Ian and Myra Brady and Hindley British serial killers and child rapists Country: Great Britain

Biography of Ian and Myra Brady and Hindley

Ian Brady (Ian Duncan Stewart) was born on January 2, 1938, in Glasgow. His working-class mother, Maggie Stewart, claimed that his father was a reporter who passed away three months before Ian's birth. Due to her difficult circumstances, Stewart was forced to give Ian up for adoption to Mary and John Sloan, a local couple who already had four children of their own. However, she visited him occasionally throughout his childhood. From a young age, Brady derived pleasure from torturing animals, such as breaking a dog's hind legs, setting another one on fire, and beheading a cat.

At the age of nine, Ian and his family moved to Loch Lomond, and a few months later, they relocated to a new home in Pollok. In school, he tormented younger children and found himself in court twice for breaking into other people's houses. At the age of 15, Brady dropped out of school and started working. After his girlfriend Evelyn Grant danced with someone else, he threatened her with a switchblade, leading to the end of their relationship. Shortly before turning 17, Ian found himself in court again but avoided imprisonment by agreeing to return to his mother, who by then lived in Manchester and had married Pat Brady, an Irish fruit trader. His stepfather arranged for him to work as a stockroom assistant in a store. However, after stealing a bag of lead seals, Ian was sent to a correctional institution first in Hatfield and later in Hull after a drunken incident. After serving his sentence, he studied accounting several hours a day in his room, excelling in his studies. In January 1959, he became a clerical worker known among his colleagues as unremarkable, punctual, and volatile. In addition to his reading habits, Brady also studied books such as "Teach Yourself German" and "Mein Kampf," not forgetting works about the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

Myra Hindley, the daughter of Nellie and Bob Hindley, was born on July 23, 1942, and grew up in Gorton. Her alcoholic parents constantly abused her during her childhood. Their home was in such a dilapidated state that sleeping was only possible in one room. When her sister Maureen was born in 1946, five-year-old Myra was sent to live with her grandmother nearby. Her cruel father had gone through World War II and served in the Parachute Regiment. He taught her self-defense, wanting her to be able to stand up for herself. When Hindley was 8 years old, a local boy approached her on the street and scratched her cheeks with his nails until they bled. When she ran to her father in tears, he told her to go and fight back or else he would beat her himself. She found the boy and followed her father's teachings, delivering several consecutive blows. This was her "first victory."

In 1961, an 18-year-old Myra Hindley started working as a typist and met Ian Brady, who idealized Hitler. She remained interested in him even after learning about his criminal record. However, there came a point when she became disappointed in him. But Brady invited her to go to the movies, where they watched the "Nuremberg Trials." From that moment on, they often went to see X-rated films and then drank German wine at Hindley's house. Myra quickly adopted Brady's admiration for Aryan ideals, dyed her hair blonde, and preferred thick raspberry-colored lipstick. Later, she stated, "…(Brady) convinced me there was no God at all. He could have told me the earth was flat, the moon made of green cheese, and the sun rose in the west, and I would have believed him. That's how strong his power of persuasion was."

Myra claimed that Ian began discussing the concept of "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963, emphasizing the novel "Compulsion" by Meyer Levin, which tells the story of two people from wealthy families attempting to "commit the perfect murder" of a 12-year-old boy and avoiding the death penalty due to their young age. In the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she only participated in the murders because Brady drugged her and blackmailed her with pornographic photographs he took of her. She also insisted that Brady threatened to kill her sister, Maureen. However, when photographs and tape recordings of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey were presented in court, the public deemed Hindley a "spawn of hell" and dismissed her claims of innocence.

Dubbed by the press as the "most evil woman in Britain," Hindley made several appeals against her life sentence, claiming that she had changed and no longer posed a threat to society. All of her requests were denied. Myra died at the age of 60 from bronchial pneumonia in 2002.

Brady was declared mentally unfit and sent to the high-security psychiatric hospital Ashworth Hospital. He made it clear that he did not want freedom and repeatedly requested to be executed.