OF ALL the serial killers and mass murderers who have blighted Britain’s history, Ian Brady is considered by many to be the most evil.
Even fellow serial killer the was horrified at the way he tortured and murdered children before callously dumping their bodies – crimes so twisted that bosses at refused to accept him as a patient.
Most people would recoil at the idea of delving into the dark recesses of the ‘s mind – but that’s exactly what Britain’s top amateur Alfie James did, for a decade.
He swapped scores of letters with Brady as he tried to work out the motivation for his unspeakable crimes, just as he has done with a string of other murderers on both sides of the Atlantic.
And he gained a unique insight into what made one of Britain’s most notorious ever .
Speaking exclusively to The Sun as part of ourseries,Alfie said: “He was very self-centred and had this over-inflated sense of his own superiority.
“He thought he was more intelligent than everyone, and he never took responsibility for anything.
“He was always trying to shift the blame onto others and could never accept that what he had done was wrong.”;
Brady and his lover sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered five children in in the 1960s in a series of crimes which shocked Britain.
At their trial in 1966 a horrific tape recording they had made of one of their victims screaming and begging for mercy was played.
The couple’s relationship had been crucial to the crimes, and Brady was convinced they would remain close even after they were convicted and jailed for life.
But Alfie revealed how Brady became furious at what he saw as Hindley’s lack of “loyalty”; over her attempts to secure parole and also when she struck up a .
Bizarrely, he claimed he could have freed her from after just 15 years and was so angry with her he refused to use her name in letters he sent Alfie, instead referring to her as ‘M’.
In one letter he said of her: “Now, of course, I couldn’t care less. All sense of obligation departed when she began lying against me to secure parole. Had she remained loyal, I could have had her out in 15 years.”;
Alfie said: “He never explained how he was going to secure her freedom, and in reality he never would have been able to, of course.
“But that was typical of him. He thought he was so intelligent that he could secure her release. It was another one of his superior boasts.
“He did like to reminisce about his earlier life with her, though. He used to talk about going on motorbike trips with her, riding over Shap in on the Great North Road, heading from Manchester to where he was from.
“He said, ‘We would sit on a wall and have a couple of drinks, something to eat. I would discard a bottle and it would smash on the ground. That bottle will still be there now and will be for hundreds of years as a reminder that we once walked here.’
Brady was very self-centred and had this over-inflated sense of his own superiority. He thought he was more intelligent than everyone, and he never took responsibility for anything
Alfie James
“It was like ghost talk, about things linked to him that would be around long after he was gone.
“He would describe how they would get to Glasgow as morning was breaking with the streets all quiet. He liked that.
“And whenever he was travelling around he liked visiting churches, not for any religious experience, he liked the smell of them.
“As he was telling me these things I couldn’t help but think about the things he had done and thought, ‘You of all people should not be in a church.’
“Meeting Hindley was obviously crucial to their crimes but he even passed off any sort of responsibility for that, blaming it on ‘circumstances’ that led him to have to get a job at the chemical distribution company where she later got taken on as a typist.
“If circumstances had not led him to get that job he would never have met her and the murders would not have happened, he said.
“As if he didn’t have any free will. I would think – you say you are so clever, then why couldn’t you stop it happening?”;
‘Sick in the head’
Alfie and Brady swapped around 150 letters over the years they were writing to each other, part of an incredible library of true crime material that factory worker Alfie, 49, has built up.
It includes a trove of letters and other material acquired over nearly 20 years from , which he turned into the definitive biography of the killer, I’m The Yorkshire Ripper, written with Sun reporter Robin Perrie.
It was during those conversations that Sutcliffe disclosed to Alife just how much he despised Brady.
Sutcliffe said: “Ian Brady seems to actually enjoy people’s suffering, but then that’s the trademark of a .
“He had an air of... like he thought he was... like a snob, like very important.
“He’s just a psychopath, an idiot, full of himself and he’s shallow, very shallow and stupid, he’s not intelligent really in the real sense of the word. Thinks he’s the bee’s knees. He’s sick in the head.”;
Sutcliffe wasn’t the only one who thought Brady was beyond help.
Dr Pat McGrath, one of the medical experts who gave evidence at the Yorkshire Ripper’s trial, was the medical superintendent at Broadmoor when the authorities considered transferring Brady there after he was diagnosed as a psychopath in 1985.
He’s just a psychopath, an idiot, full of himself and he’s shallow, very shallow and stupid, he’s not intelligent really in the real sense of the word. Thinks he’s the bee’s knees. He’s sick in the head
Peter Sutcliffe
But Dr McGrath refused to accept him, saying he was one of only two people he had met who he thought were evil, not sick, and therefore could not be treated.
Instead he was sent to top security Ashworth Hospital on , which is where he was when he and Alfie started corresponding.
Those held at places such as Ashworth and Broadmoor are treated as patients, not prisoners, and have more freedom than criminals held in jails.
Alfie saw that first-hand thanks to the content of the letters Brady sent him.
He said: “He poured out all of his hatred for the system on these pages of the letters he sent me. He said of the staff, ‘I don’t speak to any of the maggots’.
“I was amazed at the things he said about the staff. The letters were checked as they all had a little slip of paper confirming that the postal monitor had read them.
“But they never crossed anything out. They let all his hatred spill out from beyond the hospital walls, which I was surprised at.
“There were things crossed out in some of Sutcliffe’s letters, so the post monitors seemed stricter in Broadmoor than Ashworth.”;
Missing remains
Alfie repeatedly quizzed Brady over the enduring mystery at the heart of the Moors Murders case – the location of .
Brady and Hindley killed the 12-year-old in 1964 and buried his body on Saddleworth Moor, but despite repeated searches the police have never found him.
The pair were even taken back to the moor on a number of occasions but were unable to pinpoint the spot.
Brady later told Alfie he would never help the police to look again – for fear that others would take the credit.
Alife said: “I asked him again and again. He said, ‘It’s history. I’ll never repeat my offer to help.’
“He blamed the police for messing up the searches when he did go to the moor. So the fact that Keith’s family couldn’t have a proper funeral wasn’t his fault, it was ‘the police’s fault’.
Brady blamed the police for messing up the searches when he did go to the moor. So the fact that Keith’s family couldn’t have a proper funeral wasn’t his fault, it was ‘the police’s fault’
Alfie James
“It was another example of him refusing to accept responsibility.
“A few years later I asked him again, and this time he said he would be willing to help.
“But then he changed his mind, saying they messed it up and would be squabbling about who’s going to get the publicity over it, who would get the glory if Keith was found.”;
In one letter Brady wrote: “Politicians, police and this penal warehouse spent their only effort on squabbling for the most PR for themselves. I won’t repeat the offer.”;
Dodged questions
In the early years of their relationship, Alfie keenly anticipated receiving one of Brady’s letters, looking forward to fresh insights into his motivation for the crimes.
Alfie said: “He was a good letter writer. He was intelligent, his punctuation was always spot on and he had a good memory for detail.
“His letters would be front and back, sometimes four pages, with really small writing, so there was a lot of detail. But he often dodged questions.
“Serial killers sometimes start out by hurting animals, and I had read about him throwing a cat off a roof, so I asked him about it.
“But instead of saying whether he had or had not done it, and if he had why, he ranted about the killing animals by going shooting. Again, avoiding responsibility for his own actions.”;
The letters were also becoming hate-filled rants.
He branded support for missing as “hypocritical hype”; and accused people of “whining”; about the which killed 52 people in London in 2005.
It was all me, me, me – which I guess speaks volumes about how the mind of a serial killer works
Alfie James
He also branded the UK as “the a***hole of Europe.”;
The letters became so bitter – and so boring – that Alife eventually called time on their relationship a few years before Brady died in Ashworth in 2017, aged 79.
He said: “The letters were getting more and more repetitive and were all about the hardship he claimed he was suffering because Ashworth wouldn’t let him starve himself to death.
“There was not a single word of remorse for his victims or their families.
“It was all me, me, me – which I guess speaks volumes about how the mind of a serial killer works.”;
‘I’m The Yorkshire Ripper’ by Robin Perrie and Alfie James is published by Mirror Books and is available in paperback and as an ebook. Buy it on Amazon now.
