Myra Hindley

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Myra Hindley (born July 23, 1942 in Gorton , England , † November 15, 2002 in Bury St Edmunds , Suffolk , England) was a British serial killer .

Life

Myra Hindley's home at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley was demolished following a decision by Manchester City Council in 1987
Saddleworth Moor , where the remains of three of the five victims were found.

Myra Hindley grew up in a working class family in a suburb of Manchester; she later stated that she suffered greatly from her abusive father. At 15 she left school and worked as a secretary in a small chemical factory. In 1960 she met her future accomplice Ian Brady and fell for him. The convicted Brady gave her his favorite books to read: Hitler's Mein Kampf and Writings of the Marquis de Sade .

In 1963, the couple began their series of murders, which killed at least five children and adolescents between the ages of ten and 17.

Your victims

Her first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade. Hindley approached her with a request if the girl could help her; she lost her glove. With the prospect of finding a reward, she lured Reade to Saddleworth Moor near Manchester and then overpowered her with Brady. They abused and murdered the girl in their shared apartment.

The couple's other victims, John Kilbride (12), Keith Bennett (12), Lesley Ann Downey (10) and Edward Evans (17), were mostly approached by Hindley. Hindley posed for a photo with her lap dog where they'd buried Kilbride's body; this photo later led the police to the site on Saddleworth Moor. In the summer of 2013, a television documentary on the British broadcaster ITV suggested that the photos Brady and Hindley took were clues like a grave cross to the graves of the victims. The body of Keith Bennett, which has not yet been found despite repeated searches in Saddleworth Moor, is said to be located at the Ramshaw Rocks above Leek and the Tittesworth Reservoir in Staffordshire and thus more than 60 km away from Saddleworth Moor , according to the television station .

Brady and Hindley repeatedly tried to get other people excited about their actions, including Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law David Smith, in front of whose eyes Brady tortured and murdered 17-year-old Edward Evans in 1966 . Smith fled the house and alerted the police.

The process

Hindley and Brady were arrested and sentenced to life in prison on May 6, 1966 after a two-week trial; the death penalty had been abolished four weeks before her arrest. As evidence, a tape was played in the courtroom on which the couple had recorded the murder of Lesley Ann Downey. The ten-year-old could be heard pleading for her life on the tape. This process remained in the public consciousness for decades.

Hindley protested her innocence for a long time and only made a confession in 1987. That year, like Brady, she helped the police search the bog; Keith Bennett's body has not yet been found. Hindley and Brady had written love letters to each other for a few years, but eventually fell out. Hindley converted to Catholicism and since her purification began to mobilize people for her release, particularly the eccentric noble Lord Longford . An appeals court refused a pardon in 1998, as did the British House of Lords in 2000. Hindley wanted to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights - with a good chance of success. Before that happened, Hindley died of pneumonia in 2002 .

Trivia

The black and white photo that police took of her after Hindley's arrest became an icon of evil in England. In 1997, the British artist Marcus Harvey exhibited a painting at the Royal Academy in London that reproduced Hindley's face with prints made by children's hands. The picture sparked a scandal and was damaged twice by protesters. Harvey restored the picture, which was then exhibited again behind armored glass and guarding.

Myra Hindley is mentioned in the Sex Pistols song No one is innocent sung by Ronald Biggs . The British group The Smiths also dealt with the subject of the bog killers in their song Suffer Little Children, as did the British industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle , who dedicated the song Very friendly to her and Ian Brady in 1975 . The British psychobilly band Coffin Nails also dedicated the song entitled Myra Hindley to her on their album A Beer Please .

The deeds of Brady / Hindley were by American artist Edward Gorey as the basis for his book The Loathsome Couple (dt., 1977 The despicable pair , 1979) was used.

In 2006 the television film Longford was made (German title Die Moormörderin von Manchester ), in which Samantha Morton played the role of Myra Hindley and was nominated for Emmy and BAFTA awards, among others .

literature

Peter & Julia Murakami: Lexicon of Serial Killers . 10th edition. Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-548-35935-9 , p. 45-47 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Photographs may yield clues to location of Moors murder victim's remains The Guardian June 16, 2013, accessed June 17, 2013
  2. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9593748/When-art-gets-vandalised.html
  3. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/de/Coffin-Nails-Ein-Bier-Bitte/release/1552820
personal data
SURNAME Hindley, Myra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British serial killer, moor killer
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester , England
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 2002
Place of death Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk , England