title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" opened to generally positive reviews. Audience polls by CinemaScore reported that moviegoers gave the film an averaged letter grade of "A−".


title: RoboCop

text: Critics noticed influences in the film from the action of "The Terminator" (1984) and "Aliens" (1986), and the narratives of "Frankenstein" (1931), "Repo Man" (1984), and the television series "Miami Vice". "RoboCop" built a distinct, futuristic vision for Detroit, wrote two reviewers, as "Blade Runner" had done for Los Angeles. Multiple critics struggled to identify the film's genre, writing that it combined social satire and philosophy with elements of action, science fiction, thrillers, Westerns, slapstick comedy, romance, snuff films, superhero comics, and camp, without being derivative.


title: RoboCop

text: Some publications found Verhoeven's direction to be smart and darkly comic, offering sharp social satire that, "The Washington Post" suggested, would have been just a simple action film in another director's hands. Others, such as Dave Kehr and the "Chicago Reader", believed the film was over-directed with Verhoeven's European filmmaking style lacking rhythm, tension, and momentum. The "Chicago Reader" wrote that Verhoeven's typical adeptness at portraying the "sleazily psychological" through physicality failed to properly use RoboCop's "Aryan blandness". "The Washington Post" and Roger Ebert both praised Weller's performance and his ability to elicit sympathy and convey chivalry and vulnerability while mostly concealed beneath a bulky costume. Weller offered a certain beauty and grace, wrote "The Washington Post", that added a mythic quality and made his murder even more horrible. In contrast, Weller "hardly registered" behind the mask for the "Chicago Reader". "Variety" highlighted Nancy Allen as providing the only human warmth in the film, and Kurtwood Smith as a well-cast "sicko sadist".


title: RoboCop

text: Many reviewers discussed the film's violent content. The violence was so excessive for Ebert and the "Los Angeles Times" that it became deliberately comical, with Ebert writing that ED-209 killing an executive subverted audience expectations of a seemingly serious and straightforward science-fiction film. The "Los Angeles Times" believed the violent scenes succeeded in creating experiences of sadism and poignancy simultaneously. Other reviewers were more critical, including Kehr and Walter Goodman, who believed "RoboCop" satire and critiques of corporate corruption were excuses to indulge in violent visuals. The "Chicago Reader" found the violence had a "brooding, agonized quality... as if Verhoeven were both appalled and fascinated" by it, and "The Christian Science Monitor" said critical praise for the "nasty" film demonstrated a preference for "style over substance".


title: RoboCop

text: Kehr and "The Washington Post" said the satire of corporations and interchangeable use of corporate executives and street-level criminals was the film's most successful effort, depicting their unchecked greed and callous disregard alongside witty criticisms of subjects such as game shows and military culture. Some reviewers appreciated the film's adaptation of a classic narrative about a tragic hero seeking revenge and redemption, with the "Los Angeles Times" writing that the typical cliché revenge story is transformed by making the protagonist a machine that keeps succumbing to humanity, emotion, and idealism. The "Los Angeles Times" and "The Philadelphia Inquirer" considered RoboCop's victory to be satisfying because it offered a fable about a decent hero fighting back against corruption, villains, and the theft of his humanity, with morality and technology on his side. "The Washington Post" agreed that the film's "heart" is the story of Murphy regaining his humanity, saying "with all our flesh-and-blood heroes failing us—from brokers to ballplayers—we need a man of mettle, a real straight shooter who doesn't fool around with Phi Beta Kappas and never puts anything up his nose. What this world needs is 'RoboCop'."


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" won the Special Achievement for Best Sound Editing (Stephen Flick and John Pospisil) at the 60th Academy Awards. The film received two other nominations: Best Film Editing for Frank J. Urioste (losing to Gabriella Cristiani for the drama film "The Last Emperor") and Best Sound for Michael J. Kohut, Carlos Delarios, Aaron Rochin, and Robert Wald (losing to Bill Rowe and Ivan Sharrock for "The Last Emperor"). A comedy routine at the event featured the RoboCop character rescuing presenter Pee-wee Herman from ED-209. At the 42nd British Academy Film Awards, "RoboCop" received two nominations: Best Makeup and Hair for Carla Palmer (losing to Fabrizio Sforza for "The Last Emperor"); and Best Special Visual Effects for Bottin, Tippett, Kuran, and Gioffre (losing to George Gibbs, Richard Williams, Ken Ralston, and Edward Jones for the 1988 fantasy film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). At the 15th Saturn Awards, "RoboCop" was the most-nominated film. It won awards for Best Science Fiction Film, Best Director for Verhoeven, Best Writing for Neumeier and Miner, Best Make-up for Bottin and Dupuis, and Best Special Effects for Kuran, Tippett, Bottin, and Gioffre. It received a further three nominations, including for Best Actor (Weller) and Best Actress (Allen).


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" was released on VHS in early 1988, priced at $89.98; it made an estimated $24million in sales. Orion promoted the film by having former United States President Richard Nixon shake hands with a RoboCop-costumed actor. Nixon was paid $25,000, which he donated to Boys Club of America. The film was a popular rental, peaking at number 1 in mid-March 1988. Demand for rentals outstripped supply, as estimates suggested there was one VHS copy of a film per 100 households, making it difficult to find new releases such as "Dirty Dancing", "Predator", and "Platoon"; the longest waiting list was for "RoboCop". "RoboCop" was also released in S-VHS in 1988, one of the earliest films to adopt the format. Priced at $39.98, it was offered as a free incentive when buying branded S-VCR players.


title: RoboCop

text: The extended violent content removed from the U.S. theatrical release was restored on a Criterion collection LaserDisc that included audio commentary by Verhoeven, Neumeier, and Davison. The uncut version of the film has since been made available on other home media releases. It was released on DVD by Criterion in September 1998. In June 2004, the DVD version was released in a trilogy boxset that included "RoboCop 2" (1990) and "RoboCop 3" (1993). This edition included featurettes about the making of the film and the RoboCop design. A 20th-anniversary edition was released in August 2007, which included both the theatrical and uncut versions of the film, as well as previous extras and new featurettes on the special effects and villains.


title: RoboCop

text: The scheduled Blu-ray disc debut in 2006 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment was canceled only days before release. Reviews indicated that the video quality was very poor. A new version was released in 2007 by Fox Home Entertainment without any extra features. Reviews indicated that the visual quality had improved, but it retained issues in that images were perceived as grainy or too dark. The trilogy was released as a Blu-ray disc boxset in October 2010. In 2019, a Limited Edition remastered Blu-ray disc was released, featuring a 4K resolution restoration, approved by Verhoeven, from the original film negative. The release included limited edition collectible items (a poster and cards); new commentaries by film historians and fans; deleted scenes; new featurettes with Allen and casting director Julie Selzer; and the theatrical, extended, and television cuts of the film. The 4K restoration was further remastered for a 2022 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release, which included the uncut version scenes being re-scanned from the negative to match the quality of the theatrical cut scans.


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" was considered easier to merchandise than other R-rated films. Despite its violent content, film merchandise was targeted at a younger audience. Merchandise included cap guns, comic books, other assorted toys, theme park rides, novels, and the RoboCop Ultra Police action figures (released alongside the 1988 animated series adaptation "RoboCop"). By the time of the film's release, Marvel Comics had published a black-and-white comic book adaptation of the film, without the violence and adult language; a video game was in development; and negotiations were underway to release T-shirts, other video games, and RoboCop dolls by Christmas. The film's poster was reportedly more popular than the "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue"; and its novelization, written by Ed Naha, was in its second printing by July. Since its release, "RoboCop" has continued to be merchandised, with collectible action figures, clothing, and crockery. A 2014 book, "RoboCop: The Definitive History", details the making of the "RoboCop" franchise.


title: RoboCop

text: The story of RoboCop has been continued in comics, initially by Marvel Comics. The adaptation of the film was reprinted in color to promote an ongoing series that ran for 23 issues between 1987 and 1992, when the rights were transferred to Dark Horse Comics. Dark Horse released multiple miniseries, including "RoboCop Versus The Terminator" (1992), which pitted RoboCop against the machinations of Skynet and its Terminators from "The Terminator" franchise. The story was well-received and was followed by other series, including "Prime Suspect" (1992), "Roulette" (1994), and "Mortal Coils" (1996). The RoboCop series was continued by other publishers: Avatar Press (2003), Dynamite Entertainment (2010), and Boom! Studios (2013).


title: RoboCop

text: Several games based on, or inspired by, the film have been released. A 1988 side-scroller of the same name was released for arcades in 1988, and ported to other platforms, such as the ZX Spectrum and Game Boy. "RoboCop Versus The Terminator", an adaptation of the comic of the same name, was released in 1994. "RoboCop", a 2003 first-person shooter, was poorly received, resulting in the shuttering of developer Titus Interactive.


title: RoboCop

text: A central theme in "RoboCop" is the power of corporations. Those depicted in the film are corrupt and greedy, privatizing public services and gentrifying the entirety of Detroit. A self-described hippie who grew up during the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, Miner was critical of the pro-business policies of President Reagan and believed Detroit to be a city destroyed by American corporations. The Detroit presented in the film is described by various authors as one beset by rape, crime, and "Reaganomics gone awry", where gentrification is equivalent to crime and unfettered capitalism of Reagan-era politics results in corporations conducting literal war as the police become a profit-driven entity. Miner said that out-of-control crime was a particularly Republican or right-wing fear, but "RoboCop" puts the blame for drugs and crime on advancing technology and the privatization of public services, such as hospitals, prisons and the police. The criticism of Reagan-era policies was in the script but Verhoeven did not personally understand urban politics such as privatizing prisons. Weller said that trickle-down economics espoused by Reagan were "bullshit" and did not work fast enough for those in need.


title: RoboCop

text: Michael Robertson described the media breaks throughout the film as direct criticisms of neoliberal Reagan policies. He focused on OCP's claim that it has private ownership over RoboCop, despite making use of Murphy's corpse. The Old Man was based on Reagan, and the corporation policies emphasize greed and profit over individual rights. The police are deliberately underfunded and the creation of RoboCop is done with the aim of supplanting the police with a more efficient force. Jones openly admits that it does not matter if ED-209 works, because they have contracts to provide spare parts for years. He plots with Boddicker to corrupt the workers brought in to build Delta City with drugs and prostitution. Davison believed the film is politically liberal but the violence made it "fascism for liberals". It also demonstrates a pro-labor union stance: the police chief, believing in the essential nature of their service, refuses to strike but the underfunded, understaffed and under-assault police eventually do so. OCP sees the strike merely as an opportunity to develop more robots.


title: RoboCop

text: Vince Mancini describes the 1980s as a period in which cinematic heroes were unambiguously good, as depicted in films that promoted suburban living, materialism, and unambiguous villains, such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) and "Back to the Future" (1985). Some films of the decade send the message that authority is good and to be trusted, but "RoboCop" demonstrates that those in authority are flawed, and that Detroit has been carved up by greed, capitalism, and cheap foreign labor. Weller described RoboCop as an evolution of strait-laced heroes of the 1940s—such as Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart—who lived life honorably, with modern audiences now cheering a maimed police officer taking brutal revenge.


title: RoboCop

text: Susan Jeffords considers "RoboCop" to be among the many "hard body" films of the decade that portray perfect, strong, masculine physiques who must protect the "soft bodies": the ineffectual and the weak. RoboCop portrays strength by eliminating crime and redeeming the city through violence. Bullets ricochet harmlessly off RoboCop's armor; and even attempts to attack his crotch, a typical weak point, only hurt the attacker, demonstrating the uncompromising strength and masculinity needed to eliminate crime. Darian Leader argues that it requires the addition of something unnatural to a biological body to be truly masculine. RoboCop's body incorporates technology, a symbolic addition that makes him more than an average man.


title: RoboCop

text: Another central theme is the question of what humanity is, and how much of Murphy is left in RoboCop. Neumeier wanted to leave audiences asking "what's left" of Murphy, and he described the character's journey as one of coping with his transformation. As an officer, Murphy works for a corporation that insists it owns individuals based on waivers and can do with Murphy's remains as it wishes. Even so, Murphy does the right thing and fights against the demands of his corporate masters. Despite his inhuman appearance, RoboCop has a soul, experiences real human fears, and has a core consciousness that makes him more than a machine. In contrast, Brooks Landon argues that Murphy is dead and, while he recalls memories of Murphy's life, RoboCop is not and can never be Murphy and regain enough of his humanity to rejoin his family. Dale Bradley posits that RoboCop is a machine who mistakenly thinks it is Murphy because of its composite parts and only believes it has a human spirit within. An alternative view is that RoboCop's personality is a new construct informed partially by fragments of Murphy's own personality. Slavoj Žižek describes Murphy as a man between life and death, who is by all measure deceased and simultaneously reanimated with mechanical parts. As he regains his humanity, he transforms from a state of being programmed by others to his former state as a being of desire. Žižek calls this return of the living dead a fundamental fantasy of the masses, the desire to avoid death and take revenge against the living.


title: RoboCop

text: Murphy's death is prolonged and violent so that the audience can see RoboCop as imbued with the humanity taken from him by the inhumane actions of Boddicker's gang and OCP. Verhoeven considered it important to acknowledge the inherent darkness of humanity to avoid inevitable mutual destruction. He was affected by his childhood experiences during World War II and the inhuman actions he witnessed. He believed the concept of the immaculate hero died following the war and subsequent heroes had a dark side that they had to overcome. Describing the difference between making films in Europe and America, Verhoeven said that a European "RoboCop" would explore the spiritual and psychological problems of RoboCop's condition, where the American version focuses on revenge. He also incorporated Christian mythology into the film: Murphy's brutal death is referred to as the crucifixion of Jesus before his resurrection as RoboCop, an American Jesus who walks on water at the steel mill and wields a handgun. Verhoeven asserted he had no belief in the resurrection of Jesus but "[he] can see the value of that idea, the purity of that idea. So from an artistic point of view, it's absolutely true". The scene of RoboCop returning to Murphy's home is described as like finding the Garden of Eden or a paradise.


title: RoboCop

text: Brooks Landon describes the film as typical of the cyberpunk genre, because it does not treat RoboCop as better or worse than average humans, simply different and asks the audience to consider him as a new lifeform. The film does not treat this technological advance as necessarily negative, just an inevitable result of a progression that will change one's life and one's understanding of what it means to be human. In this way, the RoboCop character is the embodiment of the struggle of humanity in giving itself over to technology. The central cast are not given romantic interests or overt sexual desires. Paul Sammon described the scene of RoboCop shooting bottles of baby food as a symbol of the relationship he and Lewis can never have. Taylor concurred but believed the confrontation between Morton and Jones in the OCP bathroom was sexualized.


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" is considered a groundbreaking entry in the science fiction genre. Unlike many protagonists at the time, the film's central character is not a robotic-like human who is stoic and invincible, but a human-like robot who is openly affected by his lost humanity. In a 2013 interview, following Detroit's real-life bankruptcy and being labeled as the most dangerous place in America, Neumeier spoke about the prescience of the film. He said, "We are now living in the world that I was proposing in "RoboCop"... how big corporations will take care of us and... how they won't." Verhoeven described "RoboCop" as a film ahead of its time, which could not be improved with digital effects. Weller said the filming experience as among the worst of his life, mainly because of the RoboCop costume. Verhoeven also considered filming "RoboCop" as a miserable experience, in part due to the difficulties with special effects and things going wrong. In contrast, Ferrer described it as the best summer of his life.


title: RoboCop

text: The film's impact was not limited to North America: Neumeier recalled finding unlicensed RoboCop dolls on sale near the Colosseum in Rome. He has stated that many robotics labs use a "Robo-" prefix for projects in reference to the film, and he was hired as a United States Air Force consultant for futuristic concepts directly because of his involvement in "RoboCop". In the years immediately following its release, Verhoeven parlayed his success into directing the science fiction film "Total Recall" (1990)—featuring Cox—and the erotic thriller "Basic Instinct" (1992). He also worked with Neumeier on the science fiction film "Starship Troopers" (1997). In 2020, "The Guardian"s Scott Tobias wrote that with hindsight "RoboCop" formed the beginning of Verhoeven's unofficial science fiction action film trilogy about authoritarian governance, followed by "Total Recall" and "Starship Troopers". Previously typecast as moral characters, Cox credited "RoboCop" with changing his image and—along with the "Beverly Hills Cop" films—boosting his film career to make him one of the decade's most iconic villains.


title: RoboCop

text: The RoboCop, ED-209, and Clarence Boddicker characters are considered iconic. Dialogue, including RoboCop's "Dead or alive, you're coming with me," ED-209's "You have 20 seconds to comply," and television host Bixby Snyder's "I'd buy that for a dollar", are similarly considered iconic and among the film's most recognizable. The film has been referred to in a variety of media, from television (including "Family Guy", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Red Dwarf", "South Park", and "The Simpsons") to films (including "Hot Shots! Part Deux" and "Ready Player One") and video games ("Deus Ex" and its prequel ""). "Doom Eternal" (2020) creative director Hugo Martin also cited it as an inspiration. RoboCop (voiced by Weller) appears as a playable character in the fighting game "Mortal Kombat 11" (2019). The character also served as a design inspiration for the Nintendo Power Glove (1989), and appeared in advertisements for KFC in 2019 (again voiced by Weller), and Direct Line in 2020, alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bumblebee.


title: RoboCop

text: The crowdfunded making-of documentary "RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop" is in development. It covers the technical production of the first three "RoboCop" films and features interviews with many of the cast and crew involved, except Weller who declined to participate. Weller had said everything he wanted to say about the film and vowed not to discuss it again. Even so, he participated in a 30th-anniversary screening of the film by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema at Dallas City Hall, because it was in his home town and he considered it a homage to the city. A RoboCop statue is to be erected in Detroit. First proposed in 2011, $70,000 was crowdfunded for its construction. The idea for the statue had Weller's backing and the approval of "RoboCop" rights-holder Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). As of 2022, the statue was completed and awaiting installation at an undisclosed location.


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop" has been named one of the best science-fiction and action films of all time, and among the best films of the 1980s. On review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a approval rating, based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website summarizes the reviews with: "While over-the-top and gory, "RoboCop" is also a surprisingly smart sci-fi flick that uses ultraviolence to disguise its satire of American culture." The film has a score of 70 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Rotten Tomatoes also listed the film at number139 on its list of 200 essential movies to watch, and one of 300 essential movies. In the 2000s, "The New York Times" listed it as one of the 1,000 Best Movies Ever, and "Empire" listed the film at number404 on its list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.


title: RoboCop

text: Filmmakers have spoken of their appreciation for "RoboCop" or cited it as an inspiration in their own careers, including Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Neill Blomkamp, Leigh Whannell, as well as Ken Russell, who called it the best science fiction film since Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927). During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, it was among the action films director James Gunn recommended people watch.


title: RoboCop

text: By November 1987, Orion had greenlit development of a sequel targeting a PG rating that would allow children to see the film unaccompanied by adults, and tying into the 12-episode animated series "RoboCop", which was released by Marvel Productions in 1988. Neumeier and Miner began writing the film but were fired after refusing to work through the 1988 writers strike, and were replaced by Frank Miller, whose second draft was made into "RoboCop 2", and his first draft became the second sequel "RoboCop 3". Weller reprised his role in the Irvin Kershner–directed first sequel, which was released to mixed reviews and was estimated to have lost the studio money.


title: RoboCop

text: "RoboCop 3", directed by Fred Dekker, was targeted mainly at younger audiences, who were driving merchandise sales. Robert John Burke replaced Weller in the title role, and Allen returned as Anne Lewis for the third and final time in the series. The film was a critical and financial failure. A live-action television series, "RoboCop," was released the same year, but also fared poorly critically and was cancelled after 22 episodes. Starring Richard Eden as RoboCop, the series was notable for involving Neumeier and Miner, and using aspects of their original "RoboCop 2" ideas. A second animated series followed in 1998, "". Page Fletcher was featured as RoboCop in the four-part live-action miniseries "" (2001). The series is set 10 years after the events of the first film and ignores the events of the sequels. After years of experiencing financial difficulties, Orion—and the rights to "RoboCop"—were purchased by MGM in the late 1990s.


title: RoboCop

text: A 2014 reboot of the 1987 original, also called "RoboCop", was directed by José Padilha and features Joel Kinnaman in the title role. The film received mixed reviews but was a financial success. Verhoeven said that he "should be dead" before a reboot was attempted, and Allen believed an "iconic" film should not be remade. "RoboCop Returns", a direct sequel to "RoboCop" that ignores the series' other films, is in development. The film is set to be directed by Abe Forsythe, who is rewriting a script written by Neumeier, Miner, and Justin Rhodes. In 2020, Ed Neumeier revealed to MovieHole that a "RoboCop" prequel TV series is in development, which will focus on a young Dick Jones and the rise of Omni Consumer Products.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Jason Bourne is a 2016 American action-thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass and written by Greengrass and Christopher Rouse. It is the fifth installment of the "Bourne" film series and a direct sequel to "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007). Matt Damon reprises his role as the main character, former CIA assassin Jason Bourne. In addition, the film stars Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Vincent Cassel, Riz Ahmed, Ato Essandoh, and Scott Shepherd.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: The character Aaron Cross, from "The Bourne Legacy" (2012), does not appear in the film because director Greengrass wanted to focus on the title character, and because actor Jeremy Renner was unable to participate due to scheduling conflicts. In "Jason Bourne", Bourne remains on the run from CIA hit squads as he tries to uncover hidden truths about his father, while CIA director Robert Dewey (Jones) orders the head of cyber-security Heather Lee (Vikander) to hunt him down. Principal photography on the film commenced on September 8, 2015.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: "Jason Bourne" premiered in London on July 11, 2016, and was theatrically released in the U.S. by Universal Pictures on July 29, 2016. A 3D version was also released in limited Asian countries, namely China, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $415 million worldwide.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Twelve years after exposing Blackbriar, ex-CIA agent and Treadstone operative Jason Bourne has finally recovered from his amnesia, isolating himself from the world and making a living as a street fighter in Greece. In Reykjavík, Treadstone technician Nicky Parsons, who has been collaborating with a hacktivist group led by Christian Dassault, hacks into the CIA's mainframe computer server to expose its black ops programs. In the process, Parsons finds documentation concerning Bourne's recruitment into Treadstone and his father's role in the program. She travels to Athens to find and inform him.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Parson's information breach alerts Heather Lee, the CIA’s cybersecurity operations division head, and CIA Director Robert Dewey. They send CIA teams after Bourne and Parsons, who have arranged to meet in Greece at Syntagma Square during a violent anti-government protest. Dewey also sends the Asset, an ex-Blackbriar operative who holds a personal grudge against Bourne for having been captured and tortured in Syria as an unintentional consequence of Bourne's exposure of Blackbriar. Parsons is shot by the Asset, and passes Bourne the key to a locker which holds the CIA files before dying.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Seeking answers about his past and family, Bourne locates Dassault in Berlin. Decrypting Parsons's files, Bourne discovers that his father Richard Webb was a CIA analyst involved in the creation of the Treadstone program. A malware program implanted in the files gives the CIA Bourne's location, and Dewey sends a team to capture him, while Lee remotely erases the files. Dassault attacks Bourne, but is incapacitated. Lee alerts Bourne to the team closing in, as she believes that he can be persuaded to return to the agency after seeing Bourne's behaviour report. Using the few leads he gathered in Berlin, Bourne tracks Malcolm Smith, an ex-Treadstone surveillance operative, in London and arranges to meet him in Paddington Plaza.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Lee persuades Dewey's boss, Edwin Russell, the National Intelligence Director, to allow her to contact Bourne in person to attempt to bring him back in. Dewey, who opposes her plan, secretly instructs the Asset to eliminate her team and kill Bourne. Bourne confronts Smith, who confesses that Webb was not just an analyst for Treadstone but played a significant role in creating it. When he found out that the agency was trying to recruit his son, he threatened to expose the program as he did not want his son to become one of their assassins. The Asset killed Webb under Dewey's orders in Beirut, framing it as a terrorist attack to incentivize Bourne to join Treadstone. The Asset interrupts and kills Smith, but Bourne escapes. He locates Lee, who admits she is uncomfortable with Dewey's methods and directs Bourne to a technology convention in Las Vegas.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Dewey is scheduled to attend the convention for a public debate on privacy rights with Aaron Kalloor, CEO of social media giant Deep Dream. Kalloor is the public face of corporate social responsibility in the Internet age, but he was secretly funded by Dewey in the startup stage. Dewey intends to use Deep Dream for real-time mass surveillance alongside the latest incarnation of the CIA's targeted assassination "Beta" program, known as "Iron Hand", a much more ruthless and sinister version of Blackbriar in which the assassin can intentionally murder anyone to get to the target. When Kalloor has second thoughts about giving the CIA access to Deep Dream, Dewey authorizes the Asset to assassinate Kalloor and Lee, having discovered that she let Bourne pass through immigration. Bourne thwarts the assassinations and confronts Dewey in his suite. Dewey attempts to stage an ambush, but is killed by Lee. Bourne pursues the Asset on the Las Vegas Strip, and the pair ends up crashing into the Riviera casino. Bourne chases the Asset down into the sewers and engage in a savage fight that ends with Bourne snapping the Asset's neck, killing him.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: In the aftermath, Lee, whose involvement in Dewey's death was covered, convinces Russell that Dewey's methods were outdated and offers herself as Dewey's replacement as CIA director and Russell's eyes and ears within the CIA. She outlines her plan to use Bourne's trust to bring him back to the agency, but is prepared to kill him if he refuses. Lee meets with Bourne, who says he will consider the offer. Lee returns only to realize Bourne had her and Russell's conversation recorded, indicating he was aware of her true intentions with him, before he disappears again.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: In May 2007, prior to the release of "The Bourne Ultimatum", Matt Damon stated that he would not be interested in returning for a fourth "Bourne" film, remarking of his participation in the "Bourne" franchise: "We have ridden that horse as far as we can." Damon said in August 2007:


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Instead "The Bourne Legacy" was released in the U.S. on August 10, 2012 with Jeremy Renner replacing Damon as the star. Despite getting mixed reviews Universal noted that they planned to continue with the series, with Damon and Paul Greengrass later expressing interest in returning.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: On September 15, 2014, it was announced that Damon and Greengrass would indeed return for the next "Bourne" film. In November 2014, Damon confirmed that he and Greengrass would return, with a script from themselves, with Christopher Rouse editing. On May 23, 2015, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Alicia Vikander was in talks to star with Damon in the fifth film. On June 19, 2015, "Deadline" reported that Julia Stiles had confirmed she would be reprising the role of Nicky Parsons in the film, a character she had previously played in the first three films. Viggo Mortensen was in talks to play the villain role. On June 23, 2015, Vikander was confirmed to star in the sequel, while she was also in talks for the "Assassin's Creed" film, which she passed on. On July 28, 2015, Tommy Lee Jones joined the film's cast to play a senior CIA officer. On September 1, 2015, Vincent Cassel was cast in the film as an assassin who tracks Bourne. On September 15, 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that actor Ato Essandoh was cast in the film as an unspecified character. On October 20, 2015, Scott Shepherd was added to the cast to play the deputy director of the CIA. On November 4, 2015, "Variety" confirmed that Riz Ahmed had signed on to play the role of a tech specialist working with the CIA.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Principal photography on the film commenced on September 8, 2015. In late November 2015, filming took place in Kreuzberg, Berlin. In early December 2015, filming started in Washington, D.C., where shooting took place at Constitution Gardens. Filming in Las Vegas, Nevada was scheduled to begin on January 14, 2016, lasting until January 21. Filming also took place at stages F and H at Leavesden Studios. The Leavesden set was used as the CIA hub space in the film. Production on the film concluded on February 1, 2016.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: On January 6, 2015, Universal set the film's United States release date as July 29, 2016. The first trailer for the film was aired on February 7, 2016, during Super Bowl 50 and revealed the title of the film. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2016. It was released in 2D and IMAX 3D in select international territories only, using DMR.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: "Jason Bourne" was released on Digital HD and on Blu-ray/DVD October 25, 2016, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: The soundtrack to "Jason Bourne", as composed by John Powell and David Buckley, and additional music by Batu Sener, was released digitally on July 29, 2016, by Back Lot Music. A new version of Moby's "Extreme Ways", entitled "Extreme Ways (Jason Bourne)", was recorded for the film's end credits.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: "Jason Bourne" became a commercial success, with a modest budget compared to its final gross. The film grossed $162.4 million in the United States and Canada and $253.1 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $415.5 million, against a production budget of $120 million.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: The film passed the $400 million threshold on October 7, making it the second film in the "Bourne" franchise to reach this milestone and the second highest-grossing film in the series behind "The Bourne Ultimatum". Worldwide, the film opened at number one in 50 markets, scoring the biggest debut in the franchise in 53 markets. In 51 territories, "Jason Bourne" is the highest-grossing film in the franchise. It is the third highest-grossing film of 2016 (behind "Warcraft" and "The Mermaid") that is not about comic book superheroes or anthropomorphic animals (including "The Jungle Book").


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, "Jason Bourne" was projected to gross $50–60 million in its opening weekend. It made $4.2 million from Thursday night previews at 2,928 theaters which began at 7:00pm, becoming the first film in the series to earn above $1 million from previews, although the other four films' screenings began at midnight. On its opening day it grossed $22.8 million, which is the second biggest opening day of the series behind "The Bourne Ultimatum" ($24.6 million). It topped the box office in its opening weekend as expected with a $59.2 million opening, making it one of the few franchise titles from 2016 to open on par with its predecessor. It is the second biggest opening for the franchise as well as for Damon, just behind the $69 million debut of "The Bourne Ultimatum" in 2007. The film dropped by 71% on its second Friday ($6.5 million) as a result of the release of the superhero film "Suicide Squad". By comparison, the last four "Bourne" movies all dropped (respectively) 46%, 59%, 57% and 61% on their second Fridays. In its second weekend the film grossed $22.7 million (a drop of 61.6%), finishing second at the box office.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Internationally, "Jason Bourne" is the highest-grossing film of the series and has secured a release in a total of 78 countries. The film opened day-and-date in conjuncture with its North American release across 46 territories, including Australia, Brazil, South Korea and the U.K. and Ireland. It grossed $22.8 million on its opening day, marking the biggest international opening day for the franchise. It had No. 1 opening days in 28 markets and recorded the biggest opening day for the franchise in the United Kingdom and Ireland ($5.2 million). Through Sunday, July 31, it had an opening weekend total of $50.7 million easily topping the box office as well as debuting at first place in 27 of the 48 markets and scored the best international opening for the franchise. After three weeks of fluctuating up and down the charts, it rose back to the top spot in its fourth weekend after a strong debut in China.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: It recorded the biggest opening for the franchise in South Korea ($11.3 million), the United Kingdom ($10.2 million), Australia ($5.8 million) Japan ($4.4 million) and Russia ($2.1 million) and had number one openings in France ($3.4 million), Australia, Taiwan ($2 million), Spain ($1.9 million), Indonesia ($1.7 million), the Philippines ($1.5 million) the Netherlands ($1.5 million), Mexico ($1.5 million), the UAE ($1.2 million), Sweden ($1.1 million) and Singapore ($1.1 million).


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Brazil was one of the markets that did not open in first place, instead opening in fourth place with $1.4 million. South Korea posted the biggest opening among all other countries and although it faced stiff competition from local titles – "Operation Chromite" and "Train to Busan" – debuted in third place. Its opening figure is nevertheless a franchise milestone and comes ahead of competitions like "Spectre" and "Furious 7". Similarly, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it finished in second place after facing competition with the animated "Finding Dory". It had a £7.6 million ($10 million) debut including £2.29 million ($3 million) worth of previews from 563 theaters, a new record for the franchise. However, based on pure Friday to Sunday earnings with the exclusion of previews, the film's £5.31 ($6.98 million) is more or less at par with "The Bourne Ultimatum"s £5.31 million ($7 million). In just 10 days, it became the second highest-grossing film in the series there. In India, it debuted in second place for a non-local film behind "Suicide Squad" with $1.1 million.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: In China, the film was released on Tuesday, August 23, alongside the animated "" and received an exclusive 3D version. It grossed an estimated $12.3 million on its opening day to record the franchise's best opening day there (other Chinese sources had it at $11.8 million). By comparison, "The Bourne Legacy" made $12.7 there in four days. In three days, it earned $25.1 million. In total, it delivered a six-day opening weekend total of an estimated $49.1 million – and a Friday to Sunday total of $23.9 million – to record the biggest opening for the franchise there. Its opening numbers alone surpassed the lifetime total of all other "Jason Bourne" films there. While it had a robust opening, compared to other Hollywood films that also opened on a Tuesday, such as "" (Friday +18%, Saturday +68%) and "" (Friday +37%, Saturday +88%), "Jason Bourne"s box office jumps on its first Friday and Saturday were just 13% and 43% respectively. Following a first-place finish, it fell precipitously by 92% in its second weekend, earning $3.8 million. China Film Insider projected that the film will end its run with a total of around $82 million, and also pointed out that had Universal not scheduled its release with "Ice Age: Collision Course", the film could've grossed over $100 million. But the film ended up making $66.3 million.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Following North America and China, the U.K. is the film's top earning international market with $30.4 million, followed by South Korea with $19.1 million and Australia with $16.7 million and France with $11.6 million.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 54% based on 324 reviews, with a weighted average score of 5.80/10. The website's critical consensus states, ""Jason Bourne" delivers fans of the franchise more of what they've come to expect – which is this sequel's biggest selling point as well as its greatest flaw." Metacritic gave the film a normalized score of 58 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Mike Ryan of "Uproxx" gave the film a mixed review, writing: ""Jason Bourne" is a completely unnecessary sequel that barely moves along the plot from the third movie. And after what a Big Deal it was in "The Bourne Legacy" that no one could find Jason Bourne, it does feel a bit weird that the return of Jason Bourne seems so anticlimactic." Chris Tilly of "IGN" gave the film 7/10, saying: ""Jason Bourne" has a passable plot and a couple of pulsating sequences, which already makes it better than the majority of action movies. But in the context of its predecessors, that isn't good enough, the new movie never fully escaping the shadow of that previous trilogy, and making you question the wisdom of drawing Bourne back out of the shadows at all."


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" described Damon's performance as being "as subdued as ever" and said: "[t]his is perhaps the most striking feature of "Jason Bourne": Virtually all the major characters—good, bad and in-between—work for the same organization, at least on a consulting basis. There are dark whispers about external threats, and invocations of the tension between security and privacy in the digital age, but geopolitics and technology are scaffolding for what is essentially a movie about human resources challenges in a large bureaucracy." Peter Debruge of "Variety" said, "[i]n many ways, "Jason Bourne" is the most unsettling movie in the series, seeing as it points to a vast conspiracy directed at the American people, and Greengrass's style—rendered visceral via the marriage of Barry Ackroyd's on-the-fly lensing, a tense techno score, and Rouse's cutting-room trickery—lends itself nicely to an era in which shadow forces rely on such tools as satellite surveillance and facial recognition software." He went on by saying, "just as the initial Damon-driven trilogy wrapped up Bourne's business but left us wanting more, this sequel offers closure even as it entices us with the possibility of his return."


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Richard Roeper of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three and a half out of four stars, describing Damon's performance as being, "outstanding as the tightly wound, perpetually restless and conflicted Jason Bourne, who is practically a superhero when it comes to fighting but is utterly lost the rest of the time", and said: ""Jason Bourne" is the best action thriller of the year so far, with a half-dozen terrific chase sequences and fight scenes. At one point the action swings to Vegas, and while some of what transpires is almost cartoonishly over-the-top, it's great fun." Todd McCarthy of "The Hollywood Reporter" found the film's conclusion and the characters distasteful, writing: "unfortunately, then, the film ends on a flat, unimpressive note, as well as with the realization that, no matter how much time we've spent with them, the characters remain utterly one-dimensional", but went on by saying, "technically and logistically, Greengrass delivers everything you expect from him; there's no one better when it comes to staging complex, chaotic action amid the real life of big cities. As before, cinematographer Barry Ackroyd is a great asset in this regard, and all production and effects hands join seamlessly in the achieved goal of physical verisimilitude."


title: Jason Bourne (film)

text: Frank Marshall said Universal Pictures is hoping to plan a sequel to "Jason Bourne", making it the sixth Bourne film. He also stated that an upcoming film would expand the Bourne universe. However, in March 2017, Matt Damon cast doubt upon a sequel, hinting that people "might be done" with the character, but previously stated he would be up to work with Jeremy Renner on a Bourne film, "If they could find a way". In September 2019, Ben Smith, the producer of the "Treadstone" television series, confirmed that another movie was "definitely" in the works and that it would be in the same universe as the TV show.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Benjamin Thomas Barnes (born 20 August 1981) is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his roles as Prince Caspian in "The Chronicles of Narnia" film series (2008–2010), Logan Delos in "Westworld" (2016–2020), Billy Russo/Jigsaw in the Marvel series "The Punisher" (2017–2019), and The Darkling in the Netflix series "Shadow and Bone" (2021–).


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: He also played young Dustan Thorn in "Stardust" (2007), the titular role in "Dorian Gray" (2009), Neil McCormick in "Killing Bono" (2011), Alejandro in "The Big Wedding" (2013), Tom Ward in "Seventh Son" (2014), Samuel Adams in "Sons of Liberty" (2015) and Benjamin Greene in "Gold Digger" (2019).


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes released his first single, "11:11", with a music video in September 2021 ahead of the release of his debut extended play, "Songs For You", including a music video for "Rise Up" in October. The EP features the songs "11:11", "Rise Up", "Pirate Song", "Not The End", and "Ordinary Day".


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes was born on 20 August 1981 in southwest London to Patricia Becker, a relationship psychotherapist, and Thomas Barnes, a psychiatrist and professor. He has a younger brother, Jack. Barnes cites his mother's Jewish South African childhood, his father's scientific education, and his attendance at what he felt was a "vaguely Christian" school where he "liked the hymns" as formative influences.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes was educated at two independent schools for boys: Homefield Preparatory School in Sutton and King's College School in Wimbledon. In King's, he sang in choirs and played percussions (drums and piano) in jazz orchestras and concert bands. In 1997 he began his career in musical theatre by joining the National Youth Music Theatre where, at age sixteen, he gave his first performance as a drummer in the West End musical adaptation of "Bugsy Malone". Prior to university, he spent two years singing, television presenting, and working with entertainment svengali Simon Fuller to open a jazz club and release an album, both of which did not materialise.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes then studied English literature and drama at Kingston University, appearing and directing in productions such as "Don Juan" (as the lead), "The Golden Age", "Exposure" and "The Zoo Story". He won the English Prize for writing essays on themes from "Harry Potter" and "The Hobbit". While working at the theatre on intense acts such as "The Ragged Child", "The Dreaming", "Loving Ophelia", "Sex Chip" and "Rock ‘N’Roll", he briefly joined the boyband Hyrise, longlisted as the UK's 2004 Eurovision entry with their song "Leading Me On". Graduating in 2004 with a BA (Hons) in Drama with English Literature, he was the university's first drama student to achieve First Class Honours. In 2008, he was inducted in the university's Wall of Fame, the youngest to be featured among more than twenty accomplished alumni.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes began working on television in 2006, including a guest appearance on the UK series "Doctors". That same year, he joined the ensemble cast of a West End production of "The History Boys", in which he starred and received acclaim as the sexually provocative Dakin.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes made his feature film debut as young Dunstan Thorn in "Stardust" (2007), directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name. He starred as a Russian hoodlum named Cobakka in Suzie Halewood's "Bigga Than Ben" (2008).


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In June 2008, Barnes gained recognition for his role as Prince Caspian in "", directed by Andrew Adamson. Adamson described the film as "a coming of age and, to some degree, a loss of innocence story, with Caspian starting out quite naïve, then craving revenge and finally letting go of the vengeance." While many readers interpret Caspian as a child, a passage in the novel mentions his age to be near that of Peter's, so an older actor was sought to match William Moseley. Barnes was cast two-and-a-half weeks after meeting with the filmmakers, and fitted well into the surrogate family of Adamson and the four actors playing the Pevensies. He spent two months in New Zealand riding and stunt training in preparation. His Mediterranean accent in the film was inspired in part by Mandy Patinkin's performance as Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride". Barnes also voiced his character in the video game "". His portrayal earned him nominations from the 2008 National Movie Awards for Best Male Performance, the 2008 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie Breakout Male, and the 2009 MTV Movie Awards for Best Breakthrough Male.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In November 2008, Barnes starred in the role of John Whittaker opposite Jessica Biel and Colin Firth in Stephan Elliott's romantic comedy "Easy Virtue", based on Noël Coward's play of the same name. The score contained Coward and jazz-age songs, three of which were sung by Barnes. He then starred as the title character in "Dorian Gray", a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, directed by Oliver Parker and released in September 2009. In the psychological thriller "Locked In", directed by Suri Krishnamma and released in September 2010, he played Josh, an American father whose daughter seems to be in a coma due to a car accident.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes reprised his role as King Caspian in "", the third instalment in the film series. Directed by Michael Apted and filmed in Australia, it premiered in November 2010 at a Royal Film Performance in London and had a theatrical release in December. He received a nomination at the 2011 National Movie Awards for Performance of the Year.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes returned to the West End stage in London with a starring role as World War I soldier Stephen Wraysford in "Birdsong", a drama based on Sebastian Faulks's novel of the same title. The play, directed by Trevor Nunn and adapted by Rachel Wagstaff, opened on 28 September 2010 and ran through 15 January 2011.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In April 2011, he played Neil McCormick in "Killing Bono", a comedy based on McCormick's memoir "I Was Bono's Doppelgänger", in which McCormick recounts his youth in Ireland as an aspiring rock star who is overshadowed by his friend Bono, the lead singer of U2. "The Hollywood Reporter" says Barnes and his co-star Robert Sheehan "convincingly portray young talents who were in the right place at the right time but made the wrong moves".


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In September 2012, Barnes appeared in "The Words" as a young American soldier and literary genius stationed in France during the end of World War II, who fell in love with a French waitress and whose manuscript gets lost in post-war era. Though his performance was physical with little to no dialogue, "Screen Rant" described his character's story as "easily the most fascinating element of the film" and called his performance "solid" which "beautifully captures the many profound emotions — love, loss, and regret — that his character experienced."


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: He then played Alejandro in "The Big Wedding", a remake of the original 2006 French film "Mon frère se marie" (My brother is getting married) released in April 2013.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In December 2014, Barnes starred as Nick Tortano, an associate of a local mafia boss, in the modern day crime drama "By the Gun". In the same month was the release of the fantasy film "Seventh Son" in which he played Tom Ward. Directed by Sergei Bodrov, it is based on the novel "The Spook's Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In January 2015, Barnes portrayed Sam Adams, a tax collector for the British government, in History Channel's three-part miniseries "Sons of Liberty". He also starred as guitarist and singer Ryan Brenner, reuniting with Katherine Heigl in the romantic drama "Jackie & Ryan", released in US cinemas in July 2015. "Variety" wrote that with "his male-model features shamelessly lapped up by the camera from the opening frame onwards, [Barnes] is as limber and likeable as he's yet appeared on screen, his native accent convincingly hidden behind a middle-American husk." Barnes would later regard this character as his most favourite to portray, "I enjoyed all the music from that film and found Ryan a soulful character to embody, which made me try to re-evaluate how complicated life can get."


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In HBO's dystopian science fiction series "Westworld", based on the 1973 film of the same name and the first season of which aired in October 2016, Barnes played the young businessman Logan Delos, the uninhibited heir apparent of Delos Corporation who led their company's investment into Westworld, a technologically built Wild West-themed amusement park populated by android "hosts". The cast received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: Barnes portrayed Billy Russo, a former sniper who started his own private military company Anvil, in "The Punisher", a Netflix adaptation set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the first season of which aired in November 2017. Barnes described his character as "someone who's very narcissistic, vain and greedy, and sees himself in an extremely powerful alpha way" and who is also "fueled by a broken and abused past." He consulted his psychotherapist parents to ensure the authenticity of his depiction of the veteran's mental health issues.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: He returned in a recurring role as Logan Delos in the second season of "Westworld" which premiered in April 2018. In January 2019, he reprised his role as a scar-faced Billy Russo in the second season of "The Punisher". In this season Barnes said he "had freedom to explore the trauma of brain damage and memory loss and the frustration, anger and pain that accompanies that." He then played the 36-year-old charming copywriter Benjamin Greene who pursued a 60-year-old wealthy divorcée in BBC One's miniseries "Gold Digger". Originally broadcast weekly on BBC One from November 2019, it was aired on Acorn TV in May 2020 for US audience.


title: Ben Barnes (actor)

text: In October 2019, Barnes was cast as General Kirigan in the 2021 Netflix fantasy series "Shadow and Bone". The series overall received mixed reviews from critics, but Barnes' performance garnered more praise, with "Empire" describing him as "dashing", and "Rolling Stone" and "Radio Times" praising his performance as General Kirigan.


title: Moors murders

text: The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans—aged between 10 and 17, at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The bodies of two of the victims were discovered in 1965, in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. Bennett's body is also thought to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.


title: Moors murders

text: The pair were charged only for the murders of Kilbride, Downey and Evans, and received life sentences under a whole life tariff. The investigation was reopened in 1985 after Brady was reported as having confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett. After confessing to these additional murders, Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist in the search for the graves.


title: Moors murders

text: Characterised by the press as "the most evil woman in Britain", Hindley made several appeals against her life sentence, claiming she was a reformed woman and no longer a danger to society, but was never released. She died in 2002 in West Suffolk Hospital, aged 60, after serving 36 years in prison.


title: Moors murders

text: Brady was diagnosed as a psychopath in 1985 and confined in the high-security Ashworth Hospital. He made it clear that he never wished to be released and repeatedly asked to be allowed to die. He died in 2017, at Ashworth, aged 79.


title: Moors murders

text: The murders were the result of what Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, described as a "concatenation of circumstances". The trial judge, Justice Fenton Atkinson, described Brady and Hindley in his closing remarks as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity". Their crimes were the subject of extensive worldwide media coverage. Some individuals with deceased relatives continued to search for their physical remains, after the deaths of the murderers.


title: Moors murders

text: Ian Brady was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland, as Ian Duncan Stewart on 2 January 1938 to Margaret "Peggy" Stewart, an unmarried tea room waitress. The identity of Brady's father has never been reliably ascertained, although his mother said he was a reporter working for a Glasgow newspaper who died three months before Brady was born. Stewart had little support and after a few months was forced to give her son into the care of Mary and John Sloan, a local couple with four children of their own. Brady took their family name and became known as Ian Sloan. His mother continued to visit him throughout his childhood. Aged 9, he visited Loch Lomond with his family, where he reportedly discovered an affinity for the outdoors and a few months later the family moved to a new council house on an overspill estate at Pollok. Various authors have stated that he tortured animals, although Brady objected to such accusations. It was reported, for example, that Brady boasted of killing his first cat when he was aged just 10, and then went on to burn another cat alive, stone dogs and cut off rabbits' heads. Brady was accepted for Shawlands Academy, a school for above-average pupils.


title: Moors murders

text: Brady's behaviour worsened at Shawlands; as a teenager he twice appeared before a juvenile court for housebreaking. He left the academy aged 15 and took a job as a tea boy at a Harland and Wolff shipyard in Govan. Nine months later, he began working as a butcher's messenger boy. Brady had a girlfriend, Evelyn Grant, but their relationship ended when he threatened her with a flick knife after she visited a dance with another boy. He again appeared before the court, this time with nine charges against him, and shortly before his 17th birthday he was placed on probation on condition that he live with his mother. By then, Brady's mother had moved to Manchester and married an Irish fruit merchant named Patrick Brady; Patrick got Ian a job as a fruit porter at Smithfield Market, and Ian took Patrick's surname.


title: Moors murders

text: Within a year of moving to Manchester, Brady was caught with a sack full of lead seals he had stolen and was trying to smuggle out of the market. He was sent to Strangeways for three months. As he was still under 18, Brady was sentenced to two years in a borstal for "training". He was sent to Latchmere House in London, and then Hatfield borstal in the West Riding of Yorkshire. After being discovered drunk on alcohol he had brewed, he was moved to the much tougher unit in Hull. Released on 14 November 1957, Brady returned to Manchester, where he took a labouring job which he hated, and was dismissed from another job in a brewery. Deciding to "better himself", he obtained a set of instruction manuals on book-keeping from a local public library, with which he "astonished" his parents by studying alone in his room for hours.


title: Moors murders

text: In January 1959, Brady applied for, and was offered, a clerical job at Millwards, a wholesale chemical distribution company based in Gorton. He was regarded by his colleagues as a quiet, punctual, but short-tempered young man. Brady read books, including "Teach Yourself German" and "Mein Kampf", as well as works on Nazi atrocities. He rode a Tiger Cub motorcycle, which he used to visit the Pennines.


title: Moors murders

text: Myra Hindley was born in Crumpsall on 23 July 1942 to parents Nellie and Bob Hindley and raised in Gorton, then a working-class area of Manchester dominated by Victorian slum housing. Her father was an alcoholic who was frequently violent towards his wife and children. The family home was in poor condition and Hindley was forced to sleep in a single bed next to her parents' double bed. Their living situation deteriorated further when Hindley's sister, Maureen, was born in August 1946, and the following year five-year-old Myra was sent to live nearby with her grandmother.


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley's father had served with the Parachute Regiment and was stationed in North Africa, Cyprus and Italy during the Second World War. He had been known as a hard man while in the army and he expected his daughter to be equally tough; he taught her to fight and insisted that she stick up for herself. When Hindley was aged about eight, a local boy scratched her cheeks, drawing blood. She burst into tears and ran to her father, who threatened to "leather" her if she did not retaliate; Hindley found the boy and knocked him down with a series of punches. As she wrote later, "At eight years old I'd scored my first victory". Malcolm MacCulloch, professor of forensic psychiatry at Cardiff University, has written that Hindley's "relationship with her father brutalised her ... She was not only used to violence in the home but rewarded for it outside. When this happens at a young age, it can distort a person's reaction to such situations for life."


title: Moors murders

text: In June 1957, one of Hindley's closest friends, 13-year-old Michael Higgins, invited Hindley to go swimming with friends at a local disused reservoir, but she instead went out elsewhere with another friend. Higgins drowned in the reservoir, and Hindleya good swimmerwas deeply upset and blamed herself. She took up a collection for a wreath; his funeral was held at St Francis's Monastery in Gorton Lane.


title: Moors murders

text: The monastery where, as an infant in 1942, Hindley had been baptised a Catholic, had a lasting effect on her. Hindley's father had insisted she have a Catholic baptism, and her mother agreed, on the condition that she not be sent to a Catholic school; Nellie Hindley believed that "all the monks taught was the catechism". Hindley was increasingly drawn to the Roman Catholic Church after she started at Ryder Brow Secondary Modern, and began taking instruction for formal reception into the Church soon after Higgins's funeral. She took the confirmation name of Veronica and received her First Communion in November 1958.


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley's first job was as a junior clerk at a local electrical engineering firm. She ran errands, typed, made tea, and was well liked enough that when she lost her first week's wage packet, the other girls took up a collection to replace it. At 17, she became engaged after a short courtship, but called it off several months later after deciding the young man was immature and unable to provide her with the life she wanted. Hindley took weekly judo lessons at a local school, but found partners reluctant to train with her, as she was often slow to release her grip. She took a job at Bratby and Hinchliffe, an engineering company in Gorton, but was dismissed for absenteeism after six months.


title: Moors murders

text: In January 1961, the 18-year-old Hindley joined Millwards as a typist. She soon became infatuated with Brady, despite learning that he had a criminal record. Hindley began a diary and, although she had dates with other men, some of the entries detail her fascination with Brady, to whom she eventually spoke for the first time on 27 July. Over the next few months she continued to make entries, but grew increasingly disillusioned with him, until 22 December when Brady asked her on a date to the cinema. (Many sources state that the film was "Judgment at Nuremberg" but Hindley recalled it as "King of Kings".) Their dates followed a regular pattern: a trip to the cinema, usually to watch an X-rated film, then back to Hindley's house to drink German wine. Brady then gave her reading material and the pair spent their work lunch breaks reading aloud to one another from accounts of Nazi atrocities. Hindley began to emulate an ideal of Aryan perfection, bleaching her hair blonde and applying thick crimson lipstick. She expressed concern at some aspects of Brady's character; in a letter to a childhood friend, she mentioned an incident where she had been drugged by Brady, but also wrote of her obsession with him. A few months later, she asked her friend to destroy the letter. In her 30,000-word plea for parole, written in 1978 and 1979 and submitted to Home Secretary Merlyn Rees, Hindley said:


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley began to change her appearance further, wearing clothing considered risqué such as high boots, short skirts and leather jackets, and the two became less sociable to their colleagues. The couple were regulars at the library, borrowing books on philosophy, as well as crime and torture. They also read works by the Marquis de Sade, Friedrich Nietzsche and Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Although Hindley was not a qualified driver (she passed her test on 7 November 1963 after failing three times), she often hired a van, in which the couple planned bank robberies. Hindley befriended George Clitheroe, the President of the Cheadle Rifle Club, and on several occasions visited two local shooting ranges. Clitheroe, although puzzled by her interest, arranged for her to buy a .22 rifle from a gun merchant in Manchester. She also asked to join a pistol club, but she was a poor shot and allegedly often bad-tempered, so Clitheroe told her that she was unsuitable; she did though manage to purchase a Webley .45 and a Smith & Wesson .38 from other members of the club. Brady and Hindley's plans for robbery came to nothing, but they became interested in photography. Brady already owned a Box Brownie, which he used to take photographs of Hindley and her dog, Puppet, but he upgraded to a more sophisticated model, and also purchased lights and darkroom equipment. The pair took photographs of each other that, for the time, would have been considered explicit. For Hindley, this demonstrated a marked change from her earlier, more shy and prudish nature.


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley claimed that Brady began to talk about "committing the perfect murder" in July 1963, and often spoke to her about Meyer Levin's "Compulsion", published as a novel in 1956 and adapted for the cinema in 1959. The story tells a fictionalised account of the Leopold and Loeb case, two young men from well-to-do families who attempt to commit the perfect murder of a 12-year-old boy, and who escape the death penalty because of their age.


title: Moors murders

text: By June 1963, Brady had moved in with Hindley at her grandmother's house in Bannock Street, and on 12 July, the two murdered their first victim, Pauline Reade, who had attended school with Hindley's younger sister Maureen, and had also been in a short relationship with David Smith, a local boy with three criminal convictions for minor crimes. Police found no one who had seen Reade before her disappearance, and although the 15-year-old Smith was questioned by police, he was cleared of any involvement in her death.


title: Moors murders

text: Their next victim, John Kilbride, was killed on 23 November. A huge search was undertaken, with over 700 statements taken, and 500 "missing" posters printed. Eight days after he failed to return home, 2,000 volunteers scoured waste ground and derelict buildings. Hindley hired a vehicle a week after Kilbride went missing, and again on 21 December, apparently to make sure the burial sites at Saddleworth Moor had not been disturbed. In February 1964, she bought a second-hand Austin Traveller, but soon after traded it for a Mini van.


title: Moors murders

text: Keith Bennett disappeared on 16 June 1964. His stepfather, Jimmy Johnson, became a suspect; in the two years following Bennett's disappearance, Johnson was taken for questioning on four occasions. Detectives searched under the floorboards of the Johnsons' house, and on discovering that the houses in the row were connected, extended the search to the entire street.


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley's sister, Maureen, married David Smith on 15 August 1964. The marriage was hastily arranged and performed at a register office. None of Maureen's relatives attended. Hindley did not approve of the marriage, and her mother was too embarrassed as Maureen was seven months pregnant. The newlyweds moved into Smith's father's house. The next day, Brady suggested that the four take a day-trip to Windermere. This was the first time Brady and Smith had met properly, and Brady was apparently impressed by Smith's demeanour. The two talked about society, the distribution of wealth, and the possibility of robbing a bank. The young Smith was similarly impressed by Brady, who throughout the day had paid for his food and wine. The trip to the Lake District was the first of many outings. Hindley was apparently jealous of their friendship, but became closer to her sister.


title: Moors murders

text: In 1964, Hindley, her grandmother, and Brady were rehoused as part of the post-war slum clearances in Manchester, to 16 Wardle Brook Avenue in the new overspill estate of Hattersley, Cheshire. Brady and Hindley became friendly with Patricia Hodges, an 11-year-old girl who lived at 12 Wardle Brook Avenue. Hodges accompanied the two on their trips to Saddleworth Moor to collect peat, something that many householders on the new estate did to improve the soil in their gardens, which were full of clay and builder's rubble. The couple never harmed Hodges, since she lived only a few doors away, which would have made it easy for police to solve any disappearance.


title: Moors murders

text: Early on Boxing Day 1964, Hindley left her grandmother at a relative's house and refused to allow her back to Wardle Brook Avenue that night. On the same day, Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a funfair in Ancoats. Despite a huge search, she was not found. The following day, Hindley brought her grandmother back home. By February 1965, Hodges had stopped visiting Wardle Brook Avenue, but Smith was still a regular visitor. Brady gave Smith books to read, and the two discussed robbery and murder. On Hindley's 23rd birthday, her sister and brother-in-law, who had until then been living with relatives, were rehoused in Underwood Court, a block of flats not far from Wardle Brook Avenue. The two couples began to see each other more regularly, but usually only on Brady's terms.


title: Moors murders

text: During the 1990s, Hindley claimed that she took part in the killings only because Brady had drugged her, was blackmailing her with pornographic pictures he had taken of her, and had threatened to kill Maureen. In 2008 Hindley's solicitor, Andrew McCooey, reported that she told him:


title: Moors murders

text: On 12 July 1963, Brady told Hindley that he wanted to commit the "perfect murder". After work he instructed her to drive a borrowed van around while he followed on his motorcycle; when he spotted a likely victim he would flash his headlight. Driving down Gorton Lane, Brady saw a young girl and signalled Hindley, who did not stop because she recognised the girl as an 8-year-old neighbour of her mother. Sometime after 7:30 pm, on Froxmer Street, Brady signalled Hindley to stop for 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a schoolmate of Hindley's sister Maureen on her way to a dance; Hindley offered Reade a lift. At various times Hindley gave conflicting statements about the extent to which she, versus Brady, was responsible for Reade being selected as their first victim, but said she felt that there would be less attention given to the disappearance of a teenager than of an 8-year-old.


title: Moors murders

text: Once Reade was in the van, Hindley asked her to help in searching Saddleworth Moor for an expensive lost glove; Reade agreed and they drove there. When Brady arrived on his motorcycle, Hindley told Reade he would be helping in the search. Hindley later claimed that she waited in the van while Brady took Reade onto the moor. Brady returned alone after about thirty minutes, and took Hindley to the spot where Reade lay dying; Reade's clothes were in disarray and she had been nearly decapitated by two cuts to the throat, including a four-inch incision across her voice box "inflicted with considerable force" and into which the collar of her coat and a throat chain had been pushed. When Hindley asked Brady whether he had raped Reade, Brady replied, "Of course I did." Hindley stayed with Reade while Brady retrieved a spade he had hidden nearby on a previous visit, then returned to the van while Brady buried Reade. In Brady's account, Hindley was not only present for the attack, but participated in the sexual assault.


title: Moors murders

text: In the early evening of 23 November 1963, at a market in Ashton-under-Lyne, Brady and Hindley offered 12-year-old John Kilbride a lift home, saying his parents might worry that he was out so late; they also promised him a bottle of sherry. Once Kilbride was inside Hindley's hired Ford Anglia car, Brady said they would have to make a detour to their home for the sherry. En route he suggested another detour, this time to search for a glove Hindley had lost on the moor. When they reached the moor Brady took Kilbride with him while Hindley waited in the car; Brady sexually assaulted Kilbride and tried to slit his throat with a six-inch serrated blade before strangling him with a shoelace or string.


title: Moors murders

text: Early in the evening of 16 June 1964, Hindley asked twelve-year-old Keith Bennett, who was on his way to his grandmother's house in Longsight, for help in loading some boxes into her Mini Pick-up, after which she said she would drive him home. Brady was in the back of the van. Hindley drove to a lay-by on Saddleworth Moor and Brady went off with Bennett, supposedly looking for a lost glove. After about thirty minutes Brady returned alone, carrying a spade that he had hidden there earlier, and, in response to Hindley's questions, said that he had sexually assaulted Bennett and strangled him with a piece of string.


title: Moors murders

text: Brady and Hindley visited a funfair in Ancoats on 26 December 1964 and noticed that 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey was apparently alone. They approached her and deliberately dropped some shopping they were carrying, then asked her for help in taking the packages to their car, and then to Wardle Brook Avenue. At the house Downey was undressed, gagged, and forcibly posed for photographs before being raped and killed, perhaps strangled with a piece of string. Hindley later maintained that she went to fill a bath for Downey and found her dead when she returned; Brady claimed that Hindley killed Downey. The following morning Brady and Hindley drove Downey's body to Saddleworth Moor, and buried hernaked with her clothes at her feetin a shallow grave.


title: Moors murders

text: On the evening of 6 October 1965, Hindley drove Brady to Manchester Central railway station, where she waited outside in the car whilst he selected a victim. After a few minutes Brady reappeared in the company of 17-year-old Edward Evans, an apprentice engineer who lived in Ardwick, to whom he introduced Hindley as his sister. Brady later claimed that he had picked up Evans for a sexual encounter. They drove to Brady and Hindley's home at Wardle Brook Avenue, where they relaxed over a bottle of wine.


title: Moors murders

text: At some point Brady sent Hindley to fetch Smith, her brother-in-law. Hindley's family had not approved of Maureen's marriage to Smith, who had several criminal convictions, including actual bodily harm and housebreaking, the first of which, wounding with intent, occurred when he was 11. Throughout the previous year Brady had been cultivating a friendship with Smith, who had become "in awe" of Brady, something that increasingly worried Hindley as she felt it compromised their safety.


title: Moors murders

text: Hindley returned with Smith and told him to wait outside for her signal, a flashing light. When the signal came, Smith knocked on the door and was met by Brady, who asked if he had come for "the miniature wine bottles", and left him in the kitchen saying that he was going to collect the wine. Smith later told the police:


title: Moors murders

text: Smith then watched Brady throttle Evans with a length of electrical cord. Brady sprained his ankle in the struggle, and Evans's body was too heavy for Smith to carry to the car on his own, so they wrapped it in plastic sheeting and put it in the spare bedroom.


title: Moors murders

text: After the murder of Evans, Smith agreed to return the following morning with his baby's pram, to transport the body to the car, before disposing of it on the moor. He arrived home around 3:00a.m. and asked his wife to make a cup of tea, which he drank before vomiting and telling her what he had witnessed. At 6:10a.m., having waited for daylight and armed himself with a screwdriver and bread knifein case Brady was planning to intercept himSmith called police from a phone box on the estate. He was picked up by a police car from the phone box and taken to Hyde police station, where he told officers what he had witnessed in the night.


title: Moors murders

text: Superintendent Bob Talbot of the Stalybridge police division went to Wardle Brook Avenue, accompanied by a detective sergeant. Wearing a bread deliveryman's overall on top of his uniform, he asked Hindley at the back door if her husband was home. When she denied that she had a husband or that a man was in the house, Talbot identified himself. Hindley led him into the living room, where Brady was lying on a divan, writing to his employer about his ankle injury. Talbot explained that he was investigating "an act of violence involving guns" that was reported to have taken place the previous evening. Hindley denied there had been any violence, and allowed police to look around the house. When police asked for the key to the locked spare bedroom, she said it was at her workplace; but after police offered to take her to retrieve it, Brady told her to hand it over. When police returned to the living room they arrested Brady on suspicion of murder. As Brady was getting dressed, he said, "Eddie and I had a row and the situation got out of hand."


title: Moors murders

text: Though Hindley was not initially arrested, she demanded to go with Brady to the police station, taking her dog. She refused to make any statement about Evans's death beyond claiming it had been an accident, and was allowed to go home on the condition that she return the next day. Over the next four days Hindley visited her employer and asked to be dismissed so that she would be eligible for unemployment benefits. On one of these occasions, she found an envelope belonging to Brady which she burned in an ashtray; she claimed she did not open it but believed it contained plans for bank robberies. On 11 October, she too was arrested and taken into custody, being charged as an accessory to the murder of Evans and was remanded at HM Prison Risley.


title: Moors murders

text: Police searching the house at Wardle Brook Avenue found an old exercise book with the name "John Kilbride", which made them suspect that Brady and Hindley had been involved in the disappearances of other young people. Brady told police that he and Evans had fought, but insisted that he and Smith had murdered Evans and that Hindley had "only done what she had been told". Smith said that Brady had asked him to return anything incriminating, such as "dodgy books", which Brady then packed into suitcases; he had no idea what else the suitcases contained or where they might be, though he mentioned that Brady "had a thing about railway stations". A search of left-luggage offices turned up the suitcases at Manchester Central railway station on 15 October; the claim ticket was later found in Hindley's prayer book. Inside one of the cases were—among an assortment of costumes, notes, photographs and negatives—nine pornographic photographs taken of Downey, naked and with a scarf tied across her mouth, and a sixteen-minute audiotape recording of a girl identifying herself as "Lesley Ann Weston" screaming, crying, and pleading to be allowed to return home to her mother. Downey's mother later confirmed that the recording, too, was of her daughter.


title: Moors murders

text: Officers making inquiries at neighbouring houses spoke to 12-year-old Patricia Hodges, who had on several occasions been taken to Saddleworth Moor by Brady and Hindley, and was able to point out their favourite sites along the A635 road. Police immediately began to search the area, and on 16 October found an arm bone protruding from the peat, which was presumed at first to be Kilbride's, but which the next day was identified as that of Downey, whose body was still visually identifiable; her mother was able to identify the clothing which had also been buried in the grave.


title: Moors murders

text: Also among the photographs in the suitcase were a number of scenes of the moors. Smith had told police that Brady had boasted of "photographic proof" of multiple murders, and officers, struck by Brady's decision to remove the apparently innocent landscapes from the house, appealed to locals for assistance finding locations to match the photographs. On 21 October they found the "badly decomposed" body of Kilbride, which had to be identified by clothing. That same day, already being held for the murder of Evans, Brady and Hindley appeared at Hyde Magistrates' Court charged with Downey's murder. Each was brought before the court separately and remanded into custody for a week. They made a two-minute appearance on 28 October, and were again remanded into custody.


title: Moors murders

text: The investigating officers suspected Brady and Hindley of murdering other missing children and teenagers who had disappeared from areas in and around Manchester over the previous few years, and the search for bodies continued after the discovery of Kilbride's body, but with winter setting in it was called off in November.


title: Moors murders

text: Presented with the evidence of the tape recording, Brady admitted to taking the photographs of Downey, but insisted that she had been brought to Wardle Brook Avenue by two men who had subsequently taken her away again, alive. By 2 December, Brady had been charged with the murders of Kilbride, Downey and Evans. Hindley had been charged with the murders of Downey and Evans, and being an accessory to the murder of Kilbride. At the committal hearing on 6 December, Brady was charged with the murders of Evans, Kilbride, and Downey, and Hindley with the murders of Evans and Downey, as well as with harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had killed Kilbride. The prosecution's opening statement was held "in camera" rather than in open court, and the defence asked for a similar stipulation but was refused. The proceedings continued before three magistrates in Hyde over an eleven-day period during December, at the end of which the pair were committed for trial at Chester Assizes.


title: Moors murders

text: Many of the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley on the moor featured Hindley's dog Puppet, sometimes as a puppy. To help date the photos, detectives had a veterinary surgeon examine the dog to determine his age; the examination required a general anaesthetic from which Puppet did not recover. Hindley was furious, and accused the police of murdering the dog – one of the few occasions detectives witnessed any emotional response from her. Hindley wrote to her mother:


title: Moors murders

text: The 14-day trial began in a specially-prepared court room at Chester Assizes before Justice Fenton Atkinson, on 19 April 1966. The dock was fitted with bullet proof glass to protect Brady and Hindley because it was feared that someone might try and kill them. Other elaborate security precautions included a public address system costing £2,500 and £500 worth of telephone equipment. National and international journalists covering the trial booked up most of the city's hotel rooms. Onlookers – some travelling for hours – would stand outside Chester Assizes every day during the trial.


title: Moors murders

text: Brady and Hindley were charged with murdering Evans, Downey and Kilbride. The Attorney General, Sir Elwyn Jones, led the prosecution, assisted by William Mars-Jones. Brady was defended by Emlyn Hooson QC, the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP), and Hindley was defended by Godfrey Heilpern QC, recorder of Salford from 1964; both were experienced Queen's Counsel.


title: Moors murders

text: Smith was the chief prosecution witness. Before the trial, the "News of the World" newspaper offered £1,000 to Smith for the rights to his story; the American "People" magazine made a competing offer of £6,000 (equivalent to about £ and £ respectively in ). When Smith accepted the "News of the World" offer—its editors had promised additional future payments for syndication and serialisation—he agreed to be paid £15 weekly until the trial, and £1,000 in a lump sum if Brady and Hindley were convicted. During the trial, the judge and defence barristers repeatedly questioned Smith and his wife about the nature of the arrangement. At first, Smith refused to name the newspaper, risking contempt of court; when he eventually identified the "News of the World", Jones, as Attorney General, immediately promised an investigation. Comparing Smith's testimony with his initial statements to police, Atkinson—though describing the paper's actions as "gross interference with the course of justice"—concluded it was not "substantially affected" by the financial incentive. Jones decided not to charge the "News of the World" on similar grounds.


title: Moors murders

text: Both Brady and Hindley entered pleas of not guilty; Brady testified for over eight hours, Hindley for six. Brady admitted to striking Evans with the axe, but claimed that someone else had "killed" Evans, pointing to the pathologist's statement that his death had been "accelerated by strangulation"; Brady's "calm, undisguised arrogance did not endear him to the jury [and] neither did his pedantry", wrote Duncan Staff. Hindley denied any knowledge that the photographs of Saddleworth Moor found by police had been taken near the graves of their victims.


title: Moors murders

text: The sixteen-minute tape recording of Downey, on which the voices of Brady and Hindley were audible, was played in open court. Hindley admitted that her attitude towards Downey was "brusque and cruel", but claimed that was only because she was afraid that someone might hear Downey screaming. Hindley claimed that when Downey was being undressed she herself was "downstairs"; when the pornographic photographs were taken she was "looking out the window"; and that when Downey was being strangled she "was running a bath".


title: Moors murders

text: On 6 May, after having deliberated for a little over two hours, the jury found Brady guilty of all three murders, and Hindley guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans. As the death penalty for murder had been abolished while Brady and Hindley were held on remand, the judge passed the only sentence that the law allowed: life imprisonment. Brady was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences and Hindley was given two, plus a concurrent seven-year term for harbouring Brady in the knowledge that he had murdered Kilbride. Brady was taken to HM Prison Durham and Hindley was sent to HM Prison Holloway.


title: Moors murders

text: In his closing remarks, Atkinson described the murders as "truly horrible" and the accused as "two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity"; he recommended they spend "a very long time" in prison before being considered for parole, but did not stipulate a tariff. He called Brady "wicked beyond belief" and said he saw no reasonable possibility of reform for him, though he did not think the same necessarily true of Hindley once "removed from [Brady's] influence". Throughout the trial Brady and Hindley "stuck rigidly to their strategy of lying", and Hindley was later described as "a quiet, controlled, impassive witness who lied remorselessly".


title: Moors murders

text: In 1985, Brady allegedly told Fred Harrison, a journalist working for "The Sunday People", that he had killed Reade and Bennett, something the police already suspected as both lived near Brady and Hindley and had disappeared at about the same time as Kilbride and Downey. Greater Manchester Police (GMP) reopened the investigation, now to be headed by Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Topping, head of GMP's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).


title: Moors murders

text: Since Brady and Hindley's arrests, newspapers had been keen to connect them to other missing children and teenagers from the area. One such victim was Stephen Jennings, a three-year-old West Yorkshire boy who was last seen alive in December 1962; his body was found buried in a field in 1988, but the following year his father, William Jennings, was found guilty of his murder. Jennifer Tighe, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from an Oldham children's home in December 1964, was mentioned in the press some forty years later but was confirmed by police to be alive. This followed claims in 2004 that Hindley had told another inmate that she and Brady had murdered a sixth victim, a teenage girl.


title: Moors murders

text: On 3 July 1985, DCS Topping visited Brady, then being held at HM Prison Gartree in Leicestershire, but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders". Police nevertheless decided to resume their search of Saddleworth Moor, once more using the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley to help them identify possible burial sites. In November 1986, Bennett's mother wrote to Hindley begging to know what had happened to her son, a letter that Hindley seemed to be "genuinely moved" by. It ended: "I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of Christie's Hospital. It has taken me five weeks labour to write this letter because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help. Please, Miss Hindley, help me."


title: Moors murders

text: Police visited Hindley – then being held in HM Prison Cookham Wood in Kent – a few days after she received the letter, and although she refused to admit any involvement in the killings, she agreed to help by looking at photographs and maps to try to identify spots she had visited with Brady. She showed particular interest in photos of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said that it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the moor. Home Secretary Douglas Hurd agreed with DCS Topping that a visit would be worth risking despite security problems presented by threats against Hindley. Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. Although Winnie Johnson's letter may have played a part, he believed that Hindley, knowing of Brady's "precarious" mental state, was concerned he might co-operate with the police and reap any available public-approval benefit.


title: Moors murders

text: On 16 December 1986, Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of the moor. Police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, some armed. Hindley and her solicitor left Cookham Wood at 4:30 am, flew to the moor by helicopter from an airfield near Maidstone, and then were driven, and walked, around the area until 3:00 pm. Hindley had difficulty connecting what she saw to her memories, and was apparently nervous of the helicopters flying overhead. The press described the visit as a "fiasco", a "publicity stunt", and a "mindless waste of money", but DCS Topping defended it, saying "we needed a thorough systematic search of the moor ... It would never have been possible to carry out such a search in private."


title: Moors murders

text: On 19 December, David Smith, then 38, spent about four hours on the moor helping police identify additional areas to be searched. DCS Topping continued to visit Hindley in prison, along with her solicitor Michael Fisher and her spiritual counsellor, Peter Timms, who had been a prison governor before becoming a Methodist minister. On 10 February 1987 Hindley formally confessed to involvement in all five murders, but this was not made public for more than a month. The tape recording of her statement was over seventeen hours long; Topping described it as a "very well worked out performance in which, I believe, she told me just as much as she wanted me to know, and no more". He added that he "was struck by the fact that [in Hindley's telling] she was never there when the killings took place. She was in the car, over the brow of the hill, in the bathroom and even, in the case of the Evans murder, in the kitchen"; he felt he "had witnessed a great performance rather than a genuine confession".


title: Moors murders

text: Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. Once presented with some of the details that Hindley had provided of Reade's abduction, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess, but on one condition: that immediately afterwards he be given the means to commit suicide, a request with which it was impossible for the authorities to comply.


title: Moors murders

text: At about the same time, Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley, who had not replied to the first letter, responded by thanking Johnson for both letters, explaining that her decision not to reply to the first resulted from the negative publicity that surrounded it. She claimed that, had Johnson written to her fourteen years earlier, she would have confessed and helped the police. She also paid tribute to DCS Topping, and thanked Johnson for her sincerity. Hindley made her second visit to the moor in March 1987. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at Sedgley Park, Prestwich, and visited the moor twice. Hindley confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their search—Hollin Brown Knoll and Hoe Grain—were correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves. She did, though, later remember that as Reade was being buried she had been sitting next to her on a patch of grass and could see the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky.


title: Moors murders

text: In April 1987, news of Hindley's confession became public. Amidst strong media interest Lord Longford pleaded for her release, writing that continuing her detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Fisher persuaded Hindley to release a public statement, which touched on her reasons for denying her guilt previously, her religious experiences in prison, and the letter from Johnson. She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans.


title: Moors murders

text: Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had focused efforts on a specific area. On 1 July, after more than 100 days of searching, they found Reade's body below the surface, from where Downey's had been found. Brady had been co-operating with the police for some time, and when this news reached him he made a formal confession to DCS Topping, and in a statement to the press said that he too would help police in their search. He was taken to the moor on 3 July but seemed to lose his bearings, blaming changes in the intervening years; the search was called off at 3:00 pm, by which time a large crowd of press and television reporters had gathered on the moor.


title: Moors murders

text: DCS Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moor before police called off their search on 24 August. Brady was taken to the moor a second time on 8 December, and claimed to have located Bennett's burial site, but the body was never found.