It is almost 60 years to the day that Edward Evans was bludgeoned to death with an axe by Ian Brady in a tiny nondescript council house in Hattersley.
Edward had just turned 17 in 1965 and like so many way back then, he portrayed himself as a man about town, a sharp-dressed youth with an eye for the mini-skirted ladies,
He was tall and slim too.
But there was turmoil in the Sixties on the dark rainy streets of Manchester with their listing leaning, often derelict mills, warehouse and shops.
Manchester was a working class dump and in the throws of demolition and redevelopment.
Edward’s home, 55 Addison Street, Ardwick, was on the list to be obliterated by bulldozers the following year. He lived there with his parents Edith and John, brother Allan and sister Edith.
His dad worked was a uniformed lift attendant. But Edward had ambition and got himself a job as a junior machine operator at Associated Electrical Industries Ltd in Trafford Park.
He could go places from there.
And like most blokes did back then, he liked the night-life of the City of Tall Chimneys. He was officially too young to drink but nightlife meant pub life and draught keg bitter and Watneys Red Barrel washed your troubles away.
But everybody knew that the streets of the city were rough, knives and coshes were the weapon of the day, even for the boy next door. And there were gangs and gangsters on every street corner..
Whenever his parents worried about his nights out, he was a typical young Manc and told them: ‘I can handle any trouble.’
But he wasn’t expecting trouble in the guise of perverts and murderers.
And on Wednesday, 6 October 1965 he met both, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady.
Edward’s mum Edith said: ‘Edward went out between 6.15 and 6.30pm. I didn’t see him alive again…’
Between 10pm and 10.30pm Edward called at Central Station for a drink. But the buffet bar was shut. He was at a loose end and it is believed he ended up in a gay bar nearby.
That was when Brady approached him and invited the teenager for a drink.
Hindley was probably in the vehicle.
Brady drove Edward the 11 miles to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley.
Edward Evans became the final victim of the Moors Murderers. And the couple’s oldest. But Edward’s killing would end Brady and Hindley’s reign of horror.
Inexplicably, the evil couple phoned Hindley’s brother-in-law David Smith, and invited him to the house.
He witnessed Brady attack Edward with an axe, smother him with a cushion and strangle him with an electrical cable.
Then he called the police.
Edward is buried in Southern Cemetery, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy.
RIP Edward Evans, we must never forget you.
#hindley #brady #myra #moors #murders #hattersley #bennett #kilbride #evans #pauline #manchester #1965
