PAIR GUILTY IN MOORS MURDERS: THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, MAY 7, 1966

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley heard their sentences from behind a screen of bulletproof glass, put up in Chester Castle to protect them. It was Friday night, May 6, 1966, the end of a fourteen-day trial, and the all-male jury had been out two hours and fourteen minutes. Brady, twenty-eight, tall and bony, blanched and otherwise kept the impassive air he had worn all along. Hindley, twenty-three, swayed forward and closed her eyes for several seconds. In the castle courtyard about 250 people were waiting, and when Brady was brought out handcuffed to a policeman they surged against the police lines, booing and jeering. The Salt Lake Tribune put the Associated Press account on its front page the next morning.

The judge, Sir Fenton Atkinson, spoke softly. "These were three calculated, cruel, cold-blooded murders," he said. Brady was sentenced for all three: Lesley Ann Downey, ten; John Kilbride, twelve; and Edward Evans, seventeen. Hindley drew life for the deaths of the girl and of Evans, and seven years as an accessory in the murder of John Kilbride. Not long before, the paper explained, the verdicts would have meant hanging, but Parliament had suspended capital punishment for an experimental five years. The judge set no minimum term. Whether either of them ever went free would rest with the Home Secretary, who could review their cases and grant parole at his discretion.

Most of the continuation is the evidence, and it is hard reading. The jury heard a tape Brady made while he and Hindley tormented Lesley Ann Downey, with her pleas of "don't, please don't," and saw photographs of her naked and of her grave. They heard David Smith, the husband of Hindley's sister Maureen, describe watching Brady strike Edward Evans fourteen times on the head. John Kilbride had been found fully clothed in a moorland grave near Lesley Ann's, and the paper said how he died would probably never be known. In his five-hour summing-up the judge put his heaviest weight on the tape. "Brady and Hindley cannot escape from that," he said.

This is a wire report filed from Chester on verdict night, not a court record. It treats the pair as one, but the verdicts differed: Brady was convicted of all three murders, Hindley of the murders of Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and, on the Kilbride count, of harboring Brady knowing he had killed the boy. The act ending the death penalty came into force five weeks after Evans died, late in 1965, not "early this year." Evans was struck with a hatchet and then strangled with electrical cord. The paper leaves out that Smith had sold his story to the News of the World. In 1987 both confessed to two more murders, of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, which never came to trial.

The Salt Lake Tribune of May 7, 1966, ran this story on page 1 and finished it on page 2A, as unsigned Associated Press copy. The article and the masthead carry no copyright notice; the only notices in the issue close syndicated New York Times Service and other stories on pages 1 and 8, and in 1966 a story published without one did not keep its copyright. The two portraits are a separate matter, each credited "AP Wirephoto." Both page scans come from Utah Digital Newspapers at the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library, which rates the issue "No Copyright - United States," as the citation under the scans records.

Both pages are transcribed word for word, and nothing on them was illegible. The front-page jump line points to "Page 2, Column 2"; the story actually resumes on page 2A, where an advertisement splits it into two crops, the second holding the rest of the fourth column. The wire's slips are kept as printed: "for their rest of their natural lives," "Evan's head" for Evans's, a crosshead reading "87 Witnesses" over a paragraph that counts eighty-six, and the judge's tangled "must, must it, not," just as it was set.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scans. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Page 1

[Photo caption, left] —AP Wirephoto Myra Hindley

[Photo caption, right] —AP Wirephoto Ian Brady

Pair Guilty in Moors Murders

CHESTER, ENGLAND (AP) — Ian Brady and his mistress, Myra Hindley, were convicted Friday night in Britain's bizarre Moors murder case and sentenced to life prison terms. An angry crowd booed and jeered outside the court at the end of what the presiding judge called "this horrible case."

Tall, bony, 28-year-old Brady, a Scot, and his blonde 23-year-old accused accomplice in three perverted sex killings heard the verdict and sentences from behind a bullet-proof glass screen set up to protect them.

Little Emotion

Brady blanched, but otherwise wore the impassive air he maintained throughout the 14-day trial in Chester Castle. Miss Hindley, tall and broadly built, swayed forward. For several seconds she closed her blue eyes.

Bewigged Judge Sir Fenton Atkinson, speaking in soft measured tones, said of the killings: "These were three calculated, cruel, cold-blooded murders."

Brady was sentenced for slaying 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, 12-year-old John Kilbride and 17-year-old Edward Evans. Miss Hindley drew life for the part she played in the deaths of the girl and Evans. She also was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for being an accessory in the murder of young Kilbride.

The bodies of the two children were recovered from shallow peat graves on the wild Pennine Moors. Evans was hacked to death by Brady in the house Brady occupied with his mistress. She was present as he wielded the ax.

Ugly Crowd Gathers

A crowd of about 250, in ugly mood, gathered in the Castle courtyard to see the two driven away to prison. They surged forward against police lines booing and jeering as Brady was brought out, handcuffed to a policeman. Miss Hindley followed, her arm firmly gripped by a woman prison officer.

Until recent times the verdict

See Page 2, Column 2

Page 2A

Pair Convicted, Gets Life Sentences In 'Horrible' Moors Slaying Case

Continued From Page One

would have meant death by hanging. But capital punishment was abolished by parliament early this year for an experimental five-year period.

Can Win Paroles

Brady and Miss Hindley can be held for their rest of their natural lives. Britain's home secretary, however, can review their cases from time to time and parole them at his discretion. This is flexible, with no set period stipulated by law.

The judge could have recommended that they be held for a minimum period of years before being considered for parole, but he did not do so.

The all-male jury took two hours 14 minutes to reach a verdict after listening for 14 days to a story of perversity seldom equalled in the history of British crime.

They heard the tape-recorded screams and protests of Lesley Ann Downey shortly before she was murdered after a sexual assault. They saw pictures taken of her in the nude and of her grave.

They heard a graphic account of the brutal hatcheting of Edward Evans from an eyewitness to the killing.

And they heard of the discovery of the decomposed body of John Kilbride in a Moorland grave. How he died probably will never be known.

87 Witnesses

Eighty-six witnesses testified, the most remarkable of them being David Smith, 19. Never ruffled, he told the court how he saw Brady deliver 14 blows to Evan's head.

Although he has a police record for violence, Smith was the state's key witness. He went to the police after the killing because, he said, he wouldn't otherwise have been able to live with himself. He is married to Miss Hindley's sister, Maureen. In return for his testimony, the state gave him immunity from prosecution.

189 Exhibits

Of 189 exhibits introduced, one was a tape recording made by Brady while he and Miss Hindley were tormenting Lesley Ann Downey. Before the girl finally died, said prosecutor Sir Elwyn Jones, she was subjected to "unspeakable indignities" despite her pleas of "don't, please don't."

Judge Atkinson, in his five hour summation to the jury, placed his heaviest emphasis on this damning recording.

Merciless Light

"Brady and Hindley cannot escape from that," he said, "because it must, must it, not, throw a merciless light on the character and dispositions of persons who treat a little girl in that way."

Referring to the death of John Kilbride, whose decomposed but fully clothed body was found buried near that of Lesley Ann, the judge said:

"There was evidence of some perverted sexual treatment before death."

Notes: Kept as printed: "for their rest of their natural lives"; "Evan's head" for Evans's; the crosshead "87 Witnesses" above a paragraph saying "Eighty-six witnesses"; "must, must it, not," in the judge's quotation. The page 1 jump line says "See Page 2, Column 2"; the continuation is on page 2A. The article covers Myra Hindley as much as Brady. It is filed under Ian Brady only (one article per killer), and Hindley still needs an article of her own. The continuation is supplied as two crops because an advertisement sits below columns 2 and 3: ARTICLE-CROP-PAGE-2.jpg has the headline and the tops of columns 2 to 4, and ARTICLE-CROP-PAGE-2-PART-2.jpg has the rest of column 4. No words were illegible.