This childish and empty writing, gives the clue to Myra Hindley's need
for excitement generated outside herself.
So much has been written about these two dangerous people that it may be thought there is nothing new to offer. However, the handwriting of each shows the different roles that they played in their partnership and it this worth exploring further.
These partners in crime come from very different perspectives. It is clear that Hyndley's cold and unemotional writing came from a brain that was not able to empathise with the needs of others. This is clearly demonstrated by an answer that she gave to a journalist when questioned about her motives in taking away Lesley Ann Downey, that she shouldn't have been out alone at that time of night. There appeared to be no concept of other people's pain or rights.
This childish and empty writing, gives the clue to Myra Hindley's need
for excitement generated outside herself.
Looking at the immature and left tending script, with the print-script letters awkwardly made, most are standing alone and unconnected. There is a feeling of detachment and the arcade shaping is clear, but rather haphazard. There is no warmth and the lower zone open curves show lack of emotional connection. Hindley will not have been able to make sharing relationships. She takes and gives, but doesn't connect. This style of script has changed very little over all the years she was in prison. The lower case 'w' has a nasty whip shaped flick towards the left on its final stroke. Also note that the upper zone of most of her letters, bends towards the left. Her thoughts were always private. The abrupt finals also show that she has no graciousness in communication.
Brady's early writing. This tense and rigid script, shows how hard he
worked to keep his emotions under control, but his compensation had the
horrific result of his transferring this negative energy into acts of
atrocity, to give him relief.
Brady has moved from the rigid structure of the right slanted script, which was his cold and calculating controlled self, holding in his emotions and releasing the inner tension that is shown in his later sample, through the unspeakable acts he shared with Hindley.
We see from the later script, what turmoil of conflicting emotion lay beneath the control that he exerted in his earlier years. His way of coping with this, was to transfer the pressure to release through violence and he had the assistance of someone who was prepared to co-operate in this for her own release of expression. In her case, with that empty writing, it was probably her way of gaining excitement. In both samples, Brady has the arcade shape, similar to Hindley's - this, in a negative type of writing, can indicate cold calculation. His later writing has become more emotional, the iron grip has been released, influenced by his incarceration and the frustration it has caused him and also by the drugs he has taken. The stroke is not smooth and the current of nervousness that grips him is seen in many areas. The underlinings and many adjustments, also evidence a seething emotional undercurrent. This, combined with the very varied and crooked personal pronouns, some with nasty hooks, shows his unpredictability and confused identity, which has now become visible and overtaken his iron control.
Later: Ian Brady's writing after the iron control has been broken.
All the turmoil within is coming to the surface.
Click for a full sample of this handwriting
Unlike Hindley's script, in both samples Brady joins nearly all his letters, showing that once on course, he is difficult to budge. If he sets his heart on something, he won't be put off. A conjecture could be that his terrible acts of violence were impulses that couldn't be stemmed until he had fed the demons inside him with the power unleashed by his actions and the satisfaction of what they produced.
Like Hindley, the end strokes move back to the left, particularly in the letter 'n', showing his preoccupation with his own agenda. The other similar preoccupation is the need to be right, concentrated in both scripts by both the arcade style and the pot lids on the 'p'. Even though the two samples appear very different, careful examination reveals that the pen movement follows the same path in both. Notice that the signature is underlined in both samples. This indicates that he will have his way and not be controlled by others. That is why he is so anguished when he is being force fed during his hunger strike. He wants to die and he is not allowed to do so.
Both writers have a varied and somewhat twisted selection of lower case 'd's, a letter that, through research over many years, I have found to be closely linked to the individuality of the writer, clearly defining peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of the way the brain works for them.
Because of the emotional variations in Brady's personality, the little starting strokes throughout the script show hesitancy, whereas Hindley is cool and unemotional, with no starting strokes in evidence. Brady, with that rigid early script, shows his perfectionism, in spite of the horrific way it was expressed. He had to do things as he wanted them.
The same applies to the middle zone. In the earlier sample, Brady's script is so controlled as to be almost fanatical, holding back the evidence of his emotion at all costs. The later one varies more than Hindley's. He was much more influenced by the dynamics of his environment, which he had to control so firmly, whereas she gives the impression of detachment and curiosity as to what might happen next. His grip was intense as he released his needs through the killing act. In Hindley's case, she had no emotion within and Brady supplied it through his passions. Only someone who was coldly appraising could have watched while children were tortured and killed.
The signatures are also different in emphasis, with hers being cool and showing no emotion and his being rigid in the earlier example and less controlled in the later one, but both have the underline, showing his determination to do things as he wants.
These two, from their different perspectives, provided each other with the triggers to carry out their terrible acts. She provided the organisation and he the passion, each feeding off the opposite in the other and coming together to produce horrors that would not have been triggered, if they hadn't been acting in partnership.
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