The Gates of Janus

by Ian Brady

  But.

  The fact that he’s been moving the details of the crimes he’s been sentenced for so long ago to less and less of his own appeal may be worth considering, especially in light of my own contortion. If it was Myra that strangled Lesley. As Brady slipped. Though she couldn’t have used a cord according to the evidence presented as part of the trial transcripts.

  In a letter to Ann West, Myra told that her that she had been lying about Smith’s involvement with Ann’s daughter. And still felt it necessary to add that Smith was lying about his involvement with Evans. Even if it’s just fantasy. Or jailhouse protection. Or bitter revenge. Coruscating honesty. Unbelievable truth. Mother sopping. Dementia repeating legitimate wishes and rotten reformations. And there’s some deep love and deeper rejection and screaming sacrifice directly in the way of any less compassionate grasp. And prurient, and vicarious, and bent; the atavistic sickness in what Brady and his victims have truly, truthfully, suffered. The graspable exciting cutting ugliness of those smarmy, grandiose details is even more excruciating to miss when buying tragedy. And those bleating on revenge, the justifieds that stormed his police escort and gave interviews, will still be absent their children. The photographs and the history that color in the black-and-white politely cropped lividity are obscene in every sense but legal. Obscenity fantastically arguing against experience once the photographs have been seen.

  And.

  The needling conspiracies he sees behind my inclusion in his book don’t let much room for him thinking past paranoia, sadly, or a bit lazy, mostly obvious and manipulative. I’m not looking for proof of his paranoia to discount what he says. And he doesn’t have to worry about me. I’m named in the book by Tate104, obviously the reason it was included. Perhaps less obvious is that anyone who already knew my work and that particular book would understand that I was drawing a parallel in sensationally incorrect histrionics. As if anonymity was even possible. It confused a couple lawyers and self-important arbiters, Brady among them. Topping was sued for breaching confidentiality, not lying. Mainly Myra’s legal argument. Brady quotes Topping as source in letters. Brady’s record label pal asked to meet me because she was working on a film and wanted me to help her with it. The person who conveyed her introduction request first told me about the book. Met her because I wanted to know about the book, the film, and didn’t want to be impolite. Colin wasn’t shopping the book around much or maybe hadn’t had much luck. I asked Adam to contact him. I give a fuck now.

  Lying throughout his own letter might be an effort to convince the lawyer, to whom the letter was sent to forward, to act against me on his behalf without having to go into details yet. The New York Press’ review is titled “The Gates of Janus, by Ho-Hum Serial Killer Ian Brady,”105 and could be a depressing example of Brady floundering as he tries to influence Birnberg et al. by looking for any reference of support. It’s not likely that Brady appreciated anything else in the review. He needed the appearance of support. Again.

  The initial impression given by the injuries, notably two elliptical injuries of the right chest, was that the child had been stabbed; the clean-cut margins of the injury in the right groin had the appearance of a long incised wound. As soon as it was possible to examine these injuries more closely under low magnification, it was apparent that all the damage done to the body was unlike that due to human interference but entirely consisted of damage by animals. Stabbing was definitely excluded by the fact that the damage in the region of these injuries was entirely superficial. The disappearance of the abdominal organs could have destroyed signs of the cause of death. The heart, lungs, air passages, gullet and brain were sufficiently preserved to permit the statement that no gross injury to which this death could be ascribed was present. Signs of asphyxia were absent and therefore proof of suffocation was lacking. In summary, the postmortem examination established that this was the body of a female child of an age between the years of seven and thirteen. Subsequent dental examination narrowed the age limit to that of approximately ten years. The postmortem changes in the body were consistent with its having lain in peaty soil for a prolonged period: probably several months, but not several years. It was impossible to demonstrate the cause of death. The examination excluded certain possible causes, notably injury by blunt force, calculated to fracture bones. It also excluded strangulation by a ligature. It did not exclude other forms of mechanical asphyxia, notably smothering. I cannot, of course, exclude death by natural causes.106

  We could see that it was the body of a little girl, but where she had lain against the mud, that half of her was gone. It was destroyed, no features, nothing. But the other half had been perfectly preserved by the peat. Half of her face was intact.107

  A postmortem examination was conducted by Dr. David Gee, lecturer in forensic medicine at Leeds University, but the body, having lain in the damp peat probably for nine months, was too decomposed for the cause of death to be established.108

  Lesley’s body, having lain in the wet peat for ten months, was too decomposed for the doctors to be certain of how she died. She might have been smothered but half her skull was missing. Did this indicate it had been split with an axe to kill her—in the same way as Evans had been murdered? The doctors could not be sure.109

  I identified Lesley’s clothes after they brought the picture. I also had to identify the body because they may have been her clothes and another little girl’s body. It was her all right although she only had half a face. I only hope it was caused by decomposition. Do you think it might have been something terrible they did to her before she died?110

  1Alan Bennett, posted on 12/31/12 at searchingforkeith.com

  2“Mother’s tearful tribute to Moors victim Keith Bennett at service held 45 years after his murder,” Daily Mail, 6/5/10

  3“Moors Murders search: New hunt planned for four victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley,” Liverpool Echo, June 9, 2014

  4“‘If I see Brady I will stab him’: Moors murder victim’s mother Winnie’s final deathbed wish before she died, still not knowing the final resting place of son Keith Bennett,” Daily Mail, 8/18/12, Nick Craven for the Mail on Sunday and Russell Myers

  5“Ian Brady is left fuming by cigarette ban,” Express, Tony Brooks, 12/20/2008

  6“Maddie support is just hysteria and the James Bulger’s killers shouldn’t have been jailed,” The Sun, Robin Perrie and Graeme Culliford, 6/30/12

  7A statement of sorts, regarding Cowley’s book, Myra’s car, the Krays and more. Posted on 1/15/13, schadenfreude.com

  “This is two of four pages I received over a year ago. I asked Mr. Brady if I could share this letter, within which he berates Cowley and tells me just what is wrong with the content of his book ‘Face to Face…’. He was happy for me to put it on here. I did intend to share this a while back but never got round to it.

  “Here I can understand the frustration one, anyone, must feel when they feel they have been exploited and I also believe it to be exploitation of the crimes for the author’s own gains”

  8Face To Face With Evil (Conversations With Ian Brady), Dr. Chris Cowley, John Blake books, an imprint of Metro Publishing, 2011, UK

  9A statement of sorts, regarding Cowley’s book, Myra’s car, the Krays and more. Posted on 1/15/13, schadenfreude.com

  10“MP calls for halt to Hindley programme,” BBC News, 3/1/2000

  11“Brady: Why should I say sorry for my murders?”, Daily Mail, Michael Clarke, 10/19/2001

  12“Brady book to be handed to hospital,” BBC News, 9/10/01, By the BBC’s Peter Gould

  “Ashworth is mainly bothered about whether there is something in the book about themselves, because Ian Brady fulminates about the hospital,” says Mr. Wilson. “But there is nothing whatever in the book about Ashworth. It was originally written under a pseudonym, so naturally he didn’t mention anything to do with himself or where he was.”

  13“Last interview with Moors victim’s mum,” The Sun, 8/20/2012

  Battling Moors murd
ers mum Winnie Johnson died yesterday—still not knowing where her cherished son was buried by serial killer Ian Brady.

  In her last interview, given to The Sun from her hospital bed, the tormented 78-year-old said she was convinced Brady’s refusal to tell her was his “final sick twist.”

  Brave Winnie spoke to us during her final battle with cancer, surrounded by her family. And she allowed photographs to be taken.

  But despite the incredible tenacity that won her the admiration of millions, she was not holding out much hope.

  And.

  Manchester Police’s case review chief Martin Bottomley called Winnie “tenacious and courageous.” He said “I would implore Brady at this extremely sad time, knowing Winnie has died not knowing where Keith is buried, to at last do the decent thing and tell us where he is. The only comfort is that she is now at peace with the little boy she missed so much.”

  Winnie’s lawyer John Ainley said Brady had “persistently ignored the wishes of a tragic, grieving mother.” He added, “It is truly heartbreaking that this opportunity has now been irrevocably lost.”

  Brady is held in high-security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside, where he is on hunger strike and force-fed daily.

  Winnie spoke to The Sun on the eve of a Mental Health Tribunal which was due to take place last month to hear the murderer’s application to be transferred to a Scottish prison so he could die there. She was too ill to attend the hearing, which was eventually postponed after Brady suffered a seizure. She told us she was not strong enough to endure the agony and loathing that seeing him would generate. But she was adamant he should not get his way. She said: “Brady isn’t clinically insane, he is just pure evil and bloody sharp with it. That is why he has managed to even get this far having a tribunal set up. It makes me sick to my stomach. He does things like this because he has rights and I haven’t. The authorities didn’t even ask me or the other victims’ families for any input or statement. We have no voice but Brady is getting his own stage. It’s like he does it on purpose because he doesn’t want to be forgotten and wants to open all the raw wounds again. He has ruined my family. I want him to suffer and be kept alive as long as possible.”

  Winnie ended the interview with a heartrending remark about her failing health. She said: “I’ve had cancer, diabetes, asthma—but with all those things. I’ve also had a very, very sad life.”

  Despite her serious condition, Winnie said she would be “on top of the world” if Brady gave up his final secret. She added “It would mean my dying wish had come true and we finally got Keith home. I don’t give a shit about Brady any more. I am running out of time and just want to bring my son home. But I feel in my heart he won’t ever tell me. He hasn’t shown the slightest bit of remorse. I can’t see why he has done this to me.”

  14“Moors murders: ‘Where is my Keith?’ Winnie Johnson’s 12-year-old son was murdered by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in 1964. But his body was never found. Now nearing 80, she tells Melanie McFadyean why she never gave up the search for him and why time is running out,” The Guardian, Melanie McFadyean, January 6, 2012

  15The Trial of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Jonathan Goodman, David & Charles Books, 1973, UK

  16Beyond Belief, Emlyn Williams, Random House, 1968

  17The Trial of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Jonathan Goodman, David & Charles Books, 1973, UK

  18Gates of Janus, Ian Brady

  19“Myra Hindley: My Story,” The Guardian, December 18, 1995: “Two months ago Myra Hindley wrote to The Guardian in response to an article we published on whether violent criminals can be ‘cured.’ In particular, she objected to being “casually labelled a psychopath” in the article. During her 30 years in prison, she stated, numerous psychiatric and psychological tests had shown she had ‘no evidence of a mentally disordered mind.’ She had, in fact, grown up ‘a normal, happy girl,’ with religious convictions, who would never be ‘cruel to animals or children.’ She did not explain her what she believed had led her to kill. In view of the public debate on what makes women kill, a key question in the trial of Rosemary West, we then invited Hindley to justify her letter. If she had shown no psychopathic tendencies, what had made her commit these crimes? Here is her response.”

  20searchingforkeith.com (Alan Bennett, posted 5/30/14)

  21searchingforkeith.com (Carol Ann Lee, posted 7/4/14)

  22searchingforkeith.com (April Day, posted 12/31/14)

  23searchingforkeith.com (LadyV, posted 12/31/14)

  (From “US publisher defends Brady book,” by the BBC’s Peter Gould, BBC, October 18, 2001: Adam Parfrey: “It was the British tabloid press that got me interested in Ian Brady. I started wondering how this guy provoked forty years of continual, obsessive coverage that uses the kind of language reserved for enemies in holy wars. There have been many criminals over the years who have killed children, and nearly all of them are forgotten. But not Ian Brady. Why?

  “What is the best way to deal the horror of Ian Brady’s crimes? By consuming tabloid exploitation? Or by examining the crimes more clinically and realistically? Perhaps this is too Jungian a remark, but one cannot come to grips with human behaviour and reduce its malevolent aspect simply by reacting to it, and acting out with further hate and aggression.”)

  24searchingforkeith.com (Alan Bennett, posted 12/31/14)

  25One of Your Own, Carol Ann Lee, Mainstream Publishing, 2010, UK

  26searchingforkeith.com (Carol Ann Lee, posted 9/1/12)

  Carol included a reply to Cherrydrop, a member of the forum who had posted the following on September 1, 2012:

  (“I was talking to my mum about it as she was coming into her 20s when it happened she did say that part of the tape was played on the news I don’t know is true as my mum gets confused.”)

  27Alan Bennett, introduction, Witness, David Smith with Carol Ann Lee, Mainstream Publishing, 2011, UK

  28One of Your Own, reprint edition, Carol Ann Lee, Mainstream Publishing, 2011, UK

  29One of Your Own, Carol Ann Lee, Mainstream Publishing, 2010, UK

  30Sex Crime Interviews Simplified, Don Howell, Lawtech Publishing, 2008, US

  31From Topping, Peter Topping, Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1989, UK:

  Even if they did not swallow her story hook line and sinker, she was sure that at the end of a trial she would emerge with a better public image—and that maybe, in ten years or so, she would be considered sufficiently rehabilitated for release. She knew that it was public opinion, fueled by the picture painted of her by the tabloids, that was keeping her behind bars. No government would risk unpopularity over an issue so unimportant (politically speaking) as the release of Myra Hindley: if she was ever to achieve it, it would be when she had swung public opinion either to be in her favour or to be indifferent to her.

  She did not say that she was disappointed not to go to trial, and I am sure that on one level she felt some relief. It would have been an ordeal. But I sensed that it was an ordeal she would not have minded facing.

  I believe the Director of Public Prosecutions made the right decision. A trial would have been enormously expensive, and ultimately it would have achieved nothing: both Brady and Hindley are imprisoned on life sentences, which means that they can, literally, be detained forever. The fact that most lifers get parole after serving an average of 11 years is irrelevant; the sentence is reviewed, but the option is there to keep the prisoner in jail indefinitely. So a trial could not have imposed any extra punishment. And to have played into her hands by giving her the chance to perform her confession role in public would, I think, have been a mistake.

  From “Hindley was facing new murder charges,” Gordon Rayner, Daily Mail, November 19, 2002:

  Yesterday Mrs. Johnson, 69, said ‘Both Hindley and Brady should have been charged with the murders of my son and Pauline Reade. It’s not fair on me. I have served a life sentence since Keith’s death yet they have not really paid any price. Where is the justice for me?’

  Charges could still
be brought against Brady, 64, who, with Hindley was convicted in 1966 of the murders of Edward Evans, 17, and the ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey.

  Brady alone was convicted of killing John Kilbride, 12. The victims’ bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.

  A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: ‘We have reviewed the situation with regard to the possibility of further criminal charges, examining the evidence from the 1960s and 1980s alongside specialists from the CPS.

  “That work is still ongoing and a report will be produced. No options have as yet been ruled out.’

  Hindley’s solicitor Andrew McCooey said the possible new charges were ‘a desperate move by the CPS.’

  He said: ‘The confessions made in 1987 were to help the police and to come to terms with her overall offending. It would have been a pity if admitting to these offenses had added to her sentence.’

  32The Gates of Janus, Ian Brady

  33“Moors murders: profile of Ian Brady’s mental health advocate Jackie Powell,” The Telegraph, Richard Alleyne and Martin Beckford, August 17, 2012

  34“No charges against Ian Brady’s mental health advocate over ‘letter about missing Moors Murder victim’,” Luke Traynor, Mirror, February 11, 2013