Quiet end for U.K. serial killer
ASHES OF NOTORIOUS MOORS MURDERER THROWN OUT TO SEA IN MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
To avoid offending his victims’ families, Britain disposed of the remains of its most notorious serial killer by dumping his ashes out to sea in the middle of the night.
One of Ian Brady’s final wishes was reportedly to be cremated and have his ashes scattered in Glasgow — where he grew up — before its city council said it would refuse any request to accommodate the man behind the disturbing Moors Murders, where five children were killed in the 1960s.
After he also reportedly requested that his ashes be scattered where he buried some of his victims on the Saddleworth Moor in Manchester, a court ruling forced authorities to dispose of Brady’s remains in a manner that didn’t cause “offence or distress” to victims’ families, according to the Guardian.
And so Brady’s body was quietly collected from a hospital in Liverpool and escorted by police to a crematorium on Oct. 25. Neither flowers nor music were allowed during the cremation. From there, the remains of Brady, who died on May 15 while serving multiple life sentences, were taken out to sea at 2:30 a.m. the next morning. They were disposed of in an urn made of salt, according to court documents.
“This was the only way to really put the families at ease and the public as well,” Terry Kilbride, the brother of one of Brady’s victims told BBC.
It was a quiet end for a man who may have believed he died getting the last laugh. While receiving palliative care, Brady still refused to show remorse for the murders and reveal the location of the body of Keith Bennett — the only one of his victims police have been unable to find in 50 years.
For years, he teased police, mental health workers and others about the location of Bennett’s body, saying he left behind a trail of clues that would lead to its discovery. He kept a treasure trove of letters and maps he said pointed to Bennett’s body and spent a year writing in code to a local psychology student. Even in prison, the serial killer enjoyed keeping his name in the public eye.
Britain will not soon forget Brady, who along with his girlfriend Myra Hindley, abducted, tortured and killed five children between 1965 and 1968.
As a teenager, Brady already had a criminal record and was an alcoholic. It was around this time that he began to read books about sadism and Nazi Germany, among other topics like sexual perversion that would shape his later years.
It was by reading Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf that he first impressed Hindley, who later agreed to help him commit his murders.
Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, who the couple convinced to help them search for a lost glove on the Saddleworth Moor in 1963. While there, Brady cut Reade’s throat and sexually assaulted her.
Months later, the couple lured 12-year-old John Kilbride with the promise of drinking wine on the Moor. Brady sexually assaulted the boy and strangled him to death. Bennett, 12, met the same fate in 1964, when he was lured into the couple’s van, sexually assaulted and strangled.
The couple found their youngest victim, 10-year-old Leslie Ann Downey, at a local playground and convinced her to go back home with them. She was forced to pose for nude photos before she was raped and killed. Brady made an audio recording of the assault, which was later played during his murder trial. Downey can be heard asking him not to undress her and pleading for her “mummy” before audibly gasping her last breath.
The couple buried Downey — where Kilbride’s remains were already hidden — at the Moor.
The murder of Brady’s final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans, is what led to his arrest. The serial killer wanted to recruit Hindley’s brother-in-law, David Smith, into the couple’s twisted circle. Brady invited Smith over to his home where he found the killer standing over a helpless Evans on the couch. He watched as Brady struck his victim 14 times with a hatchet.
Smith phoned police the next morning and Brady and Hindley were arrested. Both were later convicted for the murders of Evans and Downey. Brady was given an additional conviction for Kilbride’s murder, while Hindley was only deemed to be an accessory in the killing. They received one sentence of life in prison per murder. It was only after 19 years in prison that Brady confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett.
In 1985, he was declared criminally insane and transferred to a hospital, where for the past 31 years he had been living under suicide watch.
When he died 15 years after Hindley, Brady, 79, was Britain’s longest serving inmate. Since his death, police have vowed to continue to search for Bennett’s body and finally put an end to a dark chapter in British history.