Biography

Ian Brady, born Ian Duncan Stewart, was, together with his girlfriend Myra Hindley, found guilty of kidnapping and murdering five children in 1963-1965. As a child, Brady enjoyed torturing and killing animals, once even setting a dog on fire, and later started attacking children as well. Brady became interested in World War II and the Nazis and even tried to learn the German language. Among his favorite books were Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, Marquis de Sade's Justine and less well-known books about sadism. Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen, he was charged with housebreaking and burglary three times. After the third time, he moved in with his mother and stepfather in Manchester, where he took up crime again, spending time in two juvenile centers. In 1961 he met a girl called Myra.