Ian Brady, Adolf Hitler and the Moors Murders
In my recent article detailing the jewish inspiration and blueprint behind the ‘Moors Murders’; I mentioned that it has become common to blame Adolf Hitler as the ‘inspiration’ behind Ian Brady’s twisted beliefs and the ‘Moors Murders’. (1)
In this ancillary article I want to address the claim that Adolf Hitler ‘inspired’ Ian Brady in some way to commit the ‘Moors Murders’.
Claims of this kind are common in the literature on the ‘Moors Murders’ – especially before the importance of Meyer Levin’s 1956 ‘non-fiction novel’ ‘Compulsion’ was revealed by former lead investigator into the ‘Moors Murders’ Peter Topping in 1989 - (2) with Hitler’s ‘influence’ being cited to ‘explain’ Ian Brady’s depraved mind and his vile crimes against children. (3)
Staff for example asserts that ‘de Sade, Hitler and pornography’ were behind the killings (4) but contradicts his own research which points to the central role of Meyer Levin’s ‘Compulsion’ in inspiring - and providing the technical blueprint for - the ‘Moors Murders’. (5)
Staff also points out earlier in his book on the ‘Moors Murders’ that while Brady shared Hitler’s views on blacks and jews; his chief fascination with Hitler was his power over other people via his charisma oratory. (6)
Other writers agree that Brady was fascinated by Hitler because of the perceived similarities between Hitler’s own youth and Brady’s and the latter’s desire to gain the power over others that Hitler had. (7)
One writes how:
‘The similarities between his own background and that of Adolf Hitler intrigued him, and he told her how Hitler, a postcard painter of low parentage who was only a corporal in the army, rose to be ruler of Germany and almost had the free world on its knees. His interest in Nazism, he explained, was based on an admiration of the way Germany had risen from the ruins of the First World War to become one of the richest countries in the world.’ (8)
While the same author also explains how:
‘He admired Hitler’s sense of superiority and belief that others were ‘maggots’ to be rid of on the planet.’ (9)
Put another way Brady admired Hitler because of what he perceived Hitler’s views to be and how Hitler rose from nothing to everything which Brady wished to emulate.
This is easily seen in that Brady was fascinated by the details of claims about ‘Nazi atrocities’ (10) and took Myra Hindley to see films about them, (11) which probably included the film: ‘The Nuremberg Trials’. (12)
However, as Peter Topping - the man who was responsible for the ‘Moor Murders’ investigation and interviewed Brady on numerous occasions – notes this wasn’t because Brady had any commitment at all to Hitler’s philosophy of National Socialism but rather because he was sexually aroused by violence and torture. (13)
Therefore – as Pamela Hansford Johnson noted as early as 1967 - Hitler was clearly not the inspiration behind the Moors Murders and came from Brady’s ‘understanding’ of Hitler as projected by the mainstream media and popular accounts of ‘the crimes of the Nazis’ not from Hitler himself. (14)
The ‘link’ commonly adduced between the ‘Nietzschean’ element of Brady’s philosophy (15) is far better explained by looking to Levin’s 1956 novel ‘Compulsion’ which was ‘a key moment in the development of Brady’s fantasies’ (16) and dealt explicitly with child torture and murder justified by ‘Nietzschean’ philosophy via the famous Leopold and Loeb case in Chicago of 1924.
The simple fact is then that Adolf Hitler was not the ‘inspiration’ for Ian Brady and the ‘Moors Murders’ but Meyer Levin’s ‘non-fiction novel’ ‘Compulsion’ was.
References
(1) See my article: https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-jewish-inspiration-for-the-moors
(2) Peter Topping, 1989, ‘Topping: The Autobiography of the Police Chief in the Moors Murder Case’, 1st Edition, Angus & Robertson: London, pp. 80-81
(3) For example: Fred Harrison, 1986, ‘Brady and Hindley: Genesis of the Moors Murders’, 1st Edition, Ashgrove Press: Bath, pp. 57; 71; Robert Wilson, 1986, ‘The Devil’s Disciples’, 1st Edition, Express Newspapers: London, pp. 17; 21
(4) Duncan Staff, 2008, ‘The Lost Boy: The Definitive Story of the Moors Murders and the Search for the Final Victim’, 1st Edition, Bantam: London, p. 378
(5) Ibid., pp. 173-174; 287
(6) Ibid., p. 157
(7) Anon., 2014, ‘Ian Brady and Myra Hindley: Murder on the Moors’, 1st Edition, Igloo Books: Sywell, p. 16
(8) Ibid., p. 80
(9) Ibid., p. 16; repeated in different form on Ibid., p. 69
(10) Ibid., p. 15; Wilson, Op. Cit., pp. 17; 21
(11) Topping, Op. Cit., p. 26
(12) Anon., Op. Cit., p. 69
(13) Topping, Op. Cit., p. 26
(14) Pamela Hansford Johnson, 1967, ‘On Iniquity: Some Personal Reflections arising out of the Moors Murder Trial’, 1st Edition, Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York, pp. 50-52
(15) For example: Anon., Op. Cit., p. 85
(16) Staff, Op. Cit., p. 173