SECRET STASH OF LETTERS FROM GANGSTERS The Krays’ remarkable bond with mother of girl killed by Moors murderers

by a child.” One letter from Reggie, on personalised headed paper from HMP Maidstone, says: “Thank you for your letter and I pray that you have peace of mind [and] soul.”

The letters reveal the twins tried to meet Ann and her husband Andy but Terry is sure this never took place.

Ronnie wrote in one letter dated August 1990: “I am very sorry but I won’t be able to see you in September as we arranged as I have had all my visits cut down to seven a month, but I will keep in touch from time to time. God bless.” Terry, of Withington, Manchester, said: “We see a different side to the infamous Kray twins with their polite tone.”

From 1966 until 1970 Brady was in Durham jail, where Ronnie was sent in 1969. He later boasted at a mental health tribunal that he and the gangster used to cook steak for other inmates. But Terry said: “I think that was another one of his lies. Brady wanted to change the perception of himself from a paedophile serial killer to some sort of Ned Kelly gangster. He wanted to play with the big boys.”

Desecrated

Terry is sure the Krays would have turned on Brady because of his heinous crimes. He said: “If they had got anywhere near him you can only imagine what they would have done to him. I think they would have seriously hurt him.

“I know they were ruffians and gangsters and all of that but they didn’t hurt children.”

Brady and Hindley were convicted of luring children and teenagers to their deaths from July 1963 and October 1965.

Brady was jailed in 1966 for murdering John Kilbride, 12, Lesley Ann, and Edward Evans, 17, and later admitted to killing Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12. Keith’s body is believed to be on the moor but has never been found, despite pleas for Brady to reveal his final resting place by Keith’s mother Winnie Johnson, who died in 2012.

Lesley Ann’s remains were found in 1965 and laid to rest near her home.

They were later moved to a secret location after her grave was desecrated.

For three years, on what would have been Lesley’s birthday, the graffiti “Myra Hindley” had been scrawled in black paint across the headstone.

Now Lesley lies in a grave beside her mother Ann, and Terry makes a weekly pilgrimage to their final resting place to lay flowers. He admits he still feels guilty over her disappearance. He did not go with his younger sister to the fair where she was abducted because he was bed-ridden with flu that day.

Terry said: “I see the 60-something man in the mirror and the mental scars of pain look back at me.”

When Terry visits their grave on Boxing Day he will lay a wreath to honour their memory. He said: “The pain of her death will never get easier, and I think about it every day.

“But I am happy my mum and sister are at peace together.

“I imagine them both as angels sitting in heaven – just like the angel on top of the Christmas tree.”