How Hindley snubbed the family of her lost victim to the end

RIGHT up until the end, Myra Hindley snubbed the mother of Keith Bennett - the only victim of the moors murderers whose body still lies on Saddleworth Moor.

Keith's mother, Winnie Johnson, wrote Hindley a steady stream of letters begging the killer to help find her son's grave. But Hindley didn't reply once. The secret of where Bennett lies went to the grave with her.

"I just hoped that Myra might say something from her deathbed," she said. "I've no sympathy for her even in death. I hope she goes to hell."

Ian Brady did write last year offering to go back to the moors to find Keith, but this looks increasingly unlikely as he continues his hunger strike. Winnie Johnson added: "Hindley let me down, now there's only Brady." She then appealed directly to Brady for help, saying: "Please, please tell me where my son is."

Alan West, the step-father of Lesley Ann Downey whose Boxing Day murder was taped by Hindley and Brady, said: "This is the Christmas box I've wanted." To celebrate Hindley's death, he drove to the grave in which Lesley and his wife, Ann, lie side by side at it's new secret location after the original site was vandalised.

"I just felt alive," he said. "If I could have done I would have run through the place. I just sat there for a time and told them all about what had happened. The grave is all the comfort I need. Somehow, the spirits seemed to have lifted a little now that Hindley's gone."

Sources in Ashworth Hospital, where Brady is detained, said the killer took the news of his ex-lover's death without any emotion.

Even though Brady professed hatred for Hindley for turning her back on him and claiming he forced her to carry out the crimes in a bid to get parole, another source added: "He would be sad to learn about Hindley. He still loved her for the innocent times they had together.

"The thing he craves most is death. He has spent three years being force-fed and in his heart of hearts he envies Myra her release. In a way she got the better of him. She'll get out of jail even if it's in a coffin."

An inquest into Hindley's death will be heard tomorrow at Highpoint Prison in Suffolk where she was detained. The 60-year-old died on Friday of respiratory failure.

Her body is being closely guarded until it is cremated at Cambridge - and its ashes scattered at a secret location - as prison authorities fear someone may attempt to mutilate it.

Copyright 2002 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
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