Beyond Belief

Millions of words have been written about the horrendous Moors Murders, which took place in England in the early to mid 1960's. Only this book, 'Beyond Belief ' by Emlyn Williams, uses poetry and wry humour to elevate the pathos already induced by the subject. We will probably never know the true total of lives taken by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. When Emlyn Williams wrote Beyond Belief in 1967 there were three known victims: 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, 12-year-old John Kilbride and 17-year-old Edward Evans. Emlyn Williams accurately predicted in the book that 16-year-old Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, 12, were also victims of Brady and Hindley. This is now an established fact although the body of Keith Bennett has yet to be found. Other children are known to have almost fallen prey to the evil pair but had the good fortune to slip through their net. Williams gives a brief account about the death of Michael Higgins, a shy and fragile 13 year old boy who drowned in a reservoir when Myra was 15. The pair had been inseparable. Hindley was devastated and became inconsolable. She dressed in black and went to the church nightly to pray and to light a candle for Michael. She was burdened with a huge sense of guilt because she had turned down his request for her to go swimming with him that day. Myra was a strong swimmer and believed that had she been there she could have saved him. But if the two were so inseparable later events make you wonder if she really wasn't there when the boy drowned. If she was not and her grief was genuine, the incident is a poignant reminder that our prayers are sometimes answered in mysterious ways. Brady, whom Hindley had yet to meet, was at that time taking his pleasure in burying cats alive and chopping the legs off live frogs. His heroes were Hitler and the Marquis de Sade. He read Nietzsche and listened to Wagner. Beyond Belief charts the ebbing away of a nations innocence and records the beginning of a downward spiral in Englands morality. It leads you on a journey over Saddleworth Moors inside the minds of two of the most perverted and subsequently reviled people in England, and alongside the dedicated officers of The Greater Manchester Police Force who located the victim's remains. The almost lyrical writing style and the use of northern dialects are juxtaposed to the dark events so you are constantly reminded that the apparently ordinary couple-next-door didn't have the word 'monster' tattooed on their foreheads. Myra Hindley died of a chest infection in November 2002. The name 'Myra' quickly went out of fashion in the Christening records of England after 1966. Ian Brady is in a mental institution and has repeatedly said he does not want to be released - his only wish is to be allowed to die. When you have read Beyond Belief you will hope his wish is granted.

Emlyn Williams was creatively gifted as a playwright and actor. His two enduring plays were "Night Must Fall" and "The Corn Is Green." A man who spent his writing life in the fictional realm provided himself a challenge and turned his prodigious talents to true crime. The result is a merger of true crime with the poetry of a true creative artist in "Beyond Belief."Ian Brady grew up living with guardians in a lower middle class section of Glasgow. When his mother, who bore him out of wedlock, marries, he goes to live with her for the first time. His move to the English Midlands finds him leading a solitary life in which he lives for the cinema. Williams shows us how a dangerous pattern is established early on when he yens for films of violence, identifies closely with the villain Harry Lime played brilliantly by Orson Welles in "The Third Man," and abhors love story-musicals such as those with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, which he ridicules.When he is working in a factory as a stock clerk in Gorton, a suburb of Manchester, he meets Myra Hindley for the first time. In many ways the large, voluptuous woman is more masculine than Brady. Williams brilliantly delineates a perceived identity crisis that he believes could have turned them both in the wrong direction. William does an excellent job of showing us the lower middle class despair of young people growing up in sixties' England. He uses the dialect of the young, uneducated working class to evoke the kind of atmosphere associated with the best of novel writing. The cast of characters rings true throughout. Eventually the couple turns to crime in a big way. Brady abducts children and perpetrates murders while Myra, who appears hypnotized by Ian, terminates her assertiveness in his case and becomes his subservient accomplice.The author makes his sociological points without ever being preachy. His page-turning style is riveting as readers learn little by little about these two young people whose lives become living hells for themselves and those they encounter.

Unlike many books concerning true crime, Williams' account of the Moors Murders is neither sensationalistic, nor cold in its recounting of the facts. By weaving fact with some fictional (yet highly believable) dialogue to "fill in the blanks" of what is known, Williams gives the reader an astonishing glimpse into the private world of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. It is simply one of the best books I've ever read. The story itself is fascinating, both as a psychological study, and for the incredible detective work that led to the couple's arraignment. Absolutely un-put-downable. Incidentally, passages from the book are woven into a song called "Suffer The Children" by Mancunian band, The Smiths.

This book portrays a variety of emotions -- anger, confusion, heartbreak, nostalgia. Williams did a great job of trying to fathom the crimes of Hindley and Brady. I've written about the case myself, in fictional form, and this was not only an outstanding research source but one of the saddest, most elegiac books I've ever read. I hope the name Emlyn Williams is not too obscure these days; he was apparently a gifted actor as well as writer and playwright.

A superb book. Can be read time and time again. Truly 'beyond belief' that such horrors can live inside seemingly outwardly normal people. Ian Brady's increasingly bizarre erotic displays suck Myra Hindley into his parallel world, and she is completely absorbed into a nightmare which will never end.