[Deathwatch] Myra Hindley, serial killer, 60

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Britain's Infamous 'Moors Murderer' Hindley Dies

By Sinead O'Hanlon

LONDON (Reuters) - "Moors Murderer" Myra Hindley, one of the most
notorious serial killers in British history since Jack the Ripper, died
at age 60 Friday, still an object of public controversy and hatred four
decades after her crimes.

Hindley and her lover Ian Brady tortured, sexually abused and killed
five children in the 1960s, burying their bodies in the bleak moors
near the northern English city of Manchester.

"The sooner she gets to hell the better," said Winnie Johnson, mother
of 12-year-old victim Keith Bennett, whose body is the only one of the
five that has never been found.

"I wanted her alive for one reason: to help me find Keith," she told
Sky News.

Hindley was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966 for
killing two of the five victims, and for shielding Brady in the killing
of a third. The pair later confessed to two more murders.

The Prison Service said in a statement that Hindley died at the West
Suffolk hospital following respiratory failure.

The abductions of the children and the sensational trial of Hindley and
Brady cast a shadow over 1960s Britain, and the controversy survived to
the present day.

Under British law, the term of a life sentence is actually set by
political leaders, who decide when and whether such prisoners can be
freed.

Successive British governments, with an anxious eye on the powerful and
influential tabloid press, vowed that neither Hindley nor Brady ever
would walk free.

But European courts have ruled that leaving sentencing to politicians
is illegal. There was speculation that Hindley, already Britain's
longest-serving woman prisoner, might one day win her freedom over the
government's objections.

Brady was convicted of killing children Lesley Ann Downey, Edward Evans
and John Kilbride. Hindley was convicted of killing Downey and Evans
and shielding her lover in the third case.

Two decades later, the pair confessed to killing Pauline Reade and
Keith Bennett, although they were never tried for those killings.
Reade's remains were subsequently recovered from the moors but
Bennett's body was never found.

Hopes of finding the body now rest with Brady, who has unsuccessfully
campaigned to be allowed to end his life and has been force-fed since
going on hunger strike in 1999.

'LITTLE DRUMMER BOY'

Hindley and Brady tape recorded their crimes. Detectives said they
would never forget hearing Leslie Ann Downey pleading for mercy as they
killed her, or the tune of the "Little Drummer Boy" the couple played
as they carried out the murders.

Hindley maintained she was driven to participate in the killings by her
lover Brady, a petty criminal said to be fascinated by Nazi killings
and death.

But police officers investigating the case believed Hindley was a
willing and active participant, not the cowed and coerced woman she
claimed to be.

A chain smoker who suffered from heart disease, 60-year-old Hindley
campaigned hard for freedom. Her supporters said she had found God and
repented of the killings. But the chilling nature of her crimes assured
she remained a hated figure for decades.

Jack the Ripper is the popular name of a serial killer who killed a
number of prostitutes in the East End of London in 1888. The killer was
never caught.

(Additional reporting by Katie Allen)