In not doing so, am I displaying a sense of moray, exhibiting praise | '? Or am I simply bowing to the fact that no publisher would bversive information? Ordo I care at all either way? ‘The retis silence, — Shakespeare Afterword by Peter Sotos Iisa much uglier level then this In 1975, The Trial Of lan Brady And Myra Hindley was published in the UK by David and Charles. And inside one could find the complete transcrip- tion ofthe infamous tape recording made while lan Brady and Myra Hindley — argued — with litle ten-year-old Lesley Ann Dovey. Man: Put tin now. aia Man Child Please take your ¥y — please chil (Grunting) (ln quick soquence) I can’t tll you. I can’t breathe. Oh, Child: Tean't — dad — will you take your hands off me? (Man whispering) Man: No. Tell me. Child: Please god. ‘Man: Tell me. Child: I can't while you've got your hands on me, (Mumbling sound) Man: Why don’t you keep tin? Child: Why? What are you going to do with me? Man: Iwant to take some photographs, that’ all Child: Don't undress me, will you? In October 1998, the BBC broadcast a three-part documentary on the crimes of lan Brady and Myra Hindley. The frst episode featured a shot of ne of the seven photographs of ttle ten-year-old Lesley Ann Downey taken by Jan and Myra shorly after thet tage recording was made. And just before the little naked child was murdered. The photos themselves and the ac of photo- sraphing her and the tape recording of her pleas and tiny protestations and confused child's desperation can all be considered, in contemporary humanistThe Gates of Janus terms, rape. And itis an ugly thing indeed to have to speculate on how oF when, 1d. Made. Little ten-yearold Lesley Ann Downey is seen in the photograph, lying naked on top of bed, on her stomach, Her heed in a pillow with her gentle face tumed toward her photographer. Her dark eyes open. A scarf is wrapped around her mouth and tied behind her tousled black lovely hair. There is no {genitalia or graphic nudity in this carefully broadcast and cropped picture. Her naked shoulder. She does seem small, the only photograph shown. However, in a talking head interview, ctive sergeant Roy Jarvis was allowed to describe another from the small collection before he trailed off into police techniques and procedure: ‘When we found the photographs of Lesley Ann Dowmey stand ‘ng on a bed, naked, legs apart, hands outstretched, clothed in ‘nothing buta pair of sods and wearing gag, witha tem look in her eyes, we realized that if we could link the bedhead ‘There is a much more precise level than this. Devils Disciples was the first of two books on the case written by Robert Wilson. Published in 1986 by Express Newspapers and based on the ‘author's contemporaneous coverage of the trial for “an evening newspaper,” Robert Wilson seemed to agree — slightly — with the defense's argument when it came to the legally required deconstruction of the pornographic evidence ‘Yes, the tape recording was a “harrowing experience", but on. the photographs taken of Lesley Ann, she appeared tobe “eal and reasonably” composed. Over ten years earlier and just si years after the crime itself, The Trial Of an Brady And Myra Hindley hod recorded the argument for the defense vwithont comment: Itovas one thing to say thatthe accused were they were prepared to photograph the litle another to say they llled her to dispose ‘witness against them. When one looked at the photographs, what perhaps was alittle astonishing was how calm the little fil looked, ‘The child appeared to be reasonably composed, Afterword and that might give the jury some idea of what went on atthe time of the tape recording. ‘And there are higher levels of honesty, Little ten-yearold Lesley Ann Downey's mother published her personal account of seeing only two of the seven pomographic photographs of her naked daughter in For Thé Love Of Lesley in 1989. Published in hardback in 1089 by W, H. Allen end in an updated and revised paperback edition by ‘Warmer Books four years later: Lesley... naked, bound and gagged with a scarf that had been viciously forced into her mouth and tod tight atthe back ofher neck with a savage jerk. Lesley . pale and naked on @can- dlewick bedspread with her hands together in desperate prayer Lesley... her hands tied together by sick poople who sveled in her hualiation. ‘The second image swam behind my tight shut eyes and superimposed itself over the first horror Lesley... . bent double over a char. Lesley sll naked, bound and gagged. 1 screamed louder and louder, ying to make the images go away, But the expression of terror in Lesley bulging eyes remained in sharp foew, imprinted on my mind, Lesley ‘whe had never experienced a hand raised in anger at any time inher short life A check through the index inthe back of Topping — the autobiography of Peter Topping ("the police chief in the Moors murders case”), published by ‘Angus and Robertson, UK, in 1989 — details a good many pages devoted to “Downey, Lesley Ann — tape recording,” Among them page 72: (Myra) moved on to talk about the tape recording made of Lesley Ann Doviney, Contrary t popular bel, se sid the tapes had not been made while photographs were being taken = not during the torture session. She denied that Lesley Ann had been subjected to any physical torture. Having assessed the evidence a the tral and having heard the tapes, 1 accepted that they had been made while photographs were being taken; Hindley tat to deprive a child of her mother, then x book a form of torture —The Gates of Janus Afterword ‘even if it was not the kind that had grown up in the public Because the child rapist and murderer and pornographer will obviously imagination lie, And, because he wants to believe you need to hear more and see more than you'll ever actually do, he'll even start to enjoy telling you he's lying. And on page 148: Because it’s the easiest thing to do, tis the obvious choice. He can adopt the dime-a-dozen serial killer front of puffed-up superiority, all from his tiny cell, carefully studied the photographs of Lesley Ann, in and serve the typical cold dish of chest-beating mental clarity over personal is bound and gagged. Ihave looked atthe expression Introspection. A wide view of painful dar humanity instead of tastes and sala- ‘Asa father myself, Thelieve thatthe full horror of cious dives. Roots over themes. Brave actions rather than fearful words. swhat happened to that c ‘not been misunderstood, Tan Brady: Although, as Hindley points out, no fingers were cutoff, and ‘what was being forced into the childs mouth was a geg — not, Some authors invarably rationalize their prurient inrsion in| as some people have construed, Brady’ penis — tortu the name of science and the furtherance of man illuming- tainly took place. When you think ofthe effects of tion. I believe most serious students can discern when that ine Aid to the defenoeless child then you ean only con has been crossed and morbid sensationalism begin. she was dreadfully tortured. My heart goes out to Mrs Ann ‘West. Who wall never and perhaps should never forgive them And for ther actions Tf ordering the child to strip, binding and gagging her, pho- ‘The common individual craves prohibited sensation minus her to sexual abuse is not responsibility and risk. And perhaps the most psychologically Intolerable aspect of al, such people resent inner knowledge that they wall spend all oftheir life as timid spectators, never players she could say would ameliorate her position. Her voice clearly to be heard on the tape, is harsh and brutal: she blames her And ‘own fear for that She never stopped to consider the fearon the face and inthe voice of the young child she had in her power" As previously stated, tis invariably the ease that actions bright and exciting in the imagination are, unfortunately, often disap- “There are better things to do, First off, you don't ask a child molester to pointing or farcical in practice, more so when it has not been site a book on serial killing. A child rapist. A child pomographer. A child thought through thoroughly. Deop thinking gives people a murderer. headache. ‘Colin Wilson, from his introduction: ‘They think they are thinking when in fact they are merely day-dreaming, For instance, if you were to ask them what they ‘Therefore I advised him to do the thing I would have done: to thought of ‘adventure’ they would express a vague, undefined think about writing a book, Since he obviously knew about pro.adventure attitude, a8 practically everyone does, albeit serial murder ‘rom the inside’, this suggested itself as the from the comfort of an easy-chair. They equate, or confuse, ‘obvious subject: their king forthe idea of adventure with an ability to possibly participate in the real thing. Whereas, in practice, they might You don't ask him to do the obvious. You especially don't ask him to do ‘immediately discover that real adventure — of the neck-on- ‘what you would do. the-line variety — is unsettling, ke entering a fourth dimen a ane