Ian Brady: Endgames of a Psychopath (2012) Movie Script
Ian Brady, Britain's
notorious child killer.
Sadist, psychopath
and longest serving prisoner.
The abhorrent crimes he committed
with accomplice Myra Hindley
in the 1960s shocked the nation.
This is the story of his attempts
to manipulate and control
throughout nearly half a century
of incarceration
and psychiatric confinement...
told by those who know
and work with him,
many of them talking
for the first time.
'You're one of the very
few people he trusts.'
Possibly.
People try and get into his head
and you won't get into his head.
'You feel yourself
in the presence of a human being'
who isn't really quite human.
One by one,
their bodies were found...
all except Keith Bennett's.
Now 74 and brought close
to death by a recent illness,
Brady has sent a letter,
which suggested he was about to
reveal the secret he has held since
the murders...
A simple prayer
from Keith Bennett's mother,
"Please, find my son's body."
the burial site of Keith Bennett.
'I received a letter.'
Within the sealed envelope
is a letter to Winnie Johnson.
That is the means to her possibly
being able to rest.
Is this a genuine gesture
to help a grieving family,
knowing that Winnie Johnson was
nearing the end of her life,
or one more cruel game
to assert power and satisfy
his sadistic nature?
You see, he's still got
that bit of power...
that bit of power to keep
taunting the families
and taunting Winnie Johnson.
I had been making a film about
Ian Brady's 13-year hunger strike...
his battle to stop being force-fed
by psychiatric authorities
and return to prison.
I'd come to a hotel
outside Liverpool
to meet his mental health advocate,
when events took an unexpected turn.
What's happened?
Is it a very serious
situation, though?
We'll see you in about an hour
and a half, OK? All right, bye.
Moors murderer, Ian Brady,
has been taken to hospital
after reportedly suffering
a seizure.
The 74-year-old child serial killer
was due to attend...
Ian Brady had collapsed
in his high secure psychiatric ward
and been rushed to hospital.
His condition, save for that
his legal team have told me
in the last ten minutes
that he is very, very unwell.
I had a phone call
at approximately three o'clock
to say that he was foaming around
the mouth, he couldn't swallow...
and that he was jerking in the chair.
They brought in a defibrillator
and they started defibrillating.
They then took him
to Fazakerley Hospital.
As his advocate, Jackie's a key
figure in Brady's life...
expressing his wishes
and instructions.
In the 15 years
she's worked with him,
she's become familiar
with the scale of activity
that accompanies his every move.
'Do you feel that a disproportionate
amount of resource
'is going into Ian Brady's case
where other people are lacking?'
The humungous amount of security...
to transport a 74-year-old
man from A to B.
Obviously, he has to go
in an ambulance,
but does he need Armed Response?
And does he need helicopters?
When there's other people that leave
prison, leave hospital, with nothing.
With nothing at all.
News has spread of Brady's condition
and Jackie soon becomes the focus
of constant media interest.
Hello.
Well, nobody knows what
the matter is at the moment.
Are you the lady I spoke to
from Sky before?
I wouldn't be able
to do an interview today.
I'm absolutely up to my eyes.
Oh, for God's sake!
Hello?
Decades on from his crimes,
Brady continues to provoke
intense fascination.
What possible motivation
could he have had
for inflicting such
unimaginable suffering?
Child murders,
that he later described
as, "An existential exercise".
Crimes that had their genesis in an
apparently innocent relationship.
Brady appeared to be
a striking personality...
riding around on a motorbike,
the man from nowhere who knew deep
thoughts, who readbookseven,
who could philosophise.
He decided that he would
prove to her
that he could do something that
was superhuman - take a life.
Cos there is nothing more absolute,
in terms of exercising power
over other people,
than taking their lives.
He wasn't out to demonstrate
he was physically powerful
but mentally powerful.
And to cold bloodedly pick
up a child, abduct that child,
kill that child sadistically
and then anonymously bury it
in a place like the Moors,
demonstrated a powerful mind
that would make an impression
on the girl
that, apparently,
was infatuated with him.
October, 1965.
Acting on a tip-off,
police discover the body
of 17-year-old Edward Evans,
at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue.
He had been bludgeoned with
an axe and strangled.
A few days later,
they recover the bodies of two
children from Saddleworth Moor.
First, Lesley Ann Downey,
who disappeared from a Manchester
fairground two years previously.
She had been raped and strangled.
'I mean, I was, er, 15 at the time.'
I remember meself, me mum...
me dad went on to where
the fairground was
and just going round,
just shouting her name out.
Yeah. Oh, I do remember.
Yeah... even though it was
a long time ago.
But even up to them finding Lesley,
I still had hope that she was alive
cos I didn't think anyone would
harm her, you know.
Days later, the body of 12-year-old
John Kilbride was found.
He, too, has been sexually
assaulted and strangled.
I just couldn't see him
going away with anyone.
He wasn't the kind of boy
who would leave home...
for any reason.
On the 6th of May, 1966,
just six months after the abolition
of the death penalty,
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were each
sentenced to life imprisonment.
For the families of the victims,
time has stood still ever since.
There's no words to express what,
what the feeling is.
You couldn't understand
what the feeling is.
You know, the anger
what's there and...
and plus the passion
for your brother, you know,
and for, for the other little ones,
what's, what, what happened.
And you just can't understand it.
You can't get your head round why.
'This picture, here.
When was that taken?'
That was taken...
it's got to be... two
or three... week,
four week just after John
has gone missing...
yeah.
And then this chair here
was where John sat.
Always stayed like that until
the day where they found John...
cos we always thought
he were coming back.
'How long was it after he went
missing that he was found?'
Two years.
Two years after...
which is a long, long time...
when you're remembering
your brother
and you don't know where
the hell he is, you know?
A long, long time.
Brady and Hindley carried
out the murders
periodically over two years.
During that time,
they would frequently revisit
and photograph each other
at the grave sites of their victims.
Following Brady's arrest,
police discovered these macabre
trophies and other mementos.
A tape recording and photographs
of Lesley Ann Downey
in her last moments.
And Brady's cryptic ledger...
a coldly precise list of actions
to carry out the perfect murder.
'Our Lesley was found on the moors
at the back, where we lived.
'When they actually...'
found her, I just remember going,
going to the, in our house
and, er...
me mum had to go out
to identify her...
and we're just waiting,
you know, waiting to hear.
All the family
was back at the house.
Er...
I just remember her coming
in... and er, just, you know,
just nodding saying,
"Yeah, it was Les", you know.
I can't imagine what me mum
had gone through, you know.
With what she had to see...
what she had to hear.
She always kept things
to herself, me mum. You know?
She wouldn't... she wouldn't
tell me anything, like...
including what was
on them tapes and...
no, she just kept that to herself.
She didn't want us to know.
I wouldn't want to know.
No.
People would talk of these
crimes as being senseless
and they don't make
any sense to normal people,
because they're driven by the impulse
to control and hurt other people,
which is the fundamental
abnormality in sadism.
Many aspects of the killing don't
just involve physical harm.
The actual enjoyment and pleasure
of, of terror in the victim
as well as the, sort of,
the destruction of them,
both physically and also, sort of,
psychologically, is a key component
and one which the individual
finds enormously pleasurable.
How many more
that we don't know about?
How many more has
he got up his sleeve
that he's not said anything about?
Nobody knows, do they?
But the consequences
of Brady's crimes
would not end with his imprisonment.
Nearly 50 years on, he still
attempts to exert power and control
over the families of his victims.
'It'll never die until he's dead.'
When I heard about this
seizure that he had,
I thought that that might be it.
Maybe then we can get on
with our lives properly, then...
but they're ruined.
They're wrecked now, as it is.
'Moors murderer Ian Brady
has been returned
'to Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital
after medical tests...'
Ian Brady was returned to Ashworth
in a serious condition.
The two broken vertebra
he had suffered in his seizure
mean he cannot be force-fed
for the first time
since he began his hunger strike
nearly 13 years ago.
Jackie Powell
is on her way to see him.
Besides his solicitor,
she is the only person
who has permission to visit him.
How has he managed to keep up
the determination to refuse food?
He has a very strong will.
He has an extremely strong will.
He doesn't speak to his care team,
his clinicians, psychologists...
social workers.
He said he feels as if he's dead,
as settled in a grave.
Brady has spent
the last 27 years of his sentence
sectioned
in Ashworth High Secure Hospital.
An institution for which
he's developed a deep antipathy.
Jackie was appointed
Brady's advocate
under the Mental Health Act in 1999.
And what makes that
such a lasting relationship?
I suppose because, unlike
most people, I'm not interested in,
um, what happened 50 years ago.
And I've never questioned him
about his index offences.
It's up to him whether he discusses
them. I never question him over them.
And you feel his rights
are important?
Well, I feel everybody's rights
are important, yeah.
And many would say that
that shouldn't be the case,
but I say, I feel every human being,
whoever they are,
should be treated with, um...
some amount of respect and dignity.
With her longstanding proximity
to Brady,
Jackie was uniquely placed to offer
an insight into his psychopathy,
now directed
towards the institution he loathes.
'Ashworth operates on what I've
termed the crematorium principle.
'Extensive landscaped grounds,
decorative trees and shrubs
'designed exclusively
to impress visitors
'and divert their attention
from the smoky installations
'and the absence of human life.
'In short, Ashworth is merely
an open grave for patients,
'or, more accurately,
a concrete tomb.'
So, that's how he was feeling then.
How would you characterise
his relationship with Ashworth?
He has no relationship
with Ashworth.
He is? Any relationship
was completely broken down in 1999.
'Ian Brady stopped eating
at the end of last month
'because he was angry that
he'd been transferred to a new ward
'from a part of the hospital
he'd been in for four years.'
At the end of 1999,
Brady began the hunger strike
that has lasted to this day.
'Mr Justice Kaye told Ian Brady that
if he continues the hunger strike,
'the high security mental hospital
where he's held
'has the right
to continue to force-feed him.'
Brady has not eaten
for nearly 13 years.
To keep him alive, he's been
force-fed a high calorific liquid
through a nasal gastric tube.
I wanted to understand
what motivates Brady's behaviour.
Has anybody been able to comprehend
the nature of the forces
that drive him?
I went to meet the man
who has represented him
longer than any other.
The eminent civil rights lawyer,
Benedict Birnberg.
What was he like to work with?
Very difficult.
Er, he's an
extremely difficult person.
He's a man with a terrific
built-up sense of anger inside him,
and that's very often
kept him going over the years.
Anger directed at various things
and people.
Institutions, of course,
like the prison and the hospital,
um, newspapers... er, doctors,
even solicitors and so on, you know.
It boils up in him and, er,
that's part of his pathology.
According to the logic
of that pathology,
by committing the murders,
Brady proved to himself
that he was above morality.
And even after imprisonment,
Hindley remained faithful to him
and his ideal.
Brady created this killing cult
that was a cult of two.
He had sunk everything
into proving
what a powerful personality he was.
This was his cocoon,
his little world,
a demented mind
that could apparently see clearly,
that had constructed a reality
to make sense of his existence.
It was a perverse existence,
of course,
and innocent children
paid the price.
Despite their separation,
the bond remained powerful.
Brady staged the first
of many hunger strikes
after he was denied
conjugal visits in 1970.
He believed he was in spiritual
communication with Myra Hindley.
This then
became part of his initial battle,
that he
inappropriately was insisting
on having visits from Myra Hindley,
and he went on hunger strike
to try and get... achieve that.
It was a union that provided an
outlet for Brady's sadistic urges.
But, ultimately,
the possibility of freedom
became more important
to Myra Hindley.
In May, 1972, she wrote to him,
breaking off their relationship.
She betrayed him by denying the
sanctity of that cult that they had.
Namely that they
had killed children.
For Brady, it was more than
the loss of a relationship.
It was the destruction of the
pre-eminent symbol of his powers.
The nature of the hunger strikes
and his demands
seemed to become more bizarre,
and also, the nature of his
preoccupation with starvation
and food became increasingly bizarre.
Things like putting large amounts
of salt on his food so he vomited.
So his mental state
deteriorated very severely
and he appeared to be
starving himself to death,
not any longer in a protest,
but on the basis
of very bizarre beliefs.
I think that the battle
we're talking about,
this battle with authority,
it's not a battle with authority,
it's a battle in his mind
with himself.
Over the course of the 1970s,
Brady's mental condition
deteriorated towards psychosis.
But he was to find an ally in the
prison reformer, Lord Longford,
who famously became involved
with the Moors murderers
and agitated for Brady's transfer
to psychiatric care.
You visited Brady quite recently.
How would you sum up his condition?
Well, I'm not a medical man,
but I've never seen anybody
who looked quite so ill.
By that time, Brady had been
in prison for 18 years,
mainly in solitary confinement.
He looks like a skeleton.
There is a mental factor there.
It was Lord Longford who introduced
Brady to Benedict Birnberg.
Despite the onset of mental illness,
Brady's need for control
compelled him to fight
countless legal campaigns.
I've never come across anyone,
any prisoner who's such
an inveterate litigator
as Ian Brady.
He had running battles
with authority throughout his time
right up to now, in fact.
He's an inveterate campaigner.
As pressure mounted for his transfer
to a special hospital,
a journalist, Fred Harrison,
started visiting him in prison.
At the time I was seeing him he was
still tormented as an individual,
not by the guilt of what he had
done, but by the whole history
of what became
the personality of Ian Brady.
At the same time, Longford was
spearheading a public campaign
for Hindley's parole.
A good many people have come
to know and like her very much,
so I should have said
she was completely ready.
She has been for years,
if it comes to that.
Brady knew that was a fake.
That it was a show for the sake
of people like Lord Longford.
It left him angry and
he wanted to do anything he could,
assuming he could,
to block her getting out.
And so I believe that
part of his motivation was
that by feeding me enough
information about her complicity,
that that would damage her prospects
of securing parole.
'Police have now been searching the
moors for a week without success.
'Chief Superintendant Topping...'
1986. Fred Harrison's revelations
cause a sensation.
In an attempt
to salvage her bid for parole,
Hindley confessed to her involvement
in other murders
and assists the police
in their search for bodies.
'Myra Hindley pointed police
towards Shining Brook, two miles
'from where Lesley Ann Downey
and John Kilbride were buried.'
The body of 16-year-old
Pauline Reade,
missing for over two decades,
was found the following year.
We've recovered a body that's been
in the ground for a long time.
The body is well preserved.
For Brady, choosing to reveal
details to Fred Harrison
was more than just revenge
on Hindley.
It was a chance
for him to gain omnipotence
over the macabre crimes
that he once described
as "an existential exercise".
The world was as it was
and as he had established it
and the order
was being upset by Myra Hindley.
He re-established control
over that world and her life as well.
'A high speed convoy took Ian Brady
into the outside world
'for the first time
in 21 years this morning,
'collecting him at dawn
from his Merseyside mental...'
Some months later Brady announced to
police he would assist their search
for his undiscovered victim,
Keith Bennett.
He sounded on the phone
very confident,
self-assertive and so on, and
something which is quite new to me.
Once on the moor, police observed
Brady walking purposefully
in a specific direction.
But then he claimed to be
disorientated and confused
by changes to the landscape.
Keith Bennett's body
remained unfound.
Withholding information
as to where bodies might be buried
is an enormously
pleasurable sense of control
for somebody
who is obsessed with control.
'No site was found.
'After 11 hours on the moor, Brady
was led back to a Range Rover.'
Malcolm MacCulloch, the psychiatrist
who treated Brady in the 1980s,
suggested he may have had another
motive for assisting the police.
It's just possible that
Ian Brady was on the moor
and checked the site
without letting on, as it were.
Final control
is the possession of the body.
"I know, you don't know.
"You want to know,
and I'm not going to tell you."
He knows.
You see, he's still got
that bit of power, hasn't he?
That bit of power
to keep taunting the families.
And while he's still got that,
he thinks he's in charge, don't he?
July, 2012.
Ian Brady's condition is worsening.
Recently, Jackie Powell's role
has developed.
She is executor to Brady's will,
and in light
of his precarious health,
she's taken on
additional legal responsibilities.
All he wanted to do was
get on with the Power of Attorney
and make sure
the doctors knew about it.
What do you mean?
The Power of Attorney, as to whether
he gets resuscitated or not.
What's your feeling?
Well, I just feel that he's probably
given up the will to fight.
He doesn't look as if
he's got anything left in him.
So, the difficulty is,
with him lying flat on his back
and the emphysema,
the feed coagulating in his lung area
and therefore either choking him,
drowning him
or him getting pneumonia.
It appears that Brady
will end his days
within the walls of the institution
he loathes.
Brady was first moved
to Ashworth Hospital in 1985
after developing
acute psychotic symptoms,
hearing voices and
exhibiting delusional behaviour.
'I took the view then...'
that anyone who commits crimes
of this order
'really needs psychiatric treatment,
because...'
no rational person would commit
the crimes that Brady committed.
In the clinical setting
of Ashworth,
Brady's more extreme
psychotic symptoms
abated with a regime of medication.
But fundamentally, Brady's
psychopathy was untreatable.
'The interview'
was, in fact,
about a battle of control.
'It was more like
listening to a monologue than'
engaging in a conversation.
'This was somebody'
who would manipulate me
to his own ends if he could.
'After several meetings with him, '
I was quite glad not to have
any further involvement in the case,
really.
His new circumstances
afforded him greater freedoms.
He was able to correspond
with the outside world,
allowing him to seek an audience
less likely to challenge him.
Among them, the now retired
religious studies teacher,
Alan Keighley.
Jesus Christ.
I use this, you know,
teaching about...
On Evil course.
Teaching On Evil course?
But generally, you say
he wouldn't engage with clinicians
or the psychiatrists at Ashworth?
No, no.
Why not?
Brady didn't merely dismiss
his psychiatrists.
As I would learn,
he now claims he manipulated them
in order to orchestrate his move
to Ashworth.
What are all the notes that he's
added to this? What's he writing?
These are notations he's made.
I caught sight of a note
in Brady's handwriting
on a document relating to
a mental health tribunal.
Stanislav...
Is that Stanislavski?
That's exactly right.
He's a method acting teacher.
Why is his name in there?
He states that he used
this methodology
whilst in prison
by mimicking other patients
whilst he worked
on the hospital wing there.
So, he faked his diagnosis?
He faked his symptoms in order to
get moved from prison to hospital?
That's what he's stating, yes, yeah.
Is that something
you're familiar with?
It's not something I'm familiar
with, but I'm not surprised by it.
He's perfectly capable
of doing that.
'A man like this will want to'
dupe anybody because
he has a psychopathic personality,
'but I think it's quite difficult to'
con people with the symptoms
he was manifesting.
Brady's promotion of his grandiose
self image knew no bounds.
The sinister dimensions
of his narcissism
were never far from the surface.
He said another very interesting
thing during his interview,
was that he... he, umm...
maintained that some of the victims,
or two of the victims, the cause
of death had not been established.
What I felt that he was implying
was that, actually,
he had frightened them to death,
that, actually, his ability
to be so powerful, psychologically...
meant that, umm...
the pathologists
had been unable to determine
the exact cause of death
of the child.
And what I thought
he might be implying
was that he was so powerful,
mentally,
that he had frightened
this child to death.
Brady's pathology had proved
untreatable to his clinicians.
In 1999,
the hospital tightened security
and he was moved to another ward.
"On the morning of
the 30th of September, 1999,
"a crowd of prison warders
in riot gear,
"crash helmets, plastic shields,
"padded jackets,
rushed in, held my arms
"violently up behind my back,
"pushed my head to the floor and,
"always held in these violent holds,
"wrenched and dragged me around
like a parcel for over an hour."
Brady's possessions
were confiscated.
He was stripped of his privileges.
In protest, he immediately
went on hunger strike.
This was to become
his most enduring campaign of all.
He was taken over
to the medical centre
and a tube was inserted
up his nose and into his stomach.
And what was that scene like
to witness?
Not very pleasant.
He was then X-rayed to make sure
the tube was in position.
It wasn't the first time, so
they had to do it the second time.
And what was the atmosphere like
in the room?
Well, extremely tense.
Did he not want to resist that?
He did resist, verbally.
He wants his...
his wishes known
that he does not agree
or wish to have this tube inserted.
'Back in court after 34 years,
'Ian Brady pleads, "Let me die."'
This hunger strike was different.
His only demand was
to be allowed to end his life.
He went to the High Court
in a bid to stop force-feeding.
I was asked to comment
upon his mental capacity,
and, in fact,
I thought he did understand that
what he was doing was
potentially putting his life at risk.
Doctor Collins,
Brady's responsible clinician
at Ashworth,
called his hunger strike...
'The one thing you don't want'
to do with a person with psychopathy
is get into a battle of wills.
Brady...
'There's something'
gratifying for the individual
about a battle of wills.
And he is still determined
to end his life?
Yes. I mean, he has no requests,
no demands,
apart from he wants
to have the right to die.
A person with psychopathy's not
going to back down in that battle.
It was quite a dramatic
and tense environment.
'Leave to appeal was denied
by the court today,
'but his solicitor says Ian Brady
is determined to fight on.'
I think people did, you know, did
suffer from the strain of everything.
'Brady is now being taken back
to Ashworth Hospital,
'where he will continue to be fed
through a plastic tube.'
'And we recollect Ashworth's
psychiatrist saying, you know, '
it was more demanding
dealing with him than, perhaps,
the rest of a ward put together.
Mr Justice Maurice Kay agreed that
the proceedings were a staging post,
and his intention was to protest
and to win a power struggle,
but not to die.
The court's decision to continue
force-feeding set in train
a stand-off between Ashworth
and Brady that would last until now.
'When you think of somebody
like Ian Brady,
'you're getting somebody
right down the very furthest end
'of the spectrum,
and by that time, '
you're dealing with something which
psychiatry is not really very...
or psychology is still not very good
at really defining and explaining.
But actually, you're dealing with
a very, very unusual
and very extreme human being.
Almost half a century has passed
since the horrific murders
committed by
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
were uncovered on Saddleworth Moor.
Despite the decades,
this desolate landscape
still maintains
Brady's last secret...
the undiscovered grave
of victim Keith Bennett,
who was murdered four days
after his 12th birthday in 1964.
A simple prayer
from Keith Bennett's mother.
"Please find my son's body."
Despite the official police search
being called off in 2009,
Keith Bennett's mother,
Winnie Johnson,
continued to search for her missing
son for the rest of her life.
I will never give up.
Never in a month of Sundays.
If it takes me to me grave,
I'll carry on till then.
Before her recent death,
Winnie's final wish was to give her
missing son a proper burial.
And in his final days, Brady remains
the only remaining hope
for those still searching
for Keith Bennett's remains.
To think that...
he's going to die,
but he's going to take that
to the grave with him,
where Keith is.
And I feel so sorry for Winnie.
I really, really do.
He's the only one what knows.
He's the only one
what can put Winnie to rest.
I'nt he?
All the hope what Winnie's got
lies on him.
A month before Winnie Johnson's
death, Jackie Powell told me
about some instructions
she had unexpectedly received from
Ian Brady.
I received a letter
and a sealed envelope
which said on the front of it,
"To be opened
in the event of my death."
He says he doesn't wish
to take secrets to his grave
and that within the sealed envelope
is a letter to Winnie Johnson.
Within that is the means to her
possibly being able to rest.
And that's paraphrase,
that's not verbatim.
What does he mean by that?
Well, clearly there's something
within the letter that may...
be able to...
find her son, I would suggest.
And he's given the impression to you
over the years
that he knows exactly
where the body is?
He's more than given me
the impression.
He has told me that he knows
where the body is,
and I've told police that.
You went to the police voluntarily?
I have told police.
The police came and interviewed me.
So it's kind of like
a victory dance, isn't it?
Well, I wouldn't say...
Give you information
on my death and...
it's saying that
I have possession of the body
right up until my death.
I don't like that at all.
- No?
- No, I don't like the way
you're putting that at all.
- I don't like that at all.
- Isn't that what it is?
Isn't that what you're saying?
- I don't like that at all.
- Why not?
I don't like the way you put that,
"victory dance."
I don't like those words, Paddy.
But it is a power game, isn't it?
Well, anybody with
any psychopathology,
obviously there is an...
aspect of their personality
is that of power and control.
So, of course it's a power.
Of course it's a control mechanism.
If you look at the person
for who the person is,
then it would quite clearly...
anybody with a psychopathology
would have these traits about them.
But if you've got this information
you have to pass it on...
No, go no further. We stop here.
Why, why, why?
Stop here, Ed, stop here. Stop here.
Why? I'm just trying to understand
the situation you're in
and the dilemma that you face
and what you need to do about it.
What have you done in the past...?
When you've been given
knowledge of something...
I don't know what's in the envelope.
It's sealed.
Yeah.
So what do you think might be
in that letter then?
Well, to be perfectly honest
with you,
there might be nothing
in the letter.
Many games have been played before.
That is the mind of a psychopath.
And so, until I'm actually sure
what's in the letter,
and that thereissomething
in the letter,
then morally, I'm in a dilemma,
yes.
But until I'm actually sure
that there is something
in the letter,
then I can't really act.
You're not tempted just to open it?
Professionally that wouldn't be,
and that possibly is why
I've got a letter.
To see if I would open it.
So what are you... what are you
going to do about it?
I mean what do you do about it?
Well, I don't know what
I'm going to do, Paddy.
I don't know.
Jackie wouldn't show me
the sealed envelope
addressed to Winnie Johnson.
But whatever its contents,
it has come too late for Winnie.
And Brady's instruction that it only
be opened after his death
seems to show that this was not an
act of empathy for the families or
remorse for his crimes.
It is difficult to see this as
anything other than yet another
example of his cruel games.
When I interviewed him,
he was absolutely adamant
that he had no remorse whatsoever,
and he told me that everyone
would wait till doomsday
before he would ever express
any remorse for what he had done.
This will go on till
the end of his life.
You have to see Ian Brady as someone
who's had grossly abnormal
personality traits...
sadism...
intermittent episodes
of severe mental illness
that come and go.
But most of all,
the psychopathic personality.
And this has been present
since childhood.
Throughout his adolescence
it's continued,
and although he's older, the same
features of his abnormal personality
are as alive today as they were
right back at the beginning.
'He's always there.'
It's almost like it's a sort of
shadow in your life all the time.
Yeah, it is. It is, honestly.
It is a shadow in your life.
He's still got us all.
He's still got all the families.
But...
you're not gonna beat it
out of him,
where Keith is, are you?
You know. The main thing now
is that...
we find Keith.
Not hoping for any apologies
or sorries or anything like that.
Just, where is Keith?
I just wake up
wishing that he'd be dead.
I'll jump for joy
and that's the truth.
Sooner he's out the way, the better.
Just waiting for that day now.
notorious child killer.
Sadist, psychopath
and longest serving prisoner.
The abhorrent crimes he committed
with accomplice Myra Hindley
in the 1960s shocked the nation.
This is the story of his attempts
to manipulate and control
throughout nearly half a century
of incarceration
and psychiatric confinement...
told by those who know
and work with him,
many of them talking
for the first time.
'You're one of the very
few people he trusts.'
Possibly.
People try and get into his head
and you won't get into his head.
'You feel yourself
in the presence of a human being'
who isn't really quite human.
One by one,
their bodies were found...
all except Keith Bennett's.
Now 74 and brought close
to death by a recent illness,
Brady has sent a letter,
which suggested he was about to
reveal the secret he has held since
the murders...
A simple prayer
from Keith Bennett's mother,
"Please, find my son's body."
the burial site of Keith Bennett.
'I received a letter.'
Within the sealed envelope
is a letter to Winnie Johnson.
That is the means to her possibly
being able to rest.
Is this a genuine gesture
to help a grieving family,
knowing that Winnie Johnson was
nearing the end of her life,
or one more cruel game
to assert power and satisfy
his sadistic nature?
You see, he's still got
that bit of power...
that bit of power to keep
taunting the families
and taunting Winnie Johnson.
I had been making a film about
Ian Brady's 13-year hunger strike...
his battle to stop being force-fed
by psychiatric authorities
and return to prison.
I'd come to a hotel
outside Liverpool
to meet his mental health advocate,
when events took an unexpected turn.
What's happened?
Is it a very serious
situation, though?
We'll see you in about an hour
and a half, OK? All right, bye.
Moors murderer, Ian Brady,
has been taken to hospital
after reportedly suffering
a seizure.
The 74-year-old child serial killer
was due to attend...
Ian Brady had collapsed
in his high secure psychiatric ward
and been rushed to hospital.
His condition, save for that
his legal team have told me
in the last ten minutes
that he is very, very unwell.
I had a phone call
at approximately three o'clock
to say that he was foaming around
the mouth, he couldn't swallow...
and that he was jerking in the chair.
They brought in a defibrillator
and they started defibrillating.
They then took him
to Fazakerley Hospital.
As his advocate, Jackie's a key
figure in Brady's life...
expressing his wishes
and instructions.
In the 15 years
she's worked with him,
she's become familiar
with the scale of activity
that accompanies his every move.
'Do you feel that a disproportionate
amount of resource
'is going into Ian Brady's case
where other people are lacking?'
The humungous amount of security...
to transport a 74-year-old
man from A to B.
Obviously, he has to go
in an ambulance,
but does he need Armed Response?
And does he need helicopters?
When there's other people that leave
prison, leave hospital, with nothing.
With nothing at all.
News has spread of Brady's condition
and Jackie soon becomes the focus
of constant media interest.
Hello.
Well, nobody knows what
the matter is at the moment.
Are you the lady I spoke to
from Sky before?
I wouldn't be able
to do an interview today.
I'm absolutely up to my eyes.
Oh, for God's sake!
Hello?
Decades on from his crimes,
Brady continues to provoke
intense fascination.
What possible motivation
could he have had
for inflicting such
unimaginable suffering?
Child murders,
that he later described
as, "An existential exercise".
Crimes that had their genesis in an
apparently innocent relationship.
Brady appeared to be
a striking personality...
riding around on a motorbike,
the man from nowhere who knew deep
thoughts, who readbookseven,
who could philosophise.
He decided that he would
prove to her
that he could do something that
was superhuman - take a life.
Cos there is nothing more absolute,
in terms of exercising power
over other people,
than taking their lives.
He wasn't out to demonstrate
he was physically powerful
but mentally powerful.
And to cold bloodedly pick
up a child, abduct that child,
kill that child sadistically
and then anonymously bury it
in a place like the Moors,
demonstrated a powerful mind
that would make an impression
on the girl
that, apparently,
was infatuated with him.
October, 1965.
Acting on a tip-off,
police discover the body
of 17-year-old Edward Evans,
at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue.
He had been bludgeoned with
an axe and strangled.
A few days later,
they recover the bodies of two
children from Saddleworth Moor.
First, Lesley Ann Downey,
who disappeared from a Manchester
fairground two years previously.
She had been raped and strangled.
'I mean, I was, er, 15 at the time.'
I remember meself, me mum...
me dad went on to where
the fairground was
and just going round,
just shouting her name out.
Yeah. Oh, I do remember.
Yeah... even though it was
a long time ago.
But even up to them finding Lesley,
I still had hope that she was alive
cos I didn't think anyone would
harm her, you know.
Days later, the body of 12-year-old
John Kilbride was found.
He, too, has been sexually
assaulted and strangled.
I just couldn't see him
going away with anyone.
He wasn't the kind of boy
who would leave home...
for any reason.
On the 6th of May, 1966,
just six months after the abolition
of the death penalty,
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were each
sentenced to life imprisonment.
For the families of the victims,
time has stood still ever since.
There's no words to express what,
what the feeling is.
You couldn't understand
what the feeling is.
You know, the anger
what's there and...
and plus the passion
for your brother, you know,
and for, for the other little ones,
what's, what, what happened.
And you just can't understand it.
You can't get your head round why.
'This picture, here.
When was that taken?'
That was taken...
it's got to be... two
or three... week,
four week just after John
has gone missing...
yeah.
And then this chair here
was where John sat.
Always stayed like that until
the day where they found John...
cos we always thought
he were coming back.
'How long was it after he went
missing that he was found?'
Two years.
Two years after...
which is a long, long time...
when you're remembering
your brother
and you don't know where
the hell he is, you know?
A long, long time.
Brady and Hindley carried
out the murders
periodically over two years.
During that time,
they would frequently revisit
and photograph each other
at the grave sites of their victims.
Following Brady's arrest,
police discovered these macabre
trophies and other mementos.
A tape recording and photographs
of Lesley Ann Downey
in her last moments.
And Brady's cryptic ledger...
a coldly precise list of actions
to carry out the perfect murder.
'Our Lesley was found on the moors
at the back, where we lived.
'When they actually...'
found her, I just remember going,
going to the, in our house
and, er...
me mum had to go out
to identify her...
and we're just waiting,
you know, waiting to hear.
All the family
was back at the house.
Er...
I just remember her coming
in... and er, just, you know,
just nodding saying,
"Yeah, it was Les", you know.
I can't imagine what me mum
had gone through, you know.
With what she had to see...
what she had to hear.
She always kept things
to herself, me mum. You know?
She wouldn't... she wouldn't
tell me anything, like...
including what was
on them tapes and...
no, she just kept that to herself.
She didn't want us to know.
I wouldn't want to know.
No.
People would talk of these
crimes as being senseless
and they don't make
any sense to normal people,
because they're driven by the impulse
to control and hurt other people,
which is the fundamental
abnormality in sadism.
Many aspects of the killing don't
just involve physical harm.
The actual enjoyment and pleasure
of, of terror in the victim
as well as the, sort of,
the destruction of them,
both physically and also, sort of,
psychologically, is a key component
and one which the individual
finds enormously pleasurable.
How many more
that we don't know about?
How many more has
he got up his sleeve
that he's not said anything about?
Nobody knows, do they?
But the consequences
of Brady's crimes
would not end with his imprisonment.
Nearly 50 years on, he still
attempts to exert power and control
over the families of his victims.
'It'll never die until he's dead.'
When I heard about this
seizure that he had,
I thought that that might be it.
Maybe then we can get on
with our lives properly, then...
but they're ruined.
They're wrecked now, as it is.
'Moors murderer Ian Brady
has been returned
'to Ashworth Psychiatric Hospital
after medical tests...'
Ian Brady was returned to Ashworth
in a serious condition.
The two broken vertebra
he had suffered in his seizure
mean he cannot be force-fed
for the first time
since he began his hunger strike
nearly 13 years ago.
Jackie Powell
is on her way to see him.
Besides his solicitor,
she is the only person
who has permission to visit him.
How has he managed to keep up
the determination to refuse food?
He has a very strong will.
He has an extremely strong will.
He doesn't speak to his care team,
his clinicians, psychologists...
social workers.
He said he feels as if he's dead,
as settled in a grave.
Brady has spent
the last 27 years of his sentence
sectioned
in Ashworth High Secure Hospital.
An institution for which
he's developed a deep antipathy.
Jackie was appointed
Brady's advocate
under the Mental Health Act in 1999.
And what makes that
such a lasting relationship?
I suppose because, unlike
most people, I'm not interested in,
um, what happened 50 years ago.
And I've never questioned him
about his index offences.
It's up to him whether he discusses
them. I never question him over them.
And you feel his rights
are important?
Well, I feel everybody's rights
are important, yeah.
And many would say that
that shouldn't be the case,
but I say, I feel every human being,
whoever they are,
should be treated with, um...
some amount of respect and dignity.
With her longstanding proximity
to Brady,
Jackie was uniquely placed to offer
an insight into his psychopathy,
now directed
towards the institution he loathes.
'Ashworth operates on what I've
termed the crematorium principle.
'Extensive landscaped grounds,
decorative trees and shrubs
'designed exclusively
to impress visitors
'and divert their attention
from the smoky installations
'and the absence of human life.
'In short, Ashworth is merely
an open grave for patients,
'or, more accurately,
a concrete tomb.'
So, that's how he was feeling then.
How would you characterise
his relationship with Ashworth?
He has no relationship
with Ashworth.
He is? Any relationship
was completely broken down in 1999.
'Ian Brady stopped eating
at the end of last month
'because he was angry that
he'd been transferred to a new ward
'from a part of the hospital
he'd been in for four years.'
At the end of 1999,
Brady began the hunger strike
that has lasted to this day.
'Mr Justice Kaye told Ian Brady that
if he continues the hunger strike,
'the high security mental hospital
where he's held
'has the right
to continue to force-feed him.'
Brady has not eaten
for nearly 13 years.
To keep him alive, he's been
force-fed a high calorific liquid
through a nasal gastric tube.
I wanted to understand
what motivates Brady's behaviour.
Has anybody been able to comprehend
the nature of the forces
that drive him?
I went to meet the man
who has represented him
longer than any other.
The eminent civil rights lawyer,
Benedict Birnberg.
What was he like to work with?
Very difficult.
Er, he's an
extremely difficult person.
He's a man with a terrific
built-up sense of anger inside him,
and that's very often
kept him going over the years.
Anger directed at various things
and people.
Institutions, of course,
like the prison and the hospital,
um, newspapers... er, doctors,
even solicitors and so on, you know.
It boils up in him and, er,
that's part of his pathology.
According to the logic
of that pathology,
by committing the murders,
Brady proved to himself
that he was above morality.
And even after imprisonment,
Hindley remained faithful to him
and his ideal.
Brady created this killing cult
that was a cult of two.
He had sunk everything
into proving
what a powerful personality he was.
This was his cocoon,
his little world,
a demented mind
that could apparently see clearly,
that had constructed a reality
to make sense of his existence.
It was a perverse existence,
of course,
and innocent children
paid the price.
Despite their separation,
the bond remained powerful.
Brady staged the first
of many hunger strikes
after he was denied
conjugal visits in 1970.
He believed he was in spiritual
communication with Myra Hindley.
This then
became part of his initial battle,
that he
inappropriately was insisting
on having visits from Myra Hindley,
and he went on hunger strike
to try and get... achieve that.
It was a union that provided an
outlet for Brady's sadistic urges.
But, ultimately,
the possibility of freedom
became more important
to Myra Hindley.
In May, 1972, she wrote to him,
breaking off their relationship.
She betrayed him by denying the
sanctity of that cult that they had.
Namely that they
had killed children.
For Brady, it was more than
the loss of a relationship.
It was the destruction of the
pre-eminent symbol of his powers.
The nature of the hunger strikes
and his demands
seemed to become more bizarre,
and also, the nature of his
preoccupation with starvation
and food became increasingly bizarre.
Things like putting large amounts
of salt on his food so he vomited.
So his mental state
deteriorated very severely
and he appeared to be
starving himself to death,
not any longer in a protest,
but on the basis
of very bizarre beliefs.
I think that the battle
we're talking about,
this battle with authority,
it's not a battle with authority,
it's a battle in his mind
with himself.
Over the course of the 1970s,
Brady's mental condition
deteriorated towards psychosis.
But he was to find an ally in the
prison reformer, Lord Longford,
who famously became involved
with the Moors murderers
and agitated for Brady's transfer
to psychiatric care.
You visited Brady quite recently.
How would you sum up his condition?
Well, I'm not a medical man,
but I've never seen anybody
who looked quite so ill.
By that time, Brady had been
in prison for 18 years,
mainly in solitary confinement.
He looks like a skeleton.
There is a mental factor there.
It was Lord Longford who introduced
Brady to Benedict Birnberg.
Despite the onset of mental illness,
Brady's need for control
compelled him to fight
countless legal campaigns.
I've never come across anyone,
any prisoner who's such
an inveterate litigator
as Ian Brady.
He had running battles
with authority throughout his time
right up to now, in fact.
He's an inveterate campaigner.
As pressure mounted for his transfer
to a special hospital,
a journalist, Fred Harrison,
started visiting him in prison.
At the time I was seeing him he was
still tormented as an individual,
not by the guilt of what he had
done, but by the whole history
of what became
the personality of Ian Brady.
At the same time, Longford was
spearheading a public campaign
for Hindley's parole.
A good many people have come
to know and like her very much,
so I should have said
she was completely ready.
She has been for years,
if it comes to that.
Brady knew that was a fake.
That it was a show for the sake
of people like Lord Longford.
It left him angry and
he wanted to do anything he could,
assuming he could,
to block her getting out.
And so I believe that
part of his motivation was
that by feeding me enough
information about her complicity,
that that would damage her prospects
of securing parole.
'Police have now been searching the
moors for a week without success.
'Chief Superintendant Topping...'
1986. Fred Harrison's revelations
cause a sensation.
In an attempt
to salvage her bid for parole,
Hindley confessed to her involvement
in other murders
and assists the police
in their search for bodies.
'Myra Hindley pointed police
towards Shining Brook, two miles
'from where Lesley Ann Downey
and John Kilbride were buried.'
The body of 16-year-old
Pauline Reade,
missing for over two decades,
was found the following year.
We've recovered a body that's been
in the ground for a long time.
The body is well preserved.
For Brady, choosing to reveal
details to Fred Harrison
was more than just revenge
on Hindley.
It was a chance
for him to gain omnipotence
over the macabre crimes
that he once described
as "an existential exercise".
The world was as it was
and as he had established it
and the order
was being upset by Myra Hindley.
He re-established control
over that world and her life as well.
'A high speed convoy took Ian Brady
into the outside world
'for the first time
in 21 years this morning,
'collecting him at dawn
from his Merseyside mental...'
Some months later Brady announced to
police he would assist their search
for his undiscovered victim,
Keith Bennett.
He sounded on the phone
very confident,
self-assertive and so on, and
something which is quite new to me.
Once on the moor, police observed
Brady walking purposefully
in a specific direction.
But then he claimed to be
disorientated and confused
by changes to the landscape.
Keith Bennett's body
remained unfound.
Withholding information
as to where bodies might be buried
is an enormously
pleasurable sense of control
for somebody
who is obsessed with control.
'No site was found.
'After 11 hours on the moor, Brady
was led back to a Range Rover.'
Malcolm MacCulloch, the psychiatrist
who treated Brady in the 1980s,
suggested he may have had another
motive for assisting the police.
It's just possible that
Ian Brady was on the moor
and checked the site
without letting on, as it were.
Final control
is the possession of the body.
"I know, you don't know.
"You want to know,
and I'm not going to tell you."
He knows.
You see, he's still got
that bit of power, hasn't he?
That bit of power
to keep taunting the families.
And while he's still got that,
he thinks he's in charge, don't he?
July, 2012.
Ian Brady's condition is worsening.
Recently, Jackie Powell's role
has developed.
She is executor to Brady's will,
and in light
of his precarious health,
she's taken on
additional legal responsibilities.
All he wanted to do was
get on with the Power of Attorney
and make sure
the doctors knew about it.
What do you mean?
The Power of Attorney, as to whether
he gets resuscitated or not.
What's your feeling?
Well, I just feel that he's probably
given up the will to fight.
He doesn't look as if
he's got anything left in him.
So, the difficulty is,
with him lying flat on his back
and the emphysema,
the feed coagulating in his lung area
and therefore either choking him,
drowning him
or him getting pneumonia.
It appears that Brady
will end his days
within the walls of the institution
he loathes.
Brady was first moved
to Ashworth Hospital in 1985
after developing
acute psychotic symptoms,
hearing voices and
exhibiting delusional behaviour.
'I took the view then...'
that anyone who commits crimes
of this order
'really needs psychiatric treatment,
because...'
no rational person would commit
the crimes that Brady committed.
In the clinical setting
of Ashworth,
Brady's more extreme
psychotic symptoms
abated with a regime of medication.
But fundamentally, Brady's
psychopathy was untreatable.
'The interview'
was, in fact,
about a battle of control.
'It was more like
listening to a monologue than'
engaging in a conversation.
'This was somebody'
who would manipulate me
to his own ends if he could.
'After several meetings with him, '
I was quite glad not to have
any further involvement in the case,
really.
His new circumstances
afforded him greater freedoms.
He was able to correspond
with the outside world,
allowing him to seek an audience
less likely to challenge him.
Among them, the now retired
religious studies teacher,
Alan Keighley.
Jesus Christ.
I use this, you know,
teaching about...
On Evil course.
Teaching On Evil course?
But generally, you say
he wouldn't engage with clinicians
or the psychiatrists at Ashworth?
No, no.
Why not?
Brady didn't merely dismiss
his psychiatrists.
As I would learn,
he now claims he manipulated them
in order to orchestrate his move
to Ashworth.
What are all the notes that he's
added to this? What's he writing?
These are notations he's made.
I caught sight of a note
in Brady's handwriting
on a document relating to
a mental health tribunal.
Stanislav...
Is that Stanislavski?
That's exactly right.
He's a method acting teacher.
Why is his name in there?
He states that he used
this methodology
whilst in prison
by mimicking other patients
whilst he worked
on the hospital wing there.
So, he faked his diagnosis?
He faked his symptoms in order to
get moved from prison to hospital?
That's what he's stating, yes, yeah.
Is that something
you're familiar with?
It's not something I'm familiar
with, but I'm not surprised by it.
He's perfectly capable
of doing that.
'A man like this will want to'
dupe anybody because
he has a psychopathic personality,
'but I think it's quite difficult to'
con people with the symptoms
he was manifesting.
Brady's promotion of his grandiose
self image knew no bounds.
The sinister dimensions
of his narcissism
were never far from the surface.
He said another very interesting
thing during his interview,
was that he... he, umm...
maintained that some of the victims,
or two of the victims, the cause
of death had not been established.
What I felt that he was implying
was that, actually,
he had frightened them to death,
that, actually, his ability
to be so powerful, psychologically...
meant that, umm...
the pathologists
had been unable to determine
the exact cause of death
of the child.
And what I thought
he might be implying
was that he was so powerful,
mentally,
that he had frightened
this child to death.
Brady's pathology had proved
untreatable to his clinicians.
In 1999,
the hospital tightened security
and he was moved to another ward.
"On the morning of
the 30th of September, 1999,
"a crowd of prison warders
in riot gear,
"crash helmets, plastic shields,
"padded jackets,
rushed in, held my arms
"violently up behind my back,
"pushed my head to the floor and,
"always held in these violent holds,
"wrenched and dragged me around
like a parcel for over an hour."
Brady's possessions
were confiscated.
He was stripped of his privileges.
In protest, he immediately
went on hunger strike.
This was to become
his most enduring campaign of all.
He was taken over
to the medical centre
and a tube was inserted
up his nose and into his stomach.
And what was that scene like
to witness?
Not very pleasant.
He was then X-rayed to make sure
the tube was in position.
It wasn't the first time, so
they had to do it the second time.
And what was the atmosphere like
in the room?
Well, extremely tense.
Did he not want to resist that?
He did resist, verbally.
He wants his...
his wishes known
that he does not agree
or wish to have this tube inserted.
'Back in court after 34 years,
'Ian Brady pleads, "Let me die."'
This hunger strike was different.
His only demand was
to be allowed to end his life.
He went to the High Court
in a bid to stop force-feeding.
I was asked to comment
upon his mental capacity,
and, in fact,
I thought he did understand that
what he was doing was
potentially putting his life at risk.
Doctor Collins,
Brady's responsible clinician
at Ashworth,
called his hunger strike...
'The one thing you don't want'
to do with a person with psychopathy
is get into a battle of wills.
Brady...
'There's something'
gratifying for the individual
about a battle of wills.
And he is still determined
to end his life?
Yes. I mean, he has no requests,
no demands,
apart from he wants
to have the right to die.
A person with psychopathy's not
going to back down in that battle.
It was quite a dramatic
and tense environment.
'Leave to appeal was denied
by the court today,
'but his solicitor says Ian Brady
is determined to fight on.'
I think people did, you know, did
suffer from the strain of everything.
'Brady is now being taken back
to Ashworth Hospital,
'where he will continue to be fed
through a plastic tube.'
'And we recollect Ashworth's
psychiatrist saying, you know, '
it was more demanding
dealing with him than, perhaps,
the rest of a ward put together.
Mr Justice Maurice Kay agreed that
the proceedings were a staging post,
and his intention was to protest
and to win a power struggle,
but not to die.
The court's decision to continue
force-feeding set in train
a stand-off between Ashworth
and Brady that would last until now.
'When you think of somebody
like Ian Brady,
'you're getting somebody
right down the very furthest end
'of the spectrum,
and by that time, '
you're dealing with something which
psychiatry is not really very...
or psychology is still not very good
at really defining and explaining.
But actually, you're dealing with
a very, very unusual
and very extreme human being.
Almost half a century has passed
since the horrific murders
committed by
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
were uncovered on Saddleworth Moor.
Despite the decades,
this desolate landscape
still maintains
Brady's last secret...
the undiscovered grave
of victim Keith Bennett,
who was murdered four days
after his 12th birthday in 1964.
A simple prayer
from Keith Bennett's mother.
"Please find my son's body."
Despite the official police search
being called off in 2009,
Keith Bennett's mother,
Winnie Johnson,
continued to search for her missing
son for the rest of her life.
I will never give up.
Never in a month of Sundays.
If it takes me to me grave,
I'll carry on till then.
Before her recent death,
Winnie's final wish was to give her
missing son a proper burial.
And in his final days, Brady remains
the only remaining hope
for those still searching
for Keith Bennett's remains.
To think that...
he's going to die,
but he's going to take that
to the grave with him,
where Keith is.
And I feel so sorry for Winnie.
I really, really do.
He's the only one what knows.
He's the only one
what can put Winnie to rest.
I'nt he?
All the hope what Winnie's got
lies on him.
A month before Winnie Johnson's
death, Jackie Powell told me
about some instructions
she had unexpectedly received from
Ian Brady.
I received a letter
and a sealed envelope
which said on the front of it,
"To be opened
in the event of my death."
He says he doesn't wish
to take secrets to his grave
and that within the sealed envelope
is a letter to Winnie Johnson.
Within that is the means to her
possibly being able to rest.
And that's paraphrase,
that's not verbatim.
What does he mean by that?
Well, clearly there's something
within the letter that may...
be able to...
find her son, I would suggest.
And he's given the impression to you
over the years
that he knows exactly
where the body is?
He's more than given me
the impression.
He has told me that he knows
where the body is,
and I've told police that.
You went to the police voluntarily?
I have told police.
The police came and interviewed me.
So it's kind of like
a victory dance, isn't it?
Well, I wouldn't say...
Give you information
on my death and...
it's saying that
I have possession of the body
right up until my death.
I don't like that at all.
- No?
- No, I don't like the way
you're putting that at all.
- I don't like that at all.
- Isn't that what it is?
Isn't that what you're saying?
- I don't like that at all.
- Why not?
I don't like the way you put that,
"victory dance."
I don't like those words, Paddy.
But it is a power game, isn't it?
Well, anybody with
any psychopathology,
obviously there is an...
aspect of their personality
is that of power and control.
So, of course it's a power.
Of course it's a control mechanism.
If you look at the person
for who the person is,
then it would quite clearly...
anybody with a psychopathology
would have these traits about them.
But if you've got this information
you have to pass it on...
No, go no further. We stop here.
Why, why, why?
Stop here, Ed, stop here. Stop here.
Why? I'm just trying to understand
the situation you're in
and the dilemma that you face
and what you need to do about it.
What have you done in the past...?
When you've been given
knowledge of something...
I don't know what's in the envelope.
It's sealed.
Yeah.
So what do you think might be
in that letter then?
Well, to be perfectly honest
with you,
there might be nothing
in the letter.
Many games have been played before.
That is the mind of a psychopath.
And so, until I'm actually sure
what's in the letter,
and that thereissomething
in the letter,
then morally, I'm in a dilemma,
yes.
But until I'm actually sure
that there is something
in the letter,
then I can't really act.
You're not tempted just to open it?
Professionally that wouldn't be,
and that possibly is why
I've got a letter.
To see if I would open it.
So what are you... what are you
going to do about it?
I mean what do you do about it?
Well, I don't know what
I'm going to do, Paddy.
I don't know.
Jackie wouldn't show me
the sealed envelope
addressed to Winnie Johnson.
But whatever its contents,
it has come too late for Winnie.
And Brady's instruction that it only
be opened after his death
seems to show that this was not an
act of empathy for the families or
remorse for his crimes.
It is difficult to see this as
anything other than yet another
example of his cruel games.
When I interviewed him,
he was absolutely adamant
that he had no remorse whatsoever,
and he told me that everyone
would wait till doomsday
before he would ever express
any remorse for what he had done.
This will go on till
the end of his life.
You have to see Ian Brady as someone
who's had grossly abnormal
personality traits...
sadism...
intermittent episodes
of severe mental illness
that come and go.
But most of all,
the psychopathic personality.
And this has been present
since childhood.
Throughout his adolescence
it's continued,
and although he's older, the same
features of his abnormal personality
are as alive today as they were
right back at the beginning.
'He's always there.'
It's almost like it's a sort of
shadow in your life all the time.
Yeah, it is. It is, honestly.
It is a shadow in your life.
He's still got us all.
He's still got all the families.
But...
you're not gonna beat it
out of him,
where Keith is, are you?
You know. The main thing now
is that...
we find Keith.
Not hoping for any apologies
or sorries or anything like that.
Just, where is Keith?
I just wake up
wishing that he'd be dead.
I'll jump for joy
and that's the truth.
Sooner he's out the way, the better.
Just waiting for that day now.