Ian Brady biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Ian Brady was born in a Glasgow, Scotland slum on January 2, 1938, to single mother Peggy Stuart. He never knew his father's identity. Unable to afford a babysitter, and working as a waitress to support them, she was forced to leave Ian alone for long periods of time, and she gave him up for unofficial adoption when he was four months old, visiting him fairly regularly until he was 12, although she never told him that she was his mother.

Brady was a lonely, difficult child, despite the best attempts of his adoptive parents, prone to temper tantrums and slow to integrate with his peers. He developed a fascination with the Nazis and the writings of Nietsche, and began a career in petty crime and burglary, which resulted in his return, aged 16, to live with his mother and stepfather Patrick Brady, in order to avoid a custodial sentence.

He tried to bolster a sense of belonging in his new family, by taking his stepfather's name, but he found true excitement through his continued interest in the Third Reich, as well as in the writings of the Marquis de Sade, and other sadistic authors. He returned to crime within a short time and, as a result, ended up in Strangeways Prison at the age of 17, where he was forced to toughen up considerably, while also learning rudimentary bookkeeping skills.

Following his release in November 1957, he became even more of a loner, employed at different manual jobs for short periods, until he took a job as a stock clerk with a Manchester firm. It was here that he met Myra Hindley, when she was employed as a secretary in 1961.

Hindley was irresistibly drawn to Brady, seeing romance and intelligence in his aloofness, and she wrote of her intense feelings for him in her diary constantly for over a year, before he finally showed some interest in her.

He eventually asked her out, and he quickly indoctrinated her in his extreme political views, taking her to see the film "The Nuremburg Trials" on their first date, and encouraging her to read works by Hitler and de Sade.

Brady was her first lover, and she was soon completely under his control, dressing and styling herself to please him, accepting his extreme political views, and even posing for pornographic pictures. Encouraged by her unquestioning acceptance, Brady's ideas became even more outrageous, culminating in his instruction to her that murder and rape were the "supreme pleasure."

Family and friends noticed the cumulative effect that Brady had on her, and she became increasingly surly and secretive. Brady tested her blind allegiance by pretending to plan a robbery, and was gratified when she took all the steps necessary to execute the plan, without question. Brady recognized that he had found the soulmate who would assist him to make his perverted ideas, of pain and pleasure, a reality.