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1965: Saddleworth Moor Gives Up a Victim of the Moors Murders

Lesley Ann Downey had been missing since Boxing Day 1964, taken from a Manchester fairground and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, who recorded her final minutes on tape. In October 1965 police digging on Saddleworth Moor spotted a bone protruding from the peat.

The body recovered was still visually identifiable. It was formally confirmed the next day as Lesley Ann, and her mother identified her by the clothing recovered with her, bringing a grim end to months of searching in one of Britain’s most notorious crime cases.

Grim Murder Discoveries on Saddleworth Moors

⬅ See all events from 16 October

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1586: A Queen on Trial for Her Life: Mary, Queen of Scots, Faces the Crown She Threatened

She had already lost one throne and spent nearly two decades a prisoner in England, but in October 1586 Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought before a tribunal of English noblemen at Fotheringhay Castle, accused of plotting to assassinate her own cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. Letters allegedly written in cipher, part of what became known as the Babington Plot, were produced as evidence that she had approved a plan to murder Elizabeth and seize the English crown for herself.

Mary denied any part in the conspiracy and refused at first to recognise the court’s authority over an anointed queen. The trial proceeded regardless, and the verdict that followed would send her to the executioner’s block the following year.

Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots in royal attire

⬅ See all events from 14 October

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1984: The Brighton Bomb: the IRA Attempt to Wipe Out Margaret Thatcher and Her Cabinet

The Grand Hotel in Brighton was packed with Britain’s Conservative leadership for their annual conference when a long-delay bomb, planted by the Provisional IRA weeks earlier in a guest room, tore through the building in the early hours. Margaret Thatcher was still awake working on her conference speech in the room next door and escaped with only cuts, but five people died in the rubble and 31 more were injured, some permanently maimed.

The bomber, Patrick Magee, had checked into the hotel under a false name and set the timer so far in advance that he was long gone before it detonated. The IRA’s chilling statement afterward noted that Thatcher had been lucky that day, but they would only need to be lucky once. Magee was later caught through forensic evidence left on the bomb casing and convicted for the attack.

Grand Hotel, Brighton, after the bombing, 1984. Photo: D4444n / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).

⬅ See all events from 12 October

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1965: Myra Hindley Arrested as a Tape Recording Exposes Her Role in the Moors Murders

Ian Brady insisted that his lover, Myra Hindley, had nothing to do with the killing. But detectives found a handwritten account in her car describing their plan to murder a teenager: a plan they had already carried out.

Further searches uncovered photographs and a tape recording documenting another victim’s ordeal. On the recording, detectives heard not only the pleas for mercy, but the voices of Brady and Hindley themselves.

⬅ See all events from 11 October

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