Ian Brady and Myra Hindley killed for kicks. The couple met in 1961 while working for a Manchester chemical firm. She was a 19-year-old typist, he was a 23-year-old stock clerk. The pair became lovers and developed a sick mutual thrill from killing innocent youngsters virtully without motive.

Brady was born in Glasgow, the illegitimate son of a waitress. He never Knew his father and was brought up by foster parents in the tough poverty-ridden tenements of the Gorbals. When he was 18, Brady was placed in a special Borstal unit for offenders of above-average intelligence, but when he was caught making alcohol he was transferred to a much tougher Borstal in Hull, from which he emerged a totally warped character.

Hindley was a local girl, born and brought up in the industrial suburb of Gorton. She was average in every way and failed to do well at school. In her early teens she took to the Catholic faith, regularly attending mass.

When they met Brady was well on the way to being a full-blown psycopath. He had a private library of books about torture and rutual killings, his favourite being the works of Marquis de Sade.

By 1963 Brady was talking openly about his fascination with commiting the perfect murder. On 12 July he told Hindley, now totally obedient to him, that the time had come. Their plan was to tour the side-streets of the Manchester suburbs to find someone to kill. It didn't matter if it was a male or female. As long as the victim was young, Brady was happy. Hindley was to cruise the residential roads in a borrowed van while Brady followed on his motorbike. When he spotted a likely victim he would flash his lights as a signal. Hindley was to stop and lure the victim into the van on the promise of a reward for helping her find an expensive glove lost at a picnic on the Moors a few days before.

In July 1963 they picked up sixteen year old Pauline Reade who was a neighbour of Myra's. They drove to the Moors and pulled into a lay-by at a local beauty spot popular with courting couples and picknickers. There Hindley introduced Pauline to Brady as her boyfriend. Brady told Hindley to drive the van to a better parking place while he and Pauline walked on to the Moor away from the road to start looking for the glove. There Brady suddenly sexually assaulted the off-guard teenager, then slit her throat with a knife. After burying the body of Pauline Reade in a make shift grave. He loaded his motorcycle into the back of the van and the couple drove away from the scene of their first dreadful deed.

By November Brady was tingling with the urge to kill again. He told Hindley "it is time to do another one". This time it was 12 year old John Kilbride who they picked up from a store. The boy was strangled with a piece of string and then sexually assaulted before being buried in the boggy soil.

Boxing Day 1964, Hindley and Brady picked up 10-year-old Lesley Ann from a fairground in the Miles Platting district of Manchester. The couple had recently moved into a new house on a large council estate in the Manchester suburb of Hattersley. It was here were Brady recorded the poor girls agonizing cries begging him not to hurt her, as he forced her to strip and pose for pornographic pictures of the vilest nature, which burn't into the memories of all who heard and seen them. He had planned to pedal the pictures to child sex perverts. At the end of the photo session Brady told Hindley to run a bath so they could "clean the girl up". Hindley later told detectives that she waited in the bathroom for about 20 minutes and when Brady didn't bring the girl in she went back to the bedroom to be confronted by a horrific sight. Lesley Ann Downey was lying half on and half off the bed; Brady had raped and strangled her.

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were arrested on the morning of October 7, 1965. Police went to the house that the killers shared were they found the body of Edward Evans. Although only suspected at the time of the murder of Evans a thorough search of the house turned up a number of clues that pointed to more victims. Soon Police were tying in Brady and Hindley to several disappearances. The two killers denied all charges, even as overwhelming evidence built up against them. The trial began on 19 April, 1966. In jail on remand both had to be held in solitary confinement under permanent guard after other prisoners swore they would lynch them. And following anonymous threats to shoot them even as they stood trial, the dock surrounding the couple was encased in four-inch thick, bullet-proof glass.

Ian Brady was sentenced to three life terms, while Hindley was sentenced to two life terms plus an additional seven years. Hanging for murder had been abolished only a few months earlier.

Brady said to suffer from paranoid psychosis, later confessed to five more murders, but police have not been able to substantiate his claims. Hindley has failed several times to be released early.