She appeared to be an ordinary little girl born on July 23, 1942, in Gorton, Manchester. Growing up in a troubled home marked by her father’s alcoholism and domestic violence, she experienced instability and emotional trauma from an early age. As a teenager, she seemed relatively normal — working as a clerk, socializing, and practicing judo — but signs of a darker personality slowly emerged.
That girl grew up to become Myra Hindley, later known as one half of the infamous Moors Murderers alongside Ian Brady. The pair met in the early 1960s and formed an intense, destructive relationship fueled by feelings of superiority and Brady’s obsession with nihilistic and sadistic ideas.
Between 1963 and 1965, they abducted and murdered five children and teenagers, burying several of them on Saddleworth Moor. Their crimes horrified Britain. They were arrested in 1965 after Brady murdered Edward Evans, a crime witnessed by Hindley’s brother-in-law, who alerted police.
In 1966, both were sentenced to life in prison. Hindley became known in the media as “the most evil woman in Britain.” She died in prison in 2002; Brady died in 2017. Their crimes remain among the most notorious in U.K. history, leaving a lasting scar on the nation.