Fred & Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors

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All the victims were young women. At least eight of these murders involved the Wests' sexual gratification and included rape, bondage, torture, and mutilation; the victims' dismembered bodies were typically buried in the cellar or garden of the West residence in Gloucester, which became known as the "House of Horrors". Fred is known to have committed at least two murders on his own; Rose is known to have murdered Fred's stepdaughter, Charmaine. The couple were arrested and charged in 1994. This case against the Wests collapsed when Anna Marie and her 13-year-old half-sister Louise declined to testify at the court case on 7 June 1993, with the child rape victim expressing her desire to return to her family, and Anna Marie choosing to withdraw her statement because of her noting the misery of her younger siblings, and her fear of Rose's vindictiveness. [150] Shortly thereafter, Anna Marie spoke further with DC Savage, further emphasising that her mother Rena and half-sister Charmaine were also missing. At the end of criminal proceedings you often hear police officers and lawyers talking of justice being served, of drawing a line in the sand, of giving closure to the family, of being able to move on. The reality is often very different. Serious crimes change people's lives forever, sometimes victims survive, sometimes they do not and their loved ones must carry the terrible psychological luggage for the rest of their lives. There are no winners. The families of the perpetrators are just as damaged and the ensuing generations burdened with the chilling resonating knowledge of some terrible episode for which their relative was responsible. As police attempted to lead Fred from the hearing, he resisted their efforts, and again attempted to move towards Rose, who again winced and attempted to writhe away from his grasp. [171] He promised to demonstrate Rose's controlling and sexually sadistic character and her efforts to deflect suspicion about the disappearance of their victims.

In July 1964, Rena and Fred had a daughter, Anna Marie. [26] The child was born at the couple's Savoy Street home. [27] [28] The family nanny, Isa McNeill, and neighbours of the Wests, recall Rena as a considerate mother "struggling to bring up two children"; [28] Fred treated the children harshly. He kept the girls in the bottom of a bunk bed with bars fitted to the space between the bunks, effectively caging them; they were allowed out only when he was at work. [29] Six months later – having found no trace of Heather alive – officers from the Gloucestershire Constabulary obtained a warrant to search 25 Cromwell Street, the Wests’ family home since 1972. Rose is believed to have killed Charmaine shortly before Fred's prison release date of 24 June 1971. She is known to have taken Charmaine, Anna Marie and Heather to visit Fred on 15 June. It is believed to be on or very shortly after this date that Charmaine was murdered. As well as forensic odontology confirmation that Charmaine had died while Fred was still incarcerated, further testimony from Tracey Giles' mother, Shirley, corroborated the fact that Charmaine had been murdered before Fred had been released on 24 June. In her later testimony at Rose's trial, Shirley stated she and her family had lived in the upper flat of Midland Road in 1971 and that her two daughters had been playmates of Charmaine and Anna Marie. She stated that after her family had vacated the upper flat of Midland Road in April 1971, on one day in June, she had brought Tracey to visit Charmaine, only for Tracey to be told by Rose: "She's gone to live with her mother, and bloody good riddance!" [65] before Tracey began to weep. [66] Giles was adamant Fred was still in prison on this occasion. [67]There’s no doubt Fred West was a sadist and a voyeur, and a serial killer, a psychopath with a very warped sexual mind. And Rose West was his willing apprentice,” said Goatley. At the bottom of the suicide note found in his cell was a drawing of a gravestone, within which was written: "In loving memory. Fred West. Rose West. Rest in peace where no shadow falls. In perfect peace he waits for Rose, his wife." [174] Trial of Rose West [ edit ] Three months later, the couple vacated the Cheltenham flat and relocated to the ground floor flat of a two-story house in Midland Road, Gloucester. On 17 October 1970, Rose gave birth to their first child: a daughter they named Heather Ann (speculation remains that Heather may have been sired by Rose's own father). [57] Two months later, Fred was imprisoned for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc. [58] He remained imprisoned until 24 June 1971. As he served this six-and-a-half-month sentence, Rose, having just turned 17, looked after the three girls, with Charmaine and Anna Marie being told to refer to Rose as their mother. [59] Dramas about such events need a clear purpose, which is to illuminate those events. The process of making these programmes is a complicated and painstaking one. Of central importance are the feelings of those whose lives have been most directly affected, which is usually the families of victims. Often they have suffered twice, first by losing a loved one in horrific circumstances, second by acquiring a kind of stigma of being associated with a notorious crime. Against the advice of her counsel, Rose herself testified; her manner sometimes morose and tearful, sometimes upbeat and humorous. She wept while describing herself as a victim of child abuse and rape who naively married a violent and domineering man, but joked about issues such as her "always being pregnant", [187] and laughed while describing one victim's "grandfather glasses". [187] She also claimed never to have met six of the victims buried at Cromwell Street, and to recall very little of her assault on Caroline Owens. When shown photographs of the victims buried in the cellar and victim Alison Chambers and asked by Brian Leveson whether she recognised any of their faces, Rose's face turned bright red, and she repeatedly stuttered as she replied, "No, sir." [188]

After the trial, McFall moved into a caravan at the Timberland Caravan Park; Rena alternated between living with Fred and returning to Glasgow. Letters McFall posted to her family and McNeill in Glasgow between 1966 and 1967 indicate she believed a relationship with Fred could offer her a better life than that she had experienced in Scotland, [42] and she tried to persuade Fred to divorce his wife and marry her. Fred had also led police 17 miles or so out of the city to a field in the village of Kempley – near his birthplace of Much Marcle – where Costello’s remains were found in April. The remains of West’s former nanny and pregnant mistress, Ann McFall, were recovered in June from a field nearby. Despite denying involvement in her death, Fred indicated the area where she was buried.No forensic evidence linked Fred to the murder of Anne McFall, and he always denied killing her. However, her body had been extensively dismembered, and was missing several phalange bones. Furthermore, the cubic dimensions of the grave in which her body was buried match the modus operandi of Fred's later murders. [233] Killed by Fred West:• Ann McFall, 18, his children’s nanny and pregnant by Fred, disappeared in 1967 Fred later claimed that he had been sexually abused by his mother at age 12, that he had engaged in acts of bestiality in his early teens, and that his belief that incest was normal stemmed from his father's incest with Fred's sisters. [10] Fred's youngest brother, Doug, dismissed these claims as fantasy. [11] Adolescence [ edit ]

Police sift through soil as they search for clues in the Fred West murder cases in the garden of 25 Midland Road, Gloucester, on April 27, 1994. Barry Batchelor/PA Images/Getty Images The following day (26 February), police began excavating the section of the garden at Cromwell Street where Fred indicated he had buried his daughter's body. Shortly after 4 p.m., police found a human thigh bone protruding from a section of the garden Fred had insisted police need not look in. Excavating the section of the garden where Fred had indicated he had buried his daughter's body, investigators discovered a mass of jumbled human remains encased in the remnants of a bin bag and intertwined with two lengths of rope. These dismembered remains were taken to the police headquarters for further examination, where they were determined to be those of a young woman, with one kneecap and several phalanges missing. [160] The decedent's fingernails were discovered in a pile, suggesting they may have been torn from her fingers as a means of torture. Several hours later, the body was identified via dental records as being that of Heather West.Rose's parents forbade their daughter from continuing to date Fred, but she defied their wishes, prompting them to visit Gloucestershire social services to explain that their 15-year-old daughter was dating an older man, and that they had heard rumours that she had begun to engage in prostitution at his caravan. [54] In response, Rose was placed in a home for troubled teenagers in Cheltenham in August 1969, [55] and only allowed to leave under controlled conditions. When allowed to return home to visit her parents at weekends, Rose almost invariably took the opportunity to visit Fred. [55] He said to me: 'Can you remember helping me dig those holes in the garden when you were a kid?' I said I couldn't remember, but he said, 'We did it together, you know.' Then he said: 'That's where the girls were found, in the exact holes'."