Fred West

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Fred West
Born	September 29, 1941 Much Marcle, Herefordshire, England, UK
Died	January 1, 1995 Winson Green Prison, Birmingham, England, UK
Charge(s)	murder
Penalty	committed suicide before trial
Status	deceased
Occupation	Labourer, abattoir worker
Spouse	Rosemary West

Frederick Walter Stephen West (September 29, 1941 – January 1, 1995) was an alleged serial killer who, together with his convicted wife Rosemary West, is believed to have murdered at least 12 young women, many at the couple's home in Gloucester, England. He committed suicide in his cell at Winson Green Prison while awaiting trial for murder.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Marriage to Rosemary Letts 3 Murders 4 Downfall and later conviction 5 Further reading

[edit] Early life

West was born in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, into a poor family of farm workers. He left school at the age of 15 and began work as a casual labourer. He was a prolific petty criminal as a teenager. In November 1961, he was accused and nearly convicted of raping a 13 year old girl who was a family friend. He moved away from his parents' rural home to live with an aunt until the spring of 1962.

He married Catherine (Rena) Costello, a prostitute, in November 1962 and they moved to Coatbridge, near Glasgow. She gave birth to a girl, Charmaine, in March 1963, although the girl's father was a Pakistani bus driver. A second child, Anna Marie, was born to the couple in July 1964. She was West's child.

During this period, West worked as an ice cream van driver. On November 4, 1965, he accidentally ran over a four-year-old boy with his ice-cream van. Six weeks later, West moved his family to Gloucester, where he took a job in an abattoir. Their marriage under strain, the Wests separated. When she returned in 1966, he was living with Anna McFall. West killed the heavily pregnant McFall around August 1967 and buried her in a field near Much Marcle. Rena returned to live with him and their children for a short time before leaving again to somewhere not known.

[edit] Marriage to Rosemary Letts

In late 1968, West met Rosemary Letts. She became pregnant by West, something she concealed from her parents until West was serving a short prison sentence for unpaid fines. She left her family home and moved in with West in Midland Road in Gloucester. She gave birth to a girl, Heather, on October 17, 1970, and often neglected the older children. Charmaine died in mid-1971, probably at Letts' hands, while West was still in prison. West dismembered the body upon returning from prison and hid it under the floor. Rena returned to Gloucester in late August 1971 looking for her children. West murdered her late one night after she was drunk and disposed of her body by cutting it up and burying it in a field near his childhood home.

He married Rosemary Letts on January 29, 1972. West regularly encouraged Rose to prostitute herself. Rose gave birth to a girl, Mae, in June 1972 and the family moved to a new home at 25 Cromwell Street.

[edit] Murders

West adapted the cellar as a place for his children (Mae and Steven) to sleep in, extending and soundproofing it. In the upstairs front room, the Wests attacked and raped 17-year-old Caroline Owens, who was being employed as the children's nanny, in December 1972. She was assaulted by both of the Wests. They were arrested and went to trial in January 1973 but were let off with a fine, an unusual punishment for such a serious offence which nearly always results in a guilty defendant being imprisoned.

A pattern then began: young females would come to their home as lodgers or to care for the children and would be abused and then murdered. The first victim was Lynda Gough, murdered in April, 1973. The second was 15-year old Carol Ann Cooper, abducted and murdered in November, 1973, and the third was Lucy Partington (a relative of Martin Amis) who was almost certainly kept alive for nearly a week and murdered just days into 1974. This is borne out by West, who had a fear of hospitals since a motorcycle accident over 15 years earlier, presenting himself at 12:25 AM on January 3, 1974 at the Gloucester Royal Hospital casualty department with a deep wound to his hand, probably sustained while cutting up Lucy Partington's body.

The bodies were dismembered and disposed of under the cellar floor as West extended and renovated the building. Therese Siegenthaler was murdered around Easter 1974. Shirley Hubbard was murdered in November 1974, just after the first anniversary of Carol Ann Cooper's murder.

In April 1975, just before the first anniversary of their abduction and murder of Therese Siegenthaler, they did the same to Juanita Mott.

Their next known victim, Shirley Robinson, was murdered three years later. Shirley, who was more than eight months' pregnant, was murdered in May 1978 and buried in the garden. In September 1979 the Wests abducted, tortured and killed Alison Chambers.

Rose gave birth to five more children over the next years: Tara (December 1977), Louise (November 1978), Barry (June 1980), Rosemary Junior (April 1982) and Lucyanna (July 1983). Only Barry and Louise were fathered by West, the others being the offspring of Rose's clients.

After 1979, the Wests are known to have comiitted only one further murder - that of their daughter Heather, who was killed in June 1987 at the age of 16. Her body was buried in the garden where it remained uncovered for seven years.

[edit] Downfall and later conviction

Shortly after Heather West's disappearence over the summer of 1987, police began to suspect that she had been murdered by her father. But they had to wait five years to make their move. On August 6, 1992, police examined the house (acting under a search warrant), and arrested Fred West for rape and sodomy of a minor and his wife as an accomplice on 6 August 1992. She was also charged with child cruelty, and the remaining children still living at home were placed in foster care.

The rape case against the Wests collapsed when the two main witnesses declined to testify on June 7, 1993. Research into Heather's whereabouts uncovered no information on her anywhere in the UK, meaning she must have changed her identity, moved abroad, or died. The police decided that they had to investigate the family joke that "Heather was buried under the patio," and 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 February 25, 1994. After the police had uncovered human bones, West confessed, retracted and then re-confessed to the murder of his daughter, denying that Rose was involved. Rose was not arrested until April 1994, initially on sex offences but later she was charged with murder. Further bodies were found and on 4 March Fred admitted murdering nine more people, including his first wife and Anna McFall.

On 30 June 1994, Rose and Fred appeared in the dock in Gloucester, the first time they had seen each other since 25 February. He was charged with 11 murders, while she was charged with ten. Moments later, Fred West was arrested on suspicion of murdering Ann McFall, whose body was found on June 7, 1994. On the evening of July 3, 1994, he was charged with her murder. The following morning he was returned to Winson Green Prison, (known to inmates as "Digger") where he had been held for several weeks before the hearing.

On January 1, 1995, Fred West committed suicide in his cell at Birmingham's Winson Green Prison by hanging himself.

The evidence against Rose was largely circumstantial; unlike her husband, she did not confess. She was tried from October, 1995, found guilty of all 10 murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial judge recommended that she should never be released.

In October, 1996, the Wests' home was demolished and the site became a simple pathway. The bricks were ground into dust and buried under a landfill site, in order to discourage souvenir hunters.

[edit] Further reading