pair's crimes were dramatised in May 2006 for an ITV drama See No Evil. In October the same year, Hindley's relationship with Lord Longford played a prominent part in a dramatisation of the latter's life story, Longford, broadcast on Channel 4.

On Christmas, 2006, Channel 5 aired a show detailing Hindley's years in prison entitled Myra Hindley -- The Prison Years. It was the first time ever that a few of Hindley's former prison mates had spoken openly about her. The programme ostensibly revealed that Hindley had, according to an inmate, "used and abused religion as a trick to earn more points on her parole hearing".^[2]

Cultural references

File:Myra Marcus Harvey.jpg

Myra by Marcus Harvey. The mosaic painting sparked a firestorm of controversy when it was shown at the 1997 Sensation exhibition in London.

In 1997 a painting of Hindley composed of stencilled children's handprints by the artist Marcus Harvey was shown as part of the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London. It attracted widespread protest, including from Winnie Johnson, the mother of one of Hindley's victims. It was vandalised with eggs and ink and eventually had to be protected behind Perspex.

The spoof song "Myra" was performed by the cult television comedian, Chris Morris. "Every time I see your picture, Myra/I have to phone my latest girlfriend up and fire her/And find a prostitute who looks like you and hire her/Oh, me oh Myra", is an example of the lyrics, performed in the style of Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker.

Manchester-bred pop group the Smiths wrote a song about the Moors murders titled "Suffer Little Children". Lead singer Morrissey was only a few years younger than the murdered children at the time and the murders had a profound effect on him. The grandfather of victim John Kilbride heard the song on a jukebox in a pub and was furious about it. Morrissey wrote the victim's family a letter stating the intentions of the song and they relented.

British industrial music group Throbbing Gristle's early live performances featured the piece "Very Friendly", a graphic recounting of the murder of Edward Evans. "Very Friendly" appeared in studio form on the originally unreleased album, The First Annual Report.

British Anarchist punk Band Crass' song "Mother Earth" concerned media coverage of Hindley, in particular the tabloid Daily Star, who launched their first edition with the 'readers verdict' headline "Let Her Rot In Hell". The lyrics shout out:

"It's Myra Hindley on the cover

Your very own sweet anti-mother

There she is, on the pages of The Star

Ain't that just the place you wish you were?"

Myra Hindley's infamous and widely recognized 1965 mug shot has become something of a cultural icon and has been spoofed in a variety of humorous and satirical contexts, most notably by punk graphic designer, Jamie Reid. In the late 1970s, Reid produced a silkscreen design of the familiar Hindley photograph (à la Warhol's Marilyn) and adorned it with the caption "God Save Myra Hindley" in ransom-note lettering. The image was featured as a poster in the punk movie, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980).

Scottish artist Douglas Gordon photographed himself in a wig reminiscent of Hindley's hairstyle in her mug shot. The photo is entitled "Self portrait as Kurt Cobain, as Andy Warhol, as Myra Hindley, as Marilyn Monroe".

Feminist poet Carol Ann Duffy gave a sympathetic view of a remorseful Hindley in her poem "The Devil's Wife".

References

^ "Hindley faced new murder charges". BBC News. 2002-11-18. Retrieved 2007-05-23.
^ Real Crime: Myra Hindley: The Prison Years New Zealand TV

External links

[1] "Hindley faced new murder charges". BBC News. 2002-11-18. Retrieved 2007-05-23.

[2] Real Crime: Myra Hindley: The Prison Years New Zealand TV

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