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One of Your Own: The Life and Death of Myra Hindley
On 15 November 2002, Myra Hindley died in prison, one of the few women in the UK whose crimes were deemed so indefensible that 'life' really did mean 'life'. Without a doubt Britain's most notorious murderess, her death has done nothing to diminish the shadow she casts across our collective consciousness. This book presents a study of Hindley.
464 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2010
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October 30, 2021
Myra Hindley was Britain’s most hated woman ever. She died in 2002 aged 60 from bronchial pneumonia and had been in prison for 36 years, since she was 23, the third longest serving British prisoner of all time. (The second longest is her boyfriend, who died in 2017 at the age of 79.) If she had lived to be 100 they would never have released her.
After she died they tore apart her hospital room, incinerated every article in it and redecorated. The funeral was kept as secret as possible.
Between 1963 and 1965 she actively participated with her boyfriend Ian Brady in the murders of a 10 year old girl, two 12 year old boys, a 16 year old girl and a 17 year old boy.
WE BECAME OUR OWN GODS
Brady was a work colleague she fell in love with, and she had to put a lot of effort in to get him to notice her. He didn’t socialise. Like any Nazi-loving psycho, in the staff cafeteria
he was quiet, eating his egg-and-cheese sandwiches alone, reading Teach Yourself German or Mein Kampf
He was a big reader.
He had discovered Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment… “That’s me, that’s what I’m all about,” he declared 30 years later, telling the police that everything he had ever done was in Crime and Punishment
Anyway, patience paid off for Myra and they became an item. Instead of going to dances
they borrowed books on philosophy and torture from local libraries…together they read Henry Miller, Harold Robbins and de Sade
They were working-class autodidacts!
Brady wasn’t a very nice man. He despised ordinary people. The only thing those fools wanted to do was (he wrote later)
to marry, breed, further burden themselves by mortgage… own a family car and live in excruciating moderation and boredom until death do they depart.
This is the same thing Tom Ripley thinks in Patricia Highsmith’s novels. Come to think of it, the teenage John Lennon might have expressed similar contempt for straights, Cynthia or no Cynthia. Feeling a bohemian superiority over social conformity is de rigeur for great swathes of teenagers. I see no harm in it. And some of them even read de Sade.
Brady, however, he wanted to prove to himself that he was never going to be part of the marching morons, the nine-to-fivers. (Even though he himself worked a perfectly straight nine-to-five job.) And this is where the intellectual blends in with the psychosexual – the way he was going to prove it was that he was going to cross the line so that there was no coming back, demonstrating that there is no such thing as right and wrong, or that if there is, he’s above it AND he was going to weld himself and his girlfriend into this little cult-of-two AND he was going to prove his intellectual superiority by committing the perfect crime, AND he was going to get his paraphiliac jollies and do all this in one, by murdering children.
They did four perfect crimes. The kids simply vanished, the police had no clue. They willingly got into the car with Myra because she was a woman – they’d all been warned about strange men. Then Brady seemed to go off the deep end with number 5, a 17 year old youth. For the first time, he deliberately involved a third party, Myra’s brother-in-law. But although Dave Smith was a thug with a record for violence, he was a normal human being, and after witnessing a murder, he went to the police as soon as he possibly could.
LIKE A PUPPET ON A STRING
After they were jailed there was a strange intermittent public jousting match between the two, which didn’t stop until Myra died. It was a he-said she-said situation. Each would grant interviews or write letters to the newspapers or call the police in for further revelations (the cops only proved three of the 5 murders and were desperate to find the missing bodies – Brady had them dangling on his every word), and each time it was to further their own line. For the first 20 years, Myra peddled the line that she had been
under duress and abuse before the offences, after and during them, and all the time I was with him… he used to threaten me and rape me and whip me and cane me. I would always be covered in bruises and bite marks.
She was convinced that if she portrayed herself as Brady’s puppet she would eventually get paroled. In this she was entirely deluded. Brady’s line was, from 1966 until right now, was that she was nobody’s plaything, he never beat her or abused her, she was a full participant in every murder. He said
She regarded periodic homicides as rituals…marriage ceremonies theoretically binding us ever closer… Existential philosophy melded with the spirituality of death and became predominant.
The same argument turns up in every case like this (e.g. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka , Gerald and Charlene Gallego, Fred and Rosemary West, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate)
– could a woman really willingly help her boyfriend to rape and kill women and children? Is that ever possible?
Myra’s original abused-puppet argument is queered in the strangest way on p 125 of this book. This is the part where, after the first murder, a policeman comes knocking on her door, but he just wants to find out if her car is for sale. This was the car they used to spirit the first victim away to the moors. And she sells it to the policeman! When Brady hears about that he rolls on the floor laughing. But then - she has a casual affair with the policeman! And Brady fumes but apparently does nothing about it.
Well, eventually, after decades had passed, Myra became able to admit her guilt :
I didn’t have any traumas in my childhood as Ian may have done. I didn’t have a grudge against the world or society. I had no excuse for my actions…. For years people have assumed that Ian totally corrupted me but he didn’t. I have to own the part I played in things, to accept that I wanted some of the things to happen.
“A reformed and dignified person” was how one of her string of posh supporters (which included Germaine Greer) described her. The British public, led by the rabid rancid tabloid newspapers, would have none of that. The vast majority of people did not believe that a person could do such crimes and then repent and be forgiven. It seemed like an insulting thing to them. And this is the heart of the story. Can people change? Seriously? Can serial killers turn to God and be forgiven? Or would such a thing be just another careful mask assumed for public consumption? What does Dostoyevsky have to say about that?
This book is a great account of the whole horrible saga. I can’t imagine a better one. Carol Ann Lee orchestrates a large amount of material and deals with really loathsome stuff without editorialising and without the hysteria which always accompanies this case.
4.5 stars - recommended.
After she died they tore apart her hospital room, incinerated every article in it and redecorated. The funeral was kept as secret as possible.
Between 1963 and 1965 she actively participated with her boyfriend Ian Brady in the murders of a 10 year old girl, two 12 year old boys, a 16 year old girl and a 17 year old boy.
WE BECAME OUR OWN GODS
Brady was a work colleague she fell in love with, and she had to put a lot of effort in to get him to notice her. He didn’t socialise. Like any Nazi-loving psycho, in the staff cafeteria
he was quiet, eating his egg-and-cheese sandwiches alone, reading Teach Yourself German or Mein Kampf
He was a big reader.
He had discovered Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment… “That’s me, that’s what I’m all about,” he declared 30 years later, telling the police that everything he had ever done was in Crime and Punishment
Anyway, patience paid off for Myra and they became an item. Instead of going to dances
they borrowed books on philosophy and torture from local libraries…together they read Henry Miller, Harold Robbins and de Sade
They were working-class autodidacts!
Brady wasn’t a very nice man. He despised ordinary people. The only thing those fools wanted to do was (he wrote later)
to marry, breed, further burden themselves by mortgage… own a family car and live in excruciating moderation and boredom until death do they depart.
This is the same thing Tom Ripley thinks in Patricia Highsmith’s novels. Come to think of it, the teenage John Lennon might have expressed similar contempt for straights, Cynthia or no Cynthia. Feeling a bohemian superiority over social conformity is de rigeur for great swathes of teenagers. I see no harm in it. And some of them even read de Sade.
Brady, however, he wanted to prove to himself that he was never going to be part of the marching morons, the nine-to-fivers. (Even though he himself worked a perfectly straight nine-to-five job.) And this is where the intellectual blends in with the psychosexual – the way he was going to prove it was that he was going to cross the line so that there was no coming back, demonstrating that there is no such thing as right and wrong, or that if there is, he’s above it AND he was going to weld himself and his girlfriend into this little cult-of-two AND he was going to prove his intellectual superiority by committing the perfect crime, AND he was going to get his paraphiliac jollies and do all this in one, by murdering children.
They did four perfect crimes. The kids simply vanished, the police had no clue. They willingly got into the car with Myra because she was a woman – they’d all been warned about strange men. Then Brady seemed to go off the deep end with number 5, a 17 year old youth. For the first time, he deliberately involved a third party, Myra’s brother-in-law. But although Dave Smith was a thug with a record for violence, he was a normal human being, and after witnessing a murder, he went to the police as soon as he possibly could.
LIKE A PUPPET ON A STRING
After they were jailed there was a strange intermittent public jousting match between the two, which didn’t stop until Myra died. It was a he-said she-said situation. Each would grant interviews or write letters to the newspapers or call the police in for further revelations (the cops only proved three of the 5 murders and were desperate to find the missing bodies – Brady had them dangling on his every word), and each time it was to further their own line. For the first 20 years, Myra peddled the line that she had been
under duress and abuse before the offences, after and during them, and all the time I was with him… he used to threaten me and rape me and whip me and cane me. I would always be covered in bruises and bite marks.
She was convinced that if she portrayed herself as Brady’s puppet she would eventually get paroled. In this she was entirely deluded. Brady’s line was, from 1966 until right now, was that she was nobody’s plaything, he never beat her or abused her, she was a full participant in every murder. He said
She regarded periodic homicides as rituals…marriage ceremonies theoretically binding us ever closer… Existential philosophy melded with the spirituality of death and became predominant.
The same argument turns up in every case like this (e.g. Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka , Gerald and Charlene Gallego, Fred and Rosemary West, Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate)
– could a woman really willingly help her boyfriend to rape and kill women and children? Is that ever possible?
Myra’s original abused-puppet argument is queered in the strangest way on p 125 of this book. This is the part where, after the first murder, a policeman comes knocking on her door, but he just wants to find out if her car is for sale. This was the car they used to spirit the first victim away to the moors. And she sells it to the policeman! When Brady hears about that he rolls on the floor laughing. But then - she has a casual affair with the policeman! And Brady fumes but apparently does nothing about it.
Well, eventually, after decades had passed, Myra became able to admit her guilt :
I didn’t have any traumas in my childhood as Ian may have done. I didn’t have a grudge against the world or society. I had no excuse for my actions…. For years people have assumed that Ian totally corrupted me but he didn’t. I have to own the part I played in things, to accept that I wanted some of the things to happen.
“A reformed and dignified person” was how one of her string of posh supporters (which included Germaine Greer) described her. The British public, led by the rabid rancid tabloid newspapers, would have none of that. The vast majority of people did not believe that a person could do such crimes and then repent and be forgiven. It seemed like an insulting thing to them. And this is the heart of the story. Can people change? Seriously? Can serial killers turn to God and be forgiven? Or would such a thing be just another careful mask assumed for public consumption? What does Dostoyevsky have to say about that?
This book is a great account of the whole horrible saga. I can’t imagine a better one. Carol Ann Lee orchestrates a large amount of material and deals with really loathsome stuff without editorialising and without the hysteria which always accompanies this case.
4.5 stars - recommended.
August 20, 2012
This is in fact a book that I read and reviewed two years ago on my blog. I’m adding it here in the light of the recent death of Winnie Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett, who spent so many years trying to discover the body of her son.
I’ve not long finished One of Your Own, The Life and Death of Myra Hindley by Carol Ann Lee. At close on four hundred pages it’s a detailed account of the life and crimes of one of the most infamous women in recent British history, but I read it over two days with complete fascination, though crime is not a subject that normally I am attracted to.
Hindley is different. There is something iconic about her, something that touches on the bigger issues, something over the nature and causes of evil itself that drew me irresistibly to this book. Lee tackles the subject with a scholarly sense of detachment, though she draws some pertinent and telling judgements at points.
It’s worth pointing out that she has also written extensively about the Holocaust, highly relevant for the simple reason that the mindset of Hindley was the same pathological mindset as people like Irma Grese or Elizabeth Volkenrath, both notorious concentration camp guards. It’s difficult for me to describe this with any precision; it’s evil, yes, but at its most banal, a combination of personal cruelty, maudlin self-pity and a total lack of sympathy for other human beings. During the period following her arrest along with Ian Brady for the murder of Edward Evans the only emotion Hindley ever showed was after she was told of the death of her dog.
Lee has a compelling relaxed style, writing with ease and considerable fluency. There were parts of her lucid account that I found so difficult, parts I almost skipped, especially the section dealing with the torment and murder of ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downie, which includes a transcript of the awful tape recording Brady and Hindley took.
Years later, when she was fighting her ruthless parole campaign, Hindley wrote to Ann West, Lesley’s mother, a letter which contains a particularly telling sentence;
I now want to say to you, and I implore you to believe me, because it is the truth, that your child was not physically tortured, as is widely believed.
Of this Lee says that Hindley, while trying to explain that Lesley was not mutilated prior to death, completely failed to grasp that the ordeal to which the little girl was subjected before her murder was precisely that – physical and psychological torture. Yes, what more need be said?
The part of the book that I found of particular interest was that dealing with Hindley’s years in prison prior to her death in November 2002, the time when she mounted a systematic campaign to convince people that she had changed, that she was no longer the same person, that she had rediscovered the Catholic faith of her youth. The whole thing seemed to me to be entirely fraudulent, as if she was not even beneath an attempt to deceive God himself in her cynical drive for freedom.
The one person she did not deceive was Diana Athill, a literary editor who was approached by Hindley’s supporters to work on a proposed autobiography. She insisted on meeting the woman before she would commit herself. The interviews took place but Athill declined to get involved, doubting the worth of the project as a means for Hindley to come to terms with the past. Afterwards she wrote:
When she did what she did she was not mad – as Brady was – and although she was young, she was an adult, and an intelligent one. It seems to me that there are strands of moral deformity which cannot be pardoned: that Stangl was right when, having faced the truth about himself, he said “I ought to be dead.”
Franz Stangl, for those who may not know, was a commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps.
There were plenty that Hindley did deceive, none more so than Frank Pakenham, the seventh earl of Longford, who was long active in her campaign for release. I have to say, though, I think she was particularly ill-served by this muddle-headed do-gooder (not a term I like, but it fits his character so.)
He raised her expectations in the early seventies, only a few years after she was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was because of him that her state of denial and self-deception deepened; because of him that she did not finally admit her part in the murder of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett until the late 1980s. There seems to me to be an odd kind of similarity between the liberal and the psychopath. Like Hindley Longford had no interest in the victims of the Moors murders, no interest in the feelings of the families of the butchered children.
At the end of the book I felt nothing for the subject other than contempt and distaste. I struggle sometimes with the concept of evil, asking myself if it is something tangible, is it something, in other words, that has an objective existence beyond the individual choices we make? It might be easy to answer if I believed in Christian notions of good and evil, but I don’t. All I can say is that in the person of Myra Hindley evil took on an objective form, one that never went away.
Lee concludes her book by commenting on the obituary of Hindley in the Independent, where it was said that she had no ‘judgement’ – “But judgement was precisely what Myra Hindley had –in a sense, it is all any of us have – and she chose to use it with the most wicked intent.”
I ended, I confess, by crying for the family of Keith Bennett, whose remains, never discovered, still lie somewhere on those bleak, windswept Moors.
I’ve not long finished One of Your Own, The Life and Death of Myra Hindley by Carol Ann Lee. At close on four hundred pages it’s a detailed account of the life and crimes of one of the most infamous women in recent British history, but I read it over two days with complete fascination, though crime is not a subject that normally I am attracted to.
Hindley is different. There is something iconic about her, something that touches on the bigger issues, something over the nature and causes of evil itself that drew me irresistibly to this book. Lee tackles the subject with a scholarly sense of detachment, though she draws some pertinent and telling judgements at points.
It’s worth pointing out that she has also written extensively about the Holocaust, highly relevant for the simple reason that the mindset of Hindley was the same pathological mindset as people like Irma Grese or Elizabeth Volkenrath, both notorious concentration camp guards. It’s difficult for me to describe this with any precision; it’s evil, yes, but at its most banal, a combination of personal cruelty, maudlin self-pity and a total lack of sympathy for other human beings. During the period following her arrest along with Ian Brady for the murder of Edward Evans the only emotion Hindley ever showed was after she was told of the death of her dog.
Lee has a compelling relaxed style, writing with ease and considerable fluency. There were parts of her lucid account that I found so difficult, parts I almost skipped, especially the section dealing with the torment and murder of ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downie, which includes a transcript of the awful tape recording Brady and Hindley took.
Years later, when she was fighting her ruthless parole campaign, Hindley wrote to Ann West, Lesley’s mother, a letter which contains a particularly telling sentence;
I now want to say to you, and I implore you to believe me, because it is the truth, that your child was not physically tortured, as is widely believed.
Of this Lee says that Hindley, while trying to explain that Lesley was not mutilated prior to death, completely failed to grasp that the ordeal to which the little girl was subjected before her murder was precisely that – physical and psychological torture. Yes, what more need be said?
The part of the book that I found of particular interest was that dealing with Hindley’s years in prison prior to her death in November 2002, the time when she mounted a systematic campaign to convince people that she had changed, that she was no longer the same person, that she had rediscovered the Catholic faith of her youth. The whole thing seemed to me to be entirely fraudulent, as if she was not even beneath an attempt to deceive God himself in her cynical drive for freedom.
The one person she did not deceive was Diana Athill, a literary editor who was approached by Hindley’s supporters to work on a proposed autobiography. She insisted on meeting the woman before she would commit herself. The interviews took place but Athill declined to get involved, doubting the worth of the project as a means for Hindley to come to terms with the past. Afterwards she wrote:
When she did what she did she was not mad – as Brady was – and although she was young, she was an adult, and an intelligent one. It seems to me that there are strands of moral deformity which cannot be pardoned: that Stangl was right when, having faced the truth about himself, he said “I ought to be dead.”
Franz Stangl, for those who may not know, was a commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps.
There were plenty that Hindley did deceive, none more so than Frank Pakenham, the seventh earl of Longford, who was long active in her campaign for release. I have to say, though, I think she was particularly ill-served by this muddle-headed do-gooder (not a term I like, but it fits his character so.)
He raised her expectations in the early seventies, only a few years after she was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was because of him that her state of denial and self-deception deepened; because of him that she did not finally admit her part in the murder of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett until the late 1980s. There seems to me to be an odd kind of similarity between the liberal and the psychopath. Like Hindley Longford had no interest in the victims of the Moors murders, no interest in the feelings of the families of the butchered children.
At the end of the book I felt nothing for the subject other than contempt and distaste. I struggle sometimes with the concept of evil, asking myself if it is something tangible, is it something, in other words, that has an objective existence beyond the individual choices we make? It might be easy to answer if I believed in Christian notions of good and evil, but I don’t. All I can say is that in the person of Myra Hindley evil took on an objective form, one that never went away.
Lee concludes her book by commenting on the obituary of Hindley in the Independent, where it was said that she had no ‘judgement’ – “But judgement was precisely what Myra Hindley had –in a sense, it is all any of us have – and she chose to use it with the most wicked intent.”
I ended, I confess, by crying for the family of Keith Bennett, whose remains, never discovered, still lie somewhere on those bleak, windswept Moors.
September 20, 2019
This is the first true crime book out of the hundreds I’ve read that has ever made me feel truly uneasy. I got the creeps throughout the entire thing. AND there weren’t any photographs included! It was just that wrong, that evil!
April 24, 2011
Although the book was 400+ pages of small print, I read it all in a day, more or less in one sitting. It was gripping, to say the least. I'd never read a book on the Moors Murders though I'd read plenty about it online and shorter pieces in other true crime books. I think this is the only book anyone would have to read to get a thorough review of the case. Myra is quite impenetrable but I think this author comes about as close as it's possible to go, to pull back all the masks and show her for who she really was. Ian Brady is much easier to understand as a typical serial child-killer, and one with a diagnosed mental illness.
To use a comparison from the book, Myra reminds me a lot of the Nazi war criminals. If she had never met Ian Brady, she probably would have become an ordinary housewife and never committed any violent crimes at all. Most of the Nazi war criminals who weren't immediately arrested went on to lead ordinary, nonviolent postwar lives, and I'm sure that if Myra had been released from prison at some point after she got out from under Brady's spell, she wouldn't have committed any more crimes like the atrocities she and Brady had done together. Yet she was fully responsible for what she did. I think she genuinely TRIED to feel remorseful, if only because everyone demanded it, but she seems to have been incapable of the depth of feeling, the empathy, necessary for that. The nasty things she said about her victims' parents behind their backs is proof positive of that. It's like she was just defective, like some wiring was missing inside her.
To use another comparison, the case kinds of reminds me of the situation in In Cold Blood: two people who might neither have been terribly dangerous by themselves come together and feed off each other and commit far greater crimes than either of them would have been capable of alone. Ian Brady needed Myra to do what he did. To begin with he needed a woman's help to lure the children into the car, but he also needed someone to confide in, and someone who would worship him and egg him on.
Way to go, Carol Ann Lee. This book meets the gold standard for true crime: thoroughly researched, accurate, insightful and not sensationalized a bit. You achieved what you set out to do.
To use a comparison from the book, Myra reminds me a lot of the Nazi war criminals. If she had never met Ian Brady, she probably would have become an ordinary housewife and never committed any violent crimes at all. Most of the Nazi war criminals who weren't immediately arrested went on to lead ordinary, nonviolent postwar lives, and I'm sure that if Myra had been released from prison at some point after she got out from under Brady's spell, she wouldn't have committed any more crimes like the atrocities she and Brady had done together. Yet she was fully responsible for what she did. I think she genuinely TRIED to feel remorseful, if only because everyone demanded it, but she seems to have been incapable of the depth of feeling, the empathy, necessary for that. The nasty things she said about her victims' parents behind their backs is proof positive of that. It's like she was just defective, like some wiring was missing inside her.
To use another comparison, the case kinds of reminds me of the situation in In Cold Blood: two people who might neither have been terribly dangerous by themselves come together and feed off each other and commit far greater crimes than either of them would have been capable of alone. Ian Brady needed Myra to do what he did. To begin with he needed a woman's help to lure the children into the car, but he also needed someone to confide in, and someone who would worship him and egg him on.
Way to go, Carol Ann Lee. This book meets the gold standard for true crime: thoroughly researched, accurate, insightful and not sensationalized a bit. You achieved what you set out to do.
November 6, 2017
Sometimes it only takes a couple of pages to know the difference between average and class writing. Any half decent author could have written the story about the Moors Murders, heaven knows it's been regurgitated so much over the years via documentaries, newspaper articles etc. This book, however, is special. Carol Ann Lee's writing style brings the story to life in a very haunting way. When i compare this to one of true crimes I've recently read - Murder in Little Egypt - which was very linear and formulaic and pretty boring now i'm thinking about it. I may have to down grade my score. Anyway, they are worlds apart.
'One of Your Own' draws you into the dark world of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady with it's sex, violence and torture. Ian is your average psychopath but Myra's motivations have never been adequately explained. She doesn't really have a certified label, which is what makes this book so interesting. Why did she do what she did? Battered girlfriend under duress? The thrill of control? Young and stupid? or straight up psychopath?
The book is split into two parts; before and after the murders. Her time in jail is equally as fascinating as the crimes as we are told how the crimes affected the victims families as well the discovery of Pauline Reade and mystery of Keith Bennetts grave. This book will stay with you.
One of the best true crime books i've read. An easy 5 stars.
'One of Your Own' draws you into the dark world of Myra Hindley and Ian Brady with it's sex, violence and torture. Ian is your average psychopath but Myra's motivations have never been adequately explained. She doesn't really have a certified label, which is what makes this book so interesting. Why did she do what she did? Battered girlfriend under duress? The thrill of control? Young and stupid? or straight up psychopath?
The book is split into two parts; before and after the murders. Her time in jail is equally as fascinating as the crimes as we are told how the crimes affected the victims families as well the discovery of Pauline Reade and mystery of Keith Bennetts grave. This book will stay with you.
One of the best true crime books i've read. An easy 5 stars.
June 16, 2016
I know Manchester well having lived there for a number of years with close friends and relatives related through marriage. What strikes you about "Mancunians" is their tough northern yet always friendly approach, and their unique sense of loyalty and close family ties. This was never greater than in the 1950's and 60's when money was poor, poverty was rife and yet those little communities of proud people living in back to back terraced houses looked after and supported each other always adhering to the code...what is mine is yours.
What is most striking and deeply concerning about Myra Hindley is that she was an intricate part of this community with roots and family embedded in the culture truly one of their own. So how could someone from such a staunch and close knit background emerge and become the cold hearted killer and partner to the psychotic Ian Brady.
Carol Ann Lee describes and shows in great detail how the young and emerging Myra progressed and indeed flourished in this tough working class environment. Yes there were many and varied challenges; her father Bob suffering from the stresses of the 2ndWW and physically abusing his family in conjunction with his heavy consumption of alcohol; the death of her close friend Michael Higgins due to a drowning accident when she was only 15; the disruption to family life which resulted in her living with her beloved grandmother Ellen. However amidst all of this a headstrong, tough (she had been taught to box by Bob as a young child) yet likeable and friendly girl was emerging into her teens and beyond. So what went wrong? How did someone with this strong community upbringing emerge into the cold blooded killer we all recognize today?
The spark that ignited the fire occurred when she became a typist at Millwards Merchandising and made the acquaintance of one Ian Brady. One of the central themes explored in this book is whether Hindley, if she had never met Brady, would still have become a cold blooded killer. She played such a central role in Brady's manic killing sprees (with his Hitler and Marquis De Sade fascinations) and yet afterwards had well connected support from such notorieties as David Astor Observer editor, and Lord Longford. I feel the answer to this question will always be yes; she was bored looking for adventure, looking for danger something way beyond the confines of Gorton, Manchester and it's mundane routine existence. She was a keen and willing partner in the psychotic ramblings and cruel sexual games and actions performed on her by Brady and so when he suggested his ultimate fantasy of capturing and killing a child she readily agreed and not only helped this happen but eagerly participated in the many horror killings that were to follow. The true story of what occurred was discovered on a tape in a left luggage bag at Manchester Central Station through the anguished and distressed cry from one frightened little girl Lesley Anne Downey who just wanted to see her mummy.
For anyone interested in the Moors Murders and trying to understand the reasoning behind the senseless torturous killing of innocent children this book is essential reading. It is informative, well researched and gives a clear and incisive insight into the minds of two of the 20th century's most hated murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
What is most striking and deeply concerning about Myra Hindley is that she was an intricate part of this community with roots and family embedded in the culture truly one of their own. So how could someone from such a staunch and close knit background emerge and become the cold hearted killer and partner to the psychotic Ian Brady.
Carol Ann Lee describes and shows in great detail how the young and emerging Myra progressed and indeed flourished in this tough working class environment. Yes there were many and varied challenges; her father Bob suffering from the stresses of the 2ndWW and physically abusing his family in conjunction with his heavy consumption of alcohol; the death of her close friend Michael Higgins due to a drowning accident when she was only 15; the disruption to family life which resulted in her living with her beloved grandmother Ellen. However amidst all of this a headstrong, tough (she had been taught to box by Bob as a young child) yet likeable and friendly girl was emerging into her teens and beyond. So what went wrong? How did someone with this strong community upbringing emerge into the cold blooded killer we all recognize today?
The spark that ignited the fire occurred when she became a typist at Millwards Merchandising and made the acquaintance of one Ian Brady. One of the central themes explored in this book is whether Hindley, if she had never met Brady, would still have become a cold blooded killer. She played such a central role in Brady's manic killing sprees (with his Hitler and Marquis De Sade fascinations) and yet afterwards had well connected support from such notorieties as David Astor Observer editor, and Lord Longford. I feel the answer to this question will always be yes; she was bored looking for adventure, looking for danger something way beyond the confines of Gorton, Manchester and it's mundane routine existence. She was a keen and willing partner in the psychotic ramblings and cruel sexual games and actions performed on her by Brady and so when he suggested his ultimate fantasy of capturing and killing a child she readily agreed and not only helped this happen but eagerly participated in the many horror killings that were to follow. The true story of what occurred was discovered on a tape in a left luggage bag at Manchester Central Station through the anguished and distressed cry from one frightened little girl Lesley Anne Downey who just wanted to see her mummy.
For anyone interested in the Moors Murders and trying to understand the reasoning behind the senseless torturous killing of innocent children this book is essential reading. It is informative, well researched and gives a clear and incisive insight into the minds of two of the 20th century's most hated murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
August 13, 2017
A true crime book focused on Myra Hindley. The author tries to delve into her mind and find out how she felt about the murders committed by Ian Brady and herself and to what extent her involvement in the murders went.
Plenty of detail and well researched, this book chronicles her entire life, her relationship with Brady, the investigation and convictions and her time in prison.
This is my first book about the Moors murders so I can't comment on comparisons but as for filling in the details on what happened and giving a bit of an insight into Myra's mindset then I thought this was successful and worth reading.
Plenty of detail and well researched, this book chronicles her entire life, her relationship with Brady, the investigation and convictions and her time in prison.
This is my first book about the Moors murders so I can't comment on comparisons but as for filling in the details on what happened and giving a bit of an insight into Myra's mindset then I thought this was successful and worth reading.
December 1, 2012
Myra Hindley was probably the most reviled criminal from the twentieth century and definitely the most reviled female killer. What emerges from this very well written and researched account of her life is a much more complex person than might be expected from a knowledge of the facts of the case. Was she the instigator of the murders or was she Ian Brady’s dupe? The reader will not find the answer in this book though it provides information which may help people to make up their own minds.
Myra had a reasonably stable and loving childhood though she was bored at school and played truant a great deal of the time. She met Ian Brady at work when she did his typing for him. She was immediately fascinated by him and soon became obsessed. Eventually they moved in together. They seem to have been well suited in many ways as both were rebels though both managed to hold down their jobs while using their leisure hours to inform themselves about the wilder aspects of sex and violence. The works of the Marquis de Sade were regular reading.
When theory spilled over into real life with the murder of teenager Pauline Read both Hindley and Brady found themselves outside the social norms. How closely was Hindley involved? Only she and Brady know and Hindley is dead. It is clear that she was used as a means of ensuring the children lured to a violent death were not suspicious of the two people who offered them a lift. If they had been more streetwise children would they have perhaps refused the lift in spite of the presence of a woman? We will never know. Both Brady and Hindley provided conflicting accounts of whether Hindley physically attacked the victims.
What struck me while I was reading the book was how good Hindley was with children in day to day life and how much children trusted her. This fact provides a stark contrast with the murders. I was surprised with how intelligent Myra Hindley actually was and how she was always studying while she was in prison. Clearly Ian Brady was also intelligent and knowledgeable. To me there is such a huge waste of potential – not just in relation to the victims whose lives were cut short – but also in relation to the killers themselves. Could things have been different if they had not turned to murder as a way of acting out their rebellion?
Hindley could, in theory, have severed ties with Brady after the first murder but she seems to have been totally under his spell and unable to break away from his malign influence though there is some evidence that she was also excited and almost proud of the murders and the way the crimes put the two of them outside society. David Smith – Hindley’s brother-in-law – by going to the police immediately after the murder of Edward Evans, showed how it could be done. Yet Hindley did not take the same course of action following the murder of Pauline Read. Do we believe she was controlled by Brady? Was she in fact controlled by her own perverted needs? I found my opinion on that varied almost from page to page.
There is much food for thought in this book – not just about Myra Hindley. I was intrigued by the way the press reported the crimes and later anything at all relating to Hindley. Some of it was quite frankly disgusting and unpleasant and far from being justified by the horror of the crimes themselves. There have been other serial killers with more victims and yet the Moors Murders still attract probably the most vitriol from all quarters. This book raises some interesting questions about the reactions and behaviour of many members of the public including those who continue to harass and attack those who are related to or in any way connected to the murderers.
Maybe one day it will be possible to look at the cases in a more objective fashion though I think that day will be a long time coming. In the meantime this book does seek to provide an insight into the mind of a murderer and does it very well in my opinion. The book is provided with notes on the sources used and a bibliography which gives the reader with further information to explore.
Myra had a reasonably stable and loving childhood though she was bored at school and played truant a great deal of the time. She met Ian Brady at work when she did his typing for him. She was immediately fascinated by him and soon became obsessed. Eventually they moved in together. They seem to have been well suited in many ways as both were rebels though both managed to hold down their jobs while using their leisure hours to inform themselves about the wilder aspects of sex and violence. The works of the Marquis de Sade were regular reading.
When theory spilled over into real life with the murder of teenager Pauline Read both Hindley and Brady found themselves outside the social norms. How closely was Hindley involved? Only she and Brady know and Hindley is dead. It is clear that she was used as a means of ensuring the children lured to a violent death were not suspicious of the two people who offered them a lift. If they had been more streetwise children would they have perhaps refused the lift in spite of the presence of a woman? We will never know. Both Brady and Hindley provided conflicting accounts of whether Hindley physically attacked the victims.
What struck me while I was reading the book was how good Hindley was with children in day to day life and how much children trusted her. This fact provides a stark contrast with the murders. I was surprised with how intelligent Myra Hindley actually was and how she was always studying while she was in prison. Clearly Ian Brady was also intelligent and knowledgeable. To me there is such a huge waste of potential – not just in relation to the victims whose lives were cut short – but also in relation to the killers themselves. Could things have been different if they had not turned to murder as a way of acting out their rebellion?
Hindley could, in theory, have severed ties with Brady after the first murder but she seems to have been totally under his spell and unable to break away from his malign influence though there is some evidence that she was also excited and almost proud of the murders and the way the crimes put the two of them outside society. David Smith – Hindley’s brother-in-law – by going to the police immediately after the murder of Edward Evans, showed how it could be done. Yet Hindley did not take the same course of action following the murder of Pauline Read. Do we believe she was controlled by Brady? Was she in fact controlled by her own perverted needs? I found my opinion on that varied almost from page to page.
There is much food for thought in this book – not just about Myra Hindley. I was intrigued by the way the press reported the crimes and later anything at all relating to Hindley. Some of it was quite frankly disgusting and unpleasant and far from being justified by the horror of the crimes themselves. There have been other serial killers with more victims and yet the Moors Murders still attract probably the most vitriol from all quarters. This book raises some interesting questions about the reactions and behaviour of many members of the public including those who continue to harass and attack those who are related to or in any way connected to the murderers.
Maybe one day it will be possible to look at the cases in a more objective fashion though I think that day will be a long time coming. In the meantime this book does seek to provide an insight into the mind of a murderer and does it very well in my opinion. The book is provided with notes on the sources used and a bibliography which gives the reader with further information to explore.
February 27, 2013
Finally finished it this morning. Not a quick read because I kept on flipping to the links and I mostly only read in bed which means only in the evening.
For the first time I think I am going to point to someone else's review. I think she said it all.
Anastasia's Review. Feel free to like ;)
I do want to say that I was so annoyed by those rich goodie 2 shoes who were always supporting Myra, financially and mentally but did not have any feelings or care for the victims families. (Just like Myra didn't)
The first book I'd read about the Moors Murders was Beyond belief by Emlyn Williams. (I think I gave that book a 5. no a 4) so the impact to this book was not as huge as it was to the linked reviewer. I would give this book 4 stars.
My Review of Beyond Belief
Weird way of punishing system and giving Jail Time in UK and The Netherlands
Thinking about it my opinion is that who ever sets to purposely murder a child,as an adult, should be punished with life in prison. No talk about early releases or giving someone life which is not life at all!
(Meaning only 21 years but that is considered still way too much and the prisoners only have to sit out 1/3rd of the time of their punishment. It is the same here in the Netherlands. Why? Why give them a punishment but that the rule,system is to only have one third of that having to be in jail. So instead of 30 years, just tell us they only got 10 years.
Oh this makes me so angry. I would love to know what the reasons is for that weird decisions in various countries.
ETA: I checked Wikipedia. Here in The Netherlands live is really live. Aha so that is why nobody hardly is been given this punishment.
Also if you have a jail time of more than 2 years you have to sit in jail for at least 2/3rd of that time.(so not 1/3)
The problem is more that if you murder someone you only get 9 years (max) and they will be free in 6 years! (if not sooner)
(Sorry for my English. Today I couldn't find the correct English words> Guess I need more coffee)
For the first time I think I am going to point to someone else's review. I think she said it all.
Anastasia's Review. Feel free to like ;)
I do want to say that I was so annoyed by those rich goodie 2 shoes who were always supporting Myra, financially and mentally but did not have any feelings or care for the victims families. (Just like Myra didn't)
The first book I'd read about the Moors Murders was Beyond belief by Emlyn Williams. (I think I gave that book a 5. no a 4) so the impact to this book was not as huge as it was to the linked reviewer. I would give this book 4 stars.
My Review of Beyond Belief
Weird way of punishing system and giving Jail Time in UK and The Netherlands
Thinking about it my opinion is that who ever sets to purposely murder a child,as an adult, should be punished with life in prison. No talk about early releases or giving someone life which is not life at all!
(Meaning only 21 years but that is considered still way too much and the prisoners only have to sit out 1/3rd of the time of their punishment. It is the same here in the Netherlands. Why? Why give them a punishment but that the rule,system is to only have one third of that having to be in jail. So instead of 30 years, just tell us they only got 10 years.
Oh this makes me so angry. I would love to know what the reasons is for that weird decisions in various countries.
ETA: I checked Wikipedia. Here in The Netherlands live is really live. Aha so that is why nobody hardly is been given this punishment.
Also if you have a jail time of more than 2 years you have to sit in jail for at least 2/3rd of that time.(so not 1/3)
The problem is more that if you murder someone you only get 9 years (max) and they will be free in 6 years! (if not sooner)
(Sorry for my English. Today I couldn't find the correct English words> Guess I need more coffee)
June 12, 2011
'One Of Your Own:The Life and Death of Myra Hindley' I can well recommend to those who read the true crime genre. To quote one of the book sleeve critics, Carol Ann Lee's work is "as good a biography of Hindley as we're likely to get." Sunday Times. I would concur.
Lee's book attempts an in depth study to attain answers to the questions of the hows and whys of the murderesses psychotic spree with partner in crime Ian Brady through the streets of Manchester in the early 1960's. The author also investigates Hindley's behind bars pronouncements that she had changed, felt remorse and had found God. Were these statements genuine or merely manipulative attempts to win parole? I'm not sure these questions were answered...perhaps more posed.
I felt that this biog was well written, but for me the only fresh insights from the purported extensive new research covered Hindleys final fifteen years of incarceration up to her death in 2002. There was nothing new concerning the crimes that hasn't been covered before, in for instance 'Brady and Hindley-Genesis of the Moors Murders' by Fred Harrison published 1986. I did learn that after her cremation the ashes were scattered just a stones throw from where I live, from where the dust could have blown into my garden and onto Saddleworth Moor itself.
Lee's book attempts an in depth study to attain answers to the questions of the hows and whys of the murderesses psychotic spree with partner in crime Ian Brady through the streets of Manchester in the early 1960's. The author also investigates Hindley's behind bars pronouncements that she had changed, felt remorse and had found God. Were these statements genuine or merely manipulative attempts to win parole? I'm not sure these questions were answered...perhaps more posed.
I felt that this biog was well written, but for me the only fresh insights from the purported extensive new research covered Hindleys final fifteen years of incarceration up to her death in 2002. There was nothing new concerning the crimes that hasn't been covered before, in for instance 'Brady and Hindley-Genesis of the Moors Murders' by Fred Harrison published 1986. I did learn that after her cremation the ashes were scattered just a stones throw from where I live, from where the dust could have blown into my garden and onto Saddleworth Moor itself.
August 18, 2021
I found this VERY interesting. This gave me so much information into the life, crimes and death of Myra Hindley. I listened to the audiobook and it felt like a very well-informed, and engaging true crime story.
January 16, 2019
Years after her death, and many years after the crimes that catapulted her to the heights of infamy, Myra Hindley continues to haunt us. Who was she, really? To what extent did she participate in the Moors Murders? And above all, why?
To anyone who is interested in finding out the truth, One of Your Own is about as good a place to look as any. Well-researched and impartial, it attempts to recover something of the person behind the figurehead of female notoriety. Great attention is paid to Hindley's childhood, which was rough but not exceptional by the standards of working-class Manchester in the 1940s and '50s, and to the strange dynamic of her relationship with Ian Brady. The murders themselves are covered in detail, and may be distressing to some readers.
We'll probably never know the exact truth behind the murders; Hindley's account of her involvement and Brady's are often at odds, and neither of them were reliable. Everyone seems to agree that Hindley played a secondary role, but it's not plausible to argue – as Hindley and her supporters frequently did – that she was bullied and threatened into compliance. In all likelihood, no one will ever know quite why she behaved as she did.
Hindley wasn't worse than Brady, but he has never attracted quite the same level of loathing. I've a theory that Brady – who is certainly psychopathic – is easily categorised and dismissed. He's either mad or bad, depending on whether you believe in God or Freud; he is, at any rate, not normal, and therefore not like the rest of us. Hindley was different, more complicated. The woman who participated in the abduction and murder of children was also the cheery, reliable teenager who was much in demand as a babysitter; the scowling peroxide blonde of that infamous police mug shot was also the smiling brunette who studied the Humanities, cuddled animals, and was apparently genuinely loved by some of her circle.
Hindley once said that if she'd never met Brady she'd have lived an entirely normal life. And perhaps – and this is a sinister thought – she was, in essence, "normal", but with a frighteningly dark side that only required the right circumstances to make itself known. Like the concentration camp guards who went home, kissed their wives and played with their children, she raises serious, urgent questions about human nature itself.
I'll leave the final word to Lee herself: "'She had no judgement,' one obituary in The Independent read. But judgement was precisely what Myra Hindley had – in a sense, it is all any of us have – and she chose to use it with the most wicked of intent."
To anyone who is interested in finding out the truth, One of Your Own is about as good a place to look as any. Well-researched and impartial, it attempts to recover something of the person behind the figurehead of female notoriety. Great attention is paid to Hindley's childhood, which was rough but not exceptional by the standards of working-class Manchester in the 1940s and '50s, and to the strange dynamic of her relationship with Ian Brady. The murders themselves are covered in detail, and may be distressing to some readers.
We'll probably never know the exact truth behind the murders; Hindley's account of her involvement and Brady's are often at odds, and neither of them were reliable. Everyone seems to agree that Hindley played a secondary role, but it's not plausible to argue – as Hindley and her supporters frequently did – that she was bullied and threatened into compliance. In all likelihood, no one will ever know quite why she behaved as she did.
Hindley wasn't worse than Brady, but he has never attracted quite the same level of loathing. I've a theory that Brady – who is certainly psychopathic – is easily categorised and dismissed. He's either mad or bad, depending on whether you believe in God or Freud; he is, at any rate, not normal, and therefore not like the rest of us. Hindley was different, more complicated. The woman who participated in the abduction and murder of children was also the cheery, reliable teenager who was much in demand as a babysitter; the scowling peroxide blonde of that infamous police mug shot was also the smiling brunette who studied the Humanities, cuddled animals, and was apparently genuinely loved by some of her circle.
Hindley once said that if she'd never met Brady she'd have lived an entirely normal life. And perhaps – and this is a sinister thought – she was, in essence, "normal", but with a frighteningly dark side that only required the right circumstances to make itself known. Like the concentration camp guards who went home, kissed their wives and played with their children, she raises serious, urgent questions about human nature itself.
I'll leave the final word to Lee herself: "'She had no judgement,' one obituary in The Independent read. But judgement was precisely what Myra Hindley had – in a sense, it is all any of us have – and she chose to use it with the most wicked of intent."
April 10, 2015
This book was one of the most difficult I've ever read. To try and understand the life and actions of Myra Hindley was something I didn't take on lightly. I knew it would not be an easy read.
From her humble traditions in working class Manchester Hindley became notorious for her part in the Moors Murders. The author reconstructs Hindley's whole life, from birth to death, and the destruction that was left in her wake.
Detailing the relationship with Ian Brady, the words become more and more difficult to comprehend. How this woman could willingly be part of such heinous crimes just leaves one baffled. The author pulls no punches, neither sanitising or glamourising the crimes. The brutally cruel treatment of the five children is laid bare, horrifying in all the detail.
Hindley is without doubt a master manipulator. While Brady may be psychotic, Hindley's cold sociopathic nature cannot be ignored. Despite over 35 years in jail Hindley still minimised the pain and destruction that she meted out on the families of the children who were so horrifically slaughtered.
This is an intriguing, but extremely uncomfortable read. It has certainly educated me about the woman Myra Hindley was, but I feel no satisfaction in knowing what motivated her to embrace the life she did.
From her humble traditions in working class Manchester Hindley became notorious for her part in the Moors Murders. The author reconstructs Hindley's whole life, from birth to death, and the destruction that was left in her wake.
Detailing the relationship with Ian Brady, the words become more and more difficult to comprehend. How this woman could willingly be part of such heinous crimes just leaves one baffled. The author pulls no punches, neither sanitising or glamourising the crimes. The brutally cruel treatment of the five children is laid bare, horrifying in all the detail.
Hindley is without doubt a master manipulator. While Brady may be psychotic, Hindley's cold sociopathic nature cannot be ignored. Despite over 35 years in jail Hindley still minimised the pain and destruction that she meted out on the families of the children who were so horrifically slaughtered.
This is an intriguing, but extremely uncomfortable read. It has certainly educated me about the woman Myra Hindley was, but I feel no satisfaction in knowing what motivated her to embrace the life she did.
November 15, 2018
Gripping, beautifully written and a book that makes you think. Respectful to the family of the victims and to Hindley's family. Well worth a read.
Update.... Thought I'd reread this in light of Ian Brady's death this week.
Update.... Thought I'd reread this in light of Ian Brady's death this week.
March 25, 2025
This book had me hooked, but it also had my stomach churning. How does the author sleep at night with these stories she throws herself into?!
We’ve all seen the infamous mug shot of Myra Hindley somewhere, and whether we know the name of the woman or the context, we all instinctively know it is a photo associated with evil.
When Hindley met Ian Brady at work no one knew what was to come. In the first part of this book Carol Ann Lee pulls apart their lives, starting from their childhood, their behaviours before they met, how they treated each other and influenced each other during their relationship, and explained to the best of her ability, through extremely thorough research, how these two young people ended up kidnapping, torturing and murdering children.
The second part of the book is after the infamous mug shot was taken. Lee looks into Hindley’s behaviour and attitude in jail, along with her fight for ‘freedom’ and the people who worked with her and supported her until the end believing she was a changed woman. The most interesting question raised was if Hindley would have done any of this if she hadn’t met Brady. Or if she would have happily and innocently lived her life having children of her own. My impression was that even though she was heavily influenced and manipulated by Brady, Hindley too was a manipulative person, so it’s not really a question I can come to terms with as I believe people like this will always find their own way to power over others (just maybe not on such a horrific level).
Another heavily well researched and well written novel by Lee! Onto the next one….
We’ve all seen the infamous mug shot of Myra Hindley somewhere, and whether we know the name of the woman or the context, we all instinctively know it is a photo associated with evil.
When Hindley met Ian Brady at work no one knew what was to come. In the first part of this book Carol Ann Lee pulls apart their lives, starting from their childhood, their behaviours before they met, how they treated each other and influenced each other during their relationship, and explained to the best of her ability, through extremely thorough research, how these two young people ended up kidnapping, torturing and murdering children.
The second part of the book is after the infamous mug shot was taken. Lee looks into Hindley’s behaviour and attitude in jail, along with her fight for ‘freedom’ and the people who worked with her and supported her until the end believing she was a changed woman. The most interesting question raised was if Hindley would have done any of this if she hadn’t met Brady. Or if she would have happily and innocently lived her life having children of her own. My impression was that even though she was heavily influenced and manipulated by Brady, Hindley too was a manipulative person, so it’s not really a question I can come to terms with as I believe people like this will always find their own way to power over others (just maybe not on such a horrific level).
Another heavily well researched and well written novel by Lee! Onto the next one….
November 10, 2011
I don't know if enjoy is the politically correct way of describing this book but there you have it. I did-it was interesting. I've read lots of books about the Moors Murderers (though she had a very warped sense of humour and wrote to Ian Brady that they'd "murdered no moors") but none written after Myra died in 2002.
She managed to attract a fair amount of influential people to assist her in her cause to earn freedom but strangely almost all were elderly men that seemed in thrall to her which does make you wonder how much SHE was supposedly under Brady's spell !!
If you're into true crime as I am then it's a must-read. I still find it so terribly sad that one of the kids they killed is still out there somewhere. I'd prefer our country spent some money on getting out there and bringing him home than passing on billions to the third world.............his family have waited 45 years to bury him properly, and the pinpointed area is hardly the size of the Gobi Desert..........so that angers me and goodness knows how his family feel.
No doubt more of the truth will out but as a rule they don't release criminal records for 99 or 100 years so I'll be long gone before they do.
I am well aware what they did was absolutely appalling but as with the Kray twins who were imprisoned around the same year-1966-they HAD to serve life. Myra had served 36 years upon her death and Brady has served 45 as of now. I don't think it's right. Plenty of killers get the right to apply for parole and even get released !!
Of course feeling over here about her still runs high and for him too but he's never wanted out.
If you get life as they did then you should serve LIFE but as none ever do they shouldn't be forced to, either. It all needs to be a uniform sentencing law.
They only escaped hanging by a year or two. Better still, they should bring that back, but that's a whole new debate for another day...............
She managed to attract a fair amount of influential people to assist her in her cause to earn freedom but strangely almost all were elderly men that seemed in thrall to her which does make you wonder how much SHE was supposedly under Brady's spell !!
If you're into true crime as I am then it's a must-read. I still find it so terribly sad that one of the kids they killed is still out there somewhere. I'd prefer our country spent some money on getting out there and bringing him home than passing on billions to the third world.............his family have waited 45 years to bury him properly, and the pinpointed area is hardly the size of the Gobi Desert..........so that angers me and goodness knows how his family feel.
No doubt more of the truth will out but as a rule they don't release criminal records for 99 or 100 years so I'll be long gone before they do.
I am well aware what they did was absolutely appalling but as with the Kray twins who were imprisoned around the same year-1966-they HAD to serve life. Myra had served 36 years upon her death and Brady has served 45 as of now. I don't think it's right. Plenty of killers get the right to apply for parole and even get released !!
Of course feeling over here about her still runs high and for him too but he's never wanted out.
If you get life as they did then you should serve LIFE but as none ever do they shouldn't be forced to, either. It all needs to be a uniform sentencing law.
They only escaped hanging by a year or two. Better still, they should bring that back, but that's a whole new debate for another day...............
September 17, 2022
I found this book really difficult to rate, and think this review will be equally as difficult to write, but here goes.
This is a very well researched book, with an abundance of quotes, from people who knew Hindley or were involved in the police investigations, and excerpts from the criminal proceedings and media at the time. It gives, in my view, a very unbiased account of events.
My only criticism of the book itself would be that it includes a transcript from the tape of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey, which I felt was a bit much (although I appreciate it emphasised the brutality of what happened, I could have understood that without hearing word for word the pleading of a little girl being tortured).
I listened to this one on audible, which is maybe where my above criticism stems from.
With the delivery of the narration on audible, my only criticism would be the narrators accents used throughout when quoting anyone and everyone.
I got, understandably, angry while listening to this. Angry at how manipulative and cruel Hindley was, not only in relation to committing the murders, but while she was in prison gaining the trust of lords and priests and prison officers, and how dismissive she was of the emotional reactions of her victims families, particularly towards her consistent attempts at parole, and her refusal to confirm where Keith Bennett was buried.
Although, I’m not sure my anger stemmed from the quality of the writing as much as it did from the detail of the research into the events that took place.
I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
This is a very well researched book, with an abundance of quotes, from people who knew Hindley or were involved in the police investigations, and excerpts from the criminal proceedings and media at the time. It gives, in my view, a very unbiased account of events.
My only criticism of the book itself would be that it includes a transcript from the tape of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey, which I felt was a bit much (although I appreciate it emphasised the brutality of what happened, I could have understood that without hearing word for word the pleading of a little girl being tortured).
I listened to this one on audible, which is maybe where my above criticism stems from.
With the delivery of the narration on audible, my only criticism would be the narrators accents used throughout when quoting anyone and everyone.
I got, understandably, angry while listening to this. Angry at how manipulative and cruel Hindley was, not only in relation to committing the murders, but while she was in prison gaining the trust of lords and priests and prison officers, and how dismissive she was of the emotional reactions of her victims families, particularly towards her consistent attempts at parole, and her refusal to confirm where Keith Bennett was buried.
Although, I’m not sure my anger stemmed from the quality of the writing as much as it did from the detail of the research into the events that took place.
I’m not sure I’d recommend it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2018
Listened to in audio format.
I was born in the seventies long after Myra Hindley and Ian Brady had been sent to prison. However I grew up reading the tabloid articles about Myra Hindley and her regular bids to be released on parole. I remember the infamous picture of Myra as a peroxide blond but I also remember one taken as a middle aged, tanned brunette. I went past the Yorkshire Moors last Christmas on a coach trip and years later it felt evil.
I bought One of your Own because I had never read how Brady and Hindley had been caught or their trial.
One of your Own was meticulously researched by Carol Ann Lee. The book was split into four parts her childhood, meeting Ian Brady, the murders, and finally the trial and her subsequent years in various prisons. The book also contained excerpts of interviews with the victims families and police.
This was a difficult listen at times. When the narrator read the transcript of the Lesley Ann Downey recording, I completely understood why she had been reviled by the public until her death.
Now that Hindley and Brady are dead this was definitely a story worth telling. Especially for the family of Keith Bennett whose brother is still searching for his body.
I will definitely listen to this book again - five stars.
I was born in the seventies long after Myra Hindley and Ian Brady had been sent to prison. However I grew up reading the tabloid articles about Myra Hindley and her regular bids to be released on parole. I remember the infamous picture of Myra as a peroxide blond but I also remember one taken as a middle aged, tanned brunette. I went past the Yorkshire Moors last Christmas on a coach trip and years later it felt evil.
I bought One of your Own because I had never read how Brady and Hindley had been caught or their trial.
One of your Own was meticulously researched by Carol Ann Lee. The book was split into four parts her childhood, meeting Ian Brady, the murders, and finally the trial and her subsequent years in various prisons. The book also contained excerpts of interviews with the victims families and police.
This was a difficult listen at times. When the narrator read the transcript of the Lesley Ann Downey recording, I completely understood why she had been reviled by the public until her death.
Now that Hindley and Brady are dead this was definitely a story worth telling. Especially for the family of Keith Bennett whose brother is still searching for his body.
I will definitely listen to this book again - five stars.
October 11, 2013
One of the more accurate factual narratives of the Moors Murderers, this book follows Myra Hindley's life from childhood through the notorious events of her young adulthood and on throughout her subsequent life in prison. At every step Hindley's catastrophic personality flaws are exposed - her complete and utter selfishness, her stubbornness and vindictiveness, her ceaseless need to manipulate. I know of at least one more prison visitor, alongside the several mentioned in this book, who was won over by Hindley to the extent of offering her a place to live in her house were she to be released. How could this be? How did so many people come to be captivated by her? And how did such a control freak come to be dominated by her partner Ian Brady - if that's indeed what actually happened? Many of the answers can be found in this book. It's not quite the book it might have been: there's a slightly clunky feel to some of the writing, especially those passages intended to add colour to the narrative by describing social trends or establishing mood. But overall it's a sober and decent attempt to lay out and make sense of the facts of the matter, which is to be welcomed.
February 20, 2019
A fascinating glimpse into the mind of a sadistic manipulatrix. I wasn't born when Brady and Hindley embarked on their murder spree. However, the news media were full of stories about them over the years, so it was impossible not to learn about them.
The author's style is clear and concise, staying well clear of lurid sensationalism and sticking to the facts as far as possible. When there is conjecture, it's done in a reasoned and balanced way.
My only criticism is that I would have liked more details about the trial itself. I can understand why it wasn't reported fully, no doubt out of respect to the victims' families.
Not any easy read by any means. Delving into Myra's mind affected my mood and reminded me of my own tenuous connection with her. In the late 80s, I attended college in the Medway area, not too far from Cookham Wood prison where Myra was incarcerated at the time. Also, one of my closest friends at that college happened to be the daughter of the prison Governor at that time. (He is not mentioned in the book. The only reference to the Governor was to his successor in the 90s).
The author's style is clear and concise, staying well clear of lurid sensationalism and sticking to the facts as far as possible. When there is conjecture, it's done in a reasoned and balanced way.
My only criticism is that I would have liked more details about the trial itself. I can understand why it wasn't reported fully, no doubt out of respect to the victims' families.
Not any easy read by any means. Delving into Myra's mind affected my mood and reminded me of my own tenuous connection with her. In the late 80s, I attended college in the Medway area, not too far from Cookham Wood prison where Myra was incarcerated at the time. Also, one of my closest friends at that college happened to be the daughter of the prison Governor at that time. (He is not mentioned in the book. The only reference to the Governor was to his successor in the 90s).
September 7, 2012
One Of Your Own is a very grim yet very compelling biography of one of the most reviled figures in modern British history - Myra Hindley, who along with her then lover Ian Brady committed the dreadful Moors Murders of the mid-1960s.
Thanks to extensive research, Carol Ann Lee presents a very thorough and vivid account of who Hindley was, the world she came from and why she did what she did. A few times, Lee stumbles with purple-sounding prose - but most of the time, her command of material is very powerful.
There were a few pages of One Of Your Own that I had to skip over, but that's no fault of Lee. Those few pages contained the transcript of the dreadful recording that Brady and Hindley made of one of their young victims pleading for their life. That recording was major evidence that in 1966 helped to send Brady and Hindley to prison, where Hindley remained until her death in late 2002 (and where Brady still remains).
One Of Your Own is one of the most stunning true-crime books I've read this year.
Thanks to extensive research, Carol Ann Lee presents a very thorough and vivid account of who Hindley was, the world she came from and why she did what she did. A few times, Lee stumbles with purple-sounding prose - but most of the time, her command of material is very powerful.
There were a few pages of One Of Your Own that I had to skip over, but that's no fault of Lee. Those few pages contained the transcript of the dreadful recording that Brady and Hindley made of one of their young victims pleading for their life. That recording was major evidence that in 1966 helped to send Brady and Hindley to prison, where Hindley remained until her death in late 2002 (and where Brady still remains).
One Of Your Own is one of the most stunning true-crime books I've read this year.
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March 28, 2019Many readers have described this book as something they read quite quickly. I on the other hand found it took me a long time to read. It was quite harrowing. Like other literature I've read on this subject, I found in parts, it almost easy to be fooled or manipulated by Hindley and forget just how dramatic a role she played in the murders. I'm sure I won't be the first person to admit that on occasion I found myself feeling sorry for her and then quickly having to remind myself who this woman was and why she was so infamous.
This book overall is a very comprehensive, yet objective assessment of the Moors Murders. It is focused from Myra's point of view however also encompasses details about Brady. It is referenced throughout to various other sources and it is clear that the author has gone into painstaking detail to pull all available information on the subject together.
This is a brilliant read for someone who wants to know more than just the media hype.
This book overall is a very comprehensive, yet objective assessment of the Moors Murders. It is focused from Myra's point of view however also encompasses details about Brady. It is referenced throughout to various other sources and it is clear that the author has gone into painstaking detail to pull all available information on the subject together.
This is a brilliant read for someone who wants to know more than just the media hype.
August 16, 2010
This is not a comfortable read at all but having grown up through the 1980's and reading the sensationalist headlines almost every other day, I wanted to read an account of what actually happened, the testimonies of the families and to attempt to fathom why someone could do this. Also I wanted to understand whether it was possible for a woman like this to change or whether her campaign to be released and her self-proclaimed was simply a managed, cynical PR campaign. After reading the book, I felt it was the latter. What comes across is her lack of sympathy for the victim's families, they were someone to be suffered, to complain about, to accuse of not moving on! This is a well rearched book and probably the best account of the Moors murders. It is also pleasing to see that the families have had the opportunity to give their account and how this changed their lives.
September 18, 2012
This is excellent and probably the best book on the subject. The background to her childhood, her time with Brady, their separation (mentally as well as physically) and attempt at release are well-handled and without an underlying judgment.
Hindley's defence that she was merely caught in Brady's psychotic aura is quite believable but there's the odd off-hand comment that shows her for what she was - her treatment of Ann West and Winnie Johnston in particular as they opposed every plea for parole as well as the ghoulish coded letters to Brady before they 'separated'.
Hindley talks about everything but the murders. There's also references to Brady raping her and threatening her with murder. I didn't buy any of that at all and happily nor did anyone else.
Hindley's defence that she was merely caught in Brady's psychotic aura is quite believable but there's the odd off-hand comment that shows her for what she was - her treatment of Ann West and Winnie Johnston in particular as they opposed every plea for parole as well as the ghoulish coded letters to Brady before they 'separated'.
Hindley talks about everything but the murders. There's also references to Brady raping her and threatening her with murder. I didn't buy any of that at all and happily nor did anyone else.
January 12, 2014
This is an excellent book about a really horrible person. The author Carol Ann Lee manages to tell the complete story of Myra Hindley (complete as much as we will probably ever know anyway) without any sensationalism and bias. I was prepared for a really hard and harrowing read but in fact it was quite the opposite because it was incredibly well written and fascinating. There is no point me going into the whole history because most everyone knows of the appalling Moors Murders and the two people involved but if you are going to read a book about it, then I would suggest this is the one to read. I hesitated at first to rate this 5 stars as it seems a bit odd to rate a book so highly when it's not a book you can "enjoy" but it deserves it.
April 14, 2024
3 and a half cause no hate to the writing BUT oh my god I thought this was never gonna end. It was very well written but I do not think that much detail was necessary for the murders. I had to put this down multiple times and felt sick for the first 50% at least.
They should also do some serious psychoanalysis of the people that become friends with people like this and them out of prison ??? Devote their life to it ??? Like what ???
They should also do some serious psychoanalysis of the people that become friends with people like this and them out of prison ??? Devote their life to it ??? Like what ???
April 5, 2014
A well written and researched book, but my God it makes grim reading. Hard to fathom how people can be so evil ... even harder to understand why people would campaign for her freedom !!
Worth a read, but not for the faint hearted.
Worth a read, but not for the faint hearted.
September 2, 2021
I could have given this book five stars.
I could have also given it one. I’ve settled for four, but I’m a bit uncomfortable with that rating for reasons I’ll get into later.
This is currently included as a free book for audible subscribers, and I was out of credits, so I thought “why not give it a go, I probably won’t finish it”. I did finish it-within a few days.
Carol Ann Lee is an exemplary writer, who never turned Myra into an antihero, nor did she fall into the tabloid trap of using words like “evil” or “she-devil”. She simply told the story of Myra Hindley, from an unbiased and neutral position. Only the prologue and epilogue provide any insight into the authors own interpretation. What kind of person Myra was, is up to us.
What Lee does do, is shed some light on why Myra is such a huge cultural figure. She did unthinkable things yes, but her name is so much more famous than Ian Brady’s, who by all accounts, was the instigator of the murders. Why is her mug shot one of the most iconic (I say that word, not to glorify, but to highlight how famous it is) profiles of the 20th century? Its almost like a grim negative of an Andy Warhol portrait. Why did the name "Myra", which was very popular in the 60s, fall out of favor, and to this day, is still considered distasteful? The name Ian remains popular. The name Rose does not carry the taint of Rose West. The name Jeffrey did not fade after the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. But the name Myra is still cursed. Only the name Adolf seems to carry more weight.
Is it because she is a woman that we find her crimes more shocking? Does that mean then, that Myra, who did such terrible things, was a victim of a twisted form of societal misogyny?
It’s a fascinating debate, and the book delves deep.
So, the reason I can’t award it five stars.
The book includes a transcript of a tape recording of the torture of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey.
This would be rough enough to read as text, but I listened to the audio book. At some stage in its production, a conversation must have been had; Do we read this transcript out dry, or like most of the book, do we have the narrator, the very talented Maggie Walsh, to re-enact it. For some reason, they felt it was appropriate to do the later. Its awful. Its horrific, and so unnecessary. I couldn’t sleep that night, and it still sits in my stomach when I think of it.
I strongly feel this was gratuitous, and a straight reading of the tape would have been more suitable. At the very least, there should have been a content warning before hand.
I nearly stopped listening at that point, but I skipped past this part, and thankfully, the rest of the book moves more towards the police work, and the relationships Myra had throughout her life and incarceration.
If you find this case interesting, I would say it is a must-read, but beware of that transcript.
I could have also given it one. I’ve settled for four, but I’m a bit uncomfortable with that rating for reasons I’ll get into later.
This is currently included as a free book for audible subscribers, and I was out of credits, so I thought “why not give it a go, I probably won’t finish it”. I did finish it-within a few days.
Carol Ann Lee is an exemplary writer, who never turned Myra into an antihero, nor did she fall into the tabloid trap of using words like “evil” or “she-devil”. She simply told the story of Myra Hindley, from an unbiased and neutral position. Only the prologue and epilogue provide any insight into the authors own interpretation. What kind of person Myra was, is up to us.
What Lee does do, is shed some light on why Myra is such a huge cultural figure. She did unthinkable things yes, but her name is so much more famous than Ian Brady’s, who by all accounts, was the instigator of the murders. Why is her mug shot one of the most iconic (I say that word, not to glorify, but to highlight how famous it is) profiles of the 20th century? Its almost like a grim negative of an Andy Warhol portrait. Why did the name "Myra", which was very popular in the 60s, fall out of favor, and to this day, is still considered distasteful? The name Ian remains popular. The name Rose does not carry the taint of Rose West. The name Jeffrey did not fade after the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. But the name Myra is still cursed. Only the name Adolf seems to carry more weight.
Is it because she is a woman that we find her crimes more shocking? Does that mean then, that Myra, who did such terrible things, was a victim of a twisted form of societal misogyny?
It’s a fascinating debate, and the book delves deep.
So, the reason I can’t award it five stars.
The book includes a transcript of a tape recording of the torture of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey.
This would be rough enough to read as text, but I listened to the audio book. At some stage in its production, a conversation must have been had; Do we read this transcript out dry, or like most of the book, do we have the narrator, the very talented Maggie Walsh, to re-enact it. For some reason, they felt it was appropriate to do the later. Its awful. Its horrific, and so unnecessary. I couldn’t sleep that night, and it still sits in my stomach when I think of it.
I strongly feel this was gratuitous, and a straight reading of the tape would have been more suitable. At the very least, there should have been a content warning before hand.
I nearly stopped listening at that point, but I skipped past this part, and thankfully, the rest of the book moves more towards the police work, and the relationships Myra had throughout her life and incarceration.
If you find this case interesting, I would say it is a must-read, but beware of that transcript.
September 23, 2021
This was an extremely well researched and sensitive account of the life of Moors murderer Myra Hindley. I knew next to nothing about the Moors murders before reading this, other than some vague ideas of what they had done. I have to say I found this book harrowing, and I have read a lot of other true crime books. The sheer cruelty of what they did beggars belief. What was particularly difficult to listen to was the transcription of the recording of Lesley Anne Downey's last words, captured on tape before she was murdered. I had heard before how the recording of this brought the courtroom to tears and I can understand why.
There's a lot else to ponder here - how far Hindley was an unwilling accomplice, how far she lied about her own involvement. I guess it will never be clear now.
It's difficult to feel sympathy for Hindley, but there's no doubt that she was treated like a modern day witch, and the author here explores that angle extensively. One wonders whether a man in her position would've spent as long in prison.
Not an enjoyable read - by the end I began to wish it was over, not because of boredom but just because it's so bleak - but its an excellent account of Hindley's brutal, sad, opaque life.
There's a lot else to ponder here - how far Hindley was an unwilling accomplice, how far she lied about her own involvement. I guess it will never be clear now.
It's difficult to feel sympathy for Hindley, but there's no doubt that she was treated like a modern day witch, and the author here explores that angle extensively. One wonders whether a man in her position would've spent as long in prison.
Not an enjoyable read - by the end I began to wish it was over, not because of boredom but just because it's so bleak - but its an excellent account of Hindley's brutal, sad, opaque life.
December 25, 2021
This is an account of the life and death of the notorious Myra Hendley who with her boyfriend Ian Brady carried out a series of murders in Manchester in the 1960’s, and buried the bodies on the moors. Brady had the plan and Hendley helped him carry it out. It was she who lured the children into the vehicles. Back then children were told to beware of strange men but there was no warning against women. When they were caught they got life and indeed though she tried to appeal on many occasions and enlisted the help of several high profile advocates she was unsuccessful and died in prison. She tried to claim that if she had not met and fallen in love with Brady she would have lived an ordinary life. It was an extremely interesting book and personally I did not believe that she was ever under the influence of anyone. She knew exactly what she was doing. In the past year I have listened to a book in which the lecturer first asked his students if they could name some serial killers. He was bombarded with names. He then asked if anyone could name a victim and he was met with silence. I found this to be a very sad reflection on humanity as indeed I could not come up with even 1 name either. This book has highlighted for me the names of the innocents who unfortunately became the targets of these two evil beings. I hope I won’t forget them.
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