Who was Fred West and how did he die? – The Sun | The Sun
FRED West remains one of the most notorious criminals in British history.
Here's what we know about the heinous crimes he committed with his wife Rose West.
Who was Fred West?
Fred West was born in Much Marcle, a village in Herefordshire, in September 1941 – and went on to become one of Britain's worst serial killers.
He and his wife Rose abducted, tortured, raped and murdered young women over 20 years – including his first wife Rena Costello.
Many of the women they murdered were buried under the floorboards of their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, which was later torn down.
Fred committed suicide awaiting trial for 12 murders in January 1995.
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All we know about Rose West's whereabouts and where she met Fred West
He claimed his mother introduced him to sex at 12 years old, and he believed in incest because his father had sex with Fred's sisters. Fred's brother Doug dismissed these claims.
In 1961, he was accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl who was a friend of the Wests.
At his trial for the rape of the family friend, he escaped a jail sentence as it was claimed that he was suffering from fits as a result of a head trauma.
He was, however, convicted of child molestation.
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How did he meet Rose?
Fred was 28 years old when he met Rose when she was just 15 in early 1969.
He, then living in a caravan, pursued the teenager and within weeks she became a nanny to his children Charmaine and Anne Marie.
Rose's father Bill was a paranoid schizophrenic who repeatedly sexually abused her.
He disapproved of the relationship because of the age difference and threatened Fred.
The couple moved to a flat in Gloucester and Rose began working as a prostitute.
They married in secret in January 1972 and, a few months later, they moved to 25 Cromwell Street.
How many children did the Wests have together?
Rose was often pregnant and was the mother of eight children.
Five of her children were fathered by Fred, while three were fathered by clients she met through her prostitution.
Fred also had another daughter, Anne Marie, from his first marriage which ended in 1971 – when the maniac murdered her mum Catherine.
He went on to have two other girls, Heather Ann and Mae, with partner-in-crime Rose — plus two sons, Stephen and Barry, who died of a suspected overdose in 2021.
Tragically, Heather became the couple’s final murder victim in 1987.
Cops discovered the couple's house of horrors after Heather vanished at the age of 17.
The monstrous pair had strangled her and beheaded her.
Her mutilated corpse was dug up at their Gloucester semi by police — who were stunned to find eight other bodies.
Who were the serial killers' victims?
Police uncovered a number of mutilated female bodies in the garden and cellar of the Wests' Gloucestershire home.
In 1995 Rose was convicted of 10 murders, while Fred who admitted 12 murders hanged himself while on remand in prison.
He had confessed to killing up to 30 victims., but that number could be even higher.
West was suspected to be involved in the disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm who was last seen near to the site in Southgate Street, Gloucester, more than fifty years ago.
Detectives have been searching a cafe in Gloucester for her remains and are digging up six "anomalies" found in the building.
LIVES LOST: The victims of Fred and Rose West
Anna McFall
The nanny of Fred and Rena West’s children, McFall was believed to have been murdered in 1967.
She was pregnant when she died, with West believed to have been the father. Her body was found in June 1994 in a shallow grave.
Fred West denied murdering McFall but he is said to have confided to a visitor after his arrest that he stabbed her following an argument.
This happened before Rosemary West met him.
Charmaine West
With Fred in prison for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc, Rosemary was left to look after Charmaine and Anne Marie.
The former just eight-years-old, was Fred West’s stepdaughter from his previous marriage.
A neighbour Tracey is said to have found Charmaine tied to a wooden chair with her hands behind her back with Rosemary standing with a large wooden spoon.
Rosemary claimed she’d been taken by her mother, but her skeleton was found at the Midland Road property, hidden and missing bones.
Rena West
Rena is believed to have been murdered by strangulation.
Rosemary was not charged for this murder.
Lynda Gough
Lynda Gough was the first sexually motivated killing conducted by the Wests.
She moved into Cromwell Street in April 1973, having had affairs with several lodgers. The Wests later claimed she’d been asked to leave after hitting one of their children.
Strangulation and suffocation were the likely causes of death.
Carol Ann Cooper
Cooper was murdered in November 1973, aged just 15.
On the night of November 9, she was allowed to spend the night at her grandmother’s house before a doctor’s appointment the next morning.
She attended the appointment and then met her boyfriend, before somehow ending up on Cromwell Street.
Her body was found more than twenty years later.
Lucy Partington
A 21-year-old medieval English student at Exeter University, she returned home for Christmas in December 1973.
She left a friend’s house in a rush to get the last bus from Cheltenham to Gretton on 27 December, with it believed she was abducted from this bus stop.
She was found more twenty years later, her dismembered body in the cellar of Cromwell Street.
Therese Siegenthaler
A 21-year-old Swiss sociology student at Woolwich Polytechnic.
She had planned to hitch-hike to Ireland in Easter 1974. Her family reported her missing having not heard from her for some time.
Prosecution believe she was abducted before being killed, with Fred West later building a fake chimney over her grave.
Shirley Hubbard
Just 15 at the time of her death, Hubbard is believed to have been abducted by the Wests.
Her body was found following an excavation in the concrete and plastic membrane of the cellar floor.
Juanita Mott
In the summer of 1974, Mott moved into 25 Cromwell Street but later went missing when she was living in Newent.
Her body was found in March 1994, 19 years later, with West having concreted over the floor of the cellar.
Shirley Robinson
The first victim buried outside the house, Robinson had an affair with Fred West, and by autumn 1977, she was pregnant with West’s child.
It was initially claimed she had moved to Scotland but her body was later found.
When questioned, Rosemary West, herself pregnant with her daughter Tara at the time of the murder, claimed she did not remember her, which was described as “ludicrous” by the prosecution.
Alison Chambers
The last murder with a sexual motive established. She disappeared just before her 17th birthday, having been seen at 25 Cromwell Street throughout the summer.
Her body was buried underneath the patio.
Heather West
The first child born to Fred and Rosemary West, there is no evidence she was aware of the killings.
Sexually abused by her parents and having told friends, she suddenly went missing in 1987, with Rosemary claiming she had gone to Wales to be with a lesbian partner.
The couple would joke to their other children that they would “end up under the patio like Heather” if they misbehaved. This, and their changing stories, led to the search warrants for the property, and subsequently to their arrests.
How did Fred West die?
Ahead of his trial, the notorious rapist and killer had been on strict suicide watch.
However, these rules were relaxed and he died on January 1, 1995, by hanging himself.
West left a suicide note in his cell which featured a drawing of a gravestone and a message to his wife Rose.
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