Newly declassified photos of sick serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley have been published - amid hopes they could even reveal the whereabouts of their final victim.
The previously unseen photos were crucial to police in finding some of the bodies, but the pair who murdered five children never revealed where they had buried Keith Bennett, 12.
According to the historian who has published these images for the first time, with the right analysis they could now help find his remains.
The sick couple captured and murdered Pauline Reade 16, John Kilbride 12, Keith Bennett 12, Lesley Ann Downey 10, and Edward Evans 17, between July 1963 and October 1965
They would lure their victims into their vehicle before taking them to meet their horrific end, and even sexually assaulted four of the children.
The collection of photos, dubbed “The Tartan Album” were previously stored in a classified Home Office archive and at first glance, appear to show beautiful landscapes and idyllic scenes of a young couple enjoying life.
In early shots from the series, Brady and Hindley pose up with smiles holding their pets and holidaying in the UK.
But as the years roll on the album shows how they lost their innocent façade, becoming stony-faced and cold looking as they began their murder spree in 1963.
Two disturbing images were taken by Ian Brady whilst he was doing reconnaissance at Old Hall Drive School on Levenshulme Road before carrying out the first murder – the murder of 16-year-old Pauline Reade on July 12th 1963.
Under the pretence of finding a glove, Reade was lured into a van and abducted by Brady and Hindley on the way to a local dance.
Another harrowing image shows Hindley posing on a hill which was taken on the same day that John Kilbride was abducted.
On November 23rd, 1963, Kilbride was offered a lift home by Brady and Hindley from a market in Ashton-under-Lyne.
Using the same narrative of the missing glove, the murderers made a detour to Saddleworth Moor where Kilbride was sexually assaulted and then murdered.
Whilst these photographs began as a documentation of the memories of Brady and Hindley’s time together, they proved helpful to police and provided some important leads with the couple who regularly posed near the burial sites of their victims.
This helped police to recover three of the victims’ bodies – Lesley Ann Downey (1965), John Kilbride (1965), Pauline Reade (1987), though Keith Bennett’s body remains un-found.
Despite a life sentence, Brady refused to disclose the location of Bennett’s body and remained truly depraved until his death in 2017.
It is unlikely that the police would have made their discovery without the help of David Smith. Smith, was witness to the murder of the final victim Edward Evans and the husband of Hindley’s sister, Maureen.
After witnessing Brady hit Evans with a hatchet and proceed to throttle him with electrical cord Smith was expected to help the murderous pair bury the body on the moors.
However, Smith, so disturbed by what he had seen, he phoned the police, prompting them to search Hindley’s grandmother’s house on Wardle Brook Avenue.
This search revealed the photo album along with a notebook with the name ‘John Kilbride’, amongst others written within it.
Author of The Moors Murderers, Chris Cook, 39, uncovered these images in the hope of getting a step closer to solving the mystery of Keith Bennett’s remains.
He said: “If you didn’t know anything about Ian Brady or Myra Hindley you would just assume that these photographs came from a normal family photo album.
“It shows you just how these two seemed so ordinary, how they would blend into any crowd, and how their victims obviously came to the same conclusion to get into Hindley’s car willingly.
“I was actually researching for a book regarding the crimes of Fred & Rose West and I came across a probable victim of theirs, Mary Bastholm, who has never been found.
“This, in turn, lead me to look at other well-known cases where victims of crimes hadn’t been discovered/recovered and it lead me to this case, where Ian Brady and Myra Hindley admitted to abducting and murdering Keith Bennett.
“The pain and torment of what his family must still be going through really touched me, so I decided to investigate further to see if there was anything that had been missed over the years in regard to where his remains are buried.
“These photographs show just how hard it was for detectives to track down each and every scene.
“Where one clearly showed Myra holding her puppy and looking down at a disturbed piece of ground, which turned out to be John Kilbride’s grave, they attempted to track down each and every place where the couple had taken scenery.
“As a major part of my research, I visited the National Archives in Kew, London, and looked at all of the files held on the subject by the Home Office and Department of Public Prosecution.
“One of the files held the released photographs from Ian Brady’s Tartan album, which the police used originally to help locate the sites of where some of the victims, especially John Kilbride, were buried.
“There are still a lot of photographs, maps and files withheld by the Home Office, but over the past five years I have had some of these released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act and they appear in this book for the very first time.”
Whilst Chris has not yet solved the mystery of where Keith Bennett’s remains can be found, he did uncover some chilling insights.
Following Hindley’s confession in 1987, a detailed map of Hoe Grain was revealed by her confidante and was labelled with the steps that she said had been taken by herself and Brady on the day of Bennett’s murder leading police to suspect that this is the location of his body.
“I did discover some documents that back up why the police searched around Hoe Grain, although I don’t believe this to be where he was buried,” he said.
“I had a new Home Office file unlocked recently which contains police reports from the re-investigation in the mid-1980s, and the reason that there are still photographs and maps withheld is because they show the area around Hoe Grain where they believe Keith Bennett to be buried.
“The Home Office won’t release these for fear of people conducting their own searches and potentially damaging any evidence.
“I personally don't believe the body is there, and believe it to be much closer to the Hollin Brown Knoll area, where the other bodies were found.
“Brady always said he wanted to commit the perfect murder, and to him that meant that the body was never found.
“By telling the police the body was near Hoe Grain, I believe, keeps all searches looking in the wrong area and is the final pact that keeps Brady and Hindley locked together.”
The Moors Murderers by Chris Cook can be purchased from Pen & Sword Books for £25
