| Fred West | |
|---|---|
 Fred y Rose a mediados de la década de 1980 | |
| Nació | Frederick Walter Stephen West 29 de septiembre de 1941 Much Marcle , Herefordshire , Inglaterra |
| Fallecido | 1 de enero de 1995 (53 años) Prisión HM Birmingham , Birmingham , Inglaterra |
| Causa de la muerte | Suicidio por ahorcamiento |
| Esposos) | |
| Convicción (es) | Condenas anteriores por: |
| Sanción penal | Se suicidó antes de la condena. |
| Detalles | |
| Víctimas | 12-13 + |
| Alcance de los crímenes | 1967-1987 |
| País | Reino Unido |
| Fecha de aprehensión | 24 de febrero de 1994 |
Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 de septiembre de 1941 - 1 de enero de 1995) fue un asesino en serie inglés que cometió al menos doce asesinatos entre 1967 y 1987 en Gloucestershire , la mayoría con su segunda esposa, Rosemary West .
Todas las víctimas eran mujeres jóvenes. Al menos ocho de estos asesinatos involucraron la satisfacción sexual de los occidentales e incluyeron violación , esclavitud , tortura y mutilación ; Los cuerpos desmembrados de las víctimas se enterraban típicamente en el sótano o jardín de la casa de los Wests en Cromwell Street en Gloucester , que se conoció como la "Casa de los Horrores". Se sabe que Fred cometió al menos dos asesinatos por su cuenta, mientras que se sabe que Rose asesinó a la hijastra de Fred, Charmaine. La pareja fue detenida y acusada en 1994.
Fred se asfixió fatalmente mientras estaba en prisión preventiva en la prisión HM de Birmingham el 1 de enero de 1995, momento en el que él y Rose fueron acusados conjuntamente de nueve asesinatos y él de otros tres asesinatos. En noviembre de 1995, Rose fue declarada culpable de diez asesinatos y condenada a diez cadenas perpetuas con una orden de por vida .
Vida temprana [ editar ]
Infancia [ editar ]
Frederick Walter Stephen West nació el 29 de septiembre de 1941 [1] en Bickerton Cottage, Much Marcle , Herefordshire , [2] el primer hijo sobreviviente nacido de Walter Stephen West (5 de julio de 1914-28 de marzo de 1992) y Daisy Hannah Hill (20 de mayo). 1922 - 6 de febrero de 1968). [3] Fred era de una familia pobre de trabajadores agrícolas, muy unidos y se protegían mutuamente; su padre era disciplinado y su madre sobreprotectora. [4]
En 1946, la familia se mudó a Moorcourt Cottage en Moorcourt Farm, donde el padre de Fred trabajaba como pastor de ordeño y mano de cosecha. La cabaña no tenía electricidad y se calentaba con una chimenea de leña. [5] En 1951, la madre de Fred había dado a luz a ocho hijos, seis de los cuales sobrevivieron, pero Fred siempre fue el favorito de su madre. [6] Fue visto como el hijo de una madre y dependía principalmente de sus hermanos para que lo acompañaran.
Se esperaba que los niños del Oeste realizaran las tareas asignadas [6] y los seis realizaban trabajos de temporada, las tres niñas recogiendo lúpulos y fresas, los tres niños recogiendo trigo y cazando conejos. La necesidad de trabajar para ganarse la vida, o incluso simplemente para sobrevivir, inculcó una fuerte ética de trabajo en Fred, [7] quien también desarrolló un hábito de por vida de pequeños robos. [8]
Los compañeros de clase recuerdan a Fred como desaliñado, débil, letárgico y con regularidad en problemas. [6] A lo largo de su vida, apenas sabía leer y escribir , pero mostró una aptitud para la artesanía en madera y las obras de arte. Dejó la escuela en diciembre de 1956 a los 15 años, inicialmente trabajando como obrero en Moorcourt Farm. [9]
Fred afirmó que su madre le presentó al sexo a los 12 años, que participó en actos de bestialidad con animales en su adolescencia, y que su creencia en que el incesto era normal se derivaba del incesto de su padre con las hermanas de Fred. [10] El hermano menor de Fred, Doug, descartó estas afirmaciones como una fantasía por parte de Fred. [11]
Adolescencia [ editar ]
En 1957, Fred y su hermano John socializaban con frecuencia en un club juvenil en las cercanías de Ledbury , donde su acento distintivo y gutural de Herefordshire lo marcaba como un "paleto del campo". Él molestaba agresivamente a mujeres y niñas, a quienes objetivaba como fuentes de placer para ser utilizadas como mejor le pareciera, y se acercaba abruptamente y las acariciaba. [12] Cuando una chica aceptaba sus avances, encontraba insatisfactorio su desempeño sexual, ya que su objetivo principal era su propia satisfacción. [13]
Poco después de cumplir 17 años, Fred compró una motocicleta y dos meses después sufrió una fractura de cráneo , un brazo roto y una pierna rota en un accidente. Estuvo inconsciente durante siete días y caminó con aparatos ortopédicos durante varios meses; [14] Debido a este incidente, desarrolló un miedo extremo a los hospitales y se volvió propenso a ataques de ira. Dos años después, Fred sufrió una nueva lesión en la cabeza cuando una niña a la que tocó a tientas en una escalera de incendios fuera del Club Juvenil de Ledbury lo golpeó y lo hizo caer dos pisos. [15]
En junio de 1961, [16] la hermana de Fred de 13 años, Kitty, le dijo a su madre que Fred la había estado violando desde diciembre anterior y la había dejado embarazada. Detenido el mismo mes, Fred admitió libremente a la policía que había estado abusando sexualmente de niñas desde su adolescencia y preguntó: "¿No lo hacen todos?". [17] Fue juzgado el 9 de noviembre en Herefordshire Assizes . Aunque disgustada por las acciones de su hijo, Daisy había estado preparada para testificar en su defensa. Kitty se negó a testificar [18] y el caso colapsó. [19] Gran parte de la familia de Fred efectivamente lo repudió , [9]su madre lo desterró de la casa y se mudó a la casa de Much Marcle de su tía Violet. A mediados de 1962, se había reconciliado con sus padres, pero su relación con la mayor parte de su familia seguía siendo tensa. [20]
Catherine "Rena" Costello [ editar ]
Matrimonio [ editar ]
Fred volvió a conocer a Catherine ("Rena") Bernadette Costello [21] en septiembre de 1962, cuando tenía 21 años. Había conocido a Costello, que venía de Coatbridge , Lanarkshire [22] , en un salón de baile Much Marcle en 1960. , y salió con ella durante varios meses antes de regresar a Escocia. [23] Costello estaba embarazada de un conductor de autobús asiático en el momento de su matrimonio con Fred, y es posible que se haya mudado de Glasgow a Inglaterra debido a que miembros de su familia expresaron su disgusto por estar embarazada de un niño mestizo. [24] Se casó con Fred en Ledbury el 17 de noviembre, siendo el único invitado el hermano menor de Fred, John. [21]La pareja inicialmente vivió en la casa de la tía de Fred, luego se mudó a Coatbridge, donde Fred trabajaba como conductor de una furgoneta de helados. La hija de Rena, Charmaine, nació en marzo de 1963; [24] para explicar la ascendencia mixta del niño, Rena y Fred afirmaron que ella había sufrido un aborto espontáneo y que Charmaine fue adoptada. Poco después, la pareja se trasladó a Savoy Street, en el distrito de Bridgeton de Glasgow.
En julio de 1964, Rena le dio a Fred una hija, Anna Marie. [25] El niño nació en la casa de la pareja en Savoy Street. [26] [27] La niñera de la familia, Isa McNeill, y los vecinos de los Wests, recuerdan a Rena como una madre considerada "que lucha por criar a dos hijos"; [27] Fred trató a los niños con dureza. Mantuvo a las niñas en el fondo de una litera con barras colocadas en el espacio entre las literas, enjaulandolas de manera efectiva; solo se les permitía salir cuando él estaba en el trabajo. [28] A través de McNeill, los Wests conocieron a Anne McFall, de 16 años, [29] [30]una amiga de McNeill, que estaba abatida por la muerte de su novio en un accidente laboral. McFall pasó mucho tiempo en el piso de los Wests. [31]
—John McLachlan (1995) [32]
Fred admitió más tarde haber participado en numerosas aventuras en los primeros años de su matrimonio y engendró un hijo ilegítimo con una mujer de los Gorbal . Cuando Rena descubrió la infidelidad de su esposo , comenzó una aventura con un hombre llamado John McLachlan. En una ocasión, Fred descubrió a la pareja en un abrazo. Golpeó a Rena, haciéndola gritar. En respuesta, McLachlan golpeó a Fred, quien sacó un cuchillo y rozó el abdomen de McLachlan. Cuando McLachlan lo golpeó por segunda vez, Fred dejó de defenderse. Años más tarde, McLachlan recordó este incidente: "No podía atacar a un hombre, pero no era tan lento para atacar a las mujeres". [33]Él y Rena continuaron su aventura, y McLachlan se horrorizó cada vez más ante los moretones y los ojos negros de Rena. En cada ocasión se hizo evidente que Fred había golpeado a su esposa, McLachlan golpeó ampliamente a Fred. [32] En otra ocasión, McLachlan fue testigo de que Charmaine, un poco mayor que un niño pequeño, le pedía a Fred un helado en su camioneta; en respuesta, Fred la golpeó en la cabeza, provocando otra paliza de McLachlan. [32]
El 4 de noviembre de 1965, Fred accidentalmente atropelló y mató a un niño pequeño en Glasgow con su camioneta. [9] Fred fue absuelto de cualquier delito por la policía, [31] pero temía la reacción hostil y posibles represalias por el accidente de los lugareños, en quienes confiaba para ganarse la vida. En diciembre, regresó a Gloucester con Charmaine y Anna Marie, alquilando una caravana en el Timberland Caravan Park en Bishop's Cleeve . Rena se unió a él en febrero de 1966, [34] acompañada por Isa McNeill y Anne McFall, quienes también se mudaron a la caravana de Fred. (McNeill y McFall procedían de entornos empobrecidos; ambos esperaban encontrar trabajo en Inglaterra). [35] Poco después de mudarse al sur, Fred encontró empleo conduciendo un camión para un local.matadero .
A principios de 1966, Fred había comenzado a exhibir dominio y control sobre las tres mujeres. También era propenso a cambios de humor violentos, y Rena y McNeill típicamente soportaban la peor parte de su furia; Fred también atacó físicamente a su hijastra más de una vez. También se informa que comenzó a abusar sexualmente de Charmaine, [36] y alentó a Rena a dedicarse a la prostitución para complementar sus escasos ingresos. [37]
Para escapar del abuso doméstico de Fred y de las demandas sexuales cada vez más sádicas , Rena llamó a McLachlan y le suplicó que la rescatara a ella, a McNeill y a sus hijos. Juntos, McLachlan, Rena y McNeill idearon un plan; él y el novio de McNeill, John Trotter, [29] conducirían en secreto a Bishop's Cleeve en McLachlan's Mini y discretamente llevarían a Rena, sus hijos y McNeill de regreso a Escocia. [27] McFall en esta etapa se había encaprichado con Fred, quien le había prometido casarse con ella. Es probable que ella le haya informado a Fred del plan, [38]cuando llegó a la hora de la reunión, y McFall estaba "extrañamente tranquila" cuando ella le informó a McNeill que tenía la intención de quedarse con Fred para trabajar como niñera de los niños. Se produjo un altercado entre Fred y McLachlan, lo que provocó que Fred fuera golpeado varias veces mientras se aferraba a Charmaine y Anna Marie. Se llamó a la policía y McLachlan, Trotter, McNeill y Rena se fueron, y Fred amenazó con matar a Rena si la volvía a ver. [38]
Para garantizar el bienestar de sus hijas, Rena viajaba con frecuencia a Inglaterra para visitar a Charmaine y Anna Marie mientras vivían con Fred en Bishop's Cleeve. [36] A pesar de mantener inicialmente su amistad con McFall, Rena pronto comenzó a resentirse por su presencia matriarcal alrededor de sus hijas. El 11 de octubre, [39] en un acto de resentimiento, Rena robó algunas pertenencias de la caravana de Fred y regresó a Glasgow. Fue arrestada el mes siguiente y regresó a Gloucester para enfrentar el juicio. El 29 de noviembre, Rena fue condenada a tres años de libertad condicional . Fred testificó en la audiencia, admitiendo que él y McFall vivían juntos, pero afirmando falsamente que McFall tenía la intención de regresar a Escocia de manera inminente. [40]
Después del juicio, McFall se mudó a una caravana en el Timberland Caravan Park; Rena alternó entre vivir con Fred y regresar a Glasgow. Las cartas que McFall envió a su familia y a McNeill en Glasgow entre 1966 y 1967 indican que ella creía que una relación con Fred podría ofrecerle una vida mejor que la que había experimentado en Escocia, [41] y trató de persuadir a Fred de que se divorciara de su esposa a fin de que podría casarse con ella.
Asesinato de Anne McFall [ editar ]
En julio de 1967, [42] McFall, de 18 años y ocho meses embarazada del hijo de Fred, desapareció. Nunca se informó de su desaparición, pero sus restos desmembrados fueron encontrados enterrados en el borde de un campo de maíz entre Much Marcle y Kempley en junio de 1994. Sus extremidades habían sido cuidadosamente desarticuladas y muchos huesos de falange faltaban en su cuerpo, probablemente se retuvieron. como recuerdos; su feto también puede haber sido cortado de su útero. [43]Fred inicialmente negó haber matado a McFall, pero le confió a un visitante después de su arresto que la había apuñalado hasta la muerte después de una discusión. Esta explicación es incompatible con el hecho de que se encontraron sus muñecas con secciones de cordón de bata envueltas alrededor de ellas, lo que sugiere que había sido inmovilizada antes de su asesinato. [44]
Al mes siguiente, Rena regresó a vivir con Fred y la pareja se mudó al Lake House Caravan Park. Su relación inicialmente mejoró, pero Rena se fue al año siguiente, dejando nuevamente a los niños bajo su cuidado. En estas ocasiones, cuando Fred no tenía una mujer que supervisara y cuidara a las niñas, las puso temporalmente al cuidado de los servicios sociales de Gloucester . [45]
Rosemary Letts [ editar ]
Fred conoció a Rosemary Letts a principios de 1969, poco después de que cumpliera 15 años. [46] La pareja se conoció por primera vez en la estación de autobuses de Cheltenham . Inicialmente, Rose sintió repulsión por la apariencia descuidada de Fred, y dedujo que era un vagabundo, pero rápidamente se sintió halagada por la atención que Fred continuó prodigando en ella durante los días siguientes mientras invariablemente se sentaba a su lado en la misma parada de autobús. Rose se negó dos veces a tener una cita con Fred, pero le permitió acompañarla a casa. En sus conversaciones iniciales, Fred descubrió rápidamente que aunque Rose nunca había tenido novio, era abiertamente promiscua . También obtuvo un cierto grado de simpatía de ella al afirmar que él y sus dos hijas habían sido abandonados por su esposa, y que deseaba tener más hijos.[47]
Habiendo descubierto que Rose trabajaba en una panadería cercana, unos días después de su primer encuentro, Fred persuadió a una mujer desconocida para que ingresara al local y le obsequiara un obsequio acompañado de la explicación de que un "hombre afuera" le había pedido que presentara este obsequio. a ella. [48] Minutos después, Fred entró al local y le pidió a Rose que lo acompañara a una cita esa noche; una oferta que aceptó. [49] Poco después, Rose comenzó una relación con Fred, convirtiéndose en una visitante frecuente del Lake House Caravan Park, y una voluntaria niñera de Charmaine y Anna Marie, a quienes notó que fueron desatendidas.ya quien inicialmente trató con cuidado y cariño. En varias ocasiones durante los primeros días de su noviazgo, Rose insistió en que ella y Fred llevaran a las niñas a excursiones para recolectar flores silvestres.
A las pocas semanas de su primer encuentro con Fred, Rose dejó su trabajo en la panadería para convertirse en la niñera de Charmaine y Anna Marie; Esta decisión se tomó con el acuerdo de que Fred le proporcionaría suficiente dinero para dárselo a sus padres los viernes para convencerlos de que todavía estaba ganando un salario en la panadería. [50] Varios meses después, Rose presentó a Fred a su familia, quienes estaban horrorizados por la elección de pareja de su hija. La madre de Rose, Daisy Letts, no estaba impresionada con la fanfarronería de Fred y concluyó correctamente que era un mentiroso patológico ; su padre, Bill Letts, un esquizofrénico diagnosticadoquien se cree que abusó de su hija; desaprobó con vehemencia la relación, amenazó a Fred directamente y prometió llamar a los servicios sociales si seguía saliendo con su hija. [51]
Relación [ editar ]
Los padres de Rose le prohibieron a su hija continuar saliendo con Fred, pero ella desafió sus deseos, lo que los llevó a visitar los servicios sociales de Gloucestershire para explicarles que su hija de 15 años estaba saliendo con un hombre mayor y que habían escuchado rumores de que ella había comenzado. para dedicarse a la prostitución en su caravana. [52] En respuesta, Rose fue colocada en un hogar para adolescentes con problemas en Cheltenham en agosto de 1969, [53] y solo se le permitió irse en condiciones controladas. Cuando se le permitía regresar a casa para visitar a sus padres los fines de semana, Rose casi invariablemente aprovechaba la oportunidad para visitar a Fred. [53]
En su cumpleaños número 16, Rose dejó la casa para que los adolescentes con problemas regresaran con sus padres (Fred en ese momento cumplía una sentencia de 30 días por robo y multas impagas). Tras la liberación de Fred, Rose dejó la casa de sus padres para mudarse al apartamento de Cheltenham en el que Fred vivía. Poco después, Fred recogió a Charmaine y Anna Marie de los servicios sociales. Bill Letts hizo un último esfuerzo para evitar que su hija viera a Fred, y Rose fue examinada por un cirujano de la policía en febrero de 1970, quien confirmó que estaba embarazada. En respuesta, Rose fue nuevamente puesta bajo cuidado, pero fue dada de alta el 6 de marzo en el entendimiento de que interrumpiría su embarazo y regresaría con su familia. En cambio, Rose optó por vivir con Fred, lo que resultó en que su padre le prohibiera a su hija volver a poner un pie en su casa. [54]
Tres meses después, la pareja abandonó el piso de Cheltenham y se mudó al piso de la planta baja de una casa de dos pisos en Midland Road, Gloucester. El 17 de octubre de 1970, Rose dio a luz a su primer hijo: una hija a la que llamaron Heather Ann (se especula que Heather pudo haber sido engendrada por el propio padre de Rose). [55] Dos meses después, Fred fue encarcelado por el robo de llantas de automóvil y un disco de impuestos de vehículos . Permaneció encarcelado hasta el 24 de junio de 1971. Mientras cumplía esta condena de seis meses y medio, Rose, que acababa de cumplir 17 años, se ocupó de las tres niñas, y se les dijo a Charmaine y Anna Marie que se refirieran a Rose como su madre. . [56]
Según Anna Marie West, ella y Charmaine fueron sometidas con frecuencia a críticas, golpizas y otras formas de castigo durante el tiempo que vivieron bajo el cuidado de Rose en Midland Road, pero aunque Anna Marie era en general sumisa y propensa a mostrar emociones en respuesta a la Las dificultades físicas y mentales que ella y su hermana soportaron, Charmaine enfureció repetidamente a Rose por su estoica negativa a llorar o mostrar cualquier signo de dolor o servidumbre sin importar cuán severamente fuera castigada físicamente. A pesar de los años de negligencia y abuso, el espíritu de Charmaine no se había roto, [57] y habló con nostalgia con Anna Marie de la creencia que tenía de que "su mamá vendrá y me salvará". [58]Más tarde, Anna Marie recordó que su hermana se oponía repetidamente a Rose al hacer declaraciones como: "Mi verdadera mamá no nos juraría ni gritaría" en respuesta al lenguaje mordaz de Rose. [59] Una amiga de la infancia de Charmaine llamada Tracey Giles, que había vivido en el piso superior de Midland Road, recordaría más tarde un incidente en el que había entrado en el piso de los Wests, sin previo aviso, solo para ver a Charmaine, desnuda y de pie sobre un silla, amordazada y con las manos atadas a la espalda con un cinturón, mientras Rose estaba junto al niño con una gran cuchara de madera en la mano. Según Giles, Charmaine había estado "tranquila y despreocupada", mientras que Anna Marie estaba junto a la puerta con una expresión en blanco en su rostro. [60]
Los registros del hospital revelan que Charmaine había recibido tratamiento por una herida punzante grave en el tobillo izquierdo en la unidad de urgencias del Gloucester Royal Hospital el 28 de marzo de 1971. Rose explicó que este incidente se debió a un accidente doméstico. [61]
Asesinato de Charmaine West [ editar ]
Se cree que Rose mató a Charmaine poco antes de la fecha de liberación de Fred en prisión el 24 de junio de 1971. Se sabe que llevó a Charmaine, Anna Marie y Heather a visitar a Fred el 15 de junio. Se cree que fue en o muy poco después de esta fecha cuando Charmaine fue asesinada. Además de la confirmación de la odontología forense de que Charmaine había muerto mientras Fred aún estaba encarcelado, se corroboró el testimonio adicional de la madre de Giles, Shirley.el hecho de que Charmaine hubiera sido asesinada antes de que Fred fuera liberado el 24 de junio. En su testimonio posterior en el juicio de Rose, Shirley Giles afirmó que ella y su familia habían vivido en el piso superior de 25 Midland Road en 1971, y que sus dos hijas habían sido compañeras de juegos de Charmaine y Anna Marie. Shirley Giles declaró que después de que su familia abandonó el piso superior de Midland Road en abril de 1971, un día de junio, había llevado a Tracey a visitar a Charmaine, pero Rose le dijo a Tracey: "Se fue a vivir con su madre. ¡Y maldita sea! " [62] antes de que Tracey comenzara a llorar. Giles insistió en que Fred todavía estaba en prisión en esta ocasión. [63]
Al igual que con la familia Giles, Rose explicó la desaparición de Charmaine a otras personas que preguntaron sobre su paradero alegando que Rena había llamado y llevado a su hija mayor a vivir con ella en Bristol ; Informó al personal de la escuela primaria de Charmaine que la niña se había mudado con su madre a Londres . [64] Cuando Fred fue liberado de la prisión el 24 de junio, disipó las preocupaciones de Anna Marie por el paradero de su hermana al afirmar que su madre había recogido a Charmaine y había regresado a Escocia. En su autobiografía, Out of the Shadows , Anna Marie recordó que cuando le preguntó por qué su madre había recogido a Charmaine pero no a ella, Fred respondió cruelmente: "Ella no te querría, amor. Eres del color equivocado". [sesenta y cinco]
El cuerpo de Charmaine fue inicialmente guardado en el sótano de carbón de Midland Road hasta que Fred fue liberado de la prisión. Más tarde enterró su cuerpo desnudo en el patio cerca de la puerta trasera del piso, y se mantuvo firme en que no la había desmembrado. Una autopsia posterior sugirió que el cuerpo había sido cortado a la altura de la cadera; este daño puede haber sido causado por las obras de construcción que Fred realizó en la propiedad en 1976. Varios huesos, particularmente los de rótula , dedos, muñecas, dedos de los pies y tobillos, faltaban de su esqueleto, lo que llevó a la especulación de que las partes faltantes se habían retenido como recuerdo. (esto resultó ser un descubrimiento distintivo en todas las autopsias de las víctimas exhumadas en 1994). [66]
Asesinato de Catherine "Rena" West [ editar ]
Rena mantuvo contacto esporádico con sus hijos en cada ocasión en que ella y Fred se separaron. También se sabe que visitó Moorcourt Cottage para preguntar por el paradero y el bienestar de sus hijos en la segunda mitad de agosto de 1971. [66] La cuñada de Fred, Christine, recordó más tarde que Rena estaba deprimida y extremadamente ansiosa por el bienestar de sus hijos. . Al recibir la dirección de Fred en Midland Road, Rena trató de confrontarlo, probablemente para discutir o exigir la custodia de sus hijas. Esta fue la última vez que Rena fue vista con vida. Se cree que fue asesinada por estrangulamiento , posiblemente en el asiento trasero del Ford Popular de Fred y probablemente en estado de ebriedad. [67] When her body was discovered, a short length of metal tubing was found with her remains, leaving an equal possibility she had been restrained and subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder. Rena's body was extensively dismembered, placed into plastic bags, and buried close to a cluster of trees known as Yewtree Coppice at Letterbox Field, about 1 mile (1.6 km) from Much Marcle.[68][69]
Marriage to Letts[edit]
On 29 January 1972, Fred and Rosemary married. The ceremony took place at Gloucester Register Office, with Fred incorrectly describing himself as a bachelor upon the marriage certificate. No family or friends were invited apart from Fred's brother John, who acted as best man.[70] Several months later, with Rose pregnant with her second child, the couple moved from Midland Road to an address nearby: 25 Cromwell Street. Initially, the three-storey home was rented from the council; Fred later purchased the property from the council for £7,000.[71] To facilitate the Wests' purchasing the property from the council, many of the upper floor rooms were initially converted into bedsits, to supplement the household income. To maintain a degree of privacy for his own family, Fred installed a cooker and a washbasin on the first-floor landing in order that their lodgers need not enter the ground floor where the West family lived, and only he and his family were permitted access to the garden of the property. On 1 June, Rose gave birth to a second daughter. The date of her birth led Fred and Rose to name the child Mae June.[72]
Prostitution[edit]
Shortly after giving birth to her second child, Rose began to work as a prostitute, operating from an upstairs room at their residence and advertising her services in a local contact magazine. Fred encouraged Rose to seek clients in Gloucester's West Indian community through these advertisements.[73] In addition to her prostitution, Rose engaged in casual sex with both male and female lodgers within their household, and individuals Fred encountered via his work; she also bragged to several people that no man or woman could completely satisfy her.[74] When engaging in sexual relations with women, Rose would gradually increase the level of brutality to which she subjected her partner with acts such as partially suffocating her partner, or inserting increasingly large dildos into her partner's body. If the woman resisted or expressed any pain or fear, this would greatly excite Rose, who would typically ask: "Aren't you woman enough to take it?"[75]
To many of these women, it became apparent Rose and her husband (who regularly participated in threesomes with his wife and her lovers) took a particular pleasure from seeking to take women beyond their sexual limits—typically via sessions involving bondage, as the Wests openly admitted to taking a particular pleasure from any form of sex involving a strong measure of dominance, pain and violence. To cater to these fetishes, they amassed a large collection of bondage and restraining devices, magazines and photographs—later expanding this collection to include videos depicting bestiality and graphic child sexual abuse.[76]
Rose controlled the West family finances, Fred giving her his pay packets.[77] The room Rose used for prostitution was known throughout the West household as "Rose's Room", and had several hidden peepholes allowing Fred—a longtime voyeur—to watch her entertain her clients. He also installed a baby monitor in the room, allowing him to listen from elsewhere in the house. The room included a private bar, and a red light outside the door warned when Rose was not to be disturbed. Rose carried the sole key to this room around her neck,[78] and Fred installed a separate doorbell to the household which Rose's clients were instructed to ring whenever they visited the household. Much of the money earned from Rose's prostitution was spent on home improvements.[79][13]
By 1977, Rose's father had come to tolerate his daughter's marriage, and to develop a grudging respect for Fred. Together, he and Fred opened a café they named The Green Lantern, which was soon insolvent (unable to pay any debts owed). When Bill Letts discovered Rose's prostitution, he would also visit to have sex with his daughter.[80] By 1983, she had given birth to eight children, at least three of whom were conceived by clients. Fred willingly accepted these children as his own, and falsely informed them the reason their skin was darker than that of their siblings was because his great-grandmother was a black woman.[81]
Domestic violence[edit]
When each of the West children reached the age of seven, they were assigned numerous daily chores to perform in the house; they were seldom allowed to socialise outside the household perimeters unless either Fred or Rose were present, and had to follow strict guidelines imposed by their parents, with severe punishment—almost always physical—being the penalty for not conforming to the household rules. The children feared being the recipients of violence from their parents, the vast majority inflicted by Rose, occasionally by Fred. The violence was sometimes irrational, indiscreet or just inflicted for Rose's gratification; she always took great care not to mark the children's faces or hands in these assaults. Heather, then her younger brother Stephen (born 1973), ran away from home; both returned to Cromwell Street after several weeks of alternately sleeping rough or staying with friends, and both were beaten when they returned home.[82] Between 1972 and 1992, the West children were admitted to the Accident and Emergency department of local hospitals 31 times; the injuries were explained as accidents and never reported to social services.[83][84]
On one occasion, as Stephen was mopping the kitchen floor with a cloth, Rose accidentally stepped into the bowl of water he had been using. In response, Rose hit the boy over the head with the bowl, then repeatedly kicked him in the head and chest as she shouted: "You did that on purpose, you little swine!"[59] On another occasion, Rose became furious about a missing kitchen utensil, then grabbed a knife she had been using to cut a slab of meat, repeatedly inflicting light scour marks to Mae's chest until her rib cage was covered with light knife wounds. All the while, Mae screamed, "No, Mum! No, Mum!"[85] as Stephen and Heather stood by, helplessly sobbing.
Even Fred occasionally became the recipient of Rose's violence. On one occasion in August 1974,[86] Rose chased after Fred with a carving knife in her hand; Fred was able to slam shut the door of the room into which he had run as Rose lunged at him with the knife, resulting in the knife embedding itself in the door, and three of Rose's fingers sliding down the blade, almost severing them from her hand. In response, Rose calmly wrapped her hand in a towel and said: "Look what you done, fella. You've got to take me to the hospital now."[87]
Initial sexual assaults[edit]
Anna Marie West[edit]
In September 1972, the Wests led eight-year-old Anna Marie to the cellar at 25 Cromwell Street, where the child was ordered to undress, with Rose tearing her dress from her body upon noting the child's hesitation.[88] She was then stripped naked, bound to a mattress and gagged before Fred raped her[89] with Rose's active encouragement. After the rape, Rose followed Anna Marie to the bathroom—laughing as she observed Anna Marie struggling to walk. She then handed her a sanitary towel, explaining to the child: "I'm sorry. Everybody does it to every girl. It's a father's job. Don't worry, and don't say anything to anybody."[90] Making clear these sexual assaults would continue, Fred and Rose then threatened the child with severe beatings if they ever received word she had divulged the sexual abuse she endured at their hands.[91]
Rose occasionally sexually abused Anna Marie herself, and later took extreme gratification in degrading her with acts such as binding Anna Marie to various items of furniture before encouraging Fred to rape her, and forcing her to perform household chores while wearing sexual devices and a mini-skirt.[92] From the age of 13, Fred and Rose forced Anna Marie to prostitute herself within the household, with her clients being informed Anna Marie was 16. Rose was always present in the room when these acts occurred,[93] to ensure Anna Marie did not reveal her true age.[94] On one occasion when Anna Marie was aged 13 or 14, Rose took her to a local pub, insisting she drink several glasses of barley wine. Several hours later, Fred arrived at the pub to collect Rose and Anna Marie. Once they had left the premises, Anna Marie was bundled into her father's van and beaten by Rose, who asked her: "Do you think you could be my friend?" before she was sexually abused by her father and stepmother.[95]
Caroline Owens[edit]
In October 1972, the Wests hired 17-year-old Caroline Owens as their children's nanny. They had picked her up one night on a secluded country road as she hitchhiked from Tewkesbury to her Cinderford home, having visited her boyfriend. Learning that Owens disliked her stepfather and was looking for a job, the Wests offered her part-time employment as a nanny to the three children then in their household, with a promise she would be driven home each Tuesday. Several days later, Owens moved into 25 Cromwell Street, sharing a room with Anna Marie, whom Owens noted was "very withdrawn".[96]
Rose, who had begun to engage in prostitution by this time, explained to Owens that she worked as a masseuse when the younger woman enquired about the steady stream of men visiting her.[97] According to Owens, Fred also said he was a skilled abortionist, who was available should she ever need such a service. Owens also noted Fred talked about sex almost incessantly; her suspicions as to his sexual overtones were further heightened when Fred boasted that many of the women he claimed to have performed abortions upon were so overjoyed that they would offer him their sexual services as a reward.[97] When Owens herself became the recipient of the Wests' overt sexual advances, she announced her intentions to leave Cromwell Street and return home.[98]
Knowing Owens' habits of hitchhiking along the A40 between Cinderford and Tewkesbury, the Wests formulated a plan to abduct her for their shared gratification. Fred later admitted that the specific intent of this abduction was the rape and likely murder of Owens, but that his initial incentive was to determine whether his wife would be willing to at least assist him in an abduction.[99] On 6 December 1972, the couple lured Owens into their vehicle with an apology for their conduct and the offer of a lift home.[97] Initially, Owens believed the Wests had been sincere in their apologies to her and obliged, believing she had simply mistaken their earlier intentions. Rose joined her in the back seat, with the explanation she wanted a "girls' chat" as Fred drove.
Shortly thereafter, Rose began to fondle her, as Fred questioned whether she had had sex with her boyfriend that evening.[100] When Owens began to protest, Fred stopped the car, referred to Owens as a "bitch",[101] and punched her into unconsciousness before he and Rose bound and gagged her with a scarf and duct tape.[74] In her subsequent statement to police, Owens stated that, at Cromwell Street, she was given a drugged cup of tea to drink, then again gagged and subjected to a prolonged sexual assault from Fred and Rose. At one stage, Fred remarked that Owens' clitoris was unusual[97] then lashed her genitals with a leather belt. When Owens screamed, Rose again smothered her with a pillow and further restrained her about the neck, and performed cunnilingus on her. Quickly realising the gravity of her situation, Owens ceased resisting their sexual assaults.[97]
The following morning, having noted Owens' screaming when one of his children had knocked on the door of the room in which she was restrained, Fred threatened that he and his wife would keep her locked up in the cellar and allow his "black friends" to abuse her, and that when they had finished, he would bury her body beneath "the paving stones of Gloucester".[97] Fred then claimed he had killed hundreds of young girls,[97] adding that Owens had primarily been brought to the house for "Rose's pleasure". He and Rose then calmly asked Owens whether she would consider returning to work as their nanny. Seeing her escape avenue, Owens agreed, and vacuumed the house to indicate her belief in becoming an extended member of the family. Later that day, Owens escaped from a launderette she and Rose had entered and returned home. Although initially too ashamed to divulge to her mother what had happened, when her mother noted the welts, bruises and exposed subcutaneous tissues on her daughter's body, Owens burst into tears and confided what had happened.[102]
Owens' mother immediately reported her daughter's ordeal to the police, and the Wests were arrested and charged with assault, indecent assault, actual bodily harm, and rape. The case was tried at Gloucester Magistrates Court on 12 January 1973, but by this date, Owens had decided she could not face the ordeal of testifying in court. All charges pertaining to her sexual abuse were dropped, and the Wests agreed to plead guilty to the reduced charges of indecent assault and causing actual bodily harm; each was fined £50, and the couple were allowed to walk free from court.[103] When Owens heard this news, she attempted suicide.[74]
Murders[edit]
Three months after the Wests' assault trial, the couple committed their first known murder. The victim was a 19-year-old named Lynda Gough, with whom Fred and Rose became acquainted through a male lodger in early 1973. Gough regularly visited Cromwell Street, and engaged in affairs with two male lodgers. On 19 April, she moved into their home on Cromwell Street. On or about 20 April,[104] other tenants were told that she had been told to leave the household after she had hit one of their children. This story was repeated to Gough's mother when she contacted the Wests to enquire about her whereabouts.[n 1]
When Gough's dismembered body was found, the jaw was completely wrapped in adhesive and surgical tape to silence her screams, and two small tubes had likely been inserted into her nasal cavities to allow breathing. Long sections of string and sections of knotted fabric were also discovered with her remains. Gough had likely been suspended from holes carved into the wooden beams supporting the ceiling of the cellar Fred later admitted he had devised for the purpose of suspending his victims' bodies, and likely died of either strangulation or suffocation.[106] Her dismembered body, missing five cervical vertebrae, the patellae and numerous phalange bones, was buried in an inspection pit beneath the garage.[107]
From their later investigations, police and forensic experts concluded all the victims found in the cellar at 25 Cromwell Street had been murdered in this location, and that, like Gough, each had been dismembered in this location.[13] Five victims were murdered and buried in the cellar at Cromwell Street between November 1973 and April 1975. The first of these victims, 15-year-old Carol Ann Cooper, was abducted on 10 November 1973. Cooper lived in the Pines Children's Home in Worcester, and was abducted after spending the evening at a cinema with her boyfriend. She had been waiting for a bus in Warndon when she vanished, and was likely dragged into Fred's car,[108] where her face was bound with surgical tape and her arms bound with braiding cloth before she was driven to Cromwell Street. At the Wests' address, Cooper was suspended from the wooden beams of the cellar ceiling before her abuse and murder. As had been the case with Lynda, Cooper died from strangulation or asphyxiation, before her body was dismembered and buried in a shallow, cubical grave in the cellar.
Over the following 17 months, four further victims between the ages of 15 and 21 suffered a similar fate to that endured by Gough and Cooper, although the disarticulation conducted upon each successive victim, plus the paraphernalia discovered in each shallow grave, suggests each victim was likely subjected to greater abuse and torture than those previously murdered.[109]
Following the murder of 18-year-old Juanita Mott in April 1975, Fred concreted over the floor of the entire cellar. He later converted this section of the household into a bedroom for his oldest children,[110] and he and his wife are not known to have committed any further murders until May 1978, when Fred—either with or without Rose's participation but certainly with her knowledge[111]—murdered an 18-year-old lodger named Shirley Robinson. Robinson had first met Fred at The Green Lantern café in April 1977, and had taken lodgings with the Wests the same month. She was heavily pregnant at the time of her murder.[112] Although Rose—herself pregnant at the time—initially boasted to neighbours the child Robinson was carrying was her husband's;[113] she soon developed a deep resentment of Robinson, and the motive for her murder is likely to have been the removal of a threat to the stability of the Wests' relationship. Her body was buried in the garden of 25 Cromwell Street. It was extensively dismembered, but no restraining devices were found with these remains, making a sexual motive for this murder unlikely.[114] The unborn baby had been removed and had several bones missing. Shortly thereafter, Rose unsuccessfully submitted a claim for maternity benefit in Shirley's name with Gloucester social services.[115] As had earlier been the case with Charmaine and Lynda, Fred and Rose allayed the suspicions of anyone who asked about Robinson's whereabouts by claiming she had relocated to live with her father in West Germany.[62][n 2]
The final murder Fred and Rose are known to have committed with a definite sexual motive occurred on 5 August 1979. The victim was a 16-year-old named Alison Chambers, who had run away from a local children's home to become the Wests' live-in nanny in the middle of 1979. Chambers is believed to have lived within their household for several weeks before her murder, and Rose promised Chambers she could live at a rural "peaceful farm" she claimed she and Fred owned.[116] Her body was also buried in the garden of Cromwell Street, close to the bathroom wall, and although Chambers was likely dismembered,[117] her skeleton was not marked by striations as the earlier victims' bodies had been. In an effort to allay any concerns from Chambers' family (with whom she maintained regular correspondence), Fred and Rose later posted a letter written by Chambers to her mother prior to her murder from a Northamptonshire post box.[118]
Abuse[edit]
Heather and Mae West became the focus of Fred's incestuous[55] sexual attentions after Anna Marie ran away from home in 1979[119] after enduring a particularly severe beating from Rose to her stomach just days after being discharged from hospital for treatment of an ectopic pregnancy.[120] The frequency of the abuse endured by Heather and Mae increased when both girls reached puberty. Fred was overt and unapologetic in his conduct, and would justify his actions with the simple explanation: "I made you; I can do what I like with you."[121] He further referred to his intentions to impregnate both his daughters on at least one occasion, and would occasionally force all his children to watch pornography with him. As Heather, Mae and their younger brother Stephen were very close in age, the trio resolved that if their father asked either of the two girls to be alone in a room with him, they would only do so if at least one other member of the trio were present to avoid either girl being raped. Both girls also developed a regime whereby they would only shower or undress when their father was either out of the house, or as her sister stood guard at the door. Stephen was also informed by his father that he would have to have sex with his mother by the age of 17 (in the event, his parents evicted him from their home when he was 16).[122]
Although the girls were repulsed by their father's behaviour, Mae—having once endured Fred's throwing a vacuum cleaner at her when she remonstrated against his fondling her—developed a mechanism whereby she would tolerate Fred's sexually fondling her, then jokingly brush aside any efforts he made to take the molestation further,[123] whereas in her autobiography, Mae recollected that Heather "was affected quite badly by all of this. [Even] more than me."[124] A strong suspicion remains that, by 1985 or 1986, Heather had been forced to engage in intercourse with her father,[125] as by the mid-1980s, she developed classic symptoms of the distress felt by victims of child abuse: these included habits of her biting her nails until they bled;[126] drinking alcohol; of warily watching her father through the corner of her eye wherever she was sitting or standing; expressing nervous fragility whenever in the presence of males; her sleep being repeatedly broken by nightmares; and her repeatedly bouncing back and forth as she sat on any chair.[127] This distressful behaviour led to Fred and Rose suspecting Heather had lesbian inclinations, and also resulted in her becoming the increasing recipient of taunts from her father (who had never particularly held a liking toward Heather) that she was "ugly" and a "bitch". On the occasions Heather remonstrated about the abuse to her mother, Rose would simply laugh at her distress.[120]
Heather also expressed to Mae and Stephen her desire to run away from home and live a nomadic lifestyle in the Forest of Dean, and to never again see any human beings.[128]
Murder of Heather West[edit]
Heather did complain to friends about the abuse she and her siblings endured, and her external signs of psychological distress were noted by several of them. Staff at the Hucclecote Secondary School, which Heather and her siblings attended, are also known to have expressed concern as to why Heather—a studious and obedient pupil—refused to obey orders either to change her clothing for, or shower after, sporting activities. On one occasion, she was forced to take a shower, resulting in her peers and staff noting her arms, legs and torso were covered in welts and bruises in various stages of healing.[129] Heather attempted to excuse these injuries as having been obtained in fights with her siblings, but confided in one close friend that they had been inflicted by her parents, adding that her mother considered her a "little bitch" who deserved her beatings.[130]
By the mid-1980s, rumours of Rose's sex life had reached several of the children's classmates, and although the West children had been instructed never to divulge details of their home lives to their peers, Heather confided to her friends that many of these rumours were true. The father of one of these classmates was a friend of the Wests; as such, word soon reached Fred and Rose that Heather had divulged details of her home life—including details of her mother's promiscuity—to her classmates. Fred was so concerned by these revelations that he began to escort Heather to and from school.[82]
After Heather left school in 1986, she applied for numerous jobs in an effort to leave Cromwell Street. By June of the following year, she had pinned her hopes on escaping the household via obtaining a job as a chalet cleaner at a holiday camp in the seaside town of Torquay; she received notification that this application had been unsuccessful on 18 June. In response, she crumpled into tears before her siblings Mae and Stephen. That same evening, her whole family heard Heather sobbing aloud as she attempted to sleep,[131] and according to Mae, she "cried all the way through the night." The following morning, on 19 June,[132] Heather was "back to her usual self, looking miserable, biting her nails and sitting on the couch bouncing back and forth as she sat"[55] as her siblings left the house to go to school.
When Heather's siblings returned home, they were informed Heather had left to accept the job she had previously been refused in Torquay, although Rose told an enquiring neighbour that she and Heather had had a "hell of a row", and that Heather had run away from home. Later, to answer their children's questions about why Heather failed to contact or visit her siblings, the parents claimed that Heather had eloped with a lesbian lover. When Mae and Stephen suggested they report Heather's disappearance to police, Fred changed his story yet again, saying it would be unwise to initiate a search for Heather as she was involved in credit card fraud.[133] On more than one occasion, Fred and Rose persuaded an unknown acquaintance to fake a phone call from Heather to her parents.[134]
—Fred West (1994)[135]
In the years following Heather's disappearance, Fred occasionally jokingly threatened the children that they would "end up under the patio like Heather" if they either misbehaved or divulged the mistreatment they endured to anyone outside the household. With Rose's approval, he later constructed a barbecue pit immediately opposite where Heather had been buried, and placed a pine table on her grave for the children of the family to sit upon whenever the Wests held family gatherings in their garden.[126]
Heather's disappearance, Fred and Rose's constantly changing stories about their daughter's whereabouts, plus their allusions to foul play, ultimately led to police enquiries as to Heather's whereabouts. These enquiries culminated in a search warrant being issued to excavate the Wests' garden in February 1994.[136]
Arrest[edit]
In May 1992, Fred asked his 13-year-old daughter Louise to bring some bottles to a room on the first floor of their home. Rose was not present in the home at the time. Shortly thereafter, the girl's siblings heard her scream, "No, don't!" Later, Fred returned downstairs. Louise was found by her siblings writhing in pain, sobbing that her father had raped and sodomised her, at one stage partially strangling her.[137] When Rose returned home, Louise confided in her mother that she had been raped by Fred; Rose replied, "Oh well. You were asking for it." Over the following weeks, Louise was raped on three further occasions, with Rose personally witnessing one of these rapes before following her distressed and bleeding daughter into the bathroom and asking the child, "Well, what did you expect?"[138] Fred also filmed one of these rapes. Several weeks later, Louise garnered the courage to confide in a close friend what her father had done; this friend told her own mother what had happened on 4 August. In response, the friend's mother anonymously informed the police.
On 6 August 1992, the police searched the West household on the pretext of searching for stolen property. Although numerous objects of sexual paraphernalia—including 99 pornographic videos of both home-made and commercial nature—were discovered, police did not find the video depicting the rape of Fred's daughter. The 13-year-old made a full statement through a specially-trained solicitor, describing her father's actions, the fact the sexual abuse had begun when she was 11, and that her mother had been casually indifferent to her plight. All the children in the household were placed in foster care the following day.[39] Medical examinations revealed evidence of physical and sexual abuse.[n 3]
The West children also divulged their mother had inflicted most of the physical abuse and that their father frequently said that if they told anyone about the goings-on in the household they would be "buried under the patio" like their sister Heather.[139]
Investigation[edit]
Police began a full-scale investigation, eventually leading to Fred being charged with three counts of rape, and one of buggery, with Rose as an accomplice. She was also charged with child cruelty, inciting her husband to engage in sex with their daughter,[140] and obstructing the police. Fred and Rose were questioned as to the whereabouts of their eldest daughter, and although Fred claimed Heather was "alive and well" and supporting herself via prostitution, Rose initially claimed to have no knowledge of Heather's whereabouts, or why she had left home. She claimed on 11 August that she could "remember now" that her daughter had left home at her own persuasion due to Rose's concerns her other children may discover Heather's supposed lesbian inclinations. Rose then added she had also given her daughter £600 to incentivise her to leave the household, before further claiming to have maintained sporadic telephone contact with her daughter over the years.[141] The following day, Rose was granted bail on the condition she did not maintain contact with her children, her stepdaughter, or her husband prior to her upcoming trial.
As Fred awaited trial, he was held on remand in Birmingham. Learning that her father had denied any wrongdoing, Anna Marie also contacted police to offer a full statement detailing her experiences as a child. In a statement given to Detective Constable Hazel Savage, Anna Marie recounted the extensive physical, mental and sexual abuse she had endured as a child at the hands of her father and stepmother, before agreeing to testify against both parents at their upcoming trial. Anna Marie also added she had, for several years, been unsuccessfully attempting to trace her mother Rena and half-sisters Charmaine and Heather. Further enquiries conducted with Anna Marie's husband, Chris Davis, revealed that Heather had confided in him just how unhappy she was shortly before her disappearance, and of her desire to leave home. Davis elaborated that although Heather had not divulged any details about her enduring any sexual abuse, he had been so concerned for her welfare he had offered to confront Fred and Rose, and Heather had dissuaded him from doing so, blurting: "For Christ's sake don't, because they'll kill us both!" Davis then suggested they might wish to speak with Heather to garner further details of her abuse.[142]
In their efforts to gather further evidence, police and social services also spoke with Mae, who, having spoken with her 13-year-old sister and learned Louise did not wish to see her father charged, initially denied she had endured any molestation as an adolescent.[143] Police then focused their attentions on tracing Heather in efforts to corroborate Anna Marie's claims of sexual abuse, but enquiries to the Inland Revenue and the Social Security department held no records attesting to her being alive. Two months later, Gloucester social services also contacted police to stress their concern over the whereabouts of Heather.
This case against the Wests collapsed when Anna Marie and her 13-year-old half-sister Louise declined to testify at the court case on 7 June 1993, with the child rape victim expressing her desire to return to her family, and Anna Marie choosing to withdraw her statement because of her noting the misery of her younger siblings, and her fear of Rose's vindictiveness.[144] Shortly thereafter, Anna Marie spoke further with DC Savage, further emphasising that her mother Rena and half-sister Charmaine were also missing.
Search warrant[edit]
Although the Wests were acquitted of all charges, all their younger children remained in foster care, albeit with permitted supervised visitations to Cromwell Street. Despite Fred and Rose claiming to the few relatives from whom they were not already estranged by 1993 that the charges had been fabricated by police, almost all of their remaining family members severed contact with them.[145] Meanwhile, police continued investigating the disappearance of Heather, noting no records existed indicating she was still alive. When Anna Marie was questioned as to the colloquial "family joke" regarding Heather being buried beneath the patio, she confirmed that the sole time she had heard her father recite this claim, he had immediately burst into laughter, leading to her refusing to take this claim seriously.[146]
In retracing Fred's history, police also discovered that although Rena and Charmaine had disappeared in 1971, no missing person report had ever been filed on either of them. DC Savage and her colleagues were convinced Heather was dead, and that Fred's repeated statement to his children that her body lay beneath the family patio might be true. On 23 February 1994, Gloucester police successfully applied for a search warrant authorising the search of 25 Cromwell Street to locate Heather's remains.[147]
When police displayed this warrant to Rose on 24 February, she turned pale, before becoming hysterical and shouting over her shoulder to her eldest son, Stephen, "Get Fred!"[148] Rose became contradictory in her informal questioning as to the circumstances surrounding Heather's disappearance. When reminded of these contradictions, she became distraught and abusive, shouting at the officers: "I can't fucking remember! It's a bloody long time ago! What do you think I am? A bloody computer?"[149]
Fred had been working in Stroud at the time; upon hearing of the police's intentions, he assured Stephen he would be home immediately. When Fred arrived three hours later, he informed his family of his intention to voluntarily offer a witness statement to police regarding his daughter's whereabouts.[150] Despite Fred's insistence in this statement that Heather had been "alive and well", albeit involved in a drugs cartel, and that the claims he and his wife had made as to Heather being buried beneath the family patio were simply "rubbish", police were unassuaged. In response, Fred abruptly changed tactics, claiming they simply held a grudge against him due to his 1993 acquittal of the rape of his daughter.[150]
That evening, with the search team having left their premises and a uniformed officer remaining at Cromwell Street to guard the excavation site, Mae and Stephen observed their parents talking in hushed tones as they repeatedly glanced towards the garden from their kitchen window.[151]
Discoveries[edit]
Arrest of Fred West[edit]
In the early hours of the following morning, as his son Stephen was about to leave for work, Fred informed him: "Look son, look after mum and sell the house [...] I've done something really bad. I want you to go to the papers and make as much money as you can."[150] Shortly thereafter, police returned to Cromwell Street to continue their search for Heather's body. Upon their arrival, Fred indicated his wish to be arrested for Heather's murder and to be taken to Bearland police station to provide a full confession; he was then arrested and formally cautioned.[149]
At 11:15 that morning, Fred formally admitted to police he had indeed killed his daughter, albeit in an act of manslaughter. He confessed to strangling Heather in a fit of rage, then dismembering her body in the ground floor bathroom with a heavy serrated knife he normally used for cutting slabs of frozen meat. Her remains had been stored in a dustbin as he waited for an opportunity to dig her grave. Fred was insistent his wife had no knowledge of her daughter's murder, claiming he had committed this murder as Rose was preoccupied with one of her clients, adding the fact the search team had not yet unearthed Heather's remains was because they had been excavating the wrong section of his garden. He then volunteered to accompany police to the house to pinpoint the precise location of Heather's body.[152] Upon receipt of this confession, Fred's solicitor, Howard Ogden, and his appointed appropriate adult, Janet Leach, informed Mae and Stephen their father had confessed to their sister's murder. In response, Stephen slumped against a wall and began sobbing; Mae entered a state of shock, before stammering that her father had not killed her sister.
The following day (26 February), police began excavating the section of the garden at Cromwell Street where Fred indicated he had buried his daughter's body. Shortly after 4 p.m., police found a human thigh bone protruding from a section of the garden Fred had insisted police need not look in. Excavating the section of the garden where Fred had indicated he had buried his daughter's body, investigators discovered a mass of jumbled human remains encased in the remnants of a bin bag and intertwined with two lengths of rope. These dismembered remains were taken to the police headquarters for further examination, where they were determined to be those of a young woman, with one kneecap and several phalanges missing.[153] The decedent's fingernails were discovered in a pile, suggesting they may have been torn from her fingers as a means of torture. Several hours later, the body was identified via dental records as being that of Heather West.
That evening, having been formally charged with his daughter's murder and questioned as to why police had also discovered a third thigh bone, Fred confessed there were two further sets of human remains in his garden, and agreed to return to Cromwell Street to reveal the locations of both graves; one of whom he named as Shirley Robinson, whom he described as being a former tenant and a lesbian who had been heavily pregnant with his child at the time of her 1978 murder;[115] the other victim he described (incorrectly) as being "Shirley's mate", but either could not or would not elaborate as to her identity. Both sets of remains were discovered on 28 February, and Fred was charged with both murders two days later.[154]
Having discovered three sets of human remains in the garden, a decision was made to thoroughly search the entire property. Rose was placed into a safe house in the nearby town of Dursley as police commenced their search inside 25 Cromwell Street. Informed of this fact, and with the formal interviews conducted by the investigative team lasting up to 16 hours each day and including persistent questioning as to the whereabouts of his first wife Rena and stepdaughter Charmaine,[154] Fred authorised his solicitor to pass a note he had written to the leader of the murder investigation: Superintendent John Bennett of the Gloucestershire Police. This note—dated 4 March—read: "I, Frederick West, authorise my solicitor, Howard Ogden, to advise Superintendent Bennett that I wish to admit a further (approx) nine killings, expressly Charmaine, Rena, Lynda Gough and others to be identified. F. West."[155]
Questioned further as to his claims, Fred calmly explained there were a further five bodies buried in his cellar, and a sixth body beneath the ground-floor bathroom. Most of these victims, Fred claimed, had been hitchhikers or girls he had murdered in the 1970s after picking them up at bus stops. Initially, Fred claimed these six victims had been killed when they had threatened to inform Rose of his infidelity with women, and that he had transported their bodies to Cromwell Street to abuse, dismember, and then bury in shallow graves. The dismemberment, Fred claimed, had made it easier to bury the remains in shallow, cubical graves, and he agreed to return to Cromwell Street to indicate precisely where he had buried each victim.[156]
Between 5 and 8 March, police found six further bodies of young females at 25 Cromwell Street. Each victim had been extensively mutilated, and each body bore evidence of having been subjected to extreme sexual abuse prior to the act of murder. For example, the third set of remains discovered in the cellar was found with a length of cloth wrapped around the skull, and an oval of adhesive tape 16 inches in circumference found with the remains had likely been used to gag this victim, whose ankles and wrists were also bound with a large section of rope.[157] Also found in this grave was a large, serrated knife. The second set of remains was found with a section of tubing twisted into a U-shape alongside her severed limbs, and her skull was found encased in adhesive tape which had been wrapped around the section where her face had been 11 or 12 times, with a narrow plastic tube inserted where the nasal cavities had been in an effort to allow her to breathe prior to her murder.[158] Each set of remains was missing numerous bones, particularly phalanges; when questioned, Fred refused to divulge the reason or whereabouts of the bones missing from each set of remains.[159]
Arrest of Rose West[edit]
Despite Fred's insistence that his wife held no knowledge of any of the murders,[160] investigators suspected otherwise. Rose was arrested on 20 April 1994, initially on offences relating to the rape of an 11-year-old girl, and the physical assault of an eight-year-old boy—both charges dating from the mid-1970s. The following day, she was refused bail, and transferred to Pucklechurch Prison to be held in the maximum security wing. Here, she was questioned more closely about the murders, in particular those of her daughter Heather and Lynda Gough, and on 25 April she was formally charged with Gough's murder.
By 6 May, Fred and Rose were jointly charged with five counts of murder, with Rose simply replying, "I'm innocent" upon hearing each formal charge - a response that proved to be a theme throughout each of the 46 interviews investigators held with Rose prior to her trial.[159]
As well as the murders of the victims exhumed from Cromwell Street, Fred had confessed to the murders of his first wife and stepdaughter, and to knowing the location of Anne McFall's remains (although he always denied killing her). Fred agreed to identify each burial location, and the remains were unearthed between 10 April and 7 June.[152] He was then transferred to Birmingham's HM Prison Birmingham, where a strict suicide watch called for his cell to be checked every 15 minutes.[161]
Formal charges[edit]
Fred and Rose West were brought before a magistrates' court in Gloucester on 30 June 1994; he was charged with 11 murders and she with nine.[162] This was the first time the couple had seen each other since Fred's February arrest. Prior to hearing the formal charges against them, Fred leaned toward his wife and gently placed his hand upon her shoulder; in response, Rose—having ignored her husband's presence—visibly winced in discomfort.[163] Both were ordered held on remand.
As police attempted to lead Fred from the hearing, he resisted their efforts, and again attempted to move towards Rose, who again winced and attempted to writhe away from his grasp.[164]
Immediately after this court appearance, Fred was re-arrested on suspicion of murdering Anne McFall, whose body had been found on 7 June but had not been officially identified until this date; he was formally charged with McFall's murder on 3 July, appearing in court the following morning.[165]
Diversion of culpability[edit]
As he was held on remand at HM Prison Birmingham in the months following his arrest, Fred became increasingly depressed. This became worse after Rose's public rejection of him at Gloucester Magistrates Court on 30 June, her refusal to reply to letters he sent her, and reports leaked to the press in which she (Rose) had assumed the role of a grieving mother who had lost a daughter and stepdaughter to her husband and in which she declared both her innocence of murder, and her hatred of him.
Fred pleaded with Stephen and Anna Marie (the only children to visit their father while on remand) to convey to Rose that he loved her, but Rose never acknowledged these overtures.[n 4] In response, Fred withdrew his earlier confessions to having acted alone in the murders, and instead accused his wife of almost total culpability in all the murders to which he had been charged, excluding that of Anne McFall, which he claimed had been committed by his first wife.[36]
Death[edit]
Well Rose it's your birthday on 29 November 1994 and you will be 41 and still beautiful and still lovely and I love you. We will always be in love.
The most wonderful thing in my life was when I met you. Our love is special to us. So, love, keep your promises to me. You know what they are. Where we are put together for ever and ever is up to you. We loved Heather, both of us. I would love Charmaine to be with Heather and Rena.
You will always be Mrs. West, all over the world. That is important to me and to you.
I haven't got you a present, but all I have is my life. I will give it to you, my darling. When you are ready, come to me. I will be waiting for you.—Fred West's suicide note[167]
The initially strict suicide watch having been relaxed,[168] on 1 January 1995 Fred West asphyxiated himself[169] in his cell by wrapping an improvised rope he had constructed from a blanket and tags he had stolen from prison laundry bags[170] around his neck, then binding this device to a door handle and window catchment, and sinking to his knees.[170]
At the bottom of the suicide note found in his cell was a drawing of a gravestone, within which was written: "In loving memory. Fred West. Rose West. Rest in peace where no shadow falls. In perfect peace he waits for Rose, his wife."[167]
Trial of Rose West[edit]
At pretrial proceedings in February, Rose pleaded not guilty to ten charges of murder (the murder of Charmaine West having been added to the original nine after Fred's suicide, and two counts of rape and indecent assault of young girls having been dropped with a view for later resubmission), though her counsel conceded that circumstantial evidence indicated Rose's willingness to subject young girls to sadistic physical and sexual abuse.[171][172]Her trial at Winchester Crown Court began 3 October.[173]
An important early decision by the judge was to admit testimony related to the sexual mistreatment of three women by Fred and Rose, accepting the prosecution's argument that it established a pattern of behaviour repeated in the murders.[174]
Prosecution[edit]
In his opening statement, prosecutor Brian Leveson portrayed Fred and Rose as sex-obsessed sadistic murderers, terming the bodies discovered at Cromwell Street and Midland Road "secrets more terrible than words can express ... [The victims'] last moments on Earth were as objects of the depravity of this woman and her husband".[175]He pointed out that Fred was incarcerated when Charmaine West was killed; claimed that Fred and Rose had each learned from their mistake in allowing Caroline Owens to live (they "would never be so trusting again");[175] and said that the gag on victim Thérèse Siegenthaler had a "feminine" touch—a scarf tied in a bow.[176]He promised to demonstrate Rose's controlling and sexually sadistic character and her efforts to deflect suspicion about the disappearance of their victims.
Prosecution witnesses included Cromwell Street lodgers; victims' relatives; Rose's mother Daisy and sister Glenys; and surviving victims including Anna Marie West, Kathryn Halliday (a former lover of Fred and Rose), Caroline Owens, and a "Miss A" (who had been sexually assaulted at 14 by Fred and Rose in 1977, and who described Rose as the more aggressive perpetrator of the two).[177] Neighbours described Charmaine's 1971 disappearance while Fred was imprisoned, and Rose's casual indifference to Heather's disappearance.[178]
Rosemary's counsel, Richard Ferguson, tried to discredit prosecution witnesses as either having financially exploited their connection to the case, or motivated by grudges. Owens, though admitting to receiving £20,000 for her story, described her extreme survivor's guilt: "I only want to get justice for the girls who didn't make it. I feel like it was my fault."[179]
Defence testimony[edit]
Ferguson emphasised that Fred, before meeting Rose, had committed at least one murder strikingly similar to those at issue in the present trial, and that the prosecution's case was largely circumstantial. He contended that Rose was unaware of the extent of Fred's sadism, and urged the jury to not be prejudiced by her promiscuity and domineering manner.
Against the advice of her counsel, Rose herself testified; her affect sometimes morose and tearful, sometimes upbeat and humorous. She wept while describing herself as a victim of child abuse and rape who naively married a violent and domineering man, but joked about issues such as her "always being pregnant",[180] and laughed while describing one victim's "grandfather glasses".[180] She also claimed never to have met six of the victims buried at Cromwell Street, and to recall very little of her assault on Caroline Owens. When shown photographs of the victims buried in the cellar and victim Alison Chambers and asked by Brian Leveson whether she recognised any of their faces, Rose's face turned bright red, and she repeatedly stuttered as she replied, "No, sir."[181]
When questioned as to life at Cromwell Street, Rose claimed she and Fred had lived separate lives, which was inconsistent with the earlier testimony of witnesses who had visited or lodged at their address.[182] In reference to her relationship with her eldest child, Rose admitted her relations with Heather were strained, before claiming to the court that her daughter was a lesbian who had physically and psychologically abused her siblings. Despite these allegations, Rose stated she had loved her daughter, and held no knowledge of her murder. Further questioned as to the contradictory explanations she and Fred had given as to Heather's disappearance, Rose claimed these discrepancies had stemmed from telephone conversations she had had with Heather after she had left home.[62]
The defence next called a succession of women who claimed to have been attacked or assaulted by a lone male whose physical description matched that of Fred West between 1966 and 1975. These seven women each testified they had recognised their attacker as Fred West when his photograph appeared in the media in 1994. The intention of this testimony was to illustrate to the jury that Fred was capable of abducting, assaulting or attempting to attack women without Rose, which the prosecution had never disputed. The physical recollections of several of these women varied greatly.[183]
The final witness to testify at Rose's trial was Fred's appointed appropriate adult, Janet Leach, whom the prosecution had called to testify on 7 November in rebuttal to the tape recordings of Fred's confession which had been played to the court on 3 November and in which he had stressed Rose had "known nothing at all" about any of the murders.[184] Leach testified that through this role, Fred had gradually begun to view her as a confidante, and had confided in her that on the evening prior to his 25 February arrest, he and Rose had formed a pact whereby he would take full responsibility for all the murders, many of which he had privately described to her as being "some of Rose's mistakes". He had further divulged that Rose had indeed murdered Charmaine while he had been incarcerated, and had also murdered Shirley Robinson. Fred had also confided that he had dismembered the victims, and Rose had participated in the mutilation and dismemberment of Shirley Robinson, having personally removed Robinson's unborn child from her womb after her death. In reference to the remaining eight murders for which Rose was charged, Leach testified that Fred had confided Rose had "played a major part" in these murders.[185]
Upon cross examination, Leach did concede to Richard Ferguson she had earlier lied under oath about having sold her story to a national newspaper for £100,000, although she was adamant as to the sincerity of her testimony. While delivering this testimony, Leach collapsed, and the trial was adjourned for six days. She returned to complete her cross examination on 13 November.[186]
Conviction[edit]
After seven weeks of evidence the judge instructed the jury, emphasising that circumstantial evidence can be sufficient for a finding of guilt, and that if two people take part in a murder, the law considers them equally guilty regardless of which of them did the deed.[187]On 21 and 22 November, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for all ten murders.[188][189] Terming her crimes "appalling and depraved",[190] the judge sentenced Rosemary to life in prison, emphasising that she should never be paroled.[191]Initially, Rose was incarcerated at HMP Bronzefield as a Category A prisoner;[192] she was later transferred to HM Prison Low Newton before, in 2019, being transferred to HM Prison New Hall,[193] where she continues to protest her innocence.[191][194]
Victims[edit]
Fred and Rose West are known to have committed at least 12 murders between 1967 and 1987; many of those connected to the case believe there are several other victims whose bodies have never been found. Prior to his suicide, police had recorded over 108 hours of tape-recorded interviews with Fred, both when he had claimed to have acted alone in the commission of the murders, and when he had attempted to portray Rose as being the more culpable participant. On several occasions, Fred made cryptic hints he had claimed several other victims, but refused to divulge any further information beyond that he had murdered 15-year-old Mary Bastholm in 1968 and buried the body on farmland near Bishop's Cleeve. He also claimed to have killed one victim while working on a construction project in Birmingham, and that other bodies had been buried in Scotland and Herefordshire.[195][n 5]
Stephen West, recounting an admission made while his father was on remand at HM Prison Birmingham, 1994.[197]
To his appropriate adult, Fred claimed there were up to 20 further victims he and his wife had killed, "not in one place but spread around",[198] and he intended to reveal the location of one body per year to investigators.[199][200]
While on remand, Fred made several admissions as to the fate of the victims buried at Cromwell Street to his son Stephen. Much of this information was disjointed or told in a third party manner; Fred claimed that he had extensively tortured the victims prior to their murder, but had not raped them, instead engaging in acts of necrophilia with their bodies at or shortly after the point of death.[201] He also claimed the reason many phalange bones had been missing from the victims' bodies was because the removal of their fingers and toes had been one of the forms of torture the victims had endured, with other torture methods including the extraction of their nails,[202] acts of mutilation, and cigarettes being stubbed out on their bodies. Furthermore, the locations of almost all the burial sites of victims—both discovered and undiscovered—was symbolic to Fred, as each had been buried at or very close to the location he had lived in or worked at the time of the victim's murder.[203]
1967[edit]
- July: Anne McFall, (18). McFall's remains were found on 7 June 1994 in Fingerpost Field, Much Marcle. Her body had been placed in a rectangular pit and covered with loose topsoil. She had been pregnant with a daughter, and her pregnancy had been in its eighth month.[204]
1968[edit]
- 6 January: Mary Bastholm, (15). A teenage waitress at a café Fred frequented. Bastholm was abducted from a bus stop on Bristol Road, Gloucester. Her remains were never found; Fred confessed to police he had killed her. She is believed to have been buried in Bishop's Cleeve.[198]
1971[edit]
- c. 20 June: Charmaine West, (8). Fred's stepdaughter. Charmaine was killed by Rose shortly before Fred's release from Leyhill Prison on 24 June, likely in a fit of domestic violence.[55] Her remains were initially stored in the cellar at Midland Road before Fred buried the child's body in the rear garden of the flat.[66]
- August: Catherine "Rena" Costello, (27). Rena is believed to have travelled to the Wests at 25 Midland Road to either enquire about or obtain custody of her two daughters in mid-to-late-August 1971. It is believed Fred killed Rena to avoid any investigation into Charmaine's whereabouts. She is believed to have been strangled to death by Fred before her extensively mutilated body was buried in Letterbox Field.[205]
1973[edit]
- c. 20 April: Lynda Gough, (19). The first sexually motivated killing the Wests are known to have committed together. Gough was a lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, and shared sex partners with Rose. Following her disappearance, Gough's mother travelled to Cromwell Street to enquire as to her daughter's whereabouts, only to note Rose had been wearing her daughter's clothes and slippers. She was informed Lynda had moved to find work in Weston-super-Mare. Her remains were buried in an inspection pit beneath the garage, which was later converted into a bathroom.[206]
- 10 November: Carol Ann Cooper, (15). Cooper had been placed into care following her mother's death in 1966. She was last seen alive by her boyfriend in the suburb of Warndon boarding a bus to her grandmother's home. Fred referred to Cooper as "Scar Hand" in reference to a recent firework burn she had sustained.[207] Cooper was the final victim unearthed from the cellar. Her skull was bound with surgical tape and her dismembered limbs bound with cord and braiding cloth.[208]
- 27 December: Lucy Partington, (21). Partington was an Exeter University student and the cousin of novelist Martin Amis.[209] She was abducted from a bus stop along the A435. Her precise date of death may have been one week after her disappearance, as Fred admitted himself into the casualty unit of the Gloucester Royal Hospital with a serious laceration of his right hand on 3 January, possibly sustained as he dismembered Partington's body. Her body was discovered in the Cromwell Street cellar on 6 March 1994.[210][211]
1974[edit]
- 16 April: Thérèse Siegenthaler, (21). A sociology student at Greenwich Community College. Siegenthaler was abducted by the Wests as she hitchhiked from South London to Holyhead. Fred mistook her Swiss accent to be a Dutch one, and always referred to her as either "the Dutch girl" or "Tulip". She was reported missing to Scotland Yard by her family in Switzerland when communication from their daughter ceased.[212] Fred later further concealed Siegenthaler's remains by building a false chimney breast on her grave.
- 15 November: Shirley Hubbard, (15). A foster child abducted from a Droitwich bus stop close to the River Severn as she travelled home from a date.[109] Aged 15 when murdered, Hubbard had been attending work experience in Worcester, and was last seen by her boyfriend, having promised to meet him the next day. Hubbard's dismembered remains were found in a section of the cellar known to the family as the "Marilyn Monroe area".[213] Her head had been completely covered in tape, with a one-eighth-of-an-inch diameter rubber tube inserted three inches into her nasal cavity to enable her to breathe.[109]
1975[edit]
- 12 April: Juanita Mott, (18). Mott had been a former lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, but was living with a family friend in Newent when she disappeared. Mott is believed to have been abducted by the Wests as she hitchhiked along the B4215. In his subsequent confessions to police, Fred would refer to Mott as "the girl from Newent".[214]
1978[edit]
- 10 May: Shirley Robinson, (18). Another former lodger at 25 Cromwell Street, Robinson had been bisexual and had engaged in casual sex with Fred and Rose. At the time of her disappearance, she had been eight months pregnant with Fred's child, and her baby boy had been due to be born on 11 June. No sexual motive existed for this murder, and the prosecution contended at Rose's trial that Robinson had been murdered as her pregnancy threatened the stability of the Wests' relationship.[215] Fred had originally planned to sell their baby to a childless couple and had photographs taken with Robinson for this purpose.[216]
1979[edit]
- 5 August: Alison Chambers, (16). Chambers had been placed into foster care at the age of 14, and had repeatedly absconded from Jordan's Brook House. She became acquainted with the Wests in mid-1979, and Fred later claimed to his solicitor that Chambers had died as a result of Rose becoming "too bloody vicious" with her. Her dismembered body, missing several bones and with a leather belt looped beneath her jaw and tied at the top of her head, was buried in the garden of Cromwell Street. This was the final murder where a sexual motive was established.[217]
1987[edit]
- 19 June: Heather West, (16). Heather was likely to have been murdered because Fred and Rose considered her efforts to leave the household as a threat, as she divulged to her classmates the extensive physical and sexual abuse which occurred at Cromwell Street.[55] Fred claimed he had not intended to kill his daughter, but carpet fibres found on two lengths of rope, discovered with her remains, suggested that she had been restrained and subjected to a sexual assault prior to her murder. Her body was dismembered with a heavy serrated knife and later buried in a hole in the garden which Fred had his son dig, under the pretence of installing a fish pond.[202] The 1994 police investigation into Heather's disappearance led to the discovery of her body, and the arrest of both her parents.
Footnotes
- As well as the 12 confirmed victims, police firmly believe Fred is also responsible for the 1968 disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, but to date no body has been found.[218] West's son, Stephen, has said he firmly believes the missing teenager was an early victim of his father, as Fred had openly boasted of having committed Bastholm's murder while on remand. Police were unable to charge Fred with this crime as they had no evidence.[219]
- No forensic evidence linked Fred to the murder of Anne McFall, and he always denied killing her. Her body had been extensively dismembered, and was missing several phalange bones, and the cubic dimensions of the grave in which her body was buried match the modus operandi of Fred's later murders.[220]
Possible additional victims[edit]
Police firmly believe the Wests were responsible for further unsolved murders and disappearances. They believed they committed ten murders between 1971 and 1979, at least seven of which were for sexual purposes. Following the rash of murders between 1973 and 1975, Fred and Rose are not known to have committed any murders until 1978. They committed one further murder in 1979, followed by an eight-year lull until they murdered their daughter in 1987. Police do not know of any further murders they committed before their 1994 arrest.
During formal questioning, Fred confessed to murdering up to 30 people, indicating up to 18 other undiscovered victims.[221]
Fred's remarkably relaxed, emotionally sterile attitude towards all aspects of his crimes startled many members of the enquiry team. This prompted Superintendent John Bennett to seek the assistance of a criminal psychologist for an expert opinion on Fred's state of mind. After analysing Fred's behaviour throughout the extensive 1994 interviews, psychologist Paul Britton advised Superintendent Bennett that Fred's blasé manner indicated he had committed so many offences over such a long period that he was now indifferent to the acts of torture, mutilation and murder. Britton added that although an offender of this nature may come to offend less frequently, he would be unlikely to cease killing altogether.[222]
One theory which may explain the sudden lull in the frequency of their murders is the fact that by the mid-1970s, the Wests had begun a practice of befriending teenage girls from nearby care homes, many of whom they sexually abused, with others encouraged to engage in prostitution within their home.[223] The Wests established acquaintances—including several of their lodgers—willing to partake in their shared fetishes, which may have satiated the couple to a degree.[224]
Caroline Owens, Anna Marie West, and several other survivors of sexual assaults at the Wests' hands each testified at Rose's trial that she had been by far the more calculating, aggressive and controlling of the two. Owens stated that, at one stage in her ordeal, Fred said that they had abducted Owens primarily for Rose's gratification.[225] It is possible Rose's increasing family size, plus the fact she and her husband had, by the mid-1970s, begun seeking avenues to exploit girls from care homes in addition to acquiring contacts—willing or unwilling—to submit to their fetishes, may have led Fred and Rose to decide that these avenues of control and domination were sufficient for their satisfaction.[226]
Four young girls similar in age and physical characteristics to those Fred was later charged with murdering in Gloucestershire are known to have disappeared during the time Fred lived in Glasgow—one of whom, Margaret McAvoy, Fred had been acquainted with. He had also rented a garden allotment adjacent to his house and which he frequently visited, although only a small section of this plot was ever cultivated. To one neighbour, Fred remarked that he used the remainder for "something special", about which he refused to elaborate. Much of the supposed cultivation of this allotment occurred in the early hours of the morning.[32]
Police were unable to investigate whether any further bodies were buried at this location, as these allotments were built over in the 1970s as a section of the M8 motorway.[227]
Aftermath[edit]
Fred's body was cremated in Coventry on 29 March 1995. This service was held with only four family members present. In a five-minute service, in which no hymns were sung, the Reverend Robert Simpson quoted sections of Psalm 23, then added a solemn reminder to those present that they must "also remember everyone else who has also suffered because of these tragic events". His ashes were scattered at the Welsh seaside resort of Barry Island, a location he had regularly visited both as a child and as an adult with his family.[228]
After the 1994 arrest of their parents, the four youngest West children (born between 1978 and 1983), were given new identities to protect them from the notoriety of their family. Each child remained in foster care.[187]
The remains of Charmaine and Rena were cremated in Kettering. At the insistence of Anna Marie West, mother and daughter shared the same coffin, and no roses were to be brought to the service by any mourners.[229]
As a direct result of her tenacity in investigating the Wests, DC Hazel Savage was placed upon the annual New Year's honours list. The following year, she was awarded an MBE.[230]
Fred's younger brother, John, hanged himself in the garage of his Gloucester home in November 1996. At the time of his suicide, he had been awaiting the jury verdict in his trial for the alleged multiple rapes of his niece, Anna Marie, at Cromwell Street in the 1970s.[231]
In March 1996, Rose announced her intentions to appeal her sentence, contending extensive press coverage had rendered witness testimony unreliable, that no physical evidence existed to attest she had participated in any of the murders, that the final instructions delivered by the judge to the jury had been biased in favour of the prosecution, and that undue weight had been given to the similar fact evidence introduced at her trial.[187] This appeal was rejected by Lord Chief Justice Taylor, who contended Rose had received a fair trial and efficient legal representation. In July 1997, then-Home Secretary Jack Straw subjected Rose to a whole life tariff, effectively denying her any possibility of parole.[232] Rose again announced that she would appeal against her sentence via her solicitor Leo Goatley in October 2000; in September 2001, she announced her intentions to cancel her appeals, stating she would never feel free even if released. She maintains her innocence in any of the murders.[233][234]
Both of Rose's oldest biological children and her stepdaughter, Anna Marie, initially visited her in prison on a regular basis, although by 2006, she had ceased contact with them after Mae began asking questions about her culpability in the murders. Rose justified her decision with the explanation: "I was never a parent [then] and could never be now."[235] The sole visitor Rose continues to receive in prison is Anna Marie, who later changed her name to Anne Marie.[236]
The body of the Wests' former friend and housemate, Terrence Crick, was found in his car in the Scarborough district of Hackness in January 1996. He was 48 years old. Crick had become acquainted with Fred while he had lived at the Lake House Caravan Park in 1969; he had reported Fred to the authorities on several occasions[237] after having been shown surgical instruments Fred claimed to have used to perform illegal abortions, and Polaroid images of the subjects' genitals he claimed to have taken immediately after the procedures. Crick had further informed authorities Fred had asked him to assist in finding pregnant girls to perform abortions upon.[238]
Crick had believed the information he had provided to police was ignored as Fred was a known police informant.[239] The stress and guilt Crick had felt over the fact the information he had provided had not resulted in charges being brought apparently led him to take his own life. An inquest later recorded a verdict of suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.[237]
In 2004, one of the Wests' youngest children, Barry, claimed to have witnessed the murder of his sister Heather. According to Barry (who was seven at the time), Fred and Rose had restrained, then sexually and physically abused Heather, before Rose had repeatedly stamped upon her head until she ceased to move.[240]
The Wests' house in Cromwell Street was demolished in October 1996, with every piece of debris destroyed to discourage potential souvenir hunters.[241] It had been referred to in the press as the "House of Horrors".[2][158] The site was later redeveloped into a public pathway.[242]
In 1999, Anna Marie West attempted suicide by drowning herself in the River Severn.[243] Stephen West is also known to have made an unsuccessful suicide attempt in 2002, by attempting to hang himself.[244] In 2004, he was jailed for nine months for having unlawful sex with a 14-year-old girl on multiple occasions.[245] The couple's youngest son, Barry, committed suicide via a suspected drug overdose in October 2020 at the age of 40. He is known to have battled a drug addiction and psychiatric issues as a result of the abuse he witnessed and endured as a child.[246]
Television[edit]
- Channel 5 commissioned a three-part documentary series about the murders. The series, entitled Fred and Rose: The West Murders, was first broadcast in October 2001. This series includes extensive archive footage, interviews and imagery pertaining to the case. The series was screened a second time in 2014.[247]
- Discovery Networks Europe commissioned a documentary focusing on the West Murders as part of their Crimes that Shook the World series. Entitled Crimes that Shook the World: The Wests, this documentary was released in 2006 and is narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith.[248]
- The two-part British crime drama television mini-series, Appropriate Adult, was screened in September 2011. Commissioned by ITV and directed by Julian Jarrold, Appropriate Adult concerns the role of Janet Leach, the woman asked by police to sit in interviews with Fred West as his appropriate adult.[249][250]
- A second documentary commissioned by Channel 5 about the West murders, When Fred met Rose, was screened in November 2014. This documentary includes interviews with family members of Fred West, and survivors of the couple's assaults.[251]
- The ITV documentary Fred and Rose West: The Real Story, narrated by Trevor McDonald, was scheduled for broadcast in the UK on 31 January 2019, although broadcasting of this documentary was postponed for what has been described as "legal reasons".[252] The documentary was broadcast on 21 February 2019.[253]
See also[edit]
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Notes[edit]
- ^ Rose had been wearing Lynda's clothing when she repeated this claim.[105]
- ^ Several weeks after the murder of Shirley Robinson, Fred and Rose informed other lodgers they had received news Robinson had given birth to a baby boy in West Germany, and that she had named her child Barry.[112]
- ^ Journalist and author Howard Sounes has also claimed the younger West children were "afflicted with speech impediments and squints."[83]
- ^ At a further remand appearance held at Gloucester Magistrates Court on 13 December, Fred and Rose saw each other for the final time. On this occasion, Rose briefly glanced at Fred, staring icily,[162] before turning away and completely ignoring him for the remainder of the hearing, informing two female prison officers to tell Fred that she never wished to speak to him again. This would be the final time the two would see each other.[166]
- ^ Some investigators believe the victim Fred claimed to have murdered while he worked on a construction project in Birmingham may have been 23-year-old Elizabeth Swann, who disappeared while hitchhiking from Birmingham to Gloucester on 1 July 1974, having informed acquaintances she had obtained a receptionist's job in Gloucester and that she intended to hitchhike to the city.[196]
References[edit]
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 13.
- ^ a b Sounes 1995, p. 151.
- ^ "Daisy H Hill: England and Wales Birth Registration Index". familysearch.org. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
- ^ Murder in Mind 1996, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Woodrow 2011, p. 98.
- ^ a b c Sounes 1995, p. 17.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 19.
- ^ Burn 1998, p. 169.
- ^ a b c Sounes 1995.
- ^ "Fred and Rose West – Fred". Crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2009.
- ^ Knight, Adam. "Fred West's Brother Denies Incest Claims (From Hereford Times)". Herefordtimes.com. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 23.
- ^ a b c Murder in Mind 1996, p. 29.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 25.
- ^ "Fred West". The Biography Channel. Archived from the original on 29 August 2009. Retrieved 18 July 2007.
- ^ Wilson 1998, p. 90.
- ^ Murder in Mind 1996, p. 7.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 32.
- ^ "Fred and Rose West – Fred". TruTv. Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 57.
- ^ a b Sounes 1995, p. 59.
- ^ Wilson 1998, p. 88.
- ^ Sounes 1995, p. 28.
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Cited works and further reading[edit]
- "Fred & Rosemary West". Murder in Mind. No. 1. 1996. ISSN 1364-5803.
- Amis, Martin (2000). Experience. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099-28582-3.
- Bennett, John (2005). The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective's Story. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-750-94273-7.
- Blundell, Nigel (1996). Encyclopaedia of Serial Killers. Promotional Reprint Company Ltd. ISBN 978-1-856-48328-5.
- Burn, Gordon (1998). Happy Like Murderers. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-19546-6.
- Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). Serial Killers and Mass Murderers: Profiles of the World's Most Barbaric Criminals. Ulysses Press. ISBN 978-1-569-75578-5.
- Cresswell, Kim (2015). Garden of Bones: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West. KC Publishing. ISBN 978-0-995-05780-7.
- Masters, Brian (1996). She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-40650-5.
- Partington, Marian (2012). If You Sit Very Still. Vala Publishing Co-operative. ISBN 978-1-908-36302-2.
- Roberts, Caroline (2005). The Lost Girl: How I Triumphed Over Life at the Mercy of Fred and Rose West. London: Metro Books. ISBN 978-1-84358-088-1.
- Roberts, Caroline; Richards, Stephen (2012). The One That Got Away: My Life Living with Fred and Rose West. London: Metro Books. ISBN 978-1-857-82992-1.
- Sounes, Howard (1995). Fred and Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors. London: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-7515-1322-6.
- Wansell, Geoffrey (1996). An Evil Love: The Life of Frederick West. London: Hodder Headline. ISBN 978-0-7472-1760-2.
- West, Anne Marie (1995). Out of the Shadows: Fred West's Daughter Tells Her Harrowing Story of Survival. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-71968-5.
- West, Mae; West, Stephen (1995). Inside 25 Cromwell Street: The Terrifying, True Story of Life with Fred and Rose West. The Bath Press. ISBN 978-1-898-88514-6.
- Wilson, Colin (1998). The Corpse Garden. London: True Crime Library. ISBN 978-1-874358-24-4.
- Woodrow, Jane (2011). Rose West: The Making of a Monster. Hodder. ISBN 978-0-340-99248-7.
External links[edit]
- Crime & Investigation article upon Fred and Rose West
- Detailed police report pertaining to the police enquiry into the West murders
- The West Murders: A website transcribing a documentary pertaining to the murders committed by Fred and Rose West, first screened by Channel 5 in 2001
- 1996 City Journal article detailing the West murders
- 2016 BBC News article exploring the possibility of the Wests' link to wider sex abuse circles
