Research - Article on Myra Hindley- from Daily Mail website

'I was more culpable because I knew better': Moors murderer Myra Hindley admitted she was worse than Ian Brady because she understood right from wrong

• Prison papers about Myra Hindley released early to national archives
• She and lover Ian Brady killed and tortured five children in the 1960s
• Bodies of victims were then buried on Saddleworth Moor near Manchester
• The killer spoke of her 'love' for children and desire to work with old people if she was ever released

Myra Hindley admitted that she was even worse and more wicked than her fellow Moors Murderer Ian Brady, it has emerged today.

She even spoke of her 'love' for children and desire to work with old people if she was ever released.
The child-killer said she was more 'culpable' than her partner-in-crime because she knew better and 'knew the difference between right and wrong'.
Hindley's astonishing confession has been uncovered as secret details about the killer's time in a Suffolk jail were today revealed in prison files.

Self-improvement: Moors murderer Myra Hindley turned herself from a 'brassy blonde' to an 'intelligent, well-educated woman' and even earned an Open University degree, pictured right, new files have revealed

It sees new light shone on her clandestine trips to the county's hospitals, and her last views on the brutal pair's notorious killings.

Evil: Ian Brady who killed five children with Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965

Hindley, branded the 'most hated woman in Britain', was jailed for life in May 1966 for the barbaric murders of Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.
She was also an accessory to the horrific murder of John Kilbride, 12, by Brady.
In 1987 Hindley and Brady confessed to murdering Pauline Reade, 16, and Keith Bennett, 12.
Hindley, who was at Highpoint Prison at Stradishall, near Newmarket, from 1998, died in 2002 aged 60.
Her confidential files were supposed to have remained secret for another 50 years.
But, due to intense public interest, they have been released to the national archives and are now being studied and ordered by Dr Tom Clark, a lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
The typed reports, handwritten notes and prison correspondence, which Dr Clark has been working on for three years, give a unique snapshot of Hindley through the eyes of fellow prisoners, welfare workers, warders and chaplains.
And prison documents, which include a final psychological assessment made in the months before her death, carry blood-chilling accounts of how she felt about the Moors murders, which horrified the nation.
The interviews reveal that although Hindley believed Brady initiated the killings her attitude towards involvement shifted from 'one of fear to one of a willing participant who enjoyed the feelings of affinity with Mr Brady which involvement in the offences afforded her'.

 

Hindley also suggests she recognises her own culpability by stating: '...although by the end I had become as corrupt as Ian was, there is a distinction...I did not instigate...but I knew the difference between right and wrong...I didn't have a compulsion to kill...I wasn't in charge...but in some ways I was more culpable because I knew better.'

Victims: Pauline Reade, 16, left, was their first victim and John Kilbride was killed in 1963

Murdered: Lesley Ann Downey, 10, left, and Edward Evans, 17, right

Twelve-year-old Keith Benett was abducted on his way to visit his grandmother in Manchester on 16 June 1964. His body has never been found

The document reports that Hindley was 'extremely tearful' as she stated 'I've affected so many people.'
She said that coverage of the Soham murders in August 2002 - when Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, both 10, were murdered by Ian Huntley - had brought back 'painful memories.'
Hindley added: 'I can see how the public perceive my offences since the Cambridge offences.'
During the interviews her lack of mobility is also noted, with the claim that her ability to 'engage in direct physically aggressive acts' is reduced.
Hindley, who was described in other documents at the time as 'generally cheerful' and even 'houseproud', appeared to be content with 'unofficial segregation' in her single room at Highpoint.
She states: 'I would like to stay here...peace of mind...good staff...appreciation of mum's needs...told may move to Foston Hall (in Derbyshire)...I do not want to go there...too far for visits....prefer to stay here at Highpoint.'
'I've made my funeral arrangements for here in case I die in prison,' said Hindley.
But the Roman Catholic convert still hoped she would be released from prison to spend time with her family, despite what she admitted was 'the real threat of assassination'.
Hindley added: 'I would like to work with old people...know I can~t work with children...but love children...would like to be of some help to older people.'
The documents, which include letters to then Home Secretary Jack Straw, also chart Hindley's ailing health and top-secret operations to take her to West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, and Addenbrooke's, Cambridge.
Letters dated December 21, 1999, and addressed to senior members of the prison service, said Hindley would be attending West Suffolk Hospital on December 30 as an in-patient for between two and five days after suffering 'ill-health for some time'.

Jailed: Hindley was put in charge of the kitchen on E wing at Holloway Prison in North London and died in 2002 at Highpoint Prison, Suffolk

The letter goes on to say that the visit could not be 'out and back' because the 'media are on the scent' and the savage multiple child-killer was more at risk of an attack than she was likely to escape.
An accompanying document said Hindley should be cuffed when travelling to the hospital and on a closeting chain when moving from her bed 'mainly to prevent abduction, though there is always a possibility of her attempting to escape'.
The report, which stressed that Hindley could not be relied upon to keep arrangements secret, added: 'It is probably fair to say that neither she nor the staff who care for her here have much real idea of the true risks of her visit to hospital.'
Hindley suffered ill-health throughout her 36 years in jail and suffered from the heart condition angina, high blood pressure and brittle bone disease osteoporosis.
Although the exact reason for her visit to West Suffolk Hospital is not contained in documents seen, she is known to have had heart scans and suffered a stroke while at Highpoint - attributed to her heavy smoking - in January 2000.
One document in the archive gives details of 'Operation Charlton', the pre-planned admission of Hindley into Addenbrooke's on January 13, 2000.
The exercise was named after Hindley's pseudonym, Christine Charlton, which was used at all times when communicating with the hospital.
The document, which includes the exact route into the hospital, also explains how the prisoner should be guarded by officers in civilian clothing.
Hindley died in West Suffolk Hospital in November 2002 from a serious chest infection that followed a suspected heart attack two weeks before.
She received the last rites from a Catholic priest.