Myra Hindley’s recently released prison files give new insights into the woman, her crimes and the institutions that contained her. They include personal papers, prison reports, documents and correspondence, many of which are published here for the first time.
Several books have been written on the Moors Murders case since the trial in 1966, focusing on the crimes and their detection. To date, there has only been one biography ‘proper’, published in 1988: Myra Hindley: Inside the Mind of a Murderess , by Jean Ritchie. Well researched, it was nonetheless written over 20 years ago, before such a vast archive of new documentation was made public, and focused on her life in prison. Duncan Staff’s The Lost Boy (2007) is the most recent publication on the Moors Murders; he met and corresponded with Hindley and was permitted access to some of her personal papers. Despite its subtitle, ‘The definitive story of the Moors Murders and the search for the final victim’, there are a few inaccuracies throughout the book – for instance, the date when Keith Bennett went missing is given as 18 June 1964 when it was in fact 16 June, and the photograph purporting to be of Lesley Ann Downey’s funeral is actually the funeral of John Kilbride. There are others, some of which are flagged in the text as endnotes.
Myra Hindley remains a gauge of female iniquity; One of Your Own is both a study of the woman and her crimes, and an attempt to redress various factual errors that have accumulated over the years.
I am grateful to the many people who have assisted me during the course of writing this book. It is difficult to single out anyone most deserving of thanks, but I must first of all thank Danny Kilbride, who shared at length childhood memories of his brother John and explained quietly and rationally, but no less heartfelt for that, the effect of his loss on his family over the years.
For interviews and source material (and hospitality), I would like to thank Bernard Black and his wife Margaret, Joe Chapman, Allan Grafton, Yvonne Roberts, Duncan Staff (who kindly provided tapes of his documentaries on the case), Father Michael Teader, the Revd Peter Timms and his wife Veronica, and Sara Trevelyan. I am especially grateful to Andrew McCooey for his interview and for extending permission to quote from Myra Hindley’s own words. I must also offer a heartfelt thank you to Mrs Bridget Astor, who generously allowed me access to her husband’s papers, and to Geoffrey Todd and his secretary, Paula Corbett, for making them available to me. Anne Maguire shared painful memories of the wrongful imprisonment inflicted on her and her husband and two sons, and I am grateful to her for talking to me. I’d also like to thank Angela Handley for putting me in touch with Mo Statham and Anne Murdoch. I owe a special debt of thanks to Peter Stanford, who was particularly helpful and kind in giving me access to his letters from Myra Hindley and a (then) unpublished interview with Lady Anne Tree, as well as for putting me in touch with Bridget Astor, Anne Maguire and the Revd Peter Timms, and for providing a lively interview and ideas for further research. Clive Entwistle, the first reporter to speak to Myra Hindley and the most knowledgeable, gave me a terrifically helpful interview; his documentary, The Moors Murders (1999), is exceptional in its detail and accuracy. I must also thank Michael Attwell for his documentary, Myra: The Making of a Monster (2003), and Katie Kinnard for sending me a copy of Martina Cole’s documentary, Lady Killers: Myra Hindley (2008). Thanks, too, to Norman Luck for allowing me to draw on his interview with Dorothy Wing.
I spent a wonderful day with Margaret Mounsey and want to thank her for that and our contact since, and for sharing with me memories of her husband, the redoubtable Joe Mounsey. To Mike Massheder, I offer my thanks for his insights and friendship, and extend the same to Ian Fairley, Tom McVittie and Bob
Several books have been written on the Moors Murders case since the trial in 1966, focusing on the crimes and their detection. To date, there has only been one biography ‘proper’, published in 1988: Myra Hindley: Inside the Mind of a Murderess , by Jean Ritchie. Well researched, it was nonetheless written over 20 years ago, before such a vast archive of new documentation was made public, and focused on her life in prison. Duncan Staff’s The Lost Boy (2007) is the most recent publication on the Moors Murders; he met and corresponded with Hindley and was permitted access to some of her personal papers. Despite its subtitle, ‘The definitive story of the Moors Murders and the search for the final victim’, there are a few inaccuracies throughout the book – for instance, the date when Keith Bennett went missing is given as 18 June 1964 when it was in fact 16 June, and the photograph purporting to be of Lesley Ann Downey’s funeral is actually the funeral of John Kilbride. There are others, some of which are flagged in the text as endnotes.
Myra Hindley remains a gauge of female iniquity; One of Your Own is both a study of the woman and her crimes, and an attempt to redress various factual errors that have accumulated over the years.
I am grateful to the many people who have assisted me during the course of writing this book. It is difficult to single out anyone most deserving of thanks, but I must first of all thank Danny Kilbride, who shared at length childhood memories of his brother John and explained quietly and rationally, but no less heartfelt for that, the effect of his loss on his family over the years.
For interviews and source material (and hospitality), I would like to thank Bernard Black and his wife Margaret, Joe Chapman, Allan Grafton, Yvonne Roberts, Duncan Staff (who kindly provided tapes of his documentaries on the case), Father Michael Teader, the Revd Peter Timms and his wife Veronica, and Sara Trevelyan. I am especially grateful to Andrew McCooey for his interview and for extending permission to quote from Myra Hindley’s own words. I must also offer a heartfelt thank you to Mrs Bridget Astor, who generously allowed me access to her husband’s papers, and to Geoffrey Todd and his secretary, Paula Corbett, for making them available to me. Anne Maguire shared painful memories of the wrongful imprisonment inflicted on her and her husband and two sons, and I am grateful to her for talking to me. I’d also like to thank Angela Handley for putting me in touch with Mo Statham and Anne Murdoch. I owe a special debt of thanks to Peter Stanford, who was particularly helpful and kind in giving me access to his letters from Myra Hindley and a (then) unpublished interview with Lady Anne Tree, as well as for putting me in touch with Bridget Astor, Anne Maguire and the Revd Peter Timms, and for providing a lively interview and ideas for further research. Clive Entwistle, the first reporter to speak to Myra Hindley and the most knowledgeable, gave me a terrifically helpful interview; his documentary, The Moors Murders (1999), is exceptional in its detail and accuracy. I must also thank Michael Attwell for his documentary, Myra: The Making of a Monster (2003), and Katie Kinnard for sending me a copy of Martina Cole’s documentary, Lady Killers: Myra Hindley (2008). Thanks, too, to Norman Luck for allowing me to draw on his interview with Dorothy Wing.
I spent a wonderful day with Margaret Mounsey and want to thank her for that and our contact since, and for sharing with me memories of her husband, the redoubtable Joe Mounsey. To Mike Massheder, I offer my thanks for his insights and friendship, and extend the same to Ian Fairley, Tom McVittie and Bob
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