A serial maniac tortured and killed children for years. He found victims even in prison
'01.09.2019'
Source: Lenta.ru report
Ian Brady - one of the most famous maniacs of Great Britain of the XX century - who killed and raped boys, spent in prison 19 years. Over the years, it became known that, even while in custody, he found minor victims for himself and almost all this time he lived in a solitary confinement. Who and why helped Brady to commit crimes in prison - in the material "Tapes.ru».
For several decades he was considered the most brutal killer of Great Britain. Ian Brady and his girlfriend Myra Hindley tortured, raped and killed children in the mid-60 of the last century in the Greater Manchester County area. The victims of maniacs were five children aged ten to seventeen, four of them were sexually abused.
Due to the fact that two of the victims were buried in the Saddlewet marshes in the Pennine Mountains, the case was called “Killings in the Marshes”. The third victim was found there 20 years after the trial of the killers. It is believed that the body of the fourth victim - Keith Bennett - is located there, but he has not yet been found. Despite the terrifying cruelty of the crimes, due to the entry into force of the 1965 Act abolishing the death penalty, the killers were sentenced to life imprisonment without the right to parole.
The behavior of killers, the brutality of which was spoken around the world, was the subject of a study by the professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, Malcolm McCullough. He calls the meeting of Brady and Hindley an accidental interweaving of circumstances, combining “a young cruel woman brought up in a culture of violence” and a “sexually anxious sadistic psychopath.”
Prison Privileges
Following the verdict, Iain Brady succeeded in changing several prisons before settling in London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1974. He was locked up in a well-guarded solitary confinement in case other prisoners decide to deal with him - they don’t like murderers of children even in prison. But the criminal was not satisfied with loneliness, and he went on a hunger strike in the summer of 1975, demanding a move to a common cell and permission to communicate with prisoners.
When Brady began to rapidly lose weight, he was transferred to a prison hospital. He began to eat, but he was left under medical supervision in a prison cell with a mental disorder known as G2. At the same time, a group of teenagers with mental disorders from a juvenile correctional facility were brought to Wormwood Scrubbs Prison Hospital. Many of them were about 15 years old - as well as those children whom Brady killed and raped.
Back in 1976, the prison’s chief medical officer noticed that something was wrong. “He shows unusual interest in teenage prisoners who are in the ward with him,” the employee wrote in a report to his superiors. “Brady’s increased attention to adolescents with mental disorders certainly harms them.”
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Despite the fact that the medical staff constantly reported to the prison authorities about the problems that Ian Brady could cause, he was left in the hospital, and the “prison privileges” of the brutal killer were increasing every day. He was allowed to watch TV with other patients and perform various chores: clean the rooms, wash the toilets and showers. In 1981, the killer was deprived of the opportunity to work after one of the prisoners told hospital staff: Brady forced him to have sex with him.
The question arises: how could such a cruel serial killer have at least some privileges?
This can be partially attributed to Brady’s personal qualities: prison guards often said that he knew how to manipulate people and achieve his goals. For several years, he complained, wrote appeals and letters to ministers, threatened suicide and a hunger strike to get his way. In most cases, his threats did not lead to anything - no one really felt sorry for the killer of children, but sometimes his requests for unknown reasons found a response from the authorities.
Brady received support from the powers that be, including Frank Longin, Earl of Longford, a former cabinet member from the Labor Party who oversaw the reform of the penitentiary system. The documents of the Ministry of the Interior prove that the politician has repeatedly asked his colleagues for something in the interests of a serial killer. How much influence Ian Brady could have on people can be judged by a letter from Mayra Hindley asking for clemency written in 1978 and 1979: “For several months, Brady was able to convince me that there is no God. He could tell me that the Earth is flat, the Moon is made of green cheese, and the Sun rises in the west, and I would believe - that’s how strong his ability to convince was. ”
Cigarettes from the Minister
When Brady went to prison in May 1966, the guards described him as "a tall man, with a constant restrained smile on his face for no apparent reason, completely devoid of emotion." He immediately managed to achieve a special attitude towards himself. He convinced one of the prison staff to bring him erotic novels about homosexuals, as well as works by Machiavelli, an Italian Renaissance thinker who claimed that the ruler had the right to retain power by any means. Somehow, the offender was able to achieve private German language lessons with teachers at Durham University. However, he soon lost this opportunity - the prison authorities refused to pay for the education of the killer.
Despite all the tricks, Brady could not achieve his main goal - the “conjugal” visits of Myra Hindley. She was serving her sentence in Holloway Prison, 400 kilometers from him. In protest, Brady refused to leave the cell and talk with other prisoners, asked for dark glasses and earplugs to completely hide from the outside world. For three years in a row, from 1969 to 1971, he went on a hunger strike - none of this worked, the maniac couldn’t see the accomplice. Hindley soon stopped responding to his letters, and he decided to change his tactics: he began to seek a place in the hospital, relying on his mental disorder. Doctors refused, because they considered him a psychopath, whom medicine is not able to help.
It was at this time, in 1971, that Brady first turned to Earl Longford for help, but he could not help the prisoner move to the hospital.
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Four years later, while at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, thanks to a new hunger strike, he secured a place in a prison hospital. There he allowed the doctors to "force feed" him, and formally the "hunger strike" continued.
In September 1975, Brady again wrote to Count Longford. 16 December Longford met with Home Secretary Roy Jenkins to convey Ian Brady's request to remain in the hospital. Jenkins's answer was: "Brady can be sure that he will remain in the prison hospital for as long as he needs because of his health." According to prison records, ten days after this, the serial killer stopped the hunger strike.
Peter Mikings at that time worked as assistant manager of the Wormwood Scrubs prison. Prison records indicate that he was organizing several Earl Longford visits to Ian Brady. 12 April 1976 The meeting of the minister and the murderer began with an apology from the politician for “forgetting to bring cigarettes”.
“I remember that Brady was very angry about this,” recalls Mikings. The killer preferred expensive French Gauloises cigarettes, which were not so easy to get. In his memoirs, a prison worker wrote: "Brady often spoke rather rudely to the Ministry of the Interior and issued insulting remarks about some of the overseers." Mikings calls Brady very strict and consistent in his relations with the Lord - he told Longford what he should do, was very brief and harsh with him.
Peter Mikings recalls that he always tried to keep his distance from Ian Brady, even when the prisoner tried to be friendly with him. “One of the children he killed was the same age as my son at that time. Goosebumps ran down my back when I was in the same room with him, ”recalls the assistant manager.
Vicious circle
By September 1976, Brady's health was fully restored. As one of the medical workers noted, during his stay in the hospital he even gained excess weight. But he remained in the hospital further. In December 1977, authorities decided to transfer the offender back to the prison cell - Count Longford again saved the serial killer. The prisoner wrote him a letter of gratitude for being given “a modest opportunity to integrate into the community of hospital employees”, to which he “had the highest respect”. So Brady strengthened his privileged position in prison.
In March 1978, the prison's senior medical officer expressed concern about Brady's presence in the prison hospital and his contacts with patients. “I am concerned about his relationship with young and adult mentally ill patients,” he wrote. - His brutal merciless egoistic behavior has not changed. He is one of the few here whom I consider to be a really evil person. ” At the same time, a prison hospital officer came to the conclusion that there was no way to separate Brady from other prisoners and at the same time keep him under therapeutic supervision.
The privileged position of a serial killer was unhappy with the inspectors from the prison supervisory authority. But the Wormwood-Scrubs medical staff assured them that it was "the best solution to an insoluble problem."
“If he is sent back to solitary confinement, he will go on a hunger strike, and we will return to where we started a few years ago,” wrote the chief medical officer of the 5 prison on June 1978. He claimed that Brady did not cause any problems "except for his communication with teenage patients."
Inglorious end
While the authorities, the prison authorities and the senior medical officer of the prison hospital could not figure out where they should put Brady so that he would not inconvenience them, the serial killer continued to commit sexual violence against other teenage patients. This is evidenced by prison records recording patient complaints and requests to move them away from Ian Brady.
Peter Mikings can explain where Brady could find hiding places so as not to catch the eye of hospital staff. “As a janitor, he not only had the freedom to move around the hospital, he also had access to toilets,” says Peter. - Then there were no toilets in the wards. Showers were also located separately. ”
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But the constant complaints of others did not lead to the transfer of Brady back to prison. He was deprived of his job as a janitor only in November 1981. The criminal again complained about this to Count Longford, who, as before, began to act in the interests of the serial killer. However, this time the politician could not help Brady. Ultimately, in March 1982, he was transferred to Parkhurst prison, later in 1985 he was declared insane and transferred to Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital, where he died of cancer in 2017.
Francis Crook, head of the Howard League, an organization that advocates reform of the penal system, believes that the widespread support Ian Brady enjoyed was due to an “extraordinary combination of circumstances.” Nevertheless, she adds: “What happened, what he did in prisons, I don’t think it is anything out of the ordinary. I think this has been happening every day for many years, and is still happening. ”
