‘Moors Murderer’ dies in U.K. prison
Brady killed 5 children with Myra Hindley
LONDON • Ian Brady, whose murders of five children in the company of his lover horrified Britons, died Monday at a high-security psychiatric hospital, aged 79.
Brady and his accomplice, Myra Hindley, were known as the Moors Murderers, because they buried their five victims on Saddleworth Moor, a remote area near Manchester.
Brady made a final request that his ashes be scattered on those same moors, a coroner has suggested.
The serial killer is believed to have made the demand in his will, but an inquest into his death heard that such an act would be “offensive” and morally improper.
Coroner Christopher Sumner refused to release his body Tuesday until assurances were given that any such demand was not met.
Terry West, 66, whose sister Lesley Ann Downey was murdered by Brady, said: “It is the final act of a twisted, evil man. For the coroner to order this ban must mean Brady stipulated his ashes should be scattered on Saddleworth Moor.”
Chief Insp. Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, said Brady, who was jailed for life in 1966, deserved no dignity in death.
He said: “When somebody dies, it is natural in a civilized society that we show compassion. However, there are exceptions — and this monster is one of them.”
Brady died without revealing the whereabouts of the body of Keith Bennett, the only victim never to have been found.
The New York Times reported that in 2001, Brady published a book about serial killers, titled “The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis,” after a high court judge, to much protest from the relatives of the dead, lifted a ban on its publication.
Brady wrote: “You will presently discover that this work is not an apologia. Why should it? To whom should I apologize, and what difference would it make to anyone? You contain me till death in a concrete box that measures only eight by ten and you expect remorse as well? Remorse is a purely personal matter, not a circus performance.”
Brady died of heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Hindley, died at 60 in a hospital in November 2002.