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· Archive files on Moors murderer made public
· Records contain letters from victims' parents
Helen Carter The Guardian Wednesday June 11 2008
The Moors murderer Myra Hindley petitioned the home secretary so she could be hypnotised in a bid to help police find where one of her young victims was buried, it was revealed yesterday.
Previously unseen documents at the National Archives in Kew have been made public, and show that Hindley and Ian Brady each made separate requests to be allowed to help police search for the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
The document, dated November 1987, shows Hindley petitioned the then home secretary, Douglas Hurd, for permission to be hypnotised in the hope that she would be able to recall more accurately the area of moorland where Keith was buried. The request was supported by her advisers, including methodist minister and former prison governor Peter Timms and Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, who was in charge of the police inquiry.
The letter said Topping had been particularly keen for Brady to pay a second visit to the moors in a further attempt to find Bennett's body. However the home secretary turned down the idea and when it was eventually given the go-ahead in 1995 Hindley was too ill to cooperate.
Hindley and Brady, who is in the high-security Ashworth hospital in Merseyside, were convicted of murdering three children in 1966 and became known as the Moors murderers as they buried their victims around Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. They confessed to two further murders, those of Bennett and 16-year-old Pauline Reade, in 1987.
The files show that Winifred Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett, contacted Hindley in a neatly handwritten letter in October 1986, after a book was published strongly implying that Hindley and Brady were involved in her son's death. She wrote: "My heart tells me you know and I am on bended knees begging you to end this torture and finally put my mind at rest." The letter described the nightmare since she last saw her son alive in 1964. "Not knowing whether my son is alive or dead, whether he ran away or was taken away, is literally a living hell, something which you no doubt have experienced during your many, many years locked in prison." Johnson said it had taken five weeks to write the letter "because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help".
A memo from staff at Cookham Wood prison in Kent described Hindley's reaction: "She became extremely upset and tearful whilst reading it and it took a very long time for her to compose herself sufficiently to talk (this is most unusual as Myra is normally very controlled)."
Hindley denied all knowledge of Bennett's death when she first read the letter, according to the memo, which referred to her dilemma as how to respond because of fears of newspapers publishing the reply or being seen as callous if she didn't reply. Her exact words were: "I wish I did know something ... I could at least then put the poor woman out of her misery." The following year Hindley and Brady confessed to killing Bennett and Reade. Bennett's mother wrote again praising Hindley for having the courage to admit the truth, adding she could not forgive and forget.
A letter from Ann West, the mother of victim Lesley Ann Downey, to an unnamed official making a heartfelt plea for Hindley to be kept behind bars is included in the files. The letter, dated September 1972, protests about Hindley being allowed out for walks in the park. "You must think I am very bitter and I am and there must be hundreds of people that feel the way I do about this," she wrote.
Some of the documents have been edited and 27 files remain completely closed. None of the archive relating to Hindley is currently available online.
Hindley spent the last four years of her life at Highpoint prison in Suffolk. She died in November 2002, aged 60.
· Records contain letters from victims' parents
Helen Carter The Guardian Wednesday June 11 2008
The Moors murderer Myra Hindley petitioned the home secretary so she could be hypnotised in a bid to help police find where one of her young victims was buried, it was revealed yesterday.
Previously unseen documents at the National Archives in Kew have been made public, and show that Hindley and Ian Brady each made separate requests to be allowed to help police search for the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
The document, dated November 1987, shows Hindley petitioned the then home secretary, Douglas Hurd, for permission to be hypnotised in the hope that she would be able to recall more accurately the area of moorland where Keith was buried. The request was supported by her advisers, including methodist minister and former prison governor Peter Timms and Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, who was in charge of the police inquiry.
The letter said Topping had been particularly keen for Brady to pay a second visit to the moors in a further attempt to find Bennett's body. However the home secretary turned down the idea and when it was eventually given the go-ahead in 1995 Hindley was too ill to cooperate.
Hindley and Brady, who is in the high-security Ashworth hospital in Merseyside, were convicted of murdering three children in 1966 and became known as the Moors murderers as they buried their victims around Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester. They confessed to two further murders, those of Bennett and 16-year-old Pauline Reade, in 1987.
The files show that Winifred Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett, contacted Hindley in a neatly handwritten letter in October 1986, after a book was published strongly implying that Hindley and Brady were involved in her son's death. She wrote: "My heart tells me you know and I am on bended knees begging you to end this torture and finally put my mind at rest." The letter described the nightmare since she last saw her son alive in 1964. "Not knowing whether my son is alive or dead, whether he ran away or was taken away, is literally a living hell, something which you no doubt have experienced during your many, many years locked in prison." Johnson said it had taken five weeks to write the letter "because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help".
A memo from staff at Cookham Wood prison in Kent described Hindley's reaction: "She became extremely upset and tearful whilst reading it and it took a very long time for her to compose herself sufficiently to talk (this is most unusual as Myra is normally very controlled)."
Hindley denied all knowledge of Bennett's death when she first read the letter, according to the memo, which referred to her dilemma as how to respond because of fears of newspapers publishing the reply or being seen as callous if she didn't reply. Her exact words were: "I wish I did know something ... I could at least then put the poor woman out of her misery." The following year Hindley and Brady confessed to killing Bennett and Reade. Bennett's mother wrote again praising Hindley for having the courage to admit the truth, adding she could not forgive and forget.
A letter from Ann West, the mother of victim Lesley Ann Downey, to an unnamed official making a heartfelt plea for Hindley to be kept behind bars is included in the files. The letter, dated September 1972, protests about Hindley being allowed out for walks in the park. "You must think I am very bitter and I am and there must be hundreds of people that feel the way I do about this," she wrote.
Some of the documents have been edited and 27 files remain completely closed. None of the archive relating to Hindley is currently available online.
Hindley spent the last four years of her life at Highpoint prison in Suffolk. She died in November 2002, aged 60.
