Ian Brady
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ian Brady, born Ian Duncan Stewart on January 2, 1938, in Glasgow, Scotland, is a British serial killer and author.
Brady is known primarily for his role in a series of murders that took place in Greater Manchester between 1963 and 1965. These were dubbed the Moors Murders, as several victims were buried along the Saddleworth Moor.
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Youth
As a young boy, Brady developed a deep fascination with Nazi Germany. He also developed a keen interest in the writings of the Marquis de Sade and Friedrich Nietzsche, focusing particular attention on Nietzsche's theories of Übermensch. Brady collected books about torture and sadomasochism and other paraphilias relating to domination and servitude. After being convicted of several minor crimes, he was sentenced to two years in a borstal. While incarcerated, he learned various techniques for becoming more proficient at his craft. Release led to prolonged stretches of unemployment. Eventually, he took a job at Millwards Merchandising as a stock clerk, where he met Myra Hindley, the other half of the internationally notorious Moors Murderers.
Myra
The relationship between Brady and Hindley developed in concert with Brady's increasingly rabid identification with the accredited instigators of Nazi-era atrocities and his growing sadomasochistic sexual appetite. Hindley was Brady's eager student; Soon after they became a couple, Brady and Hindley began to plan a series of bank robberies, which they never carried out. When Brady became fascinated with the idea of rape and murder for sexual gratification, Hindley actively participated in procuring victims, as well as sexually abusing, torturing and murdering them.
The Moors Killings
Brady was responsible for five murders during the 1960s. In 1987 he claimed to police that he had carried out another five killings and even said where he had buried the bodies, but the police were never able to prove whether these claims were true.
The Murders
The five killings that Brady admitted carrying out were committed with Hindley as his accomplice. These were the infamous Moors Murderers, which are still some of the most reviled crimes in Britain some four decades after they happened.
The Mind of Ian Brady
Brady's philosophy included the idea that superior creatures had the right to control (and destroy, if necessary) weaker ones. He was increasingly becoming enamoured with a philosophy that championed cruelty, torture and the superiority of the übermensch. He was an avid fan of Friedrich Nietzsche, and in particular Nietzsche's concept of the Will to Power. Brady had, since a young boy, been fascinated and obsessed with Nazi pageantry and symbolism. Later, he would become fixed upon various books depicting violent paraphilias. Brady and Hindley photographed themselves in sadomasochistic acts, as well as at the burial sites of several of their victims.
Punishment Information
The death penalty was abolished just one month after Brady and Hindley were arrested. By the time they went on trial the following April, the punishment for murder was life imprisonment. This meant that a murderer was liable to be detained for the whole of his or her natural life but could be released on life licence when no longer judged to be a risk.
Sentencing
On May 6, 1966, Brady was found guilty on three counts of murder and sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment. Hindley was found guilty of murdering Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and given two life sentences; she also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for harbouring Brady in connection with the murder of John Kilbride. The key evidence against the couple included the tape recordings and photographs of Downey's torture and the name of John Kilbride in a notebook, as well as a photograph of Hindley standing on top of the shallow grave where Kilbride was buried.
Brady's Imprisonment
Brady spent 19 years in a mainstream prison (at point befriending serial poisoner and fellow Nazi aficionado Graham Frederick Young) before he was declared insane in 1985 and sent to a mental hospital. He confessed to two more murders in 1987 and has since made it clear that he never wants to be released from prison. The trial judge had recommended that his life sentence should mean life, and successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision. The only person to make a different judgement was Lord Chief Justice Lane, who set a 40-year-minimum term in 1982. A House of Lords ruling which stripped the Home Secretary of his power to set tariffs on life sentences could lead to Brady being released in 2006, but he still insists he never wants to be freed and has had to be force fed since going on hunger strike in 1999. Recently this year various papers have reported than Ian is still in hospital and dosen't have much longer to live, he is however still alive at present.
The Gates of Janus
In 2001, Feral House, an underground publishing house based in Los Angeles, published Brady's book, The Gates of Janus, in which he examines the cases of a number of serial killers (including Peter Sutcliffe, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy) and theorises how to catch them. He also investigates the nature of good and evil, morality, and human depravity. He did not, however, attempt to look into the nature of his own crimes. The book offers graphic, subjective detail of some of modernity's most notorious crimes. It features an introduction by noted criminologist and occult author Colin Wilson, and an afterword by infamous lustmord author and social critic Peter Sotos.
Books
- Brady, Ian. The Gates of Janus. Feral House Books, 2001. ISBN 0922915733.
