Dear All
Lots of people have grown up in very grime surroundings in
this country, and they turned out alright, unfortunately others did not, Ian
Brady was always be known as a mass murderer who committed such vile acts the
term monster will apply to him. While growing up, he didn’t develop into an
ordinary individual; he was a person who practiced evil. Brady’s crimes shocked
and appalled the British people, people who commit child murder are the worst
of people.
Although he lived in Glasgow, he also lived in Greater
Manchester but in both locations, people were wary of him, some dubbed him
Dracula and others the undertaker.
Brady went on to murder five innocent children, and in May
1966 he was convicted along with Myra Hindley, of murdering 10-year-old Lesley
Ann Downey and 17-year-old Edward Evans. He was a person who was deemed too
dangerous ever to even be considered for release. It was right that Ian Brady
was never allowed to see freedom, the names of his victim such as Lesley Ann
Downey, Edward Evans and John Kilbride only experienced a small taste of it
before Brady and Hindley robbed them of it.
The evidence presented in the trial of Lesley Ann Downey, was
a little girl stripped naked, bound and gagged, and a tape recording of her
begging for help and asking to be allowed home to her mother. Lesley was repeatedly
tortured and sexually assaulted by Brady and Hindley before being brutally murdered.
If you think of the scope of his crimes, you cannot help but get angry; to do
this type of activity requires a person to be devoid of humanity. Lesley’s
cries reduced the judge, jury, spectators and even hardened police officers
to tears during the trial. People like Brady, a monster are always used in the
debate on capital punishment, as an argument to bring hanging. Hanging is a
ghastly business, if you take the time to view youtube, you can see examples of
people being hanged, Nazis war criminals, although the event seems peaceful,
the event is also charged with emotion which you can see in the faces of the
people attending the event.
Taking human life isn’t pleasant, even when done in the
judicial sense of the state exercise the right in law. I am anti capital
punishment; I can never support hanging, not because I have sympathy to people
who do evil, but because miscarriages of justice rendering a final solution
cannot be undone. In many countries, people like Brady would be hanged in front
of a cheering crowd along with Myra Hindley and no one would mourn their loss
to society.
Brady was to escape the hangman in Britain as the
Death penalty was abolished just months earlier. As with some types of serial
killers, Brady and Hindley kept a trophy of their killings. Hindley holding her
pet dog and posing for pictures on the edge of one of the victims, no doubt she
was proud of what she had done, and she had enjoyed it. Although Lord Longford,
the great prison reform campaigner was to visit Hindley in jail and advocate on
her behalf, she was equally as guilty as Brady, she was a monster as well.
The work done by police on the murder of Evans on October 7
1965 was to bring about the evil pairs downfall, Brady had made the mistake of
trying to rope in another person, in this case Hindley's brother-in-law David
Smith. What Smith must thought when he saw Brady hacking to death Evans with an
axe is anyone’s guess but clearly he had witness horror beyond belief and the
next day, he went straight to the police.
In 1987 Brady was to reveal information regarding the murders
of Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12, but was never tried for the
crimes. Everyone knew Brady would never be let out into society.
The Moors Murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are now dead,
Hindley died in November 2002 after suffering respiratory failure following a
heart attack and now Brady is gone.
No one is mourning their loss.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
8 comments:
The only reason to be sad at his passing is that he never revealed the location of Keith Bennett. Other than that, good riddance, but glad he was forced to suffer in prison for so long.
As to the death penalty, I saw 'Penn and Teller's Bullshit!' series of documentaries, and according to a doctor I saw in the documentary, she's also a holocaust survivor so has first hand experience of the issue, capital punishment doesn't work as a deterrent because, according to her there are (normally) three types of murderers:
1) Murderers by emotion. Probably more common than any other. An ill-thought moment of panic or rage and they lash out, and are usually fairly pathetic people, like Oscar Pistorius probably was. They're not thinking straight at the time, so worry about the death penalty doesn't work on them.
2) Murderers for profit. These are your bank robbers, mafia and gangs, organised criminals, and so on. They consider themselves too intelligent for the law, and so they don't worry about execution generally.
3) Murderers by compulsion. These are the worst kinds of murderers, often crossing over with rapists who may be driven by the same psychological mechanisms. Invariably these are your Jack the Rippers, Ian Huntleys, Jeffrey Dharmas, Karla Homolkas, John Wayne Gaceys, etc. Usually the type you see in police crime dramas on TV. The fear of capital punishment wouldn't have stopped them because they would've been unable to stop themselves even if they had the conscience to want to. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were definitely this sort. Mercifully, they seem to be rare.
Hi Al C
It is a pity that Brady didn't confess all regarding the remains of his victims and locations, I totally agree with you.
George
It would be a difficult choice between him the fat man and jimmy if you only had one bullet , shoot one then bludgeon the other two ?
Crookie
If we're not going to have the death penalty we need life to mean life - and in a hard, austere prison regime. We don't have this. We have murderers walking the streets after 7 years. Its totally wrong.
Dear Aldo
Murder in legal terms is a complex business, some murders aren't planned, some are what is described as crimes of passion. In the case of Brady, he was a classic serial killer who ticked many of the boxes to fit that description.
Prison should be humane, we are torturers, but we aren't a safe touch either, we don't have to operate a country but neither do we serve the interests of society running a gulag.
Prison must have an ability to reform people, this cannot be achieved in a harsh setting because it simply undermines the work of professionals through-out the system. The most important thing is I believe to get people out of a downward cycle of crime.
No one is born bad, but you can be moulded that way by circumstances and wrong thinking and choices.
7 years I agree is far too short a term, I would certainly argue for a longer tariff, not just for the victim but also for their family, so that they know we clearly stand by them. In certain circumstances some people must never be released, people like Brady and Hindley, not because they also faced trial by media, but because their evil was so great.
George
Hi Crookie
a tricky one indeed.
George
Some people deserve forgiveness, help and the chance to rehabilitate - depending on their intent and the consequences of their actions. For the worst kind of offenders, we should have specialist prisons - a bit like the US supermax prisons, I suppose. The guy who plotted the 1993 world trade center attack begged - BEGGED - to be allowed to sweep the floors so as to escape solitary for a few hours a day. That's what I want for people like Brady, if we can't hang them.
For lesser criminals, a lesser punishment.
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