No other crime caused so much public outrage and revulsion until the murder in 1993 of James Bulger by two 10 years old boys.
Even today the mere mention of either Brady or Hindley is enough to cause people to spit on the ground and curse them to the depth of hell and beyond. It was a horror unimaginable.
The Moors Murders
The Moors murderers were Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. They began a relationship in 1961 while working at Millwards, a chemical factory in Manchester, England.
Brady urged Hindley to join a shooting club and get a gun licence so they could rob banks, he could not obtain a licence because he had a criminal record for serial housebreaking and as a teenager had spent time in a detention center.
Before long the novelty wore off and Brady had a new interest: murdering children. He persuaded Hindley to join in with him and she agreed.
Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a neighbour of Hindley's, who disappeared on her way to a social club in the Crumpshall district on July 12, 1963. She got into a car with Hindley while Brady secretly followed behind on his motorbike.
When the van reached Saddleworth Moor, Hindley stopped the van and got out before asking Pauline to help her find a missing glove. They were busy 'searching' the moors when Brady pounced upon Pauline and smashed her skull with a shovel. He then subjected her to a savage rape before slitting her throat with a knife, her spinal cord was severed and she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried her body, and it would not be discovered for more than 20 years.
On November 15, 2002, Myra Hindley died in a West Suffolk Hospital from a heart attack. She was 60 years old. Just 11 days later, the Home Secretary was officially stripped of his power to set minimum sentences, so the ruling came too late for Hindley.
Brady, meanwhile, remains alive and on hunger strike in a mental hospital and remains adamant that he never wants to be freed. The last published list of prisoners on whole life tariffs included his name, and although some names on this list were not publicised, it is believed Brady is the whole life tariff prisoner who has served the longest consecutive jail term.