Fred And Rose West, England’s Most Notorious Serial Killer Couple
Wikimedia CommonsFred and Rose West in the 1980s.
Fred and Rosemary West were twisted, even by serial killer standards. The details of Fred’s childhood read like an unhinged horror story. Fred’s father allegedly raped his sisters and introduced him to bestiality. Fred also claimed that his mother sexually abused him when he was around 12 years old.
What’s more, he may have gotten his 13-year-old sister pregnant when he was 19. Unsurprisingly, Fred grew up to be violent, with a history of sexual assaults aimed at teenage girls. His first victim is believed to have been Ann McFall, a nanny who became pregnant with Fred’s child while working for him and his first wife, Catherine Costello. McFall vanished in 1967.
Two years later, Costello left Fred West — and that same year, he met 15-year-old Rosemary “Rose” Letts. They had a child together in 1970, when Rose was 16 and Fred was 29, and they got married in 1972.
Rose and Fred had come from similar backgrounds. She’d been sexually abused by her father and molested her younger brothers, and she likely engaged in sex work as a teenager.
When they met, Fred had two children from his marriage to Costello: Charmaine and Anne Marie. Anne Marie was biologically his; Charmaine was not. In 1971, while Fred was behind bars for theft and the two girls were under the care of Rose, eight-year-old Charmaine vanished. Investigators suspect that Rose beat the little girl to death in a fit of rage. Costello also disappeared in 1971, and both her remains and Charmaine’s were uncovered in the 1990s.
Ian Cook/Getty ImagesInvestigators remove evidence from 25 Cromwell Street, Fred and Rose West’s “House of Horrors.”
Once Fred was released from prison in June 1971, he and Rose started killing together. They were ultimately charged with 10 murders, including those of Charmaine and another one of their daughters, Heather. The serial killer couple lured at least eight other young women to their house to rape and kill them between 1973 and 1979.
In May 1992, Fred videotaped himself raping one of his younger daughters, Louise. Louise later confided in a friend, whose mother called the police. The resulting investigation ultimately revealed dismembered body parts strewn across the Wests’ property in Gloucester, England.
Fred hanged himself in his prison cell while awaiting trial. Rose protested her innocence but was ultimately convicted of 10 counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison, where she remains to this day.
