Here his brother, Alan, talks succinctly and movingly about the horrifying tragedy that has blighted so many lives, just like his
How a barber’s shop conversation about the loss of Keith helped lift brother’s battered spirits …
They say that on the streets of Manchester you are never more than six feet away from a rat … well, Brady and Hindley weren’t rats, they were pure evil. And even now, dead as they are they still send a shiver down the spine of this city.
Brady and Hindley took to their graves the moorland location of Keith Bennett’s body. He may never be found.
In a moving piece written by Keith’s brother, Alan, he reveals his feelings and he has given the Preservation Society the right to reproduce it:
Alan writes: “I have been going to the same barber for many years now and I went again yesterday. It was very quiet, just one man already on one of the chairs and I sat down on the one next to him.
All normal so far and I expected the usual conversation about football, the weather, politics, health etc. The bloke that was already there left so there was just me and the two barbers.
“Alan, after all these years I had no idea until I saw an article in the media the other day.” I was taken by surprise a little bit, ”m so sorry about Keith and my condolences to you, those evil bastards should never have been allowed to live.”
I knew I had some explaining to do, “That David Smith was some character as well.”
The next 10 minutes
were spent in a sort of question and answer session.
Along the
lines of answering to the questions he asked: if they had been hanged
we would never have known where to search for Keith, although I
understand your reaction; a detailed description of where and when
Keith was taken; my age and Keith’s age at the time; the horror of
realising Keith had not turned up at my gran’s house and the
aftermath; the barber having met mam in the past when there used to
be a ladies hairdressers there; the fact D Smith never socialised
with Brady and Hindley until after Keith was taken and the way he was
led to witness the death of Edward Evans; where mam had last seen
Keith after crossing Stockport road at the zebra crossing; where
Hindley could have been parked as Keith crossed their path; the
actions of Brady’s inhumane solicitor and the locked cases; the
search of the moor and anything else the barber could think of before
the next customer entered the shop and things returned to normal…
Time for me to go but not before getting a man-hug on the way out and another, ‘I’m so sorry about what happened, take care and see you again soon,’ from the barber.
The other customer sat on the chair, looking on through the refection in the mirror, must have been wondering what was going on.
I know things will never be quite the anonymous same for me next time I go there but, once again, I had seen the care and compassion for Keith and his family and I felt my spirits lifted once again by that.
However, I was also left wondering how too many people with the power and clout to do something more for Keith failed him time after time when we really needed them and we still do.
The passing years have been a mixture of emotions, frustrations, disbelief, witnessing so much pain and tears, anger and so many other bad things.
The thing that keeps us going is the care, love, compassion and genuine feelings for Keith shown by so many of the ‘average’ people over the years.
I’m not sure if I have expressed my thoughts as I meant to here but I’m hoping anybody reading this will understand how much more those ‘average’ people mean to me as compared to the faceless people in power that need constantly reminding of the ongoing struggle we face and the need we have for their help and not just their ‘Understanding.’
Sorry for rambling but I had to try to express the feelings I was left with after just a normal and regular visit to the barbers.”
TAGS: #moorsmurdershorror #moors #murders #keithbennnet #saddleworth #myra #hindley #brady
I always think of the parents of these poor children, especially Winnie, she never got her boy back.
Thanks for your comment Kim … this story obviously shows the true pain this family has endured …
Read Slice of bread and jam. For us who escaped. I know that I searched with my own money paid to the landowner of what is called Saddle worth as a grouse Moor from 2000-2011 as a scientist who knew the killers as a 16 year old. I believe Keith is on the Bill o Jack’s ruin as I told MIT. It was luck that found the three victims as geological. No perfect murder. Lies. Topping said of Myra and a film. Better check facts as this I proved was not so. The film she named came out the very time Keith was taken 1964. Source Oldham Chronicle archives.
Hi Pauline please give us more details .. i’m not sure where you are going with this.. . sorry
I am so sorry for all your suffering, and never being able to find Keith. I lived in the area when Lesley-Anne and Keith went missing. Sending a big Collyhurst hug to you from Australia
Erica Gregory
we havent and still working in mapping the area for spring
This happened before I was born it’s something that I have read about from an early age , my thoughts and condolences go to Keith’s family and I hope one day Keith is found and he can have a resting place
i was a young child at this time and lived in BACUP lancs not too far from saddleworth ,people were looking at others thinking have you done this horrible thing
when i was older and travelled across the moor i use to think where areyou keith try to send a signal to guide searchers to find you
alas nothing yet
R.I.Pkeith people willnever forget x
Hazel Butterfield
Shocking could told were he was family living in hell no closure for them hope Brady and the evil bitch are in hell ❤️😢🌹🌹🌹
I would have been 9 years of age at the time but this dreadful story is something I have never forgotten and still it haunts me that Keith’s body has not been found so I can only imagine how it still affects and affected Winnie and the family all these decades later.
As for the two who committed such horrendous atrocities on innocent children I can only hope that they are paying the price for all eternity for what they did.
My best friend and his friend was taken from the streets of Enfield Lock – Babes in the Woods 1970- 4 years later and murdered by a paedophile in Epping Forest and to this day it breaks my heart that Gary and Susan were denied their lives as the moors children were also denied.
R.I.E.P to the all victims 🌹
Janet Tilley
Top contributor
The torment the family endured doesn’t bare thinking about….
Pauline Hunt
I wish they’d chucked as much money at finding Keith as they.have at finding Madeleine McCann.
Hope he is with his mum
Beryl Wolverson
I hope one day you will be found so you can be laid to rest with your beloved mother,,, safe with your family again. 🙏 🙏.xxx