Fred West

Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, the majority with his second wife, Rose West. 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. Fred fatally asphyxiated himself while detained on remand at HM Prison Birmingham on 1 January 1995, at which time he and Rose were jointly charged with nine murders, and he with three further murders. In November 1995, Rose was convicted of ten murders and sentenced to ten life terms with a whole life order. Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on 29 September 1941, at Bickerton Cottage, Much Marcle, Herefordshire, the first surviving child of Walter Stephen West (1914–1992) and Daisy Hannah Hill (1922–1968). Fred was from a poor family of farm workers, close-knit and mutually protective; his father was a disciplinarian and his mother overprotective. In 1946 the family moved to Moorcourt Cottage, a semi-detached building adjacent to Moorcourt Farm, on the outskirts of Much Marcle, where Fred's father worked as a milking herdsman and harvest hand. The cottage had no electricity and was heated by a log fire. By 1951 Fred's mother had given birth to eight children, six of whom survived; Fred was always his mother's favourite. He was seen as a mother's boy and relied mostly on his siblings for companionship. The West children were expected to perform assigned chores and all six did seasonal work, the three girls picking hops and strawberries, the three boys harvesting wheat and hunting rabbits.