Using the Moors Murders as a case study through which to explore the symbiotic relationship between serial killing and the mass media, this book is a multi-dimensional analysis of the social and cultural legacy of the crimes of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
Using the research approach of bricolage, the crimesâ authors examine this prime example of mediatised murder via inter-disciplinary academic and non-academic accounts, print media, film, TV drama, music and art, with chapters focusing on serial killing as a modern phenomenon, a factual account and timeline of the role of victims, Brady and Hindleyâs trial and the reporting of their deaths, Hindleyâs status as âthe most evil woman in Britainâ and a reflection on the process and ethical implications of engaging in this area of work.
This chapter will outline the structure, content and overall approach of the book. It is important to start with a clear statement of the purpose of this work. It is not an attempt to âsolveâ any mysteries about the crimes of the Moors Murderers. There is no new information about the case in this volume. The chapter also outlines the main themes that are examined in greater depth throughout the work. It also discusses bricolage as a research method and how this approach is used across the work.
Mediatised Murder
Since their arrest in October 1966, Brady and Hindley have never been out of the media spotlight for any prolonged period, if at all. In the research for this book, we have read literally thousands of newspaper articles and academic papers and watched television programmes and internet material that consider aspects of the crime. There is a similar number of op-ed pieces that contemplate the meaning or significance of Brady and Hindley and their actions and how society should respond to them. The internet has seen an exponential growth in interest in serial killers. Again, the Moors Murders is one of the most widely examined and discussed cases. The nature of some of this material is simply salacious and disturbing, crassly insensitive to the feelings and suffering of the families of their victims. The transcript and recording of the tape of the torture of Lesley Ann Downey appears relatively easy to access on the internet. If an artist wants to shock then using a reference to the Moors Murder is guaranteed to produce a reaction. This was true for punk rock when Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) and Steve Strange (Visage) formed the Moors Murderers and recorded one single Free Hindley. It was also the case for Young British Artists when Marcus Harveyâs painting Myra was part of the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy. The painting is a representation of the Hindley arrest photograph but made up of childrenâs handprints. The exhibition was picketed and the painting vandalised.
The book will argue that the media responses to these appalling crimes created a template for future media responses to serial killers. This includes the focus on the motivation of the killers. These processes often occur to exploit or exclude any consideration of the impact of such crimes on the families of the victims, who are thrust into the media spotlight.
From the moment of the arrest of Brady in October 1965, the case has been a consistent feature of popular and media culture. The influence of the Moors Murders is so profound that it can be regarded as producing a modern archetype of mediatised murder. The features of the archetype include the symbiotic relationship between the media and crime, including, for example, dubious ethical practices such as the payment of witnesses, the obsession with exploring the minute details of the lives of the perpetrators, an emphasis on constructing of a psychological profile, which attempts to explain the killersâ motivations, the ways in which the killers are given a nickname as part of their celebrity status and the exploitation of the victimsâ families suffering. The modern roots of these developments can be traced back to Manchester in the mid-1960s. The first industrial city also gave the UK its first celebrity serial killers, at a time when murder on the TV screen was not a staple diet of the UK (and, indeed, global) population as it is now.
That is not to say that there were no previous UK serial killers who caught the press and publicâs imagination. Neville Heath was responsible for the deaths of two young women in London in 1946, and was dubbed âthe lady killerâ by the press. John Haigh âthe acid bath murdererâ was convicted of the murder of six victims between 1944 and 1949, disposing of their bodies using sulphuric acid. John Christie was convicted of eight murders in the 1940s and 1950s. His victims were strangled in his flat at 10 Rillington Place in London. Peter Manuel, an American-Scottish serial killer was convicted of murdering seven people across Southern Scotland between 1956 and 1958, nicknamed âthe Beast of Birkenshawâ. All were hanged.
However, we would argue that the rise of TV in the home, which grew exponentially between the late 1950s and mid-1960s, gives an additional dimension to the celebrity status afforded to Brady and Hindley and this will be explored further within the chapters of the book.
This collection will examine the wider social, media and cultural responses to the awful crimes of Brady and Hindley. It includes a discussion on the nature of evil, an analysis of representations in film, drama, novels and art. In addition, the work will use this case to question the ethics of the serial killing industry. Haggerty (2009) argues that serial killing is essentially a phenomenon of modernity. One of the key features of modernity is the role of mass media and the rise of celebrity culture. He suggests that there is a symbiotic relationship between the media and serial killers. These themes are explored throughout. The treatment of Brady and Hindley also raises profound questions about the nature of punishment including the links between mental illness and crime, and whether there is ever the prospect of redemption. There are many books on this case. The overwhelming majority of them are a salacious retelling of the events or a claim to provide new information, particularly clues to the whereabouts of the body of Keith Bennett.
The motivation for writing this collection comes from the authorsâ previous work in this area. The authors have examined cultural representations of serial killers, sexual violence policing and police officers. This research includes explorations of the representations of place and serious violent crime as well as the response of police officers to the portrayal of the investigations of such events. Research methods used in previous works include bricolage, interviewing and thematic analysis and the analysis of visual texts using a combination of textual and discourse analysis. The authors have, therefore, begun to examine the responses to the crimes of Brady and Hindley. The main thrust of the argument is that the Moors Murders represent a case study and that broader responses to these crimes provide a template for an analysis of modern media and its symbiotic relationship with serial killers and serial killing.
This introductory narrative outlines some of the key themes of the workâthe way in which the crimes of Brady and Hindley, the so-called Moors Murderers, have provided a template for media reporting and cultural responses to serial killing. The term serial killer was not in popular usage in the 1960s. FBI Criminal Investigator Robert Ressler is credited with coining the phrase in the 1970s. The awarding of a nickname, the focus on the killers at the expense of the victims, attempts to explore the motivation and reasons are now standard features of the mediatised event that serial killing has become. The mediaâs continuing interest in the minutiae of the case is also a key theme for exploration and the relationship between past and present, a key theme as explored by modern day crime writers such as David Peace and Didier Daeninckx will also be considered. The work of Nora (1989), Rejinders (2010) and previous work by King and Cummins (2013) will be built on to explore the role of place as central to media reporting of violent crime. Brady and Hindley are known as the Moors Murderers because of the place where the bodies were buried. The case has also been a focus for debates about crime and punishment. For example, Hindleyâs campaign for parole will be explored as it was, unintentionally, one of the factors in the development of the whole life tariff in the UK.
Key Themes and Approaches
There are a number of key themes that are examined in this volume. All of the research used bricolage as a method.
Bricolage as an approach is supported by Levi Straussâ (1972) ideas on the complexity and unpredictability of the cultural domain. Lincoln (2001) sees the bricoleur as anthropologist. Wibberley (2012:6) argues âbricolage brings together in some form, different sources ...