| Fred West | |
|---|---|
Fred and Rosemary in the mid 1980s |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Frederick Walter Stephen West |
| Born | 29 September 1941 Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England, UK |
| Died | 1 January 1995 (aged 53) Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, England, UK |
| Cause of death | Suicide by hanging |
| Conviction | Child molestation Sexual assault Theft |
| Sentence | Committed suicide before trial |
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 11–13 |
| Span of killings | July 1967–June 1987 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Date apprehended | 24 February 1994 |
Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941[1] – 1 January 1995), was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at their home in Gloucester. Rosemary West also murdered Fred's stepdaughter (his first wife's biological daughter) Charmaine, while he was serving a prison sentence for theft. During this time they resided at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. The house was demolished in 1996 and was converted into a landscaped footpath connecting Cromwell Street to St. Michaels Square.
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Fred West was born into a poor family of farm workers in Bickerton Cottage, Much Marcle, Herefordshire, to Walter Stephen West (5 July 1914 – 28 March 1992) and Daisy Hannah Hill (1922-6 February 1968). He was the second of their six children. West would later claim that his father had incestuous relationships with his daughters.[2] It has been suggested that incest was an accepted part of the household, and that his father taught him bestiality from an early age. West recalled, in police interviews, that his father had said on many occasions "Do what you want, just don’t get caught doing it".[3] It is also alleged that his mother Daisy began sexually abusing him from the age of 12.[4]
At school, West showed an aptitude for woodwork and artwork, but did not excel academically. He left school at the age of 15 in December 1956; two years later, in November 1958, he suffered a fractured skull and a broken arm and leg in a motorbike accident. The accident put him into an eight-day coma. His family reported that after the accident he became prone to sudden fits of rage. Two years later, he was unconscious for 24 hours after hitting his head in a fall from a fire escape.[5]
At the age of 19, he was arrested for molesting a 13-year-old girl. He was convicted, but escaped a sentence of imprisonment.[2] His mother sent him to live with her sister Violet in Much Marcle and the rest of the family effectively disowned him thereafter.[6]
In September 1962, the 21-year-old West became re-acquainted with a former girlfriend, Catherine Costello, who was now better known as Rena from her time working as a prostitute. Costello was already pregnant by another man, and she and West married on 17 November before moving to Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. Her daughter, Charmaine Carol, was born on 22 February 1963. Costello and West claimed they had adopted Charmaine, whose father was from Pakistan. In July 1964 Costello bore West a daughter named Anne Marie. During this period in Coatbridge, West worked as an ice cream van driver. On 4 November 1965, he ran over and killed a four-year-old boy with his van.[7]
The family, along with Isa McNeill who looked after the couple's children and Costello's friend Anne McFall, moved into the Lakeside caravan park in Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire at the end of 1965 when West feared for his safety following the ice cream van incident. To escape from West's sadistic sexual demands, Costello and McNeill moved to Scotland in 1966 while McFall, who had become infatuated with West and the two children, remained. Costello continued to visit the children every few months. In August 1967 McFall, who was eight months pregnant with West's child, vanished. McFall was never reported missing and her remains were found in June 1994.
In September 1967, Costello returned to live with West, but left again the following year, putting the children in West's care.
While still married to Costello, 27-year-old West met his next wife, Rosemary Letts, on 29 November 1968, on her 15th birthday. On her 16th birthday she moved in with him and a few months later they moved from the caravan to a two-storey house in Midland Road, Gloucester. On 17 October 1970, Rosemary gave birth to their daughter, Heather Ann. Fred West was imprisoned for theft from 4 December 1970 until 24 June 1971.
It is believed that Rosemary killed Charmaine (Fred's stepdaughter from his first marriage) shortly before West's release in June 1971. According to Anne Marie, both sisters were subject to frequent beatings, but Charmaine infuriated Rosemary by her refusal to cry no matter how severe they got. Charmaine disappeared in mid June, with Rosemary explaining Costello had called and taken her back to Scotland. Costello turned up in late August to collect Charmaine, and also disappeared.
On 29 January 1972, Fred and Rosemary West married in Gloucester, and on 1 June of that year, Rosemary gave birth to their second daughter, Mae. Around this time West encouraged his wife into prostitution. Rosemary eventually had seven children, of whom three were mixed race. Needing a bigger house, the family moved to 25 Cromwell Street (), now demolished, where West converted the upper floor to bedsits. "Rose's Room", the room Rosemary used for prostitution had peepholes so he could watch and a red light outside the door for warning the children not to enter when she was "busy". Like West, Rosemary came from a family where incest was common; Rosemary's father, Bill Letts, with Fred's approval, would often visit their home to have sex with Rosemary.[8]
In October 1972 the Wests hired 17-year-old Caroline Roberts as the children's nanny. They had picked up the girl during the night time along a secluded country road and after she informed them that she wished to escape her stepfather; a week later she moved into 25 Cromwell Street to look after their three children at the time. Rosemary, who had begun prostitution in her bedroom at this time, explained to Roberts that she was a "masseuse" when Roberts had inquired about the men frequently visiting her.[9] While there, according to Caroline, Fred had informed her that if ever she needed an abortion he was well equipped to do so. She became suspicious when Fred boasted that many of the women he had treated with an abortion were so overjoyed that they offer him sexual services as a reward.[9] She rejected Fred and Rosemary's advances into their "sex-circle" and left a few weeks later.[10] On 6 December 1972 the Wests picked her up again along the secluded road and apologized profusely for what had happened and invited her to their home to make amends with a "cup of tea".[9] Roberts had believed they had been genuinely courteous in what they said in their apology to her and obliged, believing that they had simply mistaken what the job had entailed. Back at 25 Cromwell Street, after initially making her welcome with the promised cup of tea, soon afterwards Rose started kissing her, bound her heavily with bondage tape, and both raped her. According to Roberts, Fred had remarked that "her vagina was unusual" and that he "would have to change that".[9] When she screamed, Rosemary smothered her with a pillow and she was bound even further around the neck. Fred threatened her that they would keep her locked up in the cellar and let Rosemary's black male visitors "use" her and that when they had finished they would bury her under the paving stones of Gloucester.[9] Fred boasted that they had killed hundreds of young girls and the police would never find them.[9] Quickly realizing that they would kill her, Caroline gave into them and let them sexually do whatever they wanted to her without a fight.[9] Fred allowed Roberts to leave the next day only after she promised she would return as their nanny. Roberts reported the rape to police but withdrew the accusation when the case came to court. The Wests pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of indecent assault and were fined £50.[11]
In early 1973, the Wests took eight-year-old Anne Marie to the cellar, where they bound and gagged her before West raped her while Rosemary watched.[12]
In 1979 Anne Marie became pregnant by West, but the pregnancy was terminated as it was ectopic. Unable to cope with her father any longer, she left home; West now began abusing Heather, who disappeared a few years later.
In May 1992, West filmed himself raping one of his other daughters, and twice again afterwards. She told friends at school what had happened. On 4 August one of the friends told her mother and she went to the police. On 6 August 1992, the police began an investigation, eventually leading to West being charged, with Rosemary as an accomplice, with rape. She was also charged with child cruelty and the remaining children were placed in foster care. The rape case against the Wests collapsed when the two main witnesses declined to testify at the court case on 7 June 1993. The police continued investigating the disappearance of their daughter Heather. After taking statements from social workers, and the children themselves, about a joke about "Heather being buried under the patio", they obtained a further search warrant in February 1994, allowing them to excavate the garden in search of Heather. They started searching the house and excavating the garden on 24 February 1994.
After West's arrest the following day, the police uncovered human bones.[13] He confessed, retracted and then re-confessed to the murder of his daughter, denying that Rosemary was involved. Rosemary was not arrested until April 1994, initially on sex offences but later charged with murder. Further bodies were found and, on 4 March 1994, West admitted that he had carried out nine more murders, including those of his first wife and Ann McFall. The remains of McFall and Costello were subsequently unearthed in fields near the village of Kempley.
Fred and Rosemary West were brought before a magistrates' court in Gloucester on 30 June 1994; he was charged with 11 murders and she with 10. Immediately afterwards, Fred West was re-arrested on suspicion of murdering Ann McFall, whose body had been found on 7 June 1994. On the evening of 3 July 1994, he was charged with her murder.
On 1 January 1995, Fred West hanged himself while on remand in his cell at Winson Green Prison, Birmingham.[14] His funeral was held in Coventry on 29 March 1995. West was cremated with only three people present.
The evidence against Rosemary was circumstantial; unlike her husband, she did not confess. She was tried in October 1995 at Winchester Crown Court, found guilty of all 10 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment.[15] The trial judge recommended that she should never be released and 18 months later the then serving Home Secretary Jack Straw agreed with this recommendation.
In October 1996, the Wests' house in Cromwell Street, which was next to the Seventh Day Adventist Church, along with the adjoining property (No. 23), was demolished and the site made into a pathway. Every brick was crushed and every timber was burned to discourage souvenir hunters.
Novelist Martin Amis was a cousin of the Wests' victim Lucy Partington, who disappeared in 1973; he dedicated his novel 'The Information' (published in 1995) to her.[16]
Their only known victim between 1980 and their arrest 14 years later was their daughter Heather (who died in 1987), compared to nine murders in the previous eight years committed by the pair as a couple. However, police believe the couple murdered more. There were no known murders in the years 1976–1977, 1980–1986 and 1988–1992. During questioning after being arrested, Fred West had confessed to murdering up to 30 people, but the police believed the pair may have killed only 13. As well as the 12 confirmed they believe West also killed 15-year-old Mary Bastholm in January 1968, but to date no body has been found.[4] West's son, Stephen, has said he firmly believed the missing Gloucester teenager was an early victim of his father, as Fred West had reportedly boasted of committing Miss Bastholme's murder while on remand in prison during 1994.[18]
Although no forensic evidence linked Fred West to the murder of Anne McFall, and he always denied killing her, in contrast to the other murders, the state of the body (missing finger and toe bones as was the case with the other bodies) and the dimensions of the grave site match aspects of West's modus operandi.[19]
Janet Leach, West's Appropriate adult who also visited him in prison, says West told her he had been involved in at least 20 further murders, including children killed in a barn.
Harold and Fred (They Make Ladies Dead) was a 2001 comic strip in Viz, also featuring serial killer Harold Shipman, which attracted criticism from the victims' families. The editor of Viz commented: "Yes, it is going a bit far and I don't need to defend it, but I'll make a half-hearted attempt. I'm sure Mel Brooks didn't think the Nazis were funny, but a lot of his comedy was based around them. The cover of Viz gives you a pretty good idea of what the content is going to be like and people that are offended by it, don't buy it."[20][21]
The surnames of the two families in the BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey are West and Shipman. There is no suggestion that the characters are linked to the serial killers, but the co-incidence of the names is deliberate, and is mentioned in the wedding episode at the end of series 1.
The West murders are mentioned in the 2006 episode "The Final Act" of the ITV television police drama Prime Suspect, to emphasise the public reaction to incomplete investigations.
A two-part drama, Appropriate Adult, aired on ITV in September 2011. This tells the story of Janet Leach, the woman asked by police to sit in interviews with Fred West.
In one episode in the fourth season of Law and Order: SVU, West is mentioned because he collected the fingers of his victims to remind him of his "dominance", something he had in common with their suspect.
British musical act Kunt and the Gang wrote a song entitled "Fred and Rose," making reference throughout, notably in the chorus, "Heaven knows / There's nothing that I wouldn't do. / We're like Fred and Rose. / I'd murder a lodger for you."