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This Miniseries Pulls You Into the Story of One of Britain’s Most Horrific Murders

Editor’s Note: This article contains graphic details that may be triggering for some readers.Saddleworth Moor, in northwestern England, is one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see, an untouched piece of heaven with rolling hills, green grass, and pristine waters as far as the eye can see. But in the 1960s, Saddleworth Moor’s green grass was used to cover up a series of crimes blacker than night, collectively known as the Moors Murders. Five children, killed in horrifying, grisly fashion, by the pair of Ian Brady and his girlfriend, Myra Hindley. It’s a period of time captured in the two-part miniseries See No Evil: The Moors Murders (aka See No Evil: The Story of the Moors Murders), a 2006 series that is graceful in its depiction of true ugliness.

‘See No Evil: The Moors Murders’ Starts Before the Crimes Became Public

Myra Hindley (Maxine Peake) and Ian Brady (Sean Harris) in a promotional image for 'See No Evil: The Moors Murders'
Image via ITV

See No Evil: The Moors Murders introduces Myra Hindley (Maxine Peake) and Ian Brady (Sean Harris) in 1964 through Myra’s sister, Maureen Smith (Joanne Froggatt), and her husband, David (Matthew McNulty), and the narrative of the series is told through the latter pair. In real life, the public wouldn’t be introduced to the pair until 1965, when David led police to Brady’s home, where they found the fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans.

The horrifying tale begins well before either date, in July 1963. 16-year-old Pauline Reade was lured into coming with Hindley, an acquaintance of hers, to Saddleworth Moor to help find a lost glove. They were met by Brady at the moor, where Reade was sexually assaulted and nearly decapitated by two cuts to the throat. She was buried in a shallow grave, where her remains were left undiscovered until the murderers led police to the site in 1987. The second victim, John Kilbride, 12, was sexually assaulted and strangled by a piece of string in November 1963, after Hindley offered him a ride home from a marketplace in Ashton-under-Lyne. Keith Bennett, also 12, met an identical fate, the third victim of the pair. Like Reade, Bennett wasn’t known to be a victim until 1986, when Brady confessed to their murders, but his body is still out on the moor, yet to be discovered.

The killing of the fourth victim, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, is particularly chilling, thanks to details about her death, presented in court, found in a suitcase belonging to Brady and Hindley. Per The New York Times, the suitcase contained books on torture and photographs of young Downey, gagged with a scarf and wearing only shoes and socks, in various pornographic poses. The most infamous piece of evidence, and arguably the most sickening, were tape recordings of Downey’s murder made by the couple, heard talking on the tape with Downey in the background, crying out for her mother and asking God to help her before she was killed.

‘See No Evil: The Moors Murders’ Hindley and Brady’s Horrors Are Uncovered

The murders of the first four victims are not shown or heard in See No Evil: The Moors Murders, wisely, nor are the pieces of evidence in Downey’s murder, those sickening photos and tape recordings. That sensitivity is key, according to writer Neil McKay, who confirms that the families of the victims are behind the project, “enormously encouraging” of it, no less. The only murder seen on screen (unsensationalized, however) is that of the fifth victim, the previously mentioned Edward Evans. That moment is accurate, with David Smith invited to the home by Hindley and Brady to witness a live murder, in an attempt to include him in their crimes.

As Smith says in his testimony (per the New York Times), he found Hindley and Brady with Evans in the living room, witnessing Brady striking him multiple times with a hatchet, wrapping a cushion cover around Evans’ head, and strangling him. Once the boy was dead, Brady remarked to Hindley, “That’s it. It’s the messiest yet.” David, scared stiff, helped “clean the mess” in order to leave as soon as possible, in one piece. When he returns home, he and Maureen make the fateful call to the police that brings an end to the Moor Murders.

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The pair weren’t content with having taken the lives of five innocents and ruining the lives of their families forever but attempted to convince the jury that he, too, was involved. It wasn’t true, but it didn’t stop the public from latching on to the false narrative and labeling David as the third Moors Murderer, an unwanted false legacy that haunted him and Maureen for their entire lives (the moments of violence towards David and Maureen in the series happened in real life, with David describing being beaten by strangers in the street and women spitting at his baby son).

Hindley would downplay her role in the killings during the trial, but ultimately Brady would be charged with all three murders and Hindley with the murders of Evans and Downey, but only as an accessory in the murder of Kilbride (remember, their relation to the murders of Reade and Bennett wouldn’t be known for years). With the death penalty repealed only six months prior, the most hated couple in Britain would live out their lives imprisoned, with Hindley passing away in 2002, and Brady in 2017.

See No Evil: The Moors Murders is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.

WATCH ON PRIME VIDEO

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See No Evil: The Moors Murders

Release Date

May 14, 2006

Seasons

1

Directors

Christopher Menaul


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