Description
The definitive account of one of Britain’s most notorious killer couples, who loved, tortured, and slayed together as husband and wife.
From the outside, 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, looked as commonplace as the married couple who lived there. But in 1994, Fred and Rose West’s home would become infamous as a “house of horrors” when the remains of nine young women—many of them decapitated, dismembered, and showing evidence of sexual torture—were found interred under its cellar, bathroom floor, and garden. And this wasn’t the only burial ground: Fred’s first wife and nanny were unearthed miles away in a field, while his eight-year-old stepdaughter was found entombed under the Wests’ former residence.
Yet, for more than twenty years, the twosome maintained a façade of normalcy while abusing and murdering female boarders, hitchhikers, and members of their own family. Howard Sounes, who first broke the story about the Wests as a journalist and covered the murder trial, has written a comprehensive account of the case. Beginning with Fred and Rose’s bizarre childhoods, Sounes charts their lives and crimes in forensic detail, constructing a fascinating and frightening tale of a marriage soaked in blood. Indeed, the total number of the Wests’ victims may never be known.
A case reminiscent of the “Moors Murders” committed in the 1960s in Manchester by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady—as if Hindley and Brady had married and kept on killing for decades—Fred & Rose “is a story of obsessive love as well as obsessive murder” (The Times, London).
This factual account of the lives of Fred and Rose West, begins before either of them were born. It begins with their families and the awful conditions they were born into and leads to their subsequent meeting, and the sharing of their proclivities for depravity and debauchery.
I would agree with the description that it was a fascinating tale, however it left me with more questions than answers. I found some of it very difficult to believe. I am not saying I don't believe they were perverted and twisted child molesters and murderers, I just can not understand the actions of some of their adult victims. I don't understand, nor was it explained why Fred's former wife would show up to claim her children but then leave without them.
While I can understand the ease with which they manipulated young girls who had no where else to turn I don't understand how they could have gotten away with murder and torture for so long, or why for instance borders in their home would hear screams and never look into it. Rose is described as fat and dim witted. Fred is described as fat, ugly, vulgar, crude, having the features of a monkey, a smile which showcases his obvious lack of hygiene, and yet he is also described as able to charm people, particularly women. That makes no sense to me. There was at one point a friendly relationship with a neighbor woman who would watch their children while they went out looking to pick up young girls. When they told this woman their young child was not a virgin, when they tried to get this woman to have sex with the both of them, and she was supposedly not interested in such a relationship so I do not understand why she returned to their home almost daily to "have tea" with them even after the point of one time being attacked and handcuffed by Fred. Why did she continue to return to their home and ultimately become another of their victims? It is said they carried on some semblance of normal life and yet they thought nothing of keeping their daughter out of school many times due to her injuries from their physical and sexual torture. There was several hospital visits but nobody ever looked into it further. People in the neighborhood seemed to know the family was not normal yet nobody including police did anything for years even though Fred already had a criminal record.
Rose and Fred both were terrible liars but it seems no matter how far fetched an excuse they would give, nobody dug any further for years.
This book left me unsettled, with more questions than answers.
I received an advance copy for review.
From the outside, 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, England, looked as commonplace as the married couple who lived there. But in 1994, Fred and Rose West’s home would become infamous as a “house of horrors” when the remains of nine young women—many of them decapitated, dismembered, and showing evidence of sexual torture—were found interred under its cellar, bathroom floor, and garden. And this wasn’t the only burial ground: Fred’s first wife and nanny were unearthed miles away in a field, while his eight-year-old stepdaughter was found entombed under the Wests’ former residence.
Yet, for more than twenty years, the twosome maintained a façade of normalcy while abusing and murdering female boarders, hitchhikers, and members of their own family. Howard Sounes, who first broke the story about the Wests as a journalist and covered the murder trial, has written a comprehensive account of the case. Beginning with Fred and Rose’s bizarre childhoods, Sounes charts their lives and crimes in forensic detail, constructing a fascinating and frightening tale of a marriage soaked in blood. Indeed, the total number of the Wests’ victims may never be known.
A case reminiscent of the “Moors Murders” committed in the 1960s in Manchester by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady—as if Hindley and Brady had married and kept on killing for decades—Fred & Rose “is a story of obsessive love as well as obsessive murder” (The Times, London).
This factual account of the lives of Fred and Rose West, begins before either of them were born. It begins with their families and the awful conditions they were born into and leads to their subsequent meeting, and the sharing of their proclivities for depravity and debauchery.
I would agree with the description that it was a fascinating tale, however it left me with more questions than answers. I found some of it very difficult to believe. I am not saying I don't believe they were perverted and twisted child molesters and murderers, I just can not understand the actions of some of their adult victims. I don't understand, nor was it explained why Fred's former wife would show up to claim her children but then leave without them.
While I can understand the ease with which they manipulated young girls who had no where else to turn I don't understand how they could have gotten away with murder and torture for so long, or why for instance borders in their home would hear screams and never look into it. Rose is described as fat and dim witted. Fred is described as fat, ugly, vulgar, crude, having the features of a monkey, a smile which showcases his obvious lack of hygiene, and yet he is also described as able to charm people, particularly women. That makes no sense to me. There was at one point a friendly relationship with a neighbor woman who would watch their children while they went out looking to pick up young girls. When they told this woman their young child was not a virgin, when they tried to get this woman to have sex with the both of them, and she was supposedly not interested in such a relationship so I do not understand why she returned to their home almost daily to "have tea" with them even after the point of one time being attacked and handcuffed by Fred. Why did she continue to return to their home and ultimately become another of their victims? It is said they carried on some semblance of normal life and yet they thought nothing of keeping their daughter out of school many times due to her injuries from their physical and sexual torture. There was several hospital visits but nobody ever looked into it further. People in the neighborhood seemed to know the family was not normal yet nobody including police did anything for years even though Fred already had a criminal record.
Rose and Fred both were terrible liars but it seems no matter how far fetched an excuse they would give, nobody dug any further for years.
This book left me unsettled, with more questions than answers.
I received an advance copy for review.
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