Editor’s Note: This profile contains disturbing information and may not be suitable for all audiences.
1941–1995
Latest News: New Docuseries Explores Fred West’s Gruesome Crimes
A new docuseries delves into the gruesome crimes committed by British serial killer Fred West and his wife, Rose. Netflix’s Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which premiered on May 14, details how the couple raped and murdered at least 12 women and girls in Gloucester, England, between 1967 and 1987. Among the victims were Fred’s first wife and two of his own daughters Charmaine and Heather.
Through previously unseen footage and first-person accounts from Fred and Rose’s living children, as well as interviews with the victims’ families, the series seeks to reexamine the case through a new light and chronicle how their brutal crimes were uncovered.
All three episodes are now streaming.
Who Was Fred West?
Fred West was one of the United Kingdom’s most horrific serial killers, who has been connected to 12 murders between 1967 and 1987. He and his second wife, Rose West, targeted women and girls primarily around Gloucester, England. They brutally assaulted, killed, and dismembered their victims, which included two of their daughters and Fred’s first wife. Amid the string of murders, Fred served two short stints in prison and was fined for assault but escaped greater police scrutiny. Finally, evidence of his heinous crimes was unearthed in 1994 when police opened an investigation into the disappearance of the couple’s daughter Heather West. Fred was awaiting trial for 12 counts of murder when he killed himself in his jail cell on January 1, 1995. He was 53.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Frederick Walter Stephen West
BORN: September 29, 1941
DIED: January 1, 1995
BIRTHPLACE: Much Marcle, United Kingdom
SPOUSE: Rena West (1962–1971) and Rose West (1972–1995)
CHILDREN: Charmaine, Anne Marie, Heather, Mae, Stephen, Tara, Louise, Barry, Rosemary Jr., and Lucyanna
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Libra
Early Life
Frederick Walter Stephen West was born to Walter and Daisy West on September 29, 1941, in Much Marcle, a small English village in Herefordshire. Some say he seemed like any other young boy growing up, with his aunt eventually telling the press that he “has always been such a nice boy.” One neighbor described him as “a bit cheeky, a bit mouthy, but that was the way these kids were.”
One of six children, Fred was reportedly his mother’s favorite child. There have been reports, however, that cast a dark shadow on the West family. Some have claimed that Daisy sexually abused her son. Fred, himself, later told authorities that his father had incestuous relations with young girls, though this was never substantiated.
Fred didn’t do well in school and eventually dropped out to become a farm laborer. When he was 17, a motorcycle accident left him comatose for a week with serious head injuries. A metal plate was placed in his head that might have affected his behavior and impulse control according to some experts. Young Fred incurred another head injury, and possibly permanent brain damage, upon falling off a fire escape at a local youth club.
His subsequent behavior was erratic, and he became known to the police for various petty crimes. Then in 1961, Fred was accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl who was a family friend, and he was subsequently banished from his family home. He became a construction worker but was soon caught stealing from his employers and again having sex with minors. At his trial for the rape of the young family friend, he escaped a jail sentence as it was claimed that he was suffering fits as a result of his head trauma. Instead, Fred was convicted of child molestation.
Marriages and Children
West was married twice and raised 10 children, though not all were biologically his. Seemingly all of these relationships were fraught.
First Wife Rena West
His first wife was Catherine “Rena” West, who was two and a half years younger than Fred. Born Catherine Costello, the Scottish teenager had a police record for burglary and prostitution and was pregnant with another man’s child when she and Fred became involved. The couple was married on November 17, 1962, in Ledbury, England. Before the month was over, they had moved to Scotland.
It was there that Rena gave birth to her child, a daughter named Charmaine, on May 22, 1963. Soon after, Rena became pregnant again, this time with Fred’s child. Their daughter Anne Marie was born on July 6, 1964.
The West marriage became increasingly unstable, as the couple moved around, sometimes separately, often living in mobile homes. At times, Charmaine and Anne Marie were placed into care by social services. Fred’s affair with Ann McFall, a Scottish teenager whom the couple had met in 1964, further complicated his marriage. By September 1967, however, McFall had disappeared, and Fred and Rena were living together at a mobile home in Bishops Cleeve, England.
The reunion wasn’t permanent. Rena continued to leave her family and was gone for good in late November 1969. The children stayed with Fred. Rena was last heard of around 1971. Fred is believed to have killed her and McFall.
Second Wife Rose West
His first marriage nearing its last gasp, Fred met Rosemary “Rose” Letts at a bus stop in Cheltenham, England, in 1969. At the time, Rose was only 15 years old and had experienced a turbulent childhood. While she was initially uninterested in Fred, he continued to pursue her, and she soon grew flattered by his attention. After finding out that Rose worked at a local bread shop, then-27-year-old Fred showed up at the store and asked her on a date. The teenager accepted, and the two soon began a relationship over her parents’ strong objections.
Just weeks later, Rose agreed to become his daughters’ full-time nanny. She moved into the Bishops Cleeve mobile home with Fred, Charmaine, and Anne Marie shortly after turning 16 that November. All four relocated to 25 Midland Road, Gloucester, in July 1970. By that point, Rose and Fred were expecting their first child. Their daughter Heather was born on October 17, 1970.
That year also saw Fred get sent to prison for minor offenses, which left Rose to look after the children on her own. Sometime in 1971, while Fred was still serving time, Charmaine suddenly disappeared. Her remains were found decades later, and Rose was convicted of her murder.
After Fred was released, he and Rose were married on January 29, 1972. The commitment cemented Rose West as his life-long criminal accomplice.
The couple’s second daughter, Mae, was born that June. With a growing family, they moved nearby to 25 Cromwell Street, which was large enough to enable them to take in lodgers to assist with the rent.
Rose had several more children over the next decade. Stephen, their first son, was born in August 1973 followed by daughters Tara and Louise in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Barry joined the brood in 1980 ahead of Rosemary Jr. in 1982 and, finally, Lucyanna in 1983. While not all of the kids were believed to be fathered by Fred, he still considered them his own.
Fred and Rose were abusive parents, who repeatedly sexually assaulted Anne Marie and later targeted Heather, Mae, and Louise. When Heather told a friend, her parents killed her. Their daughters weren’t the only victims the Wests tortured and murdered at their home. The couple’s other children were aware to some extent of these acts, but Fred and Rose exercised strict control over them.
In August 1992, five of the kids were placed in the care of social services after Fred and Rose were arrested for child abuse. The kids’ occasional offhand comments about Heather being under the patio—considered a “family joke”—eventually led to an expanded investigation that stopped their parents’ reign of terror forever.
Murder Victims and Other Crimes
West is believed to have killed or been involved in the killing of 12 women and girls between 1967 and 1987. All but two of these crimes occurred in conjunction with his second wife, Rose West. At one point, while in police custody, Fred admitted to 11 murders, but he regularly flip-flopped on his culpability and ultimately denied any wrongdoing.
He is also known to have sexually assaulted many women and girls dating back to the early 1960s. One of his earliest victims was a 13-year-old family friend, who Fred was accused of raping in 1961. He skirted prison by blaming his behavior on his head trauma and was instead convicted of child molestation. The next year, he found a job as an ice cream van driver in Scotland. It gave Fred steady access to young teenagers who fell prey to his pedophilic interests.
By the mid ’60s, Fred and his first wife, Rena, were back in England. Around this time, there were eight reported incidents of assault in Gloucester where the perpetrator’s description fit Fred, but he wasn’t immediately linked to these crimes.
First Three Murders, Including Daughter Charmaine West
Fred worked in a slaughterhouse in Gloucester. According to some researchers, this profession might have catalyzed his morbid obsession with death, mutilation, and dismemberment. Whatever the case, he likely committed his first murder in 1967.
Early that year, Fred impregnated Ann McFall. The two had been having an affair for some time as the teenage girl worked as the Wests’ nanny. The pregnancy prompted McFall to urge Fred to divorce Rena and marry her instead. Fred, unwilling to do so, is believed to have killed McFall in July 1967. The 18-year-old was around 6 months pregnant. Just before Fred buried McFall in a field at Kempley, near his hometown, he cut off her fingers and toes. This signature mutilation, along with collecting kneecaps, became a common feature in his future crimes.
Within six months of McFall’s death, Fred was linked to another disappearance, that of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm. She was abducted from a bus stop in Gloucester in January 1968, though only circumstantial evidence has ever been produced to corroborate his involvement. He personally denied any involvement to police. Attempts to recover her remains, including a 2021 excavation at the cafe where she worked, have been unsuccessful.
Fred was in and out of prison between 1969 and 1971. However, the crimes that landed him there were minor compared to his suspected brutalities. In 1969, he served three days for unpaid fines. Driving offenses and petty theft returned him to prison the following year. After nine months, he was released in 1971.
It was during this second stint behind bars that Fred’s partner in crime and eventual wife, Rose West, killed Charmaine, Rena’s daughter whom Fred had raised as his own. Rose, who was prone to violent outbursts, murdered the 8-year-old girl in June 1971. After Fred returned to his family, he is believed to have moved Charmaine’s body, again removing the fingers and toes, before burying her underneath the kitchen of the family’s home on Midland Road. This knowledge of Rose’s murderous act undoubtedly gave Fred a significant hold over the young woman.
When his first wife, Rena, came in search of her daughter, Fred strangled and dismembered her, also removing her fingers and toes. Her murder likely also took place in 1971, and authorities found no evidence Rose was involved. Rena was buried in the same general area as Fred’s first murder victim, Ann McFall, in a field at Kempley.
Assault of Anne Marie West and Caroline Owens
By 1972, Fred was back to committing acts of bondage and violent sex acts on underage girls. He used the cellar in their home at 25 Cromwell Street as a torture chamber, and his second daughter, Anne Marie, became one of its first victims. The young girl was subjected to a horrifically brutal rape by her father while her stepmother held her down. This became a regular occurrence, and the child was threatened with beatings if she told anyone of her ordeal.
The couple’s behavior extended beyond the family circle when, in late 1972, they hired 17-year-old Caroline Owens as a nanny. She was subsequently incarcerated, stripped, and raped. Despite threats that she would be killed and buried in the cellar, Owens was able to make an escape and reported the Wests to the police. Charges were brought against them.
Incredibly, despite his existing criminal record, Fred was able to convince a court magistrate that Owens had consented to the activities. Owens was too deeply traumatized over what she had survived to give testimony, and the Wests, both convicted of two assault charges in January 1973, went free. Their punishments amounted to a £50 fine each.
More Murders
In April 1973, the Wests found their next murder victim in 19-year-old Lynda Gough, who had stayed with them. That November, 15-year-old Carole Cooper went missing after getting onto a bus in the Worcester suburb of Warndon. Cooper’s disappearance led to a police investigation, something that hadn’t happened for any of Fred’s previous four murder victims, but the case went cold. Before the year was over, 21-year-old Lucy Partington similarly was last seen while trying to catch a bus back home to Bishops Cleeve, not far from Gloucester.
The Wests slowed their pace, but they carried out five more murders over the next six years. These victims were 21-year-old college student Therese Siegenthaler; 15-year-old Shirley Hubbard; 18-year-old Juanita Mott; 18-year-old Shirley Robinson, who was pregnant at the time she went missing; and 16-year-old Alison Chambers, who was originally from West Germany.
After brutal sexual attacks, all eight victims were murdered, dismembered, and buried at 25 Cromwell Street. Police looked into most of their disappearances, but nothing led them back to Fred and Rose.
Final Murder of Daughter Heather West
Even as he found other victims, Fred’s sexual interest in his own daughters didn’t wane. When Anne Marie moved out to live with her boyfriend, he switched his attention to his younger daughters Heather and Mae. Heather resisted and, in 1987, told a friend about the goings on in the house. The Wests responded by murdering and dismembering her. Only 16 at the time, Heather was last seen on June 19 of that year. Her parents buried her in the back garden under the patio, where their son Stephen was forced to assist with digging the hole.
Arrest and Investigation
Given that the Wests’ vicious sex acts didn’t result in murder every time, and the sheer number of attacks, it was inevitable that someone would expose their nefarious actions. In May 1992, Fred brutally raped their 13-year-old daughter, Louise. Weeks later, after he had assaulted her three more times, Louise told a close friend what her father had done. That August, the friend’s mother filed an anonymous tip to the police. This quickly prompted an investigation.
Two days later, Detective Constable Hazel Savage of the Gloucestershire police force led a search at Cromwell Street in August 1992 that found pornography and clear evidence of child abuse. Fred was arrested for rape and sodomy of a minor and Rose for assisting in the rape of a minor.
In the course of the investigation, Savage uncovered the abuse of Anne Marie as well as the disappearances of Charmaine and Heather, warranting further investigation. Rumors also arose about what might be buried under the patio. The younger West children were taken into care. The case against the Wests collapsed, however, when two key witnesses decided not to testify against them. Savage continued to pursue her search for Heather, questioning the West children repeatedly, but they had been well trained by their parents and failed to cooperate.
In February 1994, Fred and his wife were living back at their Cromwell Street home when police arrived with a warrant to search the property. Authorities returned the next day, and Fred admitted Heather was in the garden. Both he and Rose were arrested on February 25 in connection with her murder.
As the police dug up the patio in the following days, Heather’s remains weren’t the only ones they found. Fred then told police he had killed Shirley Robinson and Alison Chambers, whose bodies he’d also hidden in the garden. He took sole responsibility for killing Heather and Robinson, but when police questioned him about Lynda Gough, he denied knowing her. Her remains, which Fred had buried elsewhere in the house, had yet to be found. Police continued to press Fred for information, and after Savage made clear their intentions for a complete search of the West home, he wrote a handwritten confession:
“I, Frederick West, authorise my solicitor, Howard Ogden, to advise Superintendent Bennett that I was to admit to a further (approx) nine killings expressly Charmaine, Rena, Lynda Gough and others to be identified.”
Establishing the whereabouts and identities of each victim was a mammoth task. In addition to the patio area, victim remains were unearthed in the home’s basement, cellar, and a ground floor bathroom. Fred continued to cooperate, revealing the burial sites of his first wife, former lover Ann McFall, and daughter Charmaine, who were all hidden away from the Cromwell Street house. Despite leading police to McFall’s remains, he never admitted to murdering her.
Fred wasn’t steadfast in his forthcoming nature, either. A police report summarizing the investigation notes, “During his interviews he frequently changed his story and ultimately denied being involved in any of the murders.” Even so, on December 13, 1994, Fred was charged on 12 counts of murder and taken into custody at Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England.
Death
West directed his final act of violence toward himself. On January 1, 1995, the 53-year-old was found dead in his cell. His death was ruled a suicide.
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or self-harming behaviors, call or text 988 to get help from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
With Fred gone, Rose went to trial for 10 of the murders in October 1995, in the glare of media frenzy. A unanimous jury found her guilty on all counts the following month. She has been in prison ever since.
The Wests’ home at 25 Cromwell Street, or the “House of Horrors” as it was dubbed by the media, was razed to the ground in October 1996. Decades later, there remains a widespread belief that Fred and Rose’s murder victims numbered far more than the 12 known women and girls.
Documentaries and More
Fred and Rose West’s gruesome crimes have been revisited in a number of documentaries and fictional retellings. In 2001, England’s Channel 5 released the three-part docuseries Fred and Rose: The West Murders, which included exclusive footage and interviews of the couple. Five years later, the Discovery Channel series Crimes That Shook the World put out an episode on the Wests and their infamous House of Horrors. Another limited series called Fred and Rose, released in 2014, focused more on their disturbing childhoods and the events leading up to their life of crime.
In 2011, the couple were the subject of the ITV mini series Appropriate Adult. The dramatized show saw British actor Dominic West portray Fred.
The BBC released a three-part docuseries a decade later called Untold: The Wests. Another documentary project arrived in 2023’s Fred & Rose West: Love & Murder. Most recently, the Wests’ brutality have been reexamined in the Netflix docuseries Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which premiered in May 2025.
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