The young boy in this photograph would grow up to become one of the most notorious cr1minals in British history. As a child, he was known to have violent tantrums, sometimes repeatedly banging his head on the floor during emotional outbursts. Few could have predicted that he would later be linked to some of the most horrifying cr1mes in the United Kingdom.
Ian Brady was born on January 2, 1938, in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother, Peggy Stewart, was an unmarried tea-room waitress struggling to make ends meet.
The identity of his father was never confirmed, though Stewart claimed he was a journalist who died before Brady was born.
Only a few months after his birth, Brady was placed with foster parents John and Mary Sloan in the working-class Gorbals district of Glasgow. Raised under the name Ian Sloan, he grew up in a strict household that valued discipline and appearances. Those who knew him described him as intelligent and articulate, but also withdrawn and unusually intense.
As a teenager, Brady’s behavior became increasingly troubling. He skipped school, committed petty cr1mes, and developed a fascination with violence, power, and extremist ideology. By the age of 17, he had already been convicted of burglary and spent time in prison, an experience that reportedly hardened his worldview.
In the early 1960s, Brady moved to Manchester, where he met Myra Hindley while working at Millwards Merchandising in 1961. Their relationship quickly became intense and disturbing. Brady introduced Hindley to his extreme beliefs and obsession with control and violence, gradually drawing her deeper into his worldview.
Together, they committed a series of murd3rs between 1963 and 1965 that later became known as the Moors Murd3rs. The victims-Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans-were all between the ages of 10 and 17. Several of the victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, giving the cr1mes their grim name.
The pair were eventually caught in October 1965 after Brady murd3red Edward Evans in his home. Hindley’s brother-in-law, David Smith, witnessed events connected to the cr1me and reported them to police, leading to a major investigation that uncovered evidence of the other murd3rs.
Their trial in 1966 shocked the nation. Both Brady and Hindley were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hindley spent the rest of her life in prison and died in 2002 at the age of 60 after decades of unsuccessful appeals for release.
Brady was later diagnosed as a psychopath and held in high-security detention at Ashworth Hospital. He showed no remorse for his cr1mes and repeatedly stated he did not wish to be released.
Ian Brady died in 2017 at the age of 79, after spending more than five decades in custody. His cr1mes remain among the most disturbing cases in British cr1minal history.