One of Your Own

by Carol Ann Lee

  The negative publicity caused her supporters to close ranks, determined that anyone recruited to Myra’s freedom campaign had to prove themselves trustworthy. One of the few people to gain admittance to Myra’s inner circle was Joe Chapman. Employed in the Prison Service since 1977 as a therapist for deeply disturbed, violent prisoners and sex offenders, he was invited to counsel Myra at Cookham Wood. He recalls: ‘I was brought in because Myra’s tariff was going to be announced at the end of 1994 and it was my job to support her through it. I got on well with Chris Ellis, the governor at Cookham Wood, but had to take on another six clients to draw attention away from the fact that I was there specifically for Myra. I remember Chris telling me, “You’ve bought a Myra ticket now”, and I soon realised what she meant. Myra set me a test to see if I could be trusted by getting me to send out a letter for her after the post had been and gone. Then I was summonsed to meet David and the campaign group in London. I found myself involved in something very calculated, run along the lines of a military campaign. I was introduced to television companies and very influential people. They were all focused on protecting Myra’s interests.’9

  Every week for a year, Chapman counselled Myra for an hour in a private room: ‘I didn’t know much about her case, but she was astonishingly open. We talked about her childhood first. She’d sort of made her peace with her dad since his death. She talked about his service in the war and the injury he’d sustained. She used to attack him when she was old enough to do so without worrying he could beat her, and it was his war wound she went for, knowing it made him vulnerable – they were serious physical assaults. She was always much closer to her mum and spoke about the guilt she felt towards her because of what had happened. Nellie wasn’t stupid; when I met her she told me, “Myra would have ended up as she did no matter what. If it hadn’t been Brady, it would have been somebody else.” She didn’t believe that Myra went into it with her eyes shut, and said, “She could have told someone within the family what was going on, before the crimes. There was always someone for her to talk to.”

  ‘And Myra told me about her sister, Maureen, whom she still missed dreadfully. She hated Ann West for causing trouble at Maureen’s funeral, even though she had done far, far worse to Lesley. For all Myra’s intelligence, that was the one thing that she wasn’t able to grasp: that people grieve for years and years and had the right to feel the way they did. Nobody should be expected to put away their grief after a certain length of time when they lose their children to murder. But Myra just couldn’t understand that.’10

  They discussed the murders in some depth as part of the therapy: ‘She showed the most emotion when she talked about Lesley, but again, I wasn’t sure where that emotion was coming from – pity for herself because that was the murder that sealed the case against her, or for the little girl herself. I think she did realise how horrific it was, but she had trapped herself in certain stories and didn’t want her supporters to discover the truth about it. She cried when she talked about Lesley, but there was no sign of any upset over Pauline – she spoke about her murder, and those of Keith and John, as if she was reading from a book. Edward, too. Some of Brady’s power and feeling of control over lives appealed to her as well. But I think until the night of Pauline’s murder she never really believed Brady was going to kill. One thing she and I argued about was the word “excitement” in relation to the crimes. When I wrote my report on her, she was very insistent that I should change that. I wouldn’t, because it was entirely relevant. I don’t think she was sexually interested in the children, but I know she got a kick out of the control element. It excited her to be involved in something that was so horrific and which was on everyone’s lips.’11

  Chapman believes that far from hating the media spotlight, Myra actually craved it: ‘The fight for her freedom kept her in the public eye, which was what she wanted. She didn’t want to be forgotten. Not that there was any way that was going to happen. John Kay from The Sun made it his mission to produce something at least once a month, if not more, which was ironic, given his history [John Kay was convicted of the manslaughter of his wife in 1977 on the grounds of diminished responsibility]. That’s why Myra had such a problem with The Sun – she knew that John Kay had taken a life and yet he sat in judgement of her and stayed on the payroll of the paper that led the battle against her.’12 He recalls that any press resulted in a mountain of mail, some of it from well-wishers, and in the early days of their work together, he helped her devise a standard response followed by a butterfly logo to symbolise freedom.

  Chapman also became close to Tricia, at a time when her relationship with Myra was beginning to sour again: ‘Myra referred to her as her partner and Tricia really loved her. She used to say prayers before our counselling sessions so that Myra would find it a positive process. She’d phone afterwards to see if Myra was OK. But twice Myra took Tricia’s life and turned it upside down. Yet Tricia remained loyal to her, even when another woman came into Myra’s life.’13

  The woman was Dutch criminology student Nina Wilde, who arrived at Cookham Wood as part of a placement scheme. When news of their affair broke in the press, Nina told a journalist how she and Myra would have long conversations ‘about philosophy, religion, French and English literature. [Myra] has a very sharp mind and a great wit. She is sensible and sensitive and very good company. She always gets on well with everybody. I felt immediately at ease with her . . . We’ve talked about what happened. It was difficult at first, but Myra has been completely frank with me . . . the person I see now is a different person to the one Brady knew . . . We are both hopeful that one day she will be released.’14

  Nina became Myra’s ‘mentor’ in prison and was assigned to teaching her German and Dutch; she was also given the keys to the prison. The two women began planning their future and Myra made an official application to live abroad upon her release but was informed that she would have to demonstrate she had successfully adjusted to living in a British community before consideration would be given to her request to live elsewhere – Amsterdam was the place she had in mind.

  Anticipating a favourable parole result, the Sunday Mirror ran an article in which Ian threatened to reveal other murders. Chapman witnessed Myra’s shock and anger first hand and asked her outright if there were other victims. She replied (‘stone-faced’): ‘On my mother’s life, which I hold the dearest, there are no others. Not to my knowledge, and certainly none that I have taken a part in, but that’s not to say there aren’t any.’15 When Nina was suspended from work pending an investigation into her relationship with Myra, the press were swift to report the ‘sacking of Myra’s jail lover’.16 Myra cried throughout the counselling sessions with Chapman, insisting she should have the right to see Nina. He recalls: ‘It struck me that aspects of Myra’s relationship with Nina had echoes of the past with Brady, in that it was all-consuming. Myra was obsessive over Nina.’17 Myra pressed David Astor for financial assistance for Nina while she was suspended; he hesitated, explaining to Myra that his position was awkward, more so since Tricia was still living in his house. But when Joe Chapman accused Myra of behaving selfishly, Astor sprang loyally to her defence.

  Myra’s supporters were keen to secure television time for her campaign; Astor spearheaded plans that led to a slot on Heart of the Matter, presented by Joan Bakewell. Astor, Longford, Timms, McCooey, Chapman and Father Bert White – the Roman Catholic chaplain at Cookham Wood to whom Myra had become very close – were all anxious to speak on Myra’s behalf. The show’s producers were quick to notice the absence of any volunteers from Myra’s small circle of female friends and expressed their concern about the preponderance of ‘old men in suits’.18 Tricia refused to participate publicly, although she was involved in the decision-making, and Astor realised that Nina Wilde’s presence would provoke nothing but antipathy. Further difficulties arose when Myra’s solicitors informed the producers that they were against Ann West appearing: ‘Her inclusion in this programme will not allow a prop
er reasoned debate to occur.’19 A follow-up list of pointers from some of Myra’s supporters referred to Lesley’s mother as ‘the most active and vicious ally of The Sun newspaper (and other tabloids). She gives extreme interviews.’ In a codicil, they asserted, ‘nobody in journalism doubts that Mrs West and all these other interviewees are well-paid’, reiterating again that she was ‘a paid propagandist and therefore unsuitable for engaging in an honest discussion’ in response to the producers’ explanation of why Mrs West had been invited to appear.20 In a letter to the director general of the BBC, Myra’s team asked that no other victims’ relatives should be allowed to take part because ‘this might later be held to mean that we had agreed to Mrs Johnson, who is apparently an imitator of Mrs West’.21 The letter stated the withdrawal from the programme of most of Myra’s supporters. Heart of the Matter: Can We Forgive Myra Hindley? went ahead but was not the auspicious showcase Myra’s supporters had envisaged.

  On 7 December 1994, Myra wrote to Astor in low spirits, stating that she had ‘as much freedom as a battery hen’.22 She was angry that Nina had been excluded from her list of approved visitors and had appealed for permission to travel to New Hall Prison in Wakefield to allow her mother to visit: ‘It’s been left so long that she’s now incapable of even walking unassisted in the garden of the sheltered accommodation in which she’s lived since June.’23 Fearing a security breach with the media, the authorities vetoed the idea.

  Myra’s spirits plummeted completely when she was given the news that her tariff had been fixed as whole life. Chapman recalls: ‘She had hoped that somewhere, sometime, there would be a Home Secretary robust enough to put her out there secretly, if not openly. She firmly believed that she could be given a new identity – she referred to the two boys who killed James Bulger and very often to Mary Bell. She felt very strongly that what was good enough for Mary Bell was good enough for her.’24

  At their next meeting that month, Myra read aloud from ‘Revenger’s Tragedy’, a recently published article written by Germaine Greer for The Guardian, which she described as ‘a breath of fresh air in an atmosphere that has begun to choke me’.25 Greer’s article suggests, ‘Perhaps Myra asks for freedom because she has no choice’ and uses an analogy between two field mice that she kept in a bottle until she could resettle them with the rest of their family: the mice ‘would rather run the gauntlet of their predators than stay in their warm newspaper nest surrounded by food’.26 Greer was sympathetic to Myra but appeared less so towards the victims’ families: ‘The evil that flowed out of the Moors Murders spawns anew every time that the people whose lives were blighted by the original acts parade their undimmed vindictiveness . . . May God have mercy on you, Myra Hindley, for ungodly men will have none.’27 Encouraged by the article, Myra arranged for an interview with a Sunday Times journalist. Mimicking Greer’s field mice analogy, Myra described the escape of a bird from the prison aviary: ‘Whatever fate awaited the budgie, it had done what it was created to do – to spread its wings and fly . . . I envied it and still do, whatever became of it.’28

  The interview rebounded; the authorities rapped Myra’s knuckles for instigating additional press coverage, infuriating her. Her resentment increased when she was told that there was no possibility of a visit from Nina because the authorities feared it would ‘resurrect the allegations of last year and with them further adverse publicity’.29 Myra’s legal team attempted to intervene, warning the area manager of Kent’s prisons that if the ruling wasn’t relaxed they might ‘be obliged to write to the Home Secretary informing him that Ms Hindley was now no longer willing to be hypnotised in an attempt to recall the burial place of one of her victims’.30 This bargaining tool referred to a possibility first raised by Peter Topping; Myra had agreed to the proposal then, but Home Secretary Douglas Hurd was against the use of hypnosis in criminal proceedings and permission was refused in 1988.31 Keith’s family had never given up hope that the decision might be reversed under another Home Secretary and, by 1994, as a result of Myra’s compliance, steps were taken towards finding a suitable hypnotherapist.32

  Myra wrote to the authorities herself, insisting that Nina’s visits were a prerequisite if she were to be mentally, psychologically, emotionally and physically fit enough ‘to be able to honour my promise and commitment to the family of Keith Bennett to undergo hypnosis’.33 Resenting the helplessness of her supporters to realise her wish of being reunited with Nina, Myra was fast becoming isolated from the people who had worked hardest on her behalf. Following a report in the Daily Star that her solicitor had requested psychiatric assistance for her to come to terms with the tariff, Myra was placed on suicide watch in January 1995. Afterwards, she remained for some time under permanent observation. Having previously told the authorities that she wanted a transfer from Cookham Wood, but not to Durham, Myra then got it into her head that Durham might offer the best chance of a meeting with Nina Wilde. Her counselling sessions with Joe Chapman came to an end, largely because of internal politics, but she thanked him for all he had done, promised to keep in touch and said he would always be her rock.

  On 1 February, Myra informed the Home Office that due to her treatment in prison she no longer felt mentally or physically capable of undergoing hypnosis. The following month she wrote again, this time to assert that she couldn’t contemplate hypnosis unless she was moved to another prison. Myra was then transferred to Durham. A month after her arrival, she wrote to Chapman that she had fallen in the exercise yard and her left leg had been operated on: ‘I fractured the femur in several places – on Easter Monday. I am now in the male hospital, in considerable pain, having daily physiotherapy. Torture sessions.’34 Nonetheless, she liked the other people in the hospital and was looking forward to a visit from former Middle East envoy Terry Waite, who had been to see her on several occasions.35 She badgered Chapman and David Astor to speed through a grant that Nina needed and persuaded Astor to help Nina out until the money arrived.

  On 30 May, Myra wrote to Astor that she had asked Andrew McCooey to contact Winnie Johnson’s solicitors concerning her ‘regular outbursts’ in the press: ‘She’s become as bad as Mrs West. If she’s so constantly disgusted with or about me, why doesn’t she ask Ian Brady to jeopardise his mental health with hypnosis. Please express my disgust with her in as discreet a way as possible.’36 She was pleased by a letter from Geoff Knupfer in June, wishing her a speedy recovery from her fall and assuring her that he would honour his promise to provide a statement about the part she had played in their investigation. That same month, Joe Chapman sent Myra a copy of his report to accompany the review of her tariff. Although it was very much in her favour, she was adamant that he should remove references to her anger. He was equally unprepared to do so, assuring her that the Parole Board would be more inclined towards a positive response if they could see that she was working through certain issues. He had also argued with Nina Wilde about a remark she had passed about Myra’s ‘old men’ taking up too much of her time. Chapman shared some of his concerns about Myra and Nina with Astor, who advised him that it would be ‘inappropriate to continue to challenge Myra in her difficult circumstances, particularly with an appeal process continuing’.37 He suggested that Chapman should concentrate his efforts on the development of his own charity instead.

  An internal memo dated 26 July 1995 refers again to the issue of hypnosis; the authorities were suspicious of Myra’s ‘delaying tactics . . . it could also be that she is trying to delay hypnosis until nearer the time that her tariff will be reconsidered by ministers in the hope that her co-operation will be taken into account’.38 The memo accused her of ‘attention seeking’ and concluded: ‘We are always aware of Myra Hindley’s ability to manipulate a situation for her own ends.’39 Perhaps in an effort to transform her public profile, Myra agreed to a meeting with former prison inmate Mark Leech, editor of The Prisons Handbook, to discuss his plans for a biography of her. The subsequent press condemnation led to the proposal being swiftly dropped.
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  David Astor was beginning to worry that Myra was moving further into new and unpalatable territory; on 12 October, he wrote to her solicitors: ‘I quite understand that Myra is in a phase when she wishes to contest everything said against her and is wishing to do so herself when she has a chance. While sympathising with her feelings, I am worried that she might appear as a quarrelsome and even self-righteous woman, rather than the reformed and dignified person who has become the victim of a grotesque campaign of abuse. However, that is for her to decide.’40 Nevertheless, he remained active on her behalf.

  On 14 November 1995, Myra drafted her appeal petition. She had little new to add, except: ‘All my years in prison have reinforced my belief that crimes of any kind are totally destructive, not least for the victims, but also for the perpetrators . . . All I would want to do is lead a quiet life; keep out of the public eye, perhaps if possible do something quietly useful, and end my days in relative obscurity.’41 The following month, outraged by an article that labelled her a psychopath, she penned a 5,000-word autobiography for The Guardian, declaring that she was a very different woman to the one who had abducted children from the streets of Manchester. She turned on her accusers, who ‘want to burn all the facets of their own natures which they can’t or won’t confront or deal with’.42 She had become ‘bad by a slow process of corruption’ but insisted that without Ian ‘there would have been no murders, no crime at all. I would have probably got married, had children and by now be a grandmother.’43

  On 29 August 1996, Myra’s solicitors wrote to David Astor to inform him that Myra had received a letter from Winnie Johnson but was no longer willing to undergo hypnosis and ‘is obviously anxious to stop the letters’.44 Plans were put into place to find a doctor who would back Myra’s decision with medical reasons as to why hypnosis was being shelved. She had repaired her friendship with Astor; the following month he responded to her letter about the courage of Auschwitz survivor and broadcaster Rabbi Hugo Gryn, who had recently died: ‘You are quite right about [him]. It is amazing that anyone should go through all that was done to him and to remain as balanced and sane as he did. You ought to know, as you have gone through something of a similar achievement.’45 Although Myra was in poor physical health, her spirits had revived and she wrote a whimsical letter to her solicitor in November, giving her address as ‘M Hindley, “Howard’s End”, 2nd On The Right, Straight On Til Morning, Neverland.’46