He acted like an uncle with his schoolboy penpal
BRADY became an “agony uncle” to a schoolboy in a bizarre series of letters.
He wrote repeatedly to the youngster, advising him to work hard at school and get a job as a chef or mechanic.
Writer Glenn Chandler, who created Taggart, revealed the existence of the letters. He used them while writing his play Killers about Brady, Dennis Nilsen and Yorkshire ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
Glenn said: “Brady sets himself up as an agony uncle to the boy.
“He tells him never to take ordinary experiences for granted, to enjoy every minute of life while he can and not to follow him into a life of crime.
“He advises the boy to become a chef or a mechanic, comments on the improvement of his handwriting and urges him to persevere with his studies.
“It’s almost as though he is mentoring the boy – in a good way.
“There is nothing manipulative in his letters. One dares to say there is a kind heart shining through them.
“There is nothing to suggest insanity. But then, insane people can appear very sane – this is why they are so dangerous.”
Brady talked about Hindley in the letters but never used her name – calling her “The Girl”. He told how they used to drink wine – “not a working-class drink in those days” – and take trips in the countryside. THE truth of Ian Brady’s life was too horrific for even a monster like him to accept.
So in an endless stream of letters from his cell, the psychopath invented an alternative reality for himself.
The merciless child murderer painted himself as an innocent victim, whining about his treatment by the press and staff at Ashworth secure mental hospital.
The warped loner who tortured cats as a boy invented an idyllic childhood for himself in the slums of Glasgow’s Gorbals.
The friendless misfit fantasised about being a feared gangster. In his dreams, he was an enforcer for godfather Arthur Thompson.
And most shockingly of all, Brady coldly and casually glossed over the horrors he inflicted on his five innocent victims.
With no trace of human feeling, he described his killing spree with Myra Hindley as “a detour” – and moaned that the media wouldn’t stop “exploiting” him for it.
Brady wrote in 2009: “Crime wave? This country has never even had a ripple.
“Which is why politicians/media make a meal of what little occurs in a serfservile country with a CCTV for every 12 citizens.
“I’m an example, with 43 years obsessive coverage/exploitation, for an ad-lib existential detour that lasted only 18 months and now defines me forever.”
Brady despised the hospital where he spent 32 years, calling it “Trashworth” and “a hell hole” and constantly slandering its staff.
He ended one letter with: “PS: Excuse my handwriting, caused by 14 years’ deliberate medical neglect of my cataracts here in Ashworth.”
The killer was no kinder about his years in prison, but he couldn’t resist bragging about the famous villains he served time with.
He once claimed: “Ronnie Kray and I did the cooking at Durham A Level Security Wing.”
Unlike Hindley, who tried for decades to get out, Brady accepted he would die behind bars.
But he escaped whenever he could to memories – and fantasies – about his early life in Glasgow.
He left his birthplace and moved to Manchester at 15 after one of a long series of brushes with the law.
However, he often recalled how he returned to visit Glasgow – and once even took Hindley on a