Romance can be a very scary thing indeed. From psychological thrillers about obsessed exes to odd fascinations involving those who’ve gone insane from the idea of love alone, there’s no doubt that romance has had a terrifying hold on the general populace. Oftentimes, this translates to crime, with some crimes committed by passion, others by misguided infatuation. One unfortunate example of this was a couple by the names of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Brady was born on January 2nd, 1938. While growing up, Brady often got into trouble and had a rather poor track record with women. His life would be marked by repeat convictions. Even so, he took to learning in a local library. Since then, he worked at a distribution company as a cleric and began reading books such as Mein Kampf by the infamous Adolf Hitler.

Myra Hindley, on the other hand, was born in England on July 23rd, 1942. She was raised by abusive parents and grew up in poor conditions. When her parents died, Hindley was sent to live with relatives. One of her friends died, leading her to drop out of high school. A couple of years later, she met and fell in love with Ian Brady.

Hindley was immediately taken with Brady, so much so that he exerted much influence on her. He introduced her to Nazi ideology and encouraged her to read works from authors like de Sade and Hitler. It wasn’t long before he got Hindley obsessed with what was considered Aryan perfection. The couple researched crime and brutal torture and had even started committing robberies. Eventually, Brady’s ideology started taking a more extreme turn, to the point where he was legitimizing rape and murder.

On July 12th, 1963, the couple stumbled across a young woman named Pauline Reade. Hindley kidnapped Reade from a dance, and, with Brady’s help, brutalized and murdered her. Just a couple of months later, a boy named John Kilbride was taken and had the same atrocities committed to him. The next year, Keith Bennett also fell victim to the couple. That same year, yet another young girl, Lesley Ann, went missing.

It only ended when Hindley’s brother-in-law, David, finally turned the couple in. David told the police that, although he was interested in Brady’s politics, he changed his mind when he saw the violence Brady and Hindley committed against a man, both of which would later start joking about it. David helped clean up the scene, frightened that they would kill him as well. Afterward, he went to the police and confessed to the couple’s crimes.

The police believed him, and went to arrest Brady, who claimed that the entire situation was a misunderstanding, that the two had gotten into an argument, but nothing more. This was later proven false, as the police began delving deeper into the investigation. Initially, there was only circumstantial evidence, and as such, the police couldn’t convict the couple. Eventually, they did find incriminating evidence, including pictures of the victims. The couple was arrested, and though they both plead not guilty, the public demanded that they were convicted, simply because they showed no remorse for the missing victims. They were both sentenced to life in prison, and their crimes are now called today the “Moors Murders.”

From books such as Beyond Belief by Emlyn Williams and One of Your Own by Carol Ann Lee, it’s clear that the couple continues to be remembered to this day. Even so, many people are intrigued by them. After all, how could people disregard their own morals to commit evil towards others? It’s a question we still ask today.