Infamous Murderer & Serial Killer Profiles - #5 Ian Brady

Following on from previous profiles of infamous murderers and serial killers posted here, such as Dennis Nilsen, Ed Gein, John Wayne Gacy and Dr Harold Shipman, this week's case is the "Moor's Murderer", Ian Brady. As before, the intention of these profiles is not to rake over the same old gory details (as many blogs do), but by asking a series of standardised questions about each serial killer or murderer, the aim is to try to understand who they were as a person and why they did what they did, without absolving them of their heinous crimes.  

For the sake of clarity, I have split the profile of Ian Brady from his partner Myra Hindley (her profile to appear soon) as Hindley's actions and personality were directly influenced by Brady.

Profile #4 - Ian Brady: Dubbed 'The Moor's Murderer', Ian Brady with his partner Myra Hindley would kidnap, rape, torture and murder five young children, aged between 10 and 17 years old, some of whom were buried in shallow graves in Saddleworth Moor. 

PERSONAL DETAILS

• Birth Name:  Ian Duncan Stewart (later changed to Ian Sloan, then Ian Brady)
• Date of Birth: 2nd January 1938
• Place of Birth: The Gorbals, Glasgow (Scotland)
• Weight: 8 stone (50kg)
• Height: 6 foot 0 inches
• Hair Colour: Brown (later grey)
• Eye Colour: Blue
• Nickname: Brady had various nicknames; “Dracula” by neighbours owing to his love of horror movies, “Mack” (short for Mack the Knife) when he ran with a Moss Side gang and “The Understaker” as during his teenage years he’d walk around the Hattersley Estate in a long trench-coat, although most of these nicknames may have been created by those who knew Brady after his arrest, so there is no way to tell otherwise. As fans of The Goon Show, Hindley often referred to Brady as “Neddie”, after Neddie Seagoon.
• Star Sign: Capricorn
• Disabilities: None known.
• Health Issues: Owing to measles when Brady was a toddler, he was prone to light sensitivity and had to wear tinted prescription glasses (which many people mistook for sunglasses).  
• Sexual Orientation: Supposedly heterosexual, although Brady was a regular at The Rembrandt (formerly the Ogden Arms), one of the oldest gay bars in Manchester which is just off Canal Street, he engaged in oral sex with Edward Evans (as part of a threesome with Myra Hindley), engaged in anal sex with Myra Hindley (often seen as a substitute for gay sex in an era when it was illegal) and who raped and sodomised his young victims (both male and female), and although he identified as heterosexual, that is debatable.
• Personality: After his arrest, Brady was transferred to the Personality Disorder Unit at the Lawrence Ward of Ashworth Psychiatric Prison, having been diagnosed on different occasions with either a narcissistic personality disorder or as a paranoid schizophrenic. Often it’s hard to truly establish what Brady’s personality was like as a child, as those who knew him made their feelings known after the murders, but what is known is that he never felt like he belonged (having been abandoned and fostered) and yet he “never forgave himself for how badly he had treated them (The Sloan’s, his foster family)”. That said, Brady was prone to violent outbursts, enjoyed a sexual sadism and had a sense of grandiosity, being desperate to show how clever he was and how he was smarter than anyone else. 

L-R: Brady as a baby, Brady as a young boy, Brady and his birth mother "Peggy"

FAMILY HISTORY

• Parents: Illegitimately born to 28 year old mother was Margaret "Peggy" Stewart and an unknown father who was supposedly a Glasgow journalist who died three months before Brady was born. As a single parent with very little means of support, Margaret was forced to put her infant into foster care, and although they remained in contact, Brady would later live with her (and her partner, an Irish fruit merchant named Patrick Brady) when he was 17, having been placed on probation. Although she was his birth mother, Ian always referred to her as “Peggy”. Note: Brady adopted his step-father’s surname, not out of love or loyalty, but having recently been involved in a spate of burglaries and knife-crimes, Brady felt that a change of name would make it harder for the Police to track him down.
• Siblings: None through his birth mother, but he had four siblings through his foster family Mary & John Sloan (who were Robert, Jean, May and – four years after Ian’s arrival - John), all of whom Brady was very fond of.
• Sibling Order: Although Brady was an only child, within his foster family he was the second youngest, with John being four years younger than him.
• Traumatic Event as a Child: Although Brady was put into foster care at the tender age of six months old, he was too young to remember the incident itself. But growing up in The Sloan’s foster home which Brady openly admits was a kind and loving family, this gave him no reason to become the man he became, and yet he always felt like “a cuckoo in the nest” and stigmatised by society owing to his illegitimacy.
• Divorced or Deceased Parent or Sibling: None, as his birth mother “Peggy”, foster parents John & Mary and his foster siblings (Robert, Jean, May and John) all lived up until and beyond the murders and his incarceration. That said, a dark cloud hung over the Sloan family when their dog (a tan and white cocker spaniel called Sheila) died of distemper aged one. Brady often sites this as the moment he became an atheist (having prayed for Sheila not to die and his prayer not being answered).
• Head injury or Accident as Child: Aged ten, Brady was playing with a balloon in The Sloan’s kitchen when he slipped on some spilled water (as Mary peeled potatoes) and broke his leg. Although there is no reference to a head injury, his leg healed and wouldn’t cause him any pain/injury, this would be the only time (outside of his incarceration) that he would require hospital treatment.
• Bed-Wetter (as child): Unknown.
• Fire-Starter (as child): Although it is often cited that Brady had dabbled with fire - when he tied up his friend John Cameron and lit a few pieces of paper upon him – Brady often claims that this was just harmless role-playing amongst the two imaginative yet bored boys and that John Cameron was not injured. Beyond this, there doesn’t seem to be any recorded incident of arson in Brady's childhood. 
• Animal Abuser (as child): It has often been stated (by lazy biographers) that Brady was an animal abusers, but there’s too much evidence which contradicts this; firstly The Sloan household was always full of pets, all of which Brady loved, cared and wept for when they died. And secondly, in an incident he recounted to DSC Peter Topping of Manchester CID, when as a child growing up in The Gorbals (on the corner of Cumberland Street and Crown Street, Glasgow) he witnessed an injured Clydesdale horse which had slipped on the icy-road, a canvas screen was erected and the horse was despatched with a house-brick. Brady said “it lay there with its massive sides heaving and its breath steaming the frosty air… I can still see the great liquid eyes rolling in terror… They were going to kill the horse. Even I knew it. My chest was bursting and I began to cry”. Even if this story is a fabrication, it seems unlikely (given his history of pets) that he was an animal abuser. Oddly, Brady showed no remorse for his victims, his only real regret (as stated above) was “how badly he had treated them (The Sloan’s, his foster family)” by disappointing them.
• Perversions: Brady has numerous sexual proclivities which were often fuelled by alcohol that Hindley submitted to, these include heterosexual sex, oral sex, anal sex, threesomes (with Edward Evans), gay oral sex (with Edward Evans), use of hard-core pornography, torture, paedophilia, sadomasochism (a series of private photos show Hindley with whip marks on her buttocks) and insertion (Brady would get Hindley to stick a candle up his anus). Many of these are from Myra Hindley’s personal testimony, although as her love for Brady waned over the years, its authenticity could be debatable. As for necrophilia, it has never been established whether Brady’s young victims were raped prior or post-mortem, so any suggestion is possible and debatable.
• Pets: During his childhood in the house of his foster family The Sloan’s, Brady had a series of pets he loved and cared for. He had three rabbits; a big grey called "Jenny", a big black called "Harry" and a small Dutch called "Smokey", a Cocker Spaniel called "Sheila", a black and silver German Shephard called "Una", as well as Peggy & Pat Brady’s dog called “Bruce”, "Lassie" (Myra’s collie) and "Puppet", who was one of the tan-and-white collie puppies born to Lassie. Brady reportedly asked for the proceeds of his autobiography – Black Light – to be split between four animal charities.
• Abandoned / Fostered: Although Brady was fostered, owing to his mother “Peggy” being young, single and broke, he wasn’t abandoned, as (having been adopted by a kind and caring family – The Sloan’s), not only would Brady see his birth mother on a regular basis, but he also went to live with her when he was 17 years old, and adopted his step-father’s surname – Brady, with whom he would also work.
• Marital Status: Unmarried, Brady saw marriage as pointless, and didn’t want to go “walking blindly into the death trap of marriage and respectability. I had other things on my mind”.
• Partners: Apart from Myra Hindley, very little is known about Brady’s other girlfriends. Although it has been stated that he met his first girlfriend when he was eleven years old and dated Evelyn Grant (who he met at Carnwadric School) but the relationship ended when he threatened her with a flick-knife when she attended a dance with another boy; Brady would later profess that marriage was futile and that loving someone meant being “blind to the unforeseen perils of love turned sour”. Possibly as a result of abandonment issues.
• Children:  None. 

L-R: Govan Shipyard, Smithfield Marker (Manchester) and Strangeways Prison

​WORK

• Jobs: After leaving school aged 15 with no qualifications, Brady’s first job was as a tea-boy at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Govan (Glasgow), then as a delivery-boy for a local butcher’s (a job he’d claim helped him case homes which were ripe for burglary), a fruit porter at Smithfield Market in Manchester (courtesy of his stepfather Patrick), and following his stint at Strangeways Prison, Latchmere House and Hatfield borstal, Brady drifted between various jobs as a labourer, in a brewery at Boddington’s and finally in January 1959, Brady successfully applied for clerical job at Millwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company in Gorton, where he would meet Myra Hindley.
• Training: Brady didn’t receive any formal training or apprenticeships.
• Military Service: Expected to undertake two-years of National Service, Brady travelled to Sheffield to take a medical examination and passed the medical – A1 – but stated in his interview that after two years in borstal, if he was subjected to a further two years in the Army, he’d walk out. After a psychological evaluation, Brady was not deemed suitable.
• IQ / Education: Although Brady left school with no qualifications, he was deemed to be of higher than normal intellect and was later transferred to Hatfield Borstal for boys of “above average intelligence”, although his exact IQ has never been stated. Educated at Househillwood School primary school, later Carnwadric School and finally at Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils, Brady struggled to fit in having resented the formal structure of school and found new levels of excitement by hanging out with gangs and committing petty crimes. That said, when he was sentenced to two years in Hatfield Borstal, he discovered a latent passion for reading and left “a changed man”. And having acquired two volumes on book-keeping from the local library, he taught himself accountancy, which led to him getting a clerical job at Millwards. 

L-R: Roy Orbison, Mein Kampf and Orson Welles as Harry Lime in The Third Man

​SOCIAL

• Favourite Food: In his earlier years, he had simple tastes; fish & chips in a trucker’s café, black pudding & chips after a few drinks, with steak being a specific treat, but as his reading habits evolved so did his desire to be seen as more cultured, so he’d often eat French, German or Oriental cuisine. After his arrest, his diet was strictly limited according to what Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital would provide, but whilst on self-imposed hunger-strike, Brady would sneakily eat toast with butter and packet soup made with boiling water.
• Favourite Music: Although very cultured, loving a wide variety of classical composers like Wagner (as it was Hitler’s favourite) and many mainstream hits, many of these songs would forever be sullied as Hindley & Brady used a specific series of songs which referenced each child they had murdered. These songs include; “Girl Don’t Come” by Sandie Shaw, “It’s All Over Now” by Joan Baez, “Legion’s Last Patrol” by Ken Thorne, “24 Hours From Tulsa” by Gene Pitney and “It’s Over” by Roy Orbison.
• Favourite Film: Predictably Brady would often claim that Bonnie & Clyde was a particular favourite, but in actuality he was an avid fan of Orson Welles, especially The Third Man.
• Favourite Book: During his two-year stint in borstal, Brady became a voracious reader who loved the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (especially ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’), Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime & Punishment, Adolf Hitler’s own diary Mein Kampf, the works of William Blake, John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and often quoted Alfred Tennyson. A favourite book Hindley & Brady shared was Meyer Levin's ‘Compulsion’, a fictionalised version of the Leopold & Lobe case; two well-to-do young boys who planned to the perfect murder by killing their 12 year old friend… and getting away with it.
• Favourite Drink: During his youth, Brady was a beer-drinker (or whatever he could steal), but as his cultural influences changed so did his tastes, preferring German wines (Hock) and drinking Drambuie whiskey.
• Smoker: Yes, in his youth he preferred Camel’s (American) cigarettes, but – again, as his tastes changed – his cigarette of choice was Gauloises (untipped, strong French) cigarettes.
• Hobbies: None known, except reading. As a child Brady loved football but he lost his interest in playing it and as a spectator after he broke his leg during his childhood. Brady had a fascination with audio-recording and photography, including developing prints in his own darkroom, but this was more as a necessity for recording his murders, the contents of which he kept in a suitcase at the left-luggage office at Manchester Central Station.
• Religion: Atheist, Brady saw religion as pointless.
• Drugs/Alcohol Abuse: Although Brady used to drink sometimes to excess (he was once arrested for being drunk & disorderly), Brady had no interest in recreational drugs.
• Political Leanings:  Although he admired Hitler, Brady claimed his interest in the Third Reich was purely aesthetic, not political, that he admired Hitler’s boldness, courage and will, as opposed to his political beliefs. Brady claimed he was left-wing (Socialist). 

The Victims: Keith Bennett, Leslie Ann Downie, Edward Evans, John Kilbride and Pauline Reade

​MURDER CAREER

• Reason for Murder: This is impossible to determine as in 1985 Brady was declared criminally insane, “a psychopath”; so either the killings were a side-effect caused by his mental illness, or they were part of an “existential crisis”, as Brady would claim at his 2013 mental health tribunal and in a 2005 letter, as "merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964", having avidly read the works of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Or maybe both? Either way, Brady has never expressed any remorse for any of the killings.
• Method of Killing: With Hindley posing as a lone female, she would lure local children into a rented van with the promise of sweets or money for their help with a simple chore and – following a slight detour to find a missing glove or scarf of “sentimental value” – Hindley used this as a ruse to drive the children to Saddleworth Moor where Brady would be waiting. As Hindley & Brady were the only two witnesses of each murder, their accounts differ; Hindley claims Brady committed the murders alone; sexually assaulting the terrified child, strangling them a piece of string/shoelace or slitting their throats with a short sharp knife, and burying them in a shallow grave. Brady claims that Hindley assisted in all aspects.
• Number of Victims: Five children and teenagers; Pauline Reade (16) who disappeared on 12th July 1963 on her way to a local disco wearing a pretty pink and gold party dress. She wouldn’t be found until 1985, when Hindley & Brady directed Police to her shallow grave. John Kilbride (12) on the 23rd November 1963 (the same day that John F Kennedy was assassinated). Police were only alerted to the location of John Kilbride’s corpse, as Brady had taken a (now infamous) photo of Hindley and her dog Puppet on the very site of his shallow grave. Keith Bennett (12) vanished on 16th June 1964 whilst walking to his grandmother’s house, and although Hindley & Brady both claim he was buried on Saddleworth Moor, his body has never been found. Lesley Ann Downie (10) was murdered on Boxing Day in 1964, having been lured away from a fairground back to Hindley & Brady’s flat, where she was raped, tortured and murdered, all of which was recorded on audio tape and played back at the trial. But Brady was initially only arrested for the murder of Edward Evans (17) on the 6th October 1965, an apprentice engineer who Brady met in a gay bar, accompanied back to Brady’s flay in Hyde, attacked with an axe and strangled with an electrical flex. At their trial, Hindley & Brady were only ever charged with the murders of Edward Evans, John Kilbride and Lesley Ann Downey, the others would be uncovered as Hindley & Brady's relationship deteriorated.
• Length of Career: As a murderer, 12th July 1963 to 6th October 1965
• Previous Criminal Record: In 1951, aged 13, Brady was charged with house-breaking. In 1953, aged 15, Brady was charged with nine counts of burglary. And in 1954, he was charged with nine counts of burglary and one of threatening his girlfriend – Evelyn Grant – with a flick knife, but instead of a custodial sentence he was moved to Manchester to live with his mother. After their arrest, Hindley & Brady claimed they had vandalised the homes of known local child abusers, but there is no record to back-up this story.
• Preferred Victims: Although Hindley & Brady didn’t have a particular physical preference; all of their victims were of various ages between 10 and 17, all were white, three were male and two were female, but all needed to be young, familiar and easily manipulated, as Hindley needed to lure them off the street and into the rented van (or later her Ford Anglia) without anyone noticing.
• Preferred Murder Location: Saddleworth Moor and 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in Hattersley (Hindley & Brady’s flat) where Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downie were both murdered.
• Disposal: All but Edward Evans were buried in a shallow grave on Saddleworth Moor, including Leslie Ann Downie who was murdered at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, but her body would later be buried on the moors. 

L-R: Brady in 1985, Ashworth Secure Prison, 16 Wardle Brook Avenue and Brady in 2013

​ARREST/SENTENCE

• Detection: On the evening of 6th October 1965, Hindley & Brady picked up Edward Evans from Manchester Central station and returned to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue for wine and group sex (Brady engaging in oral sex with Edward Evans). Upon the arrival of David Smith, Hindley’s 17 year old brother-in-law, who Brady had developed an unusual friendship with, Edward Evans was attacked with an axe/hatchet. With the first hit missing its mark, the back of Evans’ head, Brady then rained down a dozen blows with the hatchet upon Evans, smothered him with a pillow and strangled him with an electrical flex. Unable to carry Evan’s body to the car, Smith & Brady wrapped the corpse in a bundle of sheets in their bedroom, with an agreement to dispose of the bundle the next day. Instead, Smith called the police.
• Arrested: Early on the 7th October 1965, Superintendent Bob Talbot (Cheshire Police) posed as a baker making a delivery to gain entry to the house, upon which Evans’ body was discovered and Brady was arrested (Hindley was not charged as an accessory until 11th October). Brady claimed the incident had simply been an argument over some “dodgy books” in a suitcase which had got out of hand. Although David Smith said he had no idea where these “books” might be, he informed the Police that Brady “had a thing about railway stations”. In the left luggage office of Manchester Central Station, police discovered Brady’s suitcase; in it were nine pornographic photos of 10 year old Leslie Ann Downie and a 13 minute audio recording on her final moments alive, screaming and pleading for her “mummy”. In their house Police also found an exercise book with “John Kilbride” written in it and a large collection of photographs taken on Saddleworth Moor.
• Trial: Over 14 days, from 19th April 1966, at Assize Court in Chester Castle, Hindley & Brady were charged with the murders of Edward Evans, Leslie Ann Downie and John Kilbride. They both pleased “not guilty”, but with overwhelming evidence against them including the 13 minute tape recording of the torture of Leslie Ann Downie being played to the court, the jury took just two hours to deliberate and on the 6th May, Hindley & Brady were found guilty. With the death penalty having been abolished just one year earlier, Brady was sentenced to three life sentences and Hindley to two. Mr Justice Atkinson described Brady as "wicked beyond belief" with no reasonable possibility of reform. The case was re-opened in 1985, after Brady confessed to the additional murders of Keith Bennett and Pauline Reade. His confession conveniently coincided with being diagnosed as “criminally insane” and being committed to Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital, which required his removal from solitary confinement in a mainstream prison.
• Prison: Brady was initially transferred to Durham Prison, and spent 19 years in various prisons (including Gartree Prison in Leicestershire) in solitary confinement for his own safety. In November 1985, Brady was diagnosed as a “psychopath” at the high-security Park Lane Hospital, now renamed Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital in Sefton, stating he “never wanted to be released”. During his sentence, he wrote his autobiography ‘The Gates of Janus’, corresponded with Lord Longford and spent his time translating classical texts into Braille. But never once did he ever express any remorse for his victims.
• Sentence Length: Initially three life sentences, but when he was declared “criminally insane” this sentence was converted to being “at her Majesty’s pleasure”, which meant he could be held for an indeterminate period of time.
• Type of Prisoner: Over the course of his incarceration at Ashworth, Brady went on (supposed) hunger-strike in 1999 and 2012 (albeit eating soup and toast, complaning about the conditions at Ashworth. His mood dyring this time was typified in this quote “Myra gets the potentially fatal brain condition, whilst I have to fight simply to die. I have had enough. I want nothing, my objective is to die and release myself from this once and for all. So you see my death strike is rational and pragmatic. I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago, and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin”.
• Parole: None. Brady died of restrictive pulmonary disease in Ashworth Hospital on 15th May 2017 (aged 79). It is uncertain where or when Ian Brady was cremated as many undertakers in Manchester and Glasgow refused to take him. 

If you "enjoyed" this blog post, why not take a peek at; Serial Killers & Murderers Who Were Never Caught, London's Deadliest & Often Forgotten Disasters, Are More Serial KIllers Born During a Full Moon, Killer's Birthdays / Star Signs, Serial Killers Who Were On TV, Celebrities Who Have Killed, London's Railway of Death, Serial Killers as Kids and the World's Weirdest Death Rituals

No plans this weekend? Why not book onto Murder Mile Walks, a "truly quirky, curious and unusual thing to do in London this weekend", rated FIVE STARS by Time Out Magazine

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Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, podcaster, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.