MOORS murderer Ian Brady has described his torture and murder of children as a brief "existential exercise", it is revealed today.
In a letter Brady, 67, said the killings he carried out with Myra Hindley had already come to an end when they were arrested.
They were planning to turn to armed robbery before they were caught by police, Brady writes.
Brady was convicted in 1966 of killing three children and later admitted to killing two more.
He remains on hunger strike at maximum security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside. In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by the BBC, Brady challenges a number of long-held beliefs about the case.
By the time of the couple's arrest, four children had been murdered and buried on Saddleworth Moor.
Bodies
The bodies of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey and Pauline Reade were recovered; Keith Bennett is still missing. The body of Edward Evans was discovered at the couple's house.
In the letter Brady claims he decided to end the child murders months before his arrest.
"Contrary to popular perception, the so-called Moors Murders were merely an existential exercise of just over a year, which was concluded in December 1964," he writes.
"The exercise originated from frustration with 'reliables' who were continually being arrested for embroilments in trivial crimes and causing delay in our mercenary objectives.
"So the final ten months of our freedom in 1965 were entirely preoccupied with return to mercenary priorities, reorganising logistics and eradicating liabilities."
Guns
He and Hindley sold his motorbike, got a new car and acquired guns, he claims.
"All these facts testify that the Moors Murders ended in December 1964, and that throughout 1965 we were hurrying to make up for wasted time, cutting reliance on others down to the bone, with Myra doubling as driver and sole armed backup.
"All we required was a 'mule' to pick up and carry during robberies."
Brady and Hindley's killing spree began on July 12, 1963, when Hindley lured Pauline Reade into her car as the 16-year-old walked to a dance at a railwaymen's club in Manchester.
The couple repeated the method roughly every six months, picking up 12-year-old John Kilbride at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne, Keith Bennett, also 12, as he walked to his grandmother's home in Longsight, and Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10, at a funfair on Boxing Day 1964.
Brady made an audio tape and took pictures of Lesley. The victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor and the pair took snap-shots of themselves standing by the graves.
Brady axed to death 17-year-old Edward Evans in October 1965 but tried to involve Myra's brother-in-law David Smith, who went to the police.
Brady and Hindley were both jailed for life in 1966.
Myra Hindley died in prison aged 60 in 2002.
Do you think Brady is telling the truth when he says the Moors Murders were over? Have your say.
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why is this monster in the news again? he should be dead like his evil counterpart and give the families of the victims a break. who cares what he says or thinks? its the families of the victims that I feel for, they have to relive this everytime Brady deigns to make a comment. I had hoped the endless drivel would end when degree laden Myra died, but sadly not. I'm sure the press could find something slightly more newsworthy than the thoughts of a child murderer, 40 years on.
It lasted over two years, not one, according to the dates. What does it matter anyway? These two were barbarians who should never have been allowed to live. Simple as.
The ramblings of a pathetic man near the end of his life. Shame on MEN for giving him space to air his rubbish. If that man told me it was friday I would go and ask somebody else before believing him.
Ian Brady deserves as little press coverage as possible. The untold emotional pain this person must cause to his victims' families everytime he decides to spout this kind of rubbish, should warrant a press blackout until the day he dies. That is the only headline I personally wish to read about this disgraceful excuse for a man in the future. His comments prove that even after all these years he still has no remorse over murdering those children which is just shameful.
I hope Ian Brady lives for many more years yet, all secluded lonely and starving in his little concrete box.
Same we're not allowed to carry out "existential exercises", on this creature and us it as a subject for drugs experiments for the more deserving.
Rot in hell like your partner!
i cant believe you are still allowing ian brady media coverage, its like hes gloating further to his vitims families who must b living the hell of losing a loved one day in day out and doesnt need constant evil reminders of him. i hope he rots in hell and that we can perform existential exercises on the likes of him. hes a sick twisted lonely old man exactly how he deserves to be. i hope he takes another 20 years before he dies and dies a very slow very angonising death he deserves nothing less,
Try & rewrite history as much as you like....WE ALL KNOW YOU WERE BORN SCUM & WILL DIE SCUM!!
I used to live facing Lesley Ann's aunty. Brady and Hindley destroyed their families lives. The escaped the noose by month. However there are many like me who are convinced it is time to bring the rope back. I wonder if Brady would have got such a light sentence as Zammit if hed have been convicted today. Three years max i think
Sir,
Re: your article - Moors murders an 'existential exercise', says Brady
It seems a pity that in the many decades since Brady was convicted that neither the press nor public have realised that all that is left for this evil twerp to get off on is his enduring obsession as a "Self Publicist" whether it is making assertions to you or the press association to suggest he is some kind of "Super Criminal" [instead of the insignificant nonentity that he really is] Other than his "Spurious Hunger Strike" [Which is believe me only designed for publicity & nuisance value]
Now that the misguided Earl of Longford is now dead, Brady has, in the little time left him, to try continue to convince himself and a few Neanderthal tabloid readers, that he is other than an "Insignificant, if evil, mediocrity" who should have been long forgotten, if there was truly any justice.
Kind Regards,
Real World Dweller.
P.S. I seem to remember he was "Caught" with a newly killed victims body in the house they shared!!
Well said, Sue, This monster should be experimented on, see how he likes the thought of that!!
I hope he rots in hell for eternity along with his evil monster of a partner.
Why does the MEN keep publishing this rubbish. Stop tormenting the families of the victims. The sooner this twisted moron Brady dies the better. He is obviously a nutter, so any ramblings he puts out are not believable. Shame there was no death penalty!
Having corresponded with Brady for a no of years, i am in no doubt that the murders would have carried on, maybe not in such frequent order. But something that they both felt that they were imune from capture, was also a addictive activity, from which they both derived such pleasure. The only regret however, was being betrayed, and subciquently caught. Brady is now langwishing on the memories of past deeds, thats all he has left, after a totally wasted life. There have been constant media reports about him being in the last throws of life, for the past 5 years, and i expect that to continue for the next 5 years, or more, they just wont let him die. Apart from him being their star attraction, where certain people have made money off stories they have sold to the media he is an example of what a full life sentence is, almost 40 years of misery - long may he live.
The best thing is to bring back hanging. out of ALL the people hung and with evidence as it is . The percentage is very small compared to the effect it would have . The money waisted on (rehabilitation !!!) could be better spent.
a mad dog would be humanely put down yet a person has to be pampered. These monsteres even have rights, money without responsability. Hang them -hang them HIGH
What that evil man is saying is rubbish, I lived in collyhurst at that time and will always remmeber the time a man tried to get me in his car when i was a young boy not far from the site where the fairground was when little lesley was on the night of her abduction, and that was in 1965, and i am now sure that man was brady, i was lucky that my sister was with me at the time and told me to hurry away with her, so you see he is just trying to get attention with his lies, he would have gone on killing i am 100% sure of that, so please let this go now and let him rot in hell! .
Kenneth Milward could you contact me at lawrencemark12@aol.com
i think that they both deserve to rott in hell and hope they both die thats what they both deserve they should bring back hanging and people like that shouldnt leave.. just imagine what they put the parents thru..
Brady's comments are typical of his psychopathic indulgences. To state that his brutalities were nothing more than an "existential exercise", is to further trivialize the slaughter of innocent souls and is a terrible insult to their memories.
Like other sick puppies of his ilk, he simply needs to be put to sleep, and not be allowed to further breathe the air at taxpayer's expense. The only future sounds worthy of emanating from one Ian Brady are the sounds of the trapdoor opening, the "snap" of the rope, and the wind blowing as his body swings ever so gently in the breeze.