Ian Brady's chilling autobiography could spark new Moors Murders investigation

Daily Record

4 days ago

A new BBC documentary series presented by Duncan Staff has made a major discovery that could lead to a new investigation into the Moors Murders.
A fresh BBC Moors Murders documentary has revealed part of Ian Brady's secret autobiography.
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Cold case specialists working alongside author and filmmaker Duncan Staff discovered a copy of the first 394 pages of a clandestine autobiography penned by Moors killer Ian Brady in a new BBC documentary series, The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice. The unearthing of the unfinished manuscript, which details his connection with Myra Hindley and provides a thorough, precise account of the killing and interment of their initial victim, Pauline Reade, came from an extensive collection of documents uncovered by Staff.
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The remaining 200 pages of Brady's manuscript could potentially hold his version of 12 year old Keith Bennett's murder and burial in 1964, according to claims. The absent pages are thought to have been left with Brady's solicitor, though he has remained silent on the matter, reports the Mirror.
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Brady's biographer, the late Dr Alan Keightley, documented in his publication that Brady once requested him to deliver a "double sealed parcel", which he believed contained the autobiography, to a London-based solicitor. This legal representative, Benedict Birnberg, passed away in 2023.
His practice informed the BBC that any materials left in their care had subsequently been forwarded to Brady's other solicitor, Robin Makin, in Liverpool. Mr Makin, Brady's executor, has faced previous allegations from Keith Bennett's relatives of concealing documents that might assist in locating Keith's remains.
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The BBC contacted Robin Makin for comment regarding whether he possessed the autobiography, but he has failed to respond. Keightley passed away in 2023, but his widow, Joan, has granted the documentary-makers access to her late husband's extensive archive.
This includes an incomplete copy of the typed manuscript titled Black Light, which appears to have been penned by Brady.
In his own book, Dr Alan Keightley suggests that Brady informed him Black Light was at least 600 pages long. The copy in his own archive ends abruptly at page 394, just before the murder of John Kilbride, Brady and Hindley's second victim.
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Taking to social media, Keith Bennett's brother, Alan – who was kept up-to-date with the discovery by the documentary-makers – expressed that any missing material should be handed over to the police as it could contain "vital information in regard to the search for Keith.
"This is the first time we've got an indication there might actually be something written down that describes where and how Keith was killed," Staff reveals.
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Keith Bennett, aged 12, vanished in June 1964. His body has never been recovered. He was the third victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, known as the Moors murderers, who are confirmed to have killed five children.
The bodies of John Kilbride, 12, and Lesley Ann Downey,10, were unearthed from shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor in 1965. Edward Evans, 17, was found at the murderers' residence, bound and ready for burial on the moorland.
The Moors murderers received life sentences. Pauline Reade, 16, was discovered on the moor following a search in 1987. Myra Hindley passed away in 2002, aged 60; Ian Brady died in 2017, aged 79.
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"I think it's incredibly frustrating for the families to know that Ian Brady has written an autobiography, Black Light, but it's only surfacing now and that the copy we have is incomplete. So the pages that describe exactly where Keith Bennett is buried could be out there somewhere," Staff comments in The Moors Murders: A Search for Justice.
Retired Chief Superintendent Geoff Knupfer, who led the Moors murders case for Greater Manchester Police in the 1980s, has perused a section of the manuscript retrieved by the BBC, and describes this discovery as 'extraordinary – I've never seen anything like it. '.
"This could lead to a new investigation," he suggests. The solicitor representing the Bennett family requested the documentary makers to inform the police about Black Light, which they have done.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) told the BBC that their investigation is still ongoing and they will "continue to seek the answers the family deserve and will act upon any credible evidence".
"There have been so many missed opportunities to find Keith, and we can't let this be another one," Staff says, "We have to make sure that everything is done and that every effort is made to get hold of the missing pages of Black Light and to finally remove Ian Brady's control.