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Clinical psychologist Dr Alison Foster takes us into the world of murderous love-matches…
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It has been 55 years since Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were found guilty of the gruesome Moors Murders – yet the pair had only met five years before. How does a relationship descend to dark depths in a short space of time? And how
do two people – who are supposed to be in a loving relationship – end up committing such despicable deeds together?
Similarly, from the outside, Rose and Fred West looked like any other couple, yet together they committed depraved acts on vulnerable young women – including their own daughters.
When it comes to situations like these, are ‘man and wife’ both equally evil? Would they have committed such deadly doings on their own? Or does their coming together light some kind of fatal fuse?
‘There is usually a more dominant individual in these relationships and, in most cases, that tends to be the man,’ says clinical psychologist Dr Alison Foster. ‘It’s not unusual for the female in the relationship to have had a traumatic past – for
example, being sexually or physically abused by someone who should be caring for them.
‘This makes them vulnerable and some men will want to exploit that. For the woman who was abused as a child, violence and aggression may seem normal to her, so when her partner does something like that, sadly it is not shocking to her. It may even seem normal.’
This is certainly the case for both Hindley and West. Hindley was beaten regularly by her parents Nellie and Bob. Bob had been in the Army and expected his daughter to be tough. When she was scratched by a local boy at the age of eight, rather than comforting her, Bob threatened to ‘leather’ her if she didn’t stick up for herself. She went back out and punched the boy until he fell down.
Similarly, Rose West’s father, Bill, was also violent and sexually abused her. Even before that, some argue that Rose may have been born with prenatal injuries due to her mum, Daisy – who was prone to depression – being given electroconvulsive therapy while pregnant.
She met Fred when she was 15 years old, in 1969 – he was 27 at the time.
‘In most “killer” couples, the dominant partner has already been committing crimes before they get together,’ Dr Foster explains. ‘Fred West was already committing sexual crimes as a teenager, he’d been accused of raping and impregnating his own 13-year-old sister and had committed one murder before he met Rose.’
The Wests’ killing spree lasted far longer than Brady and Hindley’s. The pair weren’t caught and charged until 1994 – although they had been arrested in 1992, but the trial had fallen apart. The pair were convicted of nine joint murders, Fred with another three, Rose another one.
‘These relationships all involve a process of grooming by the dominant partner. They will push boundaries, testing the partner to see what they are comfortable with. Someone with their own traumatic history, or even their own deviant interest, will comply quickly. The less dominant partner may start to suggest committing crimes as a way of pleasing the dominant partner, so things can escalate quickly.’
It is true that Hindley became obsessed with Brady after their meeting, writing in her diary, ‘I hope he loves me and will marry me one day.’ Later, as she got to know him more, this progressed to, ‘He is cruel and selfish and I love him.’ It was Brady who introduced her to books on the Nazis, then sexual sadism. And, just as his father had beaten her, Ian too physically – and sexually – abused her.
Used to this sort of behaviour, Hindley became submissive to Brady. When he suggested they rob a bank – a test, it later seemed – Hindley learned to drive so she could be his getaway driver and purchased two guns. So, when he told her the ‘supreme pleasure’ would be the rape and murder of another, she believed him.
It was Hindley who lured their victims in. After the pair were convicted of the rape and murder of five children and sentenced to life imprisonment, Brady’s hold over Hindley was acknowledged. Despite Judge Mr Justice Atkinson describing the pair as ‘two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity’ and Brady as ‘wicked beyond belief’ with no reasonable possibility of reform, he didn’t consider the same true of Hindley, ‘once she was removed from (Brady’s) influence’.
Despite this, Hindley became known as ‘the most evil woman in Britain’. Clearly, her crimes were unspeakable but why was she, out of the pair, singled out like this? ‘The woman is often seen as the worse of a couple because society expects women to be kind and caring,’ explains Dr Foster.
Though she confirms ‘killer couples’ are rare, she points out that there are other couples who aren’t as publicised as the Wests, and Brady and Hindley.
On 31 December 2001, Lee Whiteley and Deborah Taylor stabbed former Daily Mail journalist Peter England at least 34 times, in a killing that was described as ‘ghastly and sadistic’ by Mr Justice Sachs. In April 2016, Kim Edwards and Lucas Markham became the youngest ever couple to be convicted of double murder in the UK after they were found guilty of killing Edwards’s mum, Elizabeth, and sister, Katie.
However, what makes the Wests, and Hindley and Brady even more unusual is the fact that they killed more than once. ‘Serial killers usually operate alone, because there’s less chance of getting caught, so the chances of a couple killing several people together is rare,’ Dr Foster says.
‘Psychologists talk about “trauma bonding” where the couple’s relationship is built on a foundation of abuse and harmful behaviours,’ she adds. ‘In some ways, the relationship is closer, but it is a dysfunctional and fragile one. Once you add murder and other violent or sexual crimes into the mix, it’s harder for either person to see a way out. They are stuck together, keeping each other’s secrets to protect themselves.’
A disturbing fact, because, until they are caught, these killer couples remain doubly deadly…
‘Does meeting light a fatal fuse?’