On 25 November 2002, the Law Lords agreed that judges, not politicians, should decide how long a criminal spends behind bars, and stripped the Home Secretary of the power to set minimum sentences. [222] Just prior to this, on 15 November 2002, Hindley, aged 60 and a chain smoker, died from bronchial pneumonia at West Suffolk Hospital. [223] She had been diagnosed with angina in 1999 and hospitalised after suffering a brain aneurysm. [224] [225] Camera crews "stood rank and file behind steel barriers" outside, but none of Hindley's relatives were among the small congregation of eight to ten people who attended a short service at Cambridge crematorium. [226] Such was the strength of feeling more than thirty-five years after the murders that a reported twenty local undertakers refused to handle her cremation. [227] Four months later, her ashes were scattered by her ex-partner, Patricia Cairns, less than 10 miles (16km) from Saddleworth Moor in Stalybridge Country Park. [228] [229] The Manchester Evening News reported on possible fears that this would result in visitors choosing to avoid or vandalise the park. [230] Aftermath [ edit ]

Moors Murders: Ian Brady's ashes disposed of at sea", BBC News, 3 November 2017 , retrieved 3 November 2017 The woman seemed no different to others I’d met while out begging with my brothers and sisters,” recalls Tommy, now 61. Some felt so sorry for us they took us into their homes and fed us before sending us on our way with the odd copper or two. So I set off with this kind lady, drooling at the thought of some bread and jam. Okay! This book gave me the chills! Very informative and very exciting to read. This case is so gory, horrible but also fascinating! If you like true crime you will love this book! NetGalley, Wittmann Victoria Tommy said: “Much of my childhood was miserable, but I was happiest in Manchester - because I was free. I hated my parents. I was never shown any affection and we never knew when the next drunken row or beating was coming our way, or the next meal.Using statements from witnesses, inmates, and prison staff, Cook chronicles the lives of Brady and Hindley after their convictions for their heinous crimes, as well as the affects the murders had on the victims' and criminals' families. Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963, [47] and often spoke to her about Meyer Levin's Compulsion, published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the cinema in 1959. The story tells a fictionalised account of the Leopold and Loeb case, two young men from wealthy families who attempt to commit the perfect murder of a 12-year-old boy, and who escape the death penalty because of their age. [48] a b "How Chester was the focus of the nation during Moors Murderers trial – Pt1". Chester Chronicle. 18 April 2016. Greater Manchester Police via Getty Images Myra Hindley, photographed by Ian Brady at an unknown location.

Hindley was told that she should spend twenty-five years in prison before being considered for parole. The Lord Chief Justice agreed with that recommendation in 1982, but in January 1985 Home Secretary Leon Brittan increased her tariff to thirty years. [177] By that time Hindley claimed to be a reformed Catholic. Downey's mother was at the centre of a campaign to ensure that Hindley was never released from prison, and until her death in February 1999, she regularly gave television and newspaper interviews whenever Hindley's release was rumoured. [209] In February 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Brittan that his proposed minimum sentences of thirty years for Hindley and forty years for Brady were too short, saying, "I do not think that either of these prisoners should ever be released from custody. Their crime was the most hideous and cruel in modern times." [210] [211]Sapsted, David; Bunyan, Nigel (16 November 2002), "Myra Hindley, the Moors monster, dies after 36 years in jail", The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 11 January 2022 , retrieved 20 September 2018 The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17. They were Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. At least four of them were sexually assaulted. The murders have this name because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, more than 20years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966.