Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “House of Horrors” - Fred and Rose West

Episode Date: September 10, 2018

Fred and Rose each came from abusive homes and each showed signs of being abusive as they became adults. But together, they would start a new life and collectively be responsible for nine murders over a span of decades. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You win? Details at Yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Due to the graphic nature of these killers' crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In 1969, 28-year-old Fred West met 15-year-old Rosemary Lutz at a Cheltenham bus stop in Gloucestershire, England.

Fred fixated on Rose as they waited at the bus stop. He walked with the limp. wore filthy clothes, and had striking blue eyes. She had silky brown hair, brown eyes, and thought he was a homeless man. Fred asked Rose out on a date three times during this encounter. He pointed out that they were both headed in the same direction, and then followed her onto the bus, where he continued to talk to her. He charmed her with exaggerated stories about his life. She laughed.

They fell in love and got married in 1972 at the, Gloucester Register Office. Sounds just like any other story about young love, doesn't it? Fred and Rose West, however, were partners in life and literal partners in crime. They had a malicious marriage filled with torture, sexual assault, and murder. Fred murdered about 12 people from 1967 until 1987, and Rose killed 10 people from 1973 until 1987. Among those victims were their own children. I'm Greg Paulson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the lives of Fred and Rose West, two married serial killers who murdered at least 12 people, including their own children. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa

Richardson. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory. It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you there, because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram, at Parcast, and on Twitter, at Parcast Network. Fred and Rose West murdered victims together, but they were also individually responsible for their own respective several killings. They were jointly charged with nine murders that took place from the 1960s through the late 1980s, in Gloucestershire, England, while Fred was charged with three additional murders.

Fred committed suicide as they awaited trial. Rose, however, stood trial, and was convicted of murdering 10 people. She's currently serving 10 life sentences. The couple primarily killed young women, in addition to committing rape, assault, and torture. They lived at 25 Midland Road and 25 Cromwell Street. Street in Gloucester. The repeated house number was pure coincidence, but it was no coincidence that both addresses became known Houses of Horror in England. In this episode, we'll take you through Fred and Rose's respective childhoods in rural England and Scotland, as well as their

courtship. Episode two will cover their Gloucester murders, Fred's suicide, and Rose's trial, as well as imprisonment. But before the murders and houses of horror, Fred and Rose's lives both began in rural England. Prior to Fred's birth, his parents Walter and Daisy Hill West suffered an early loss of a child. Violet had been born one month premature in 1940 and died just a few days after her birth. A year later, Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on September 29, 1941. In Bickerton Cottage, in the village of Much Markle, Herefordshire, a county in the West Midlands of England. He was the eldest of Walter and Daisy's six children. Fred's five siblings included John, born in 1942, David in 1943, Daisy in 44, Douglas in

1946, Kathleen in 1948, and Gwen in 51. But out of the six, Walter and Daisy favored sons Fred and John the most. The West neighbor John Cox recalled, quote, they thought a lot of the children, if they ever went off, they took the kitties with them on their bicycles, end quote. In 1946, the West family moved to Moorcourt Cottage on Moorcourt Farm, located outside of much Markle. Fred's father Walter helped him out on the farm, which was owned by a man named Frank Brooks. His mother, Daisy, often accompanied him as he milked the cowherd on the farm. Daisy cherished Fred the most out of her children because he was her first child to survive

infancy. As a result, she did not discipline him as strictly as her other children. Fred's brother Douglas called his eldest brother, quote, Mammy's blue-eyed boy. Daisy's sister-in-law, Edna Hill, observed, quote, Fred came first with Daisy, even in front of Walter. She thought the world of Fred, end quote. Fred's closeness with his mother, though, caused many issues in his childhood.

For example, Daisy believed that her son should not have girlfriends until age 21. For another, Fred's younger brother John bullied him, and his school classmates mocked him. Fred's younger brother Douglas recalled, quote, John used to beat the hell out of Fred, end quote. Before we delve any deeper into Fred's mind here, just a couple of quick disclaimers. Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research. for this show. As a warning, we're about to talk about sexual assault and abuse now and throughout a large portion of the show, so we advise extra caution with any young listeners. Fred recalled that abuse had been part of his home life. He claimed that his father taught him about sex

with animals and that Walter raped his daughters, seemingly normalizing such abuse to Fred as a child. According to Fred, Walter's motto was, quote, Do what you want, just don't get caught doing it, end quote. Fred admired his father and aspired to be like him. Fred also claimed that his mother had raped him during his childhood. Later, Fred's younger brother Doug denied these claims in the 2013 Channel 5 UK documentary, The Unseen Fred West Confessions. Doug said, quote,

none of us was ever abused in any way by anybody. As far as Mom and Fred and Dad and Animals, that was just fantasy by somebody, end quote. The vast majority of people who report that they experienced abuse as children are telling the truth, so it's possible that Doug didn't know about the abuse or see it take place. However, Fred was a compulsive

and perhaps even pathological liar as an adult. It's possible that his claims were an attempt to walk down severity of his own crimes by playing on other people's sympathy. At age eight, in 1949, Fred got in trouble for misbehaving at school. Daisy came to school to argue the punishments that Fred received in class with her son's teacher. Fred soon obtained the reputation of being a mother's boy at school, and his classmates bullied him for it. At school, Fred enjoyed drawing in woodshop class, but he left school at age 15 in

1956 to work on Bridges Farm and Moorcourt Farm with his father. Fred became the farm's youngest laborer, which meant he had to pay his dues. He had to do the menial tasks passed down to him by the older farmers. But Fred still acted like an adolescent. As a teenager in the 1950s, Fred and his brother John plotted to pursue teen girls together. Fred had sex with young women in the fields around his family home and Moor Court Farm. He did not care about the ages and identity. He did not care about the ages and identities of the young girls with whom he had sexual intercourse. Fred once said, quote, we used to dive in the hay, take potluck, and go for it, end quote. It's unknown if these encounters were consensual, and if the ages of the young girls would classify these encounters

as statutory rape. Fred continued flirting and pursuing young women at age 16 in 1957. He started dressing in clean clothes, combing his hair, and hanging out at the Ledbury Youth Club. Fred was polarizing among the other teens. Some thought he was charming and handsome. Others thought he was rude and boorish. At the youth club and neighborhood dances, Fred grabbed women he was attracted to, and he enjoyed hitting on other men's dates and girlfriends. Then the men wanted to fight Fred, but he never hit them back. Fred's brother John stepped in several times to defend his older brother. In September 1958, Fred celebrated his 17th birthday by buying a 125-c-Games motorcycle.

Daisy agreed to let him buy it on one condition. He would have to sell it if he ever crashed it. Three months later, a motorcycle crash may have changed the course of Fred's life. During the fall of 1958, 17-year-old Fred West enjoyed the freedom that is brand-new motorcycle offered. He proudly wore his helmet while riding and parked the motorcycle outside of the Ledbury Youth Center. He invited his friend Brian Hill to take rides with him. Hill recalled he tried to be the big one for the show. But all that fun came to an end on November 28, 1958.

During that evening, 17-year-old Fred West rode his motorcycle down Dimmick Road, heading to his family's home. The pothole-ridden country road wasn't always. well lit, and the motorcycle lights may not have been very bright. A few yards away from Moore Court Cottage, Fred's motorcycle collided with a young girl named Pat Mans. Mans, whose age is unknown, was riding her bicycle in the opposite direction. She came out of the crash with scrapes and bruises. Fred, however, smashed into a brick wall. After the impact, he was sprawled out on the road in a pool of his own blood, unable to move. When an ambulance arrived, the parents were.

Paramedics took Fred to the hospital in Hereford, which was equipped to handle his serious injuries. At Hereford Hospital, Fred arrived in a coma with many cuts, a fractured nose, and a broken leg. He later claimed that he had a steel plate inserted into his head to repair a shattered skull, but this was not true. Fred did, however, have a fractured skull that took several weeks to heal. Even after receiving medical care, Fred remained in a coma. His mother, Daisy, visited him, held his hand at his bedside, and blamed herself for letting him buy the motorcycle. Fred remained unconscious for a few days, and the West family feared that he would soon die. Seven days after the accident, Fred finally became conscious again.

He said that the experience was a lot like, quote, coming back from the dead, unquote. Fred's injuries from the accident eventually healed, but left him with several insecurities. His nose healed crooked, and he feared that he was no longer as handsome as before. Due to his leg injury, Fred now walked with a limp. In addition to his physical limitations, Fred's mother, Daisy, noticed that he became more of a loner. Fred's brother John often noted to the family that his personality was different, but Fred denied it. Later, Fred said the following about John, quote, He always reported on everything.

If you broke a spade handle and skibed off, he would. would tell the old man, Fred's gone." A 2012 paper in the International Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory stated that Fred likely suffered brain damage from the accident, citing several studies that link brain injury with violent and nonviolent criminal behavior. But he's still returned to his social life. In the summer of 1960, 19-year-old Fred met a 16-year-old Scottish girl named Catherine Bernadette Costello.

who preferred to be called Rina, at a dance in Much Markle's Memorial Hall. In her native Scotland, Costello made her first appearance in juvenile court when she was 11. She had a history of thievery, and had engaged in sex work as a child. At 16, she left home to stay with relatives in Much Markle. Fred charmed Costello by telling her an exaggerated version of what happened during his motorcycle accident. He told her that he died during the crash, but then came back to life, in the morgue. That night, they had sex for the first time and began a short but intense relationship.

At one point, Costello tattooed Fred's name on her left arm, using a sewing needle and black Indian ink. But by the fall of 1960, 16-year-old Costello had trouble paying her rent and was sick of 19-year-old Fred's constant jealousy. So she returned to Scotland. After Costello's departure, Fred turned his attention to the other young girls in the neighborhood. During the fall of 1960 at the Ledbury Youth Club, 19-year-old Fred grabbed a girl standing on the steps of a fire escape on the second floor.

She turned and hit him, sending him over the railing. He fell head first onto the concrete. Fred returned to Hereford Hospital and remained unconscious for 24 hours. After Fred awoke, Fred seemed mostly okay, but his family noticed a change in his personality. He was more irritable and short-tempered. His family wondered if Fred had suffered brain damage. Fred may have damaged brain cells, as well as suffering a traumatic brain injury known as TBI.

According to the Brain Injury Association of America, a blow to the head that makes the brain bounce or twist in the skull can damage brain cells and create chemical changes in the brain. The Institute for Rehabilitation and Researchers, Dr. Angel M. Sander, wrote in her 2002 book, Picking Up the Pieces after TBI, a guide for family members, that experiencing emotional changes are common after a TBI. However, any angry outbursts or inappropriate behavior usually improves within a year of the injury. After the injury, Fred groomed and seduced a 13-year-old girl. According to Howard Soon's 1995 book Fred and Rose, she was a village girl who was close to the West family.

However, the 2008 ITV documentary series, Fred and Rose, The West Murders, stated that the young girl was actually his younger sister, Kathleen, known as Kitty. If Fred did molest and sexually abuse his sister, he made a conscious decision to select her in the first step of the grooming process. According to the 2016 study in the journal Deviant Behavior, the grooming process is hard to identify, and it varies depending on the situation. The first clear step, though, is selection of the victim,

who can be someone attractive, easily accessible, and or vulnerable. Either his sister Kitty or a friend of the West family would have been, at the very least, easily accessible to Fred. The second step is gaining access to the victim and isolating them from others. Child molesters often take jobs that put them in frequent contact with young kids, for example. The 2016 study found that 41% of child molesters who sexually abuse their own family members sneak into the victim's bedroom.

In the third step, the groomer establishes trust and befriends the child. After trust is established, they increase physical contact with the victim. The 2016 study stated that incest offenders often cuddled, wrestled, and used sex as a game with their victim. Regardless of who exactly the victim was, Fred's victim soon sought help from her mother, who then called the police. In June 1961, police visited 20-year-old Fred at Warcourt Cottage and said the young girl accused him of raping her four or five times. Soon's book said that a doctor then examined the girl and found that she was pregnant. The 2008 ITV documentary said the girl already knew she was pregnant.

Police questioned 20-year-old Fred in June of 1961. He claimed that he had regularly had sex with young women and he did not think his actions were out of the ordinary. Police arrested Fred on the charges of having, quote, unlawful, carnal knowledge of a child. His trial date was set for November. 1961. After the incident, he was sent home to await his trial date. However, Daisy was disgusted by her son's crime and sent him to live with her sister Violet until his trial. The rest of the West family refused to speak with him. Rejected from his family, Fred tried to start anew. Sometime in 1961, 20-year-old Fred left his job at the Moor Court Farm and started working as a laborer for building construction. He learned about brickers.

glaying and carpentry. Construction sites, though, also gave Fred the opportunity to steal supplies. Sometime in the summer of 1961, police arrested Fred for stealing pieces of hardware outside of a housing estate, located outside of Newent, Gloucestershire. At one point, he appeared before Newent's magistrate's court and testified that he stole the hardware because his other colleagues did the same thing. It was not a strong defense. The court fine fred 20 British pounds for the crime.

Magistrate's court is the lower court in England and Wales, which deals with summary offenses such as minor assault and traffic violations that do not require a trial by jury. The court also hears what is known as either-way offenses, which the court defines as offenses such as stealing that could be heard either in the magistrate's court or the higher-tier crown court. A judge can decide whether a magistrate's court

case needed to have a trial by jury in Crown Court. A defendant can request a trial in Crown Court if they want a jury trial. However, almost all criminal cases begin in Magistrate's Court, and over 90 percent do not advance to the Crown Court, which hears indictable cases, such as murder, rape, and manslaughter. On November 9, 1961, 20-year-old Fred appeared in Magistrate's Court for sexually assaulting the 13-year-old girl. His mother, Dave, D. Z. reluctantly testified as a witness for the defense. Dr. Brian Hardy, who was the West family's doctor, also testified as a defense witness. Dr. Hardy revealed during his testimony that Fred may have suffered brain damage due to the head trauma that he experienced from the

motorcycle accident. The doctor determined that Fred might have epilepsy, leaving him vulnerable to blackouts, which could be when the molestation occurred. But the defense did not make much sense. According to the Epilepsy Foundation, there is no citable evidence that epileptic blackouts cause a person to rape a child. It's not clear if this defense strategy was a distraction by the defense attorney or an official misguided diagnosis, but Fred's mother, Daisy, believed it. During the trial, the 13-year-old girl was called to testify. She refused to answer most of the questions asked by the judge, including naming who impregnated her. Then, the judge's handed her a piece of paper and a pencil. The judge asked the girl to write down who

impregnated her. She didn't write down anything. Because of this development, the jury voted to dismiss the case, and Fred was acquitted of the sexual assault charges. After the acquittal, Fred's family forgave him and let him move back to Moor Court Cottage, where he continued working as a building laborer. 21-year-old Fred reunited with his former girlfriend, Costello, who was now an 18-year-old waitress at a cafe called Milkbar. They reunited and had sex in the back of Fred's ban. Later that night, she told him that she was pregnant with another man's child. While she was in Glasgow, Costello had had a brief affair with a Pakistani bus driver.

Fred told her that he learned how to perform successful abortions while he was, quote, away at sea. In reality, he had never left England and had never performed an abortion, but he convinced him. her to let him try. In 1962, abortions were illegal in the United Kingdom, but the West Midlands of England, where much Markle is located, experienced racial tension in the 1960s, according to a 2016 report by the BBC, a white woman like Costello raising a half-Pakistani child

would likely be discriminated against and rejected by her neighbors. So 21-year-old Fred came up with a plan to quietly abort the child. the child. They picked a secluded spot in the Dog Hill Woods in nearby Ledbury. They recruited Costello's friend Margaret Clark to act as their lookout. Fred prepared a tool for the procedure, a 12-inch metal pipe with what resembled a corkscrew attached to the top. What happened next isn't quite clear. According to Soon's book, police caught Fred and Costello's abortion attempt in the Dog Hill Woods. According to the 1996 book, An Evil Love by Jeffrey Wanzell, the abortion failed and they gave up. Regardless, Fred and Costello continued to date,

and Fred soon asked her to marry him. Costella said yes. She thought that marrying Fred would protect her from her former Johns and pimps. Fred later said that he proposed because he wanted to get her out of trouble. But there was one problem. Fred believed that his mother would not approve of the marriage. Daisy called Costello, quote, filthy and common. Daisy also did not like the fact that Costello was Catholic. The entire West family believed that Fred only planned to marry Costello because he got her pregnant. Fred let them believe that instead of telling them the truth, that the child was not his. Fred and Costello agreed to get married after his 21st birthday, so they would not need parental consent for the marriage. On November 17th, 16th, 16th,

62, 21-year-old Fred and 18-year-old Costello secretly wed at the Ledbury Register office. Fred's brother John and Costello's friend Clark stood as their witnesses. The rest of the West family had gone out apple-picking. Fred had invited Costello to move into Moor Court Cottage with his family, but Daisy refused. Ten days later, Fred and Costello moved to Costello's native Scotland, where the couple's marriage began to quickly deteriorate. But as bad as things were, no one could have guessed that within a few years, Costello and her unborn child would both be dead at the hands of Fred and his second wife.

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Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice. Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Kayak, got that right. And now let's continue our story. In 1962, 21-year-old Fred West and his wife, Rina Costello, moved to the town of Cotebridge, located within Glasgow, Scotland. It was where Costello grew up, and she was happy to be reunited with her sisters and her friends.

Fred, however, became abusive. He demanded sex, even as Costello prepared dinner or when she was relaxing while reading a magazine. He slapped and hit Costello when she did not agree to have sex with him. He claimed, quote, she only liked doing it with other men, and quote. Fred claimed that when he hit Costello, she hit him back on many occasions. He claimed, quote, she knocked me out cold on three occasions with one blow. She was a vicious type if she wanted to be. On March 22nd, 1963, 19-year-old Costello gave birth to a daughter named Charmaine Carol Mary, named for Costello's mother.

The baby inherited a dark complexion from her biological father. This shocked the Costello family. The family's reaction caused Costello and 22-year-old Fred to create a cover story to explain it. Costello told Fred's mother Daisy in a letter that she said, she miscarried the child they had conceived together, and that they decided to adopt a Pakistani baby girl instead. Though it didn't seem to bother him before, Fred became angry and annoyed that Costello had given birth to another man's child. He disliked Charmaine, and he left Costello for a few months in 1963. McMaster University psychologists Martin Daly and

Margo Wilson authored the 1998 book The Truth About Cinderella, a Darwinian view. of parental love. They studied stepchild mistreatment by step parents, also known colloquially as the Cinderella effect. Daly and Wilson studied extensive data from the American Humane Association, which is an archive of child abuse in the U.S. Wilson and Daly concluded that parents discriminate in favor of their own young. From the data, Wilson and Daly concluded that, quote, a child under three years of age who lived with one genetic parent, and one step-parent in the United States in 1976 was about seven times more likely to become a validated child abuse case in the records

than one who dwelt with two genetic parents, end quote. We want to stress here that, of course, the vast majority of step-parents are not abusive towards their stepchildren. Costello's own parents did not buy her cover story for her baby. So Costello and the child moved to a Savoy Street tenement block in the Bridge Tenaria of Glasgow. Costello returned to sex work during this time to support herself and her child, working for a pimp named Billy Boy. During the separation, 22-year-old Fred claimed to Costello that he worked as a drug dealer and a pimp,

referring to his underworld associations as his Scottish connection. In reality, he drove an ice cream truck called Mr. Whippy throughout the rest of 1963. As we've seen, this was just one of the many compulsive lies from, Fred told throughout its life. UCSF Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Dr. Paul Ekman, told the publication Everyday Health in 2016 that compulsive liars tend to tell lies about stories they think other people want to hear, and the lies are very believable. Compulsive lying doesn't have an exact psychological cause.

It's been debated whether or not this type of lying is considered a disease or a symptom for other disorders, such as psychopaths. as well as antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders. So rather than dealing drugs, Fred drove an ice cream truck around South Glasgow and sold ice cream to children. Fred made many attempts to charm the kids to buy more ice cream, but he also asked select children to ride with him in the truck. According to Soon's book, 22-year-old Fred and 19-year-old Costello reunited during Christmas, 1963. However, they may have reunited sooner than that. 20-year-old Costello became pregnant again,

and she gave birth to Anna Marie Kathleen Daisy West in July 1964. Fred favored Anna Marie in doted on her. He assumed that she was his child, but there was never a paternity test. Costello's daughter Charmaine received abuse and criticism from Fred. At some point in Charmaine's early childhood, Charmaine asked Fred for ice cream from his truck, and Fred slapped her. Sometime in 1964, Costello and Fred moved their children to a flat on McClellan Street in Glasgow's Kinning Park. The flat had a backyard with a shed, and they were expected to grow their own vegetables.

Most of the other residents used their full yards to grow vegetables, but Fred only used part of the backyard to grow potatoes and cabbage, raising suspicion among his neighbors. Fred told them, quote, I'm keeping it for something special, end quote. 23-year-old Fred did use the yard and the shed for something out of the ordinary. He lured young women that he met through his ice cream truck and had sex with them in the shed. It's not clear if this sex was consensual or if you raped these women.

Years later, police also suspected that he may have used the shed to rape and kill four young girls. and used the untilled land to bury them. There was no evidence by the time the police investigated this. The city turned the land into a motorway by then. From 1964 to 1966, Fred and Costello began sleeping with other people outside of their marriage. Fred had affairs with many women. A 21-year-old factory worker from the Gorbill's area of Glasgow became pregnant from her relationship with Fred

and gave birth to a son named Stephen in July, 1965. another woman became pregnant from an affair with Fred and gave birth to a son named Gareth on an unknown date. Fred said, quote, I had masses of girlfriends at the time, hundreds of them, end quote. Meanwhile, Costello began a relationship with a married bus driver and amateur boxer named John McLaughlin.

They met at Telkees, the local bookmaker. They spent time together while Fred worked on his ice cream truck. McLaughlin claimed that he wanted to divorce his wife. Costello told McLaughlin how Fred beat her and hit her, demanded sex, and had several affairs. McLaughlin witnessed this physical abuse for himself as well. At one point, Fred spotted Costello and McLaughlin kissing in Kinning Park. He yelled at his wife to come back to their flat with him. Still inside the park, Fred punched Costello.

She screamed. In response, McLaughlin punched Fred, who then took out a knife. Fred took aim at McLaughlin with the knife, grazing McLaughlin's stomach. McLaughlin looked down and noticed the blood from the wound. Then he punched Fred. Fred cowered at McLaughlin's strength and did not retaliate. McLaughlin said of the encounter, quote, he couldn't tackle a man, but he was not slow in attacking women.

And quote, Fred punched and hit Costello as they left the park. Fred, Costello, and McLaughlin continued to have similar. encounters. Fred stalked McLaughlin as he attended a card game, located in a flat one floor below where Fred and Costello lived. Then Fred returned to his own flat and beat Costello. Costello seems to have stayed in the marriage for protection from her past criminal activity, but also because she loved her children. Costello spent less time at their flat to avoid Fred's physical abuse. She sought refuge with McLaughlin as well as a place called Victoria Cafe. At the cafe in July 1965, Costello met 18-year-old Issa McNeil, who had just lost her job at Livingstone Industrial Clothing Factory.

Costello decided to hire McNeil to be a live-in nanny for her children. Costello figured out that Fred's physical abuse could be deflected when other people were around, so she also hoped that having McNeil around might protect her. At an unknown point, McNeil started to date McLaughlin's friend John Trotter. McNeil and Costello went on double dates with their lovers in tow. McNeil introduced Costello to her best friend, 16-year-old Anne McFaul, whose boyfriend, Duncan McLeish, had recently died by electrocution as he worked on a crane. As she grieved, she spent a lot of time with Costello and McNeil at the West's family flat.

While Costello and her new companions spent time at home, Fred continued to work in his ice cream truck and drove around Glasgow. He got to know many of his patrons, including a three-year-old boy who lived in the suburbs of Southern Glasgow. On an unknown date, Fred gave the child a toy ball. On November 4, 1965, 24-year-old Fred saw the three-year-old boy playing with the ball. He saw the boy chase the ball over a hedge, as Fred backed up his ice cream truck. he heard, quote, an almighty bang, and I stopped there, end quote. When Fred exited the truck, he saw that he had accidentally run over the boy. Authorities determined that the young boy was dead.

A crowd gathered around the boy and the ice cream truck, yelling at Fred for his recklessness. It was the first known death caused by Fred. Police interviewed 24-year-old Fred and determined the incident to be an accident. Soon's book cited the reason for Fred's release as being that fatal accidents involving ice cream trucks and children were common in the neighborhood at the time. The local police released Fred without any charges for the death. Fred feared backlash from Glasgow residents, so he left the city in February 1966, along with 21-year-old Costello and their children, as well as both McNeil and McFall, who were each eager to start a new life. They lived together in a caravan in the village of Sandhurst, which is located five miles outside of Gloucester, England.

Fred obtained a job as a truck driver for a slaughterhouse, but McFall and Costello had trouble-finding work. Sandhurst was more rural than Glasgow and had less opportunities for the women. Neighbors occasionally hired Costello and McFall to babysit their children, but they were mostly paid in cigarettes and food rather than cash. McFal began growing closer to Fred. She was flattered by all of the attention he paid her. McNeil said Anna was infatuated. After driving a truck all day, Fred continued to be physically abusive to Costello,

even in front of McNeil and McFall. In the spring of 1966, 22-year-old Costello planned to escape 25-year-old Fred's abuse and enlisted her friend McNeil's help. According to a 2017 study, published in the Journal of Taba University Medical Sciences. Most women who are able to leave their abusive husbands do so because they reach a breaking point. These women also want to protect their children, and they have a source of support to turn to.

For Costello, that was McLaughlin. Costello communicated with him through secret phone calls and letters to Glasgow. McLaughlin and McNeil's lover, Trotter, agreed to pick them up at the caravan site. Costello and McNeil planned to take the children and flee with McLaughlin while Fred was at work. Costello and McNeil involved McFall in their plan, but due to her budding friendship and attraction to Fred, she may have tipped him off to their escape plan. McLaughlin drove through the night with his friend John Trotter and arrived at the Santa's caravan before dawn. Costello and McNeil began to pack their things into McLaughlin's truck.

As they were packing, Fred came home. home unexpectedly. When he saw them at the truck, he became violent. McLaughlin said, Everybody screamed and bawled at each other. Costello still wanted to leave and headed to her bedroom to get her coat. Fred followed and slapped her several times. McLaughlin shouted at him to stop and punched Fred in the stomach. In the meantime, McNeil quickly packed her bag. McFall, however, just stood in the doorway, shaking her head. Costello pleaded with 17-year old McFall to come with them and escaped Fred, but McFal refused. McFal said she wanted to stay and work as Fred's nanny. Fred held three-year-old Charmaine and refused to let her go. Costello tugged at her to free her

from his grip, but it didn't work. McLaughlin punched Fred in the stomach, but Fred's grip remained. Fred told Costello, quote, I'll kill you if you ever show your face again, end quote. McLaughlin left for Glasgow in the truck without Charmaine and Anna Marie. 25-year-old Fred and 17-year-old McFall soon became lovers. Fred called McFal his angel. He described her as, quote, happy and contented and joyful. When I came home, Anna was always stood in the doorway. She always made sure she touched me.

When I looked at her, she would always give me a smile. I knew love was in the air, end quote. In November 1966, 18-year-old McFall became pregnant with 25-year-old Fred's child. McFal made numerous attempts to convince Fred to divorce Costello and to marry her, but he did not want Costello to find out about his relationship and child with McFall. Costello found out anyway. While in Glasgow, she began to miss Fred and her children and decided to return to Sandhurst. Costello found herself in a cycle of abuse.

theory developed by psychologist Dr. Lenore Walker. Dr. Walker's theory was published in her 1979 book, The Battered Woman. She identified three stages of the cycle. First, the tension building stage involves affection and gifts from the abuser, but tension seems to develop. The second stage is acute battering, when the abuser exerts physical, psychological, and emotional abuse. In the third stage, abusers and their partners, reunite in the honeymoon phase. The abuser expresses guilt, but blames their partner for their actions

as the cycle begins again. Costello returned and rented a caravan nearby. Social services began to keep tabs on McFall, Fred, and Costello's complex relationship and how it was affecting the children. During a 1967 visit, an official wrote that the children must be, quote, thoroughly confused about who their mother is,

During another 1967 visit, the social services official wrote that they were, quote, extremely worried about these children. Fred rented an additional caravan for McFall and claimed to social services that they did not live together. The plan worked, but it annoyed McFall. She just wanted to marry him and live as a family with the children. It's unclear what may have happened between McFal and Fred during her final trimester. According to Soon's book, Fred believed that the... the new baby would force him to commit to McFall, cause more issues with Costello, and be a major added household expense. According to Wansel's book, Fred caught McFall attempting

to leave him and head back to Glasgow. Still pregnant, 18-year-old McFall was last seen alive in July, 1967. After McFal disappeared, 26-year-old Fred moved the caravan to the village of Bishop's Cleave. Later in July 1967, Costello and Fred briefly reunited, and then she left for Glasgow again. Costello frequently returned to see their children. She was anxious to leave them with him, but she did not have the means to care for the children full time. Fred once said about Costello, quote, Rina loves the children and me, but also needs to be free to do her own thing, end quote.

Fred worked several odd jobs and resumed committee. petty thefts throughout 1967 and 1968. In 1968, 27-year-old Fred got a job at a village bakery in Gutherington. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Rose Letts also resided in Bishop's Cleave with their family in the summer of 1969. This single coincidence set the stage for Rose and Fred to meet and for a dozen other lives to end. Our story will continue in a moment. after the break. Now, our story continues. About 150 miles south of much Markle, Rosemary Pauline Letz was born on November 29, 1953, in northern in the county Devon. She was the fifth child of Bill Letts, a Navy veteran, and Daisy Fuller. Bill was an abusive, diagnosed paranoid

schizophrenic. He did not tell his family about his diagnosis, and they didn't know about it until after his death. Bill had served in the Navy for nine years and enjoyed his job. In 1952, while she was still pregnant with Rose, Daisy was diagnosed with depression and required treatment. In September 1952, Bill received a naval discharge in order to help care for his children and his wife. Daisy received electroconvulsive therapy during her pregnancy with Rose.

Some sources have theorized that this could have affected Rose in the womb. A 2015 study published in the Archives of Women's Health Journal observed how 169 pregnant women received electroconvulsive therapy during their second trimester during 1970 until 2013. The study found that 29% of the women experienced fetal heart rate reduction, uterine contractions, and premature labor. 7.1% of the children died. had a normal birth, yet she was born into a rough family situation. Rose's mother Daisy described Bill as, quote, a heller to live with. We lived under terror for years. We literally suffered hell behind locked doors, end quote. Bill had trouble finding work after his discharge from the Navy, and the whole family suffered for it. He demanded that Daisy keep the home spotless

and threatened her with a knife at least once. Bill regularly beat his children and and his wife, except for Rose. Rose became Bill's favorite child. Rose's mother described her as a baby who, quote, never cried and was good as gold, end quote. A two-year-old in 1955, young Rose developed a habit of rocking and swinging her head, which her family and neighbors thought was peculiar.

The Let's neighbor Rita New described young Rose as different. That may have been a common belief in the 1950s. However, according to the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit multi-specialty academic medical center, rhythmic motions are common self-soothing methods for children. It's only considered a disorder if the motions result in bodily injury or harm. When Rose was four years old in 1957, the other lets children nickname Rose as Dozy Rosie, and they did not want to play with her sister. Bill seemed to find Rose's naivete endearing and even comical. Fuller said that Bill always saw the funny side of her. But there may have been more to Bill's favoring of Rose.

Criminologist Jane Carter Woodrow wrote in her 2011 book that Bill was grooming Rose and may have molested her. In 1967, 13-year-old Rose shared a bed with her 10-year-old brother Graham. Rose climbed into bed naked with him and molested him for two years. According to the Child Sexual Abuse Organization, Darkness to Light, 40% of young children are sexually abused by older adolescent children. However, the organization also noted that most adolescent sexual offenders do not go on to be adult sexual offenders. Rose even became aggressive outside her home.

At age 13, she was overweight and teased at school, but physically fought back. She also fought and hit the schoolboys who bullied her younger brothers, Graham and Gordon. Graham recalled, a swipe from Rose and nobody messed again. But soon there was a major change for the Letts family dynamic. In the spring of 1969, Daisy could not take Bill's abuse any longer and left him. She brought the children with her, including 15-year-old Rose, and they lived together on a chicken farm in the village of Taddington in Cheltenham. The living situation did not last long.

Daisy was barely able to support her children on the farm's wages. Rose got a job at her older sister's Glennis's snack bar, which she owned with her husband, Jim Tyler. Rose began affairs with several older men, including a 30-year-old man whose name is unknown. Police somehow discovered the affair, but no charges were brought against the man at the time. It still became a scandal in Cheltenham, however, and the relationship. relationship ended. Rose was below the age of consent in the UK, which was 16 years old in the 1960s, as determined by the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. The law stated that sexual contact with children under age 13 was a felony, and it was considered a misdemeanor with children

over age 13 and under age 16. In addition, the Indecency with Children Act of 1960 made it illegal to commit, quote, gross indecency with or toward children under the age of 14. By the summer of 1969, Daisy and her children moved back in with Bill. It was around this time when Bill encouraged Rose to get a job. Rose obtained a job as a waitress at a tea shop, and she brought home leftover cakes to share with her family. She also paid her mother some of the money she earned to help support the family. One night after work, Rose waited for a bus at the Central State.

in Cheltenham, located about four miles away from Bishop's Cleve. 28-year-old Fred noticed the 15-year-old Rose waiting at the bus stop and began to talk to her. He recalled that at the time Costello had left him again, and he was, quote, trying to find someone to help me look after the kids, end quote. At the bus stop, he charmed and complimented Rose. They talked about their respective workplaces and realized that they both lived in Bishop's Cleve. They rode the bus together and Fred asked her out three times during their short conversation. She said no.

At the bus stop the next day, he asked her out again. She declined again. A few days later, Fred visited the tea shop where Rose worked and asked her out again. He requested that she meet him at a nearby pub in Bishop's Cleave. This time, she said yes. At the pub, Fred gave Rose a lace dress and a fur coat. the items were likely to be stolen, and it's unclear how Fred knew her dress size. She said, quote, I wanted him to take it back because I had no intention of getting involved with this man.

But he insisted I took it, and I said there was no way I could take it home because my parents would not agree to it. So he took it and kept it in the caravan he lived in, end quote. Rose's older brother Andrew observed, quote, her idea of being grown up was going out with somebody a lot older. The way Rose was, she could have been influenced by anyone, end quote. Fred had already begun the stages of grooming 15-year-old Rose. He targeted her, gave her gifts, and soon invited her into his home. Fred painted a wholesome picture of himself for Rose,

telling her that he was a single father whose wife left him alone with their two young children. In reality, he mostly obtained items by stealing them, saying, quote, I would steal sand off the side of the road and loaded into my van, end quote. But there were also rumors that Fred sexually abused Charmaine. Rose became intrigued and wanted to meet six-year-old Charmaine and five-year-old Anna Marie. Rose began to visit the children frequently at Fred's caravan. Soon, Rose started to skip going to her job, and Fred paid her money to give to her mother. 28-year-old Fred began a sexual relationship with 15-year-old Rose.

This was statutory rape. Rose's mother, Daisy, began to hear rumors around town that her daughter was not going to work anymore. According to Soon's book, Rose brought Fred home to meet her family, and they were shocked at his age. According to Wanzell's book, Bill caught Rose and Fred together at a pub. Fred later recalled that he saw, quote, her father standing there with his crash helmet on and a big coat wanting to fight me. I couldn't do nothing. So anyway, he hit me on the jaw and I walked away.

A few days later, Fred claimed to want to discuss the situation with Rose's parents. 28-year-old Fred had dinner with the Letts family and attempted to win them over by claiming to be a landowner in Scotland. Bill and Daisy, however, saw through Fred's lies. Daisy said what he was saying doesn't add up. Bill called Fred a liar and forbade Rose from ever seeing him again. At this point, Rose admitted that she hadn't been going to her tea shop job anymore. Instead, she worked for Fred, taking care of his two young children from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Rose claimed that Fred paid her for the service and assured her father that she and Fred were not lovers.

Rose's parents, Daisy and Bill, didn't buy her explanation and banned her from seeing Fred. Daisy said that Bill would not, quote, allow her at her age to go down to a caravan with a man who had two children, end quote. Bill tried to keep Rose locked in her room, but she always seemed to find ways to escape and see Fred. Bill may have caught her sneaking out. He also beat her, lectured her, and barred her again from associating with Fred. It didn't work. As a last resort, Bill reported his daughter to Gloucestershire Social Service. The office took the 15-year-old Rose into their care at the end of the summer of 1969.

Rose lived in a house for troubled teenagers in Cheltenham, and house authorities only allowed her to leave the home to visit her parents or go to work. Rose disliked the home, and her family did not visit her there. It wasn't clear why, but the family could have been ordered not to visit her by Bill. They didn't telephone her either because they didn't have access to a phone, so she felt forgotten by her family. forgotten by her family and turned to Fred once again. Rose snuck out of the home to see Fred at least once. When the house led its residents out to visit their parents for the weekend, Rose went

to visit Fred at his caravan instead. Around this time, Rose wrote a love letter to Fred. In the letter, she coordinated their next meeting and voiced her suspicions that he might be cheating on her. She wrote, quote, About us meeting this week, it could be Sunday afternoon. I will have to get Linda to say I'm going with her. You know, we won't be able to meet so often. That's why I can't get the idea out of my head that you're going with someone else. I love you, Fred, but if anything goes wrong, it will be the end of both of us for good. End quote.

Bill somehow found out that his 15-year-old daughter continued to see Fred, and he went to Fred's caravan. Bill shouted at Fred to leave his daughter Rose alone and threatened to cut him into little pieces if he continued to. to see his daughter. Fred barely reacted to the tirade because he was more concerned with his own legal trouble at the time. On August 23rd, 1969, authorities alerted Fred that he did not have the proper documentation for his car, and he faced unpaid fines and jail time. Five days later, Cheltenham Magistrates Court fined him for 20 pounds for stealing fence panels from his job. He was too broke to pay the fines. On November 18, 1969, authorities jailed Fred for 30 days for his unpaid fines.

11 days later, on November 29, 1969, Rose turned 16 years old, and social service authorities released her from their care. Because 28-year-old Fred was in jail, Rose returned to her family's home, where her father issued the following ultimatum. He and the family would disown her if she continued to see Fred. An intense argument ensued in the Letts family home. Someone called the authorities, and a policewoman and a social worker visited the house. The social worker wrote that the family was presented as quite reasonable,

but the tension between Rose and her father, Bill, wasn't fully resolved. Rose waited at home until Fred's release date from jail arrived a few weeks later in December 1969. Upon his release, Rose packed her bags, shocking her parents. Daisy asked Rose if she was sure she wanted to do this. Without a doubt in her voice, Rose said yes. She walked out of her parents' house with her bags in tow and walked toward Fred's caravan site. Together, Rose and Fred started a new life together, filled with all the horrible things from

their old lives. After their marriage, they moved in together at a place that would eventually become known as the House of Horrors, due to their shared. predilection towards torture, mutilation, and murder, often of their own children. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, you can find them on Apple podcasts, Tune-in, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify, or in our website, Parchast.com, spelled P-A-R-C-C-A-S-T-com.

If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review. or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. Join us next Monday as we continue delving into the twisted psyches of Fred and Rose West. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Parcast Network.

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