Speaker 1: Welcome to ouch Was That a Ghost? This podcast may
Speaker 1: contain graphic material which some listeners may find disturbing. Listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. Is advice?
Speaker 2: Yum me.
Speaker 1: Now that we covered that, here's your host list.
Speaker 2: Welcome back now to set a Ghost. This week, we're
Speaker 2: going to be going into two of the most vile
Speaker 2: humans to ever walk this earth. A serial killer couple.
Speaker 2: This couple is one of Britain's most infamous couples, not
Speaker 2: for a good reason. This couple is said to have
Speaker 2: sexually assaulted, tortured, murdered numerous young women over decades. Their
Speaker 2: house at twenty five Cromwell Street in Gloucester gained the
Speaker 2: nickname the House of Horrors. It is astounding that two
Speaker 2: people this sick can find each other, but maybe that's
Speaker 2: why they were drawn to each other. On February twenty fifth,
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four, Fred and Rose West were detained as
Speaker 2: authorities were investigating their missing daughter, Heather. Heather was last
Speaker 2: seen in nineteen eighty seven, when she was sixteen, so
Speaker 2: this is seven years later in nineteen ninety four. While
Speaker 2: they were detained, police began searching their home and within
Speaker 2: days police excavated the patio and Heather being the first
Speaker 2: body found on the property. As the days passed, more
Speaker 2: and more bodies were found. So let's get into who
Speaker 2: Fred West was. Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on
Speaker 2: September twenty ninth, nineteen forty one, in much Markell, Herod, Furdshire, England.
Speaker 2: I apologize if I said that wrong to parents Daisy
Speaker 2: and Walter West. Fred's mother, Daisy gave birth to eight
Speaker 2: children in total, with six surviving and Fred being the
Speaker 2: eldest male. His siblings also called him his mother's favorite.
Speaker 2: He was seen as a mom's boy and they were
Speaker 2: said to be too close by some people. Fred's father,
Speaker 2: Walter struggled to provide. He was a farmer and fed
Speaker 2: the family a lot of just what he grew. They
Speaker 2: didn't have much money. Where they lived wasn't big, it
Speaker 2: didn't have electricity, it didn't have plumbing. Fred's father, Walter
Speaker 2: was said to be a disciplinarian, and his mother, Daisy
Speaker 2: was very protective of the kids, especially if Fred, who
Speaker 2: in her eyes, could do no wrong. On the farm,
Speaker 2: the kids were put to work. The girls picked strawberries
Speaker 2: and things like that, and the boys did did more
Speaker 2: of the hunting and gathering. In school, Fred was described
Speaker 2: as dim, scruffy, and would often get in trouble. He
Speaker 2: could barely read or do math, but he did excel
Speaker 2: at art and would work. He didn't really get along
Speaker 2: with the kids at school or even his own siblings.
Speaker 2: When he was fifteen, he left school. He didn't graduate.
Speaker 2: He went to go work with his father and farming,
Speaker 2: and this led to him not really interacting with other
Speaker 2: people besides his family, which seems so Norman Batesy, like
Speaker 2: kids need to learn social skills and practice them. Haven't
Speaker 2: we learned anything from ed Gan. Fred would later in
Speaker 2: life claim that during this time he was being abused
Speaker 2: sexually by his mother, which started when he was twelve,
Speaker 2: and that incesse was just normal to him because his
Speaker 2: father was also abusing his sisters. He also said that
Speaker 2: his father showed Fred how to have sex with animals
Speaker 2: on the farm. This is Fred's version. Other family members
Speaker 2: have disputed this, including his brother, who grew up in
Speaker 2: the same house. Fred in his teen years, got a motorcycle,
Speaker 2: and on November twenty eighth, nineteen fifty eight, he was
Speaker 2: driving home when he hit a young girl who was
Speaker 2: on a bike. A local heard the crash and ran
Speaker 2: to help, and Fred was brought to the hospital and
Speaker 2: was unconscious for days. After a week, Fred came too
Speaker 2: he was able to move speak. He did break multiple bones,
Speaker 2: including a skull fracture, which red flag ured of true crime.
Speaker 2: Head injuries is a pretty common theme, and after Fred
Speaker 2: was well enough, he left the hospital and went back home.
Speaker 2: But after that head injury, it seemed like Fred's demeanor changed.
Speaker 2: He was more aggressive, noticeable shift in his demeanor. In
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty, Fred met sixteen year old Catherine or Rena Costello,
Speaker 2: who was from Scotland. She was staying with some family.
Speaker 2: Fred and Rena started dating and quickly Fred was Fred's
Speaker 2: initial introduction of himself changed. He became forceful in controlling.
Speaker 2: He even had Rena tattoo his name on her arm.
Speaker 2: Rena was eventually kicked out of her family's home and
Speaker 2: she had nowhere to se so she went back to Scotland.
Speaker 2: Also in nineteen sixty there was an incident where Fred
Speaker 2: went off a balcony and hit his head on the
Speaker 2: cement below, again losing consciousness and then again. After this
Speaker 2: head injury, his family noticed another change, larger change in
Speaker 2: his personality being very short tempered. Fred started getting in
Speaker 2: trouble with the law, petty theft and some larger charges.
Speaker 2: His thirteen year old sister became pregnant and she claimed
Speaker 2: that Fred was the father. Fred was arrested and he
Speaker 2: was bailed out and he went to stay with his
Speaker 2: aunt while he was waiting for the trial. His sister,
Speaker 2: I guess, at some point changed her mind on testifying,
Speaker 2: so the charges were dropped against Fred, and then Fred's
Speaker 2: parents just let Fred come home. Rina came back from
Speaker 2: Scotland and Fred and her picked things up right where
Speaker 2: they left off, but she came back pregnant and the
Speaker 2: baby was not Fred's. The baby's father was Asian, and
Speaker 2: Fred at one point brought Rena into the woods and
Speaker 2: forcefully tried to abort the child. People in the area
Speaker 2: heard her screaming and they went out and stopped this,
Speaker 2: but Fred again had no consequences. Fred and Rena went
Speaker 2: on to get married. They got a place together, and
Speaker 2: Fred started forcing Rena to have violent sex. When he wanted,
Speaker 2: he would physically abuse her. He also forced Rena to
Speaker 2: perform sex work to support the family. Rena went on
Speaker 2: to have the daughter that Fred had tried to abort Charmaine.
Speaker 2: She was half Asian, and Fred, because he's a racist loser,
Speaker 2: told the story that Rena had miscarried and this baby
Speaker 2: was adopted. Fred right away had this disdain towards baby Charmain.
Speaker 2: Fred and Rena did go on to have a daughter
Speaker 2: together named Anne Marie, who Fred doated on while he
Speaker 2: neglected Charmain. They ended up moving into a bigger apartment.
Speaker 2: At this apartment, each tenant had a gardening plot out
Speaker 2: in the backyard where they could grow different things. And
Speaker 2: you would think he would because his father was a gardener.
Speaker 2: People would grow plants, whatever, but Fred just kept his
Speaker 2: patch just dirt. And this was when Fred got an
Speaker 2: ice cream truck and he would go around and sell
Speaker 2: his ice cream, and he would also try to talk
Speaker 2: to young girls. It's a theory that some of these
Speaker 2: young women might have gone missing and might have ended
Speaker 2: up in his garden plot, but it was never proven. Also, Fred,
Speaker 2: while he was in his ice cream truck, he hit
Speaker 2: a young boy and he left him to die. He
Speaker 2: was brought in by law enforcement, and again Fred faced
Speaker 2: no consequences. Fred, who previously was sneaking around on Rena,
Speaker 2: now he was just doing it right in her face.
Speaker 2: He brought a nanny home and then through this nanny,
Speaker 2: Fred met Anna McFall, who started coming around the West
Speaker 2: House and the two started a relationship. They started like
Speaker 2: messing around, so then Fred just took the girls and
Speaker 2: moved closer to his family at a caravan park. He
Speaker 2: just like up and left Rena, so Rena, wanting to
Speaker 2: be near her children, she followed them. So now it
Speaker 2: was the nanny, Anna, Fred and Rena and the two
Speaker 2: girls all living together. Rena tried to get everybody to
Speaker 2: move to Scotland with her, but Fred found out about
Speaker 2: this and he wouldn't let Rina go with the girls,
Speaker 2: so I guess everybody ended up leaving except for Anna.
Speaker 2: Anna stayed with Fred, and then after all this, Fred
Speaker 2: just gave the kids to social services. Rena found out
Speaker 2: that the kids were in social services, so she went
Speaker 2: and found the kids and reunited with them. And then
Speaker 2: Anna and Fred separated somehow, and then Rena and Fred
Speaker 2: seemed to pick right back up again, and I guess
Speaker 2: Anna found out she was pregnant with Fred's child. Then
Speaker 2: eighteen year old Anna McFall went missing. She was never
Speaker 2: seen alive again. She's Fred's first known victim, disappearing in
Speaker 2: May of nineteen sixty seven, a reminder that she was
Speaker 2: pregnant with his child. Fred later told police the general
Speaker 2: area where she and her unborn child's remained were found
Speaker 2: buried at Kempley Field, which was near much Markele, where
Speaker 2: Fred lived. It would take years for animc fall and
Speaker 2: her unborn child to be exhumed, and when she was
Speaker 2: found there were tarsal and meta tarsal bones missing. She
Speaker 2: was found with ropes, indicating that she was restrained before
Speaker 2: she was buried, which seems to be a common thing
Speaker 2: with him. He does have restraints in a lot of
Speaker 2: his murders. So Fred, Rena, and the two girls moved
Speaker 2: back in together. Rena, who was from Scotland, she would
Speaker 2: often go and visit her family and leave the girl
Speaker 2: with Fred and Fred would just like drop the kids
Speaker 2: off in and out of foster care as needed. He
Speaker 2: had many different jobs. He's a septic truck driver, a
Speaker 2: bakery delivery driver, he worked in construction. So now we're
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty nine, Fred, who's now twenty seven, is
Speaker 2: living with his wife, Rita and their children. During this time,
Speaker 2: Fred met fifteen year old Rosemary. They met at a
Speaker 2: bus station. Rose A Rosemary was born on November twenty ninth,
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty three, in North Devon, England, to parents Bill
Speaker 2: and Daisy. Rose was the fifth of seven children. Daisy
Speaker 2: struggled with depression Rose's mother, and during Daisy's pregnancy with Rose,
Speaker 2: she was given electro convulsive therapy, and some say that
Speaker 2: this may have affected the baby, causing some sort of
Speaker 2: prenatal injuries. Rose's siblings described her as dense. She never
Speaker 2: really got any positive attention from her parents or siblings,
Speaker 2: and she liked Fred. Did not do well in school.
Speaker 2: When Rose's parents separated, she stayed with her mother for
Speaker 2: a bit, and then she went to stay with her father,
Speaker 2: who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. He was very violent and
Speaker 2: he was said to have sexually abused a few of
Speaker 2: his daughters, including Rose. Rose was said to have been
Speaker 2: molested by her youngest brother, Gordon as well when she
Speaker 2: was thirteen and he was nine. So back at the
Speaker 2: bus stop when Fred and Rose met, She's fifteen, Fred's
Speaker 2: twenty seven. Fred spotted Rose sitting at the bus stop
Speaker 2: while he was driving his bakery truck and the creep
Speaker 2: went and sat down next to her. This guy, he
Speaker 2: looks like a troll with green teeth, so he's sitting
Speaker 2: down next to her, and she was kind of repulsed
Speaker 2: by his appearance. And Fred kept showing up at the
Speaker 2: bus stop sitting next to her. This being attention that
Speaker 2: Rose is not used to because her whole life she's
Speaker 2: been told she's like nothing. She didn't get it any
Speaker 2: attention affection. At home, Fred asked her out multiple times
Speaker 2: and eventually she said yes. After they went out this
Speaker 2: first time, the two spent a lot of time together.
Speaker 2: They did have very similar upbringings. There's probably not that
Speaker 2: many people that have that similar of backgrounds. Rose started
Speaker 2: visiting Fred at his recreational vehicle park where he lived
Speaker 2: with his wife and his two children. Rose knew about
Speaker 2: Rina and that Fred was married, but Fred told Rose
Speaker 2: that Reno walked out on him. In reality, it was
Speaker 2: just she would go over when Reno was off visiting
Speaker 2: relatives and Rose would end up watching the girls quite
Speaker 2: a bit. Within weeks, Rose ended up quitting her job
Speaker 2: and started watching the children full time. Fred said he
Speaker 2: was going to pay her so Rose's parents wouldn't know
Speaker 2: that she quit her job and she was just spending
Speaker 2: her days at this adult man's house as a child.
Speaker 2: After a few months, Rose brought Fred home. Her family
Speaker 2: was like no. Rose's mother saw Fred as arrogant and
Speaker 2: as a pathological liar, which he was. Her father also disapproved,
Speaker 2: saying that he would call social services on Fred if
Speaker 2: he kept seeing his daughter. Fred and Rose kept on
Speaker 2: seeing each other, and Rose's parents followed through with their
Speaker 2: threat to contact social services. Her parents told Social Services
Speaker 2: about the age difference, like he's twenty seven years old
Speaker 2: and she's only fifteen, and that Rose had started doing
Speaker 2: sex work. Rose was placed in a home for troubled
Speaker 2: teens and was only allowed to visit her parents on
Speaker 2: the weekends. But instead of going to visit our parents,
Speaker 2: she would sneak off to go see Fred. When Rose
Speaker 2: turned sixteen, she went home to her parents instead of
Speaker 2: to Fred's because Fred at this time was in jail
Speaker 2: for serving He was serving like a month for unpaid
Speaker 2: fines or petty theft, something like that, but once he
Speaker 2: got out, Rose went to stay with him. Once out
Speaker 2: of jail, Fred went and picked up his daughters from
Speaker 2: Social Services, and Rose's parents still tried to keep Fred
Speaker 2: and Rose apart. This now nineteen seventy and this was
Speaker 2: when Rose fell pregnant with Fred's child. Rose again sent
Speaker 2: to a home for troubled girls, and after a few
Speaker 2: weeks she finally agreed that she would terminate the pregnancy,
Speaker 2: cut off all ties with Fred, and come home. But
Speaker 2: instead Rose snuck away to live with Fred and she
Speaker 2: ended up keeping the baby, so her father just disowned her.
Speaker 2: Fred and Rose moved into a two story house. While
Speaker 2: they were living there, Rose gave birth to a daughter,
Speaker 2: heatherin Some do suggest that the baby may have been
Speaker 2: Rose's and her father's, not Roses and Fred's, but that's
Speaker 2: just speculation. Charmagne's mother, Rena, would reach out and check
Speaker 2: on our kids, and she hadn't heard from her daughters,
Speaker 2: and she was getting worried, and sometime in nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 2: she went to go see Fred's family to get his
Speaker 2: new address, and then she went to Fred's once she
Speaker 2: had the address, to see her daughters and try to
Speaker 2: get custody visits know that they're okay something. So she
Speaker 2: went to Fred's house and Rena was never seen alive again.
Speaker 2: It's thought that Fred somehow got Rena intoxicated drug drunk
Speaker 2: something got her into his car and strangled her, maybe
Speaker 2: by promising her to see the girls. Rena was later
Speaker 2: found dismembered and her body parts placed in bags and
Speaker 2: buried at Letterbox Field. Rena being Fred West's second known victim.
Speaker 2: She was missing some finger and toebones, which again seems
Speaker 2: to be a common thing in the murders. Bones missing
Speaker 2: and bondage of some sort. Within a few months, Fred
Speaker 2: was back in jail for a theft of some car parts.
Speaker 2: He would serve six and a half months, and during
Speaker 2: this time, seventeen year old Rose cared for the three
Speaker 2: girls because remember he had the two from Rena and
Speaker 2: then the one that Rose had, now, so now three children.
Speaker 2: Rose made Charmain and Anne Marie call her mother. Later
Speaker 2: in life, Anne Marie talks about how Rose was physically
Speaker 2: and emotionally abusive to the girls, and while Anne Marie
Speaker 2: was more submissive to Rose, Charmain had a very strong will.
Speaker 2: Rose would beat Charmain and Charmain wouldn't shed a tear,
Speaker 2: and by her not being able to break Charmain, this
Speaker 2: got Rose even angrier. Charmain would tell Anne Marie quote,
Speaker 2: my real Mummy wouldn't swear or shout at us, and
Speaker 2: that Mummy will come and save me. That's heartbreaking. One
Speaker 2: of Charmain's friends recalls walking in the West House without
Speaker 2: knocking and finding Charmain in the middle of the room
Speaker 2: standing on a chair, naked, gagged with her hands tied
Speaker 2: behind her back, and Rose next to her with a
Speaker 2: wooden spoon, and that during all this Charmain was quote
Speaker 2: calm and unconcerned. Charmain was treated at the hospital for
Speaker 2: puncture wounds to her left ankle, and Rose was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that was just a household accident. Rose and the three
Speaker 2: girls went to visit Fred, who was still in jail
Speaker 2: on June fifteenth, nineteen seventy one. Once Rose learned that
Speaker 2: Fred was to be paroled within days, Charmain just disappeared.
Speaker 2: This is the third known victim of these vile humans well.
Speaker 2: Rose specifically is said to be responsible for the murder
Speaker 2: of eight year old Charmain because Fred was locked up
Speaker 2: at the time. When Anne Marie asked where Charmain was,
Speaker 2: Rose told her that she went to go live with
Speaker 2: her mother Rina. When they eventually do find Charmain years later,
Speaker 2: they can tell that she was killed while Fred was
Speaker 2: still incarcerated due to forensic audentology forensic testing. Rose told
Speaker 2: the school the same thing that Charmeain went to go
Speaker 2: live with her mother. Once Fred was paroled. On June
Speaker 2: twenty fourth, nineteen seventy one, Rose brought Fred to Charmain's
Speaker 2: eight year old body eight year old deceased body that
Speaker 2: was in the coal cellar. Rose had Fred bury eight
Speaker 2: year old Charmain in their backyard eight years old. Fred
Speaker 2: would later say that he had not dismembered her, like
Speaker 2: I don't know, like that was something to give him
Speaker 2: a pat on the back or something. But when Charmaine
Speaker 2: was eventually zoomed, she was missing some bones like her
Speaker 2: knee caps, and some bones were missing from her hands
Speaker 2: and feet. Fred and Rose later got married on January
Speaker 2: twenty ninth, nineteen seventy two, even though he was technically
Speaker 2: still married to Rena. Within months, Rose got pregnant again
Speaker 2: and they moved to twenty five Cromwell Street, this being
Speaker 2: a three story property. Fred initially rented the property, then
Speaker 2: he purchased it and he rented out some of the
Speaker 2: extra rooms upstairs for extra income people that rented from him.
Speaker 2: They couldn't go in the first floor where he lived,
Speaker 2: and the garden in the back was only to be
Speaker 2: used by him. That year, the West had another daughter
Speaker 2: and Rose started doing sex work. She would use magazines
Speaker 2: to get clients and work I guess upstairs in one
Speaker 2: of the rooms, in what they called the Mandy room.
Speaker 2: That was her alias well with John's. She wasn't Rose,
Speaker 2: she was Mandy. That's where she would meet up with
Speaker 2: her johns. Rose held the only key to the room
Speaker 2: around her neck, and the room had peep holes for
Speaker 2: Fred to watch her, and he would also use baby
Speaker 2: monitors to listen in. She was having these extramarital relations
Speaker 2: with non paying people as well, men and women that
Speaker 2: rented from the West. Sometimes she would just go into
Speaker 2: the border's beds and sometimes Fred would bring someone home,
Speaker 2: or sometimes they would go out together and pick people
Speaker 2: up to bring home for the both of them. On
Speaker 2: many occasions with Fred as well. The West used a
Speaker 2: lot of bondage and pain, which no issues with that
Speaker 2: if it's consensual, but I don't think it was all
Speaker 2: consensual with this couple. They were very sadistic. Also, surprisingly,
Speaker 2: Rose's father ended up accepting her marriage and her father
Speaker 2: and Fred actually went into business, but their business didn't
Speaker 2: last very long it went under. Rose went on to
Speaker 2: birth eight children in total, at least three of them
Speaker 2: were not from Fred. The children were treated more like
Speaker 2: workhorses than children. From seven years old on. They had
Speaker 2: a list of chores, which nothing wrong with chores for kids,
Speaker 2: but they were barely allowed out of the house to play,
Speaker 2: and if they were allowed, the west would be watched
Speaker 2: them and if they broke any house rules, they'd be
Speaker 2: severely punished. Rose was said to be the harsher of
Speaker 2: the two parents, which anything could set her off, and
Speaker 2: sometimes she would just torture the children just because, but
Speaker 2: she made sure not to leave bruises on the children's faces,
Speaker 2: or their hands or any visible part of the body.
Speaker 2: While the children were out of the house. Some of
Speaker 2: the children did try to run away and they were
Speaker 2: beaten severely upon returning home. To put this in perspective,
Speaker 2: from nineteen seventy two to nineteen ninety two, the children
Speaker 2: were admitted to the hospital for quote unquote accidents thirty
Speaker 2: one times, yet none of these prompted child services to
Speaker 2: get involved. Stephen, one of the children was mopping the
Speaker 2: floor one day and Rose stepped in some water that
Speaker 2: was in a bowl that he was using to mop
Speaker 2: the floor, and Rose took the bowl, hit him with
Speaker 2: it and kicked him in the head and chest and
Speaker 2: started screaming, you did that on purpose, you little swine.
Speaker 2: Another time, Rose couldn't find something in the kitchen, like
Speaker 2: a ladle or something, and Rose just grabbed a knife
Speaker 2: and started puncturing her daughter May June's chest, covering her
Speaker 2: rib cage with punctures. On another time, Rose chased Fred
Speaker 2: with a knife, and after she stabbed into a door
Speaker 2: that he slammed in her face, her fingers slid down
Speaker 2: the blade, almost taking off three of her fingers, and
Speaker 2: her response was quote, look what you've done, fella. You've
Speaker 2: got to take me to the hospital now. The abuse
Speaker 2: wasn't only just physical, it was also sexual. Those poor children, ugh.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventy two, eight year old eight year old
Speaker 2: Anne Marie was brought into the basement by Fred and
Speaker 2: Rose and was sexually assaulted. I'm not getting into detail.
Speaker 2: It makes me sick to my stomach that both of
Speaker 2: these vile humans could take advantage of an innocent eight
Speaker 2: year old, but both participated in the attack. Rose warned
Speaker 2: her not to tell anyone or she would be beaten.
Speaker 2: The abuse continued, and when Anne Marie was thirteen, she
Speaker 2: was actually forced into sex work by her parents and
Speaker 2: she was told to say she was sixteen. This thirteen
Speaker 2: year old girl. Towards the end of nineteen seventy two,
Speaker 2: the West were out one night while driving around and
Speaker 2: they picked up a seventeen year old hitchhiker, Carolyn Owens.
Speaker 2: She just left her boyfriends and she was trying to
Speaker 2: get home. They got to talking and Carolyn told the
Speaker 2: West how she couldn't stand her stepfather and how she
Speaker 2: was looking for a job. The West were like, hey,
Speaker 2: we're looking for a part time nanny. Caroline Owens ended
Speaker 2: up moving into twenty five Cromwell Street and sharing her
Speaker 2: room with Anne Marie, and then eventually, of course, Caroline
Speaker 2: was creeped out when Fred and Rose hit on her.
Speaker 2: She was like, ah, no, thank you, I'm going home.
Speaker 2: So she left headed home, and the West knew that
Speaker 2: most likely she'd be hitchhiking, so they just i to
Speaker 2: go after her, and the Wess apologized and they offered
Speaker 2: to drive her home and they managed to somehow calm
Speaker 2: her down enough to lower her guard and she got
Speaker 2: into the car, and when she did, Rose got into
Speaker 2: the back seat. As Fred drove and Rose began grabbing
Speaker 2: it Caroline, who resisted. Fred pulled over. They knocked Caroline unconscious,
Speaker 2: gagged her with a scarf and duct tape, and she
Speaker 2: was brought back to twenty five Cromwell Street, drugged and
Speaker 2: sexually assaulted by both of the West while they held
Speaker 2: a pillow over her face to muffle the screams. Fred
Speaker 2: threatened Caroline that he had killed hundreds of young girls
Speaker 2: and that she was brought back to the house for
Speaker 2: Rose's pleasure, and then they were like, hey, do you
Speaker 2: want to come work for us? Caroline, who was like
Speaker 2: what the fuck? She saw this as a way out,
Speaker 2: like sure, yeah, and then she got to vacuuming. Later
Speaker 2: in the day, Caroline and Rose went to the laundrymat
Speaker 2: and she saw this as her opportunity and she ran
Speaker 2: for it. She made it home and after her mother
Speaker 2: saw all the bruises and welts all over her daughter,
Speaker 2: Caroline confided in her mother about what just happened. Her
Speaker 2: mother reported it right away, and the West were arrested
Speaker 2: for assault in decent assault actual bodily harm and rape.
Speaker 2: The case went to the Gloucester Magistrates Court. In the
Speaker 2: trial date came January twelfth, nineteen seventy three. Caroline, I'm sure,
Speaker 2: still beyond traumatized, couldn't bring herself to testify, so the
Speaker 2: West charges were dropped down to indecent assault and causing
Speaker 2: actual bodily harm. Fred and Rose each had to pay
Speaker 2: fifty pounds. That's it, no jail time. Carolyn later talks
Speaker 2: about how she feels guilty for not testifying, but I
Speaker 2: mean the West were just horrible, horrible humans. We're just
Speaker 2: going to talk about the confirmed victims, but it is
Speaker 2: thought that they do have many more. In nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 2: nineteen year old Linda Gough was from Gloucester and was
Speaker 2: renting a room at twenty five Cromwells Tree. When Linda's
Speaker 2: mother hadn't heard from her daughter, she got worried and
Speaker 2: ended up going to twenty five Cromwell Street, like where's
Speaker 2: my daughter? There she found Rose West wearing her daughter's
Speaker 2: clothes and slippers. Rose told Linda's mother that Linda had
Speaker 2: moved out and went to Weston super Mayor to find work.
Speaker 2: Linda's remains would later be found under the garage that
Speaker 2: was converted into a bathroom on the West property. Also
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy three, fifteen year old Caroline Cooper who
Speaker 2: had lost her mother and she was in foster care.
Speaker 2: She was staying at the Pine Children's Home, but she
Speaker 2: got permission that weekend to go visit her grandmother, and
Speaker 2: that was pretty much the last time she was seen,
Speaker 2: was waiting to take the bus to her grandmother's house.
Speaker 2: Caroline Cooper's remains would later be found in the basement
Speaker 2: of the West Home, with binding still present and some
Speaker 2: limbs dismembered. Also in that year, twenty one year old
Speaker 2: Lucy Partington was a student at Exeter University and she
Speaker 2: was taken from a bus stop. Fred also dismembered her,
Speaker 2: and he cut himself badly enough while doing this that
Speaker 2: he went to the hospital himself to get his hand treated.
Speaker 2: Lucy's mother reported her missing and her body was later
Speaker 2: found in the cellar of twenty five Cromwell Street. In
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy four, twenty one year old teres Singathaylor was
Speaker 2: a sociology student at Greenwich Community College in London, and
Speaker 2: it thought that she went to England to continue schooling
Speaker 2: for secretarial studies. She was hitchhiking when one of the
Speaker 2: Wests subducted her. Her remains were later found under the
Speaker 2: cellar of twenty five Cromwell Street. Fifteen year old Shirley
Speaker 2: Hubbard was taken into foster care at the age of
Speaker 2: two when her parents separated. She's, at fifteen years old,
Speaker 2: was still a foster child. She was at a bus
Speaker 2: stop by her high school on her way home from
Speaker 2: work and then she disappeared. She was reported missing and
Speaker 2: later found dismembered under the cellar at twenty five Cromwell Street.
Speaker 2: Her head had been wrapped in tape with tubes inserted
Speaker 2: in her nose, allowing her to breathe. Fifteen years old.
Speaker 2: This couple, there's not even words for them. In nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy five, eighteen year old Juanita Moss had previously stayed
Speaker 2: at twenty five Crowmwell Street, but she was living somewhere
Speaker 2: else at the time. She's believed to have been abducted
Speaker 2: by the West while she was hitchhiking. This was the
Speaker 2: day before our friend's wedding and when she didn't show up,
Speaker 2: that was like where is she? So she was reported
Speaker 2: missing to the media and the Missing Person's Bureau. Her
Speaker 2: body was later found under the cellar at twenty five
Speaker 2: Crownwell Street. In nineteen seventy eight, eighteen year old Shirley
Speaker 2: Anne Robinson, who also used to stay at twenty five
Speaker 2: Crowmwell Street. She, like Rose, was bisexual. She would hook
Speaker 2: up with Fred and Rose, and she was actually pregnant
Speaker 2: with Fred's child. She was around eight months pregnant and
Speaker 2: Fred originally I guess he had plans to sell the baby,
Speaker 2: but something must have changed because the West ended up
Speaker 2: murdering eighteen year old pregnant Shirley Robinson and her unborn
Speaker 2: baby and buried them in their garden. Ineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: sixteen year old Alison Chambers, who had been in foster
Speaker 2: care since fourteen, had run away many times, and during
Speaker 2: one of these times she ran away, she met the West.
Speaker 2: Alice In. Chambers' body was found under the West garden, dismembered,
Speaker 2: missing bones, with a leather belt still wrapped around the
Speaker 2: bottom of her jaw to the top of her head,
Speaker 2: and then nineteen eighty seven, This nine years later. I
Speaker 2: find it hard to believe that there were not more
Speaker 2: murders during this time period, as it is super out
Speaker 2: of character for serial killers to just stop and then
Speaker 2: start again nine years later, So nineteen eighty seven, sixteen
Speaker 2: year old Heather West, their own daughter, who had been
Speaker 2: telling classmates about the abuse she, her siblings and others
Speaker 2: were suffering at twenty five Cromwell Street. This is suspected
Speaker 2: to be the reason they murdered her. When Heather's body
Speaker 2: was found, it appeared she had been sexually assaulted prior.
Speaker 2: Her body was dismembered with a serrated kitchen knife and
Speaker 2: buried in the garden. And this whole Fred tricked his
Speaker 2: son into digging by lying and saying it was for
Speaker 2: something else. Oh, these poor kids. In May nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 2: Gloucester UK Lauren Forceman got a tip that Fred was
Speaker 2: sexually assaulting his thirteen year old daughter Louise, and that
Speaker 2: Rose was also physically abusing the children. This is all
Speaker 2: circling back to the beginning, and on August sixth, nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety two, Fred was placed under arrest for sexually assaulting
Speaker 2: his thirteen year old daughter. Rose was also placed under
Speaker 2: arrest for child cruelty. But when their daughter, the victim
Speaker 2: did not want to testify. Those charges fell apart. The
Speaker 2: children were all placed into foster care, and this brought
Speaker 2: to light that no one had seen Heather since nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty seven. This was five years of not seeing her.
Speaker 2: Fred and Rose told people that Heather got a job
Speaker 2: and moved away, and sometimes Rose would pretend to get
Speaker 2: calls like, oh, it's Heather calling. But on the other hand,
Speaker 2: if kids were acting up, Fred would say, if you
Speaker 2: don't behave you'll end up under the patio like Heather.
Speaker 2: In February of nineteen ninety four, police got a Wong
Speaker 2: aren't to search the garden of twenty five Cromwell Street.
Speaker 2: Fred and Rose were arrested again on suspicion of murdering
Speaker 2: their own daughter, and during that police search of the garden,
Speaker 2: authorities found human remains the body of Heather. This poor
Speaker 2: young girl that was born into this family of animal parents.
Speaker 2: She was abused her whole life and then murdered in
Speaker 2: June of nineteen eighty seven, this being the last known
Speaker 2: murder by the West of their own daughter. It was
Speaker 2: speculated she was murdered because she was telling others like
Speaker 2: friends at school, about the abuse. Within days, they found
Speaker 2: the remains of Shirley Robinson, Allison Chambers, and days passed
Speaker 2: and they continued excavating. They used ground penetrating radar and
Speaker 2: in total they recovered the remains of nine females at
Speaker 2: twenty five Cromwell Street. Rose tried to say it was
Speaker 2: all Fred, and she even tried to stop his behavior.
Speaker 2: Was Rose tried to play it off like, oh, I
Speaker 2: didn't know what was going on. Fred, who was charged
Speaker 2: with two murders before Rose, told his social worker that
Speaker 2: Rose was the one that killed Shirley Robinson and she
Speaker 2: helped cut up the body and she was the one
Speaker 2: that took Shirley Robinson's feet as from her womb. Before
Speaker 2: the trial even started, Fred was being held at HM Prison,
Speaker 2: Birmingham and he took his own life by hanging on
Speaker 2: January first, nineteen ninety five. Before Fred killed himself, he
Speaker 2: spoke to police for hours, I mean hours. Police have
Speaker 2: over one hundred and eight hours of interviews. And during
Speaker 2: these interviews, Fred would drop hints as there being more
Speaker 2: victims and he would say that they are quote unquote
Speaker 2: spread around, and he told authorities that he would reveal
Speaker 2: one victim a year, which never happened because he killed himself.
Speaker 2: Fred was cremated, a few of his children attended his
Speaker 2: five minute funeral and Rose, even with her trying to
Speaker 2: play the ignorant wife, there was enough to try her
Speaker 2: for ten murders, which included Charmain and the nine young
Speaker 2: women that were buried at Cromwell Street. During the trial,
Speaker 2: the prosecutor, Brian Levinson did a great job showing how
Speaker 2: the sadistic couple sexually assaultlted and murdered all these people,
Speaker 2: and he clearly showed how Fred was in jail when
Speaker 2: Charmaine was murdered. This showed that Rose wasn't as hands
Speaker 2: off as she tried to paint herself. She was just
Speaker 2: as sadistic and sexually motivated as Fred, and how after
Speaker 2: what of their victims lived, the couple learned to evolve
Speaker 2: to not make that stake again. They had Rose's family
Speaker 2: previous borders of twenty five Cromwell Street come testify the
Speaker 2: surviving victims. One of the surviving victims, who used an alias,
Speaker 2: claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Fred and Rose
Speaker 2: when she was only fourteen years old, and that Rose
Speaker 2: was the more aggressive of the two neighbors. Testified how
Speaker 2: Charmain disappeared while Fred was incarcerated, and how Rose didn't
Speaker 2: even seem upset when Heather went missing. Rose pled not guilty.
Speaker 2: The judge allowed testimony from victims of sexual assault by
Speaker 2: Fred and Rose to establish a pattern of behavior for
Speaker 2: the jury. On November twenty first of nineteen ninety five,
Speaker 2: the jury came back with ten unanimous guilty verdicts for
Speaker 2: the counts of murder. Rose was sentenced to life in
Speaker 2: prison without the chance of parole. She was sent to
Speaker 2: HM Prison Brosfield in Middlesex and then transferred to HM
Speaker 2: Prison Durham, which is actually where Myra Hinley was also
Speaker 2: sent Who is if you're unfamiliar a person as vile
Speaker 2: as Rose West So I guess some say that they
Speaker 2: started a relationship together, but again I mean these evil
Speaker 2: people finding each other. Rose paid to change her name
Speaker 2: to Jennifer Jones as like an alias. Some of Rose's
Speaker 2: children went to visit her, until one of her daughters
Speaker 2: started asking about the murders. In Rose cut contact. Rose
Speaker 2: said quote, I was never a parent and could never
Speaker 2: be now. Rose did attempt to appeal her sentence, but
Speaker 2: it was rejected, and in nineteen ninety seven, the home
Speaker 2: Secretary Jack Straw gave Rose a whole life tariff, which
Speaker 2: meant that took away the possibility of any parole again
Speaker 2: to appeal, and then she just said she no longer
Speaker 2: wants to appeal. She said that even if she's free,
Speaker 2: she'll never be free. And she still claims she had
Speaker 2: nothing to do with the murders. The Wests are known
Speaker 2: to have committed at least twelve murders over twenty years
Speaker 2: nineteen sixty seven to eighty seven, but many think that
Speaker 2: there were many more victims. As Fred worked as a
Speaker 2: builder and a drainage worker, he could have disposed bodies
Speaker 2: in so many places where he worked. After the West
Speaker 2: were taken in to custody, thankfully, the younger West children
Speaker 2: were given new names, and some of the older children
Speaker 2: went on to write books, like Anne Marie West, Fred's
Speaker 2: eldest daughter, went on to write a book titled Out
Speaker 2: of the Shadows in May West, the eldest surviving daughter
Speaker 2: of Fred, Ann Rose, also wrote a book titled Love
Speaker 2: Is Always Mom xxx. I really hope this helped them
Speaker 2: heal somewhat, that this was somehow therapeutic for these kids
Speaker 2: that went through so much. The house at twenty five,
Speaker 2: Cromwell's Street was destroyed and flattened. A lot of the
Speaker 2: West children suffered with substance abuse suicidal ideations. All because
Speaker 2: of these sick parents. Fred never had to face any consequences.
Speaker 2: In Rose, who is currently seventy one years old, she's
Speaker 2: serving a whole life order so she'll never get out
Speaker 2: at HMP New Hall Prison in West Yorkshire using the
Speaker 2: name Jennifer Jones. She's such a loser. I hope her
Speaker 2: days are miserable and I hope she lives a long,
Speaker 2: terrible existence. Well, thank you everybody so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Till next time.
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