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Serial Killer Index Short List
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Serial Killer Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
   
serial killers by name [w] amazon
     
  WEST Frederick Walter 1942/1953 1995/01/01 UK ... ... ... 12+
  WEST Rosemary Pauline      
1967 1987 Gloucester
Verdict/Urteil:
WEST Frederick Walter  WEST Rosemary Pauline
Rosemary and her husband Fred West, were accused of murdering 10 women and young girls over a 16 year period ending in 1987. They enjoyed luring away vulnerable runaways with offers of rides, lodging or jobs as nannies. Once in their clutches inside their "House of Horrors", the young women were stripped, bound with tape, raped, tortured, then killed, dismembered and buried. The killer couple was arrested at their lethal homestead, 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, England in 1994. Police, armed with a search warrant, dug up the remains of their 16 year old daughter, Heather, who vanished in 1987. Further excavations under the house and in garden produced eight more female bodies, including Rosemary's stepdaughter, Charmaine.
One more body was found under the kitchen of a former home at 25 Midland Road, Gloucester. Fred hanged himself in jail New Years Day, 1995. He also faced two further charges of murdering his ex wife and a baby-sitter and burying them in fields near his former home. Authorities believe that Fred probably killed more women. Rosemary, an admitted prostitute, still maintains her innocence. However, on November 22, 1995, she was convicted of 10 murders. Authorities are investigating the whereabouts of nine other missing women who frequented their home.
On September 2001, a documentary filmmaker has called for an investigation into claims that serial killer Fred West may have murdered 20 more people. David Monaghan said West confessed the additional murders to a social worker assigned to him in prison and repeated them in a yet unaired TV show. Gloucestershire police said there was not enough evidence to investigate the claims and are trying to block the airing of the interview.
The documentary shows excerpts from West's taped interviews with detectives and clips from home movies made by Fred and Rosemary. In one clip, West describes in graphic detail how he buried body parts in a hole in his garden. "I thought, shit, I can't get her down through there. I thought, I'm going to have to cut her up again, and by this time I'm realising that's three, no two, not three, where is this going to stop? I've got to give myself up, I've got to tell Rose so I don't do this again." West also describes how the "spirits" of his victims haunted him when police searched his Gloucester home. "When they come up into you it's beautiful, it's when they go away you are trying to hold them, you feel them flying away from you and you try to stop them."
According to Janet Leach, a trainee social worker assigned to West after he was arrested, the infamous serial killer admitted to many more deaths than the 12 he was convicted for. "Fred said that there were two other bodies in shallow graves in the woods but there was no way they would ever be found. He said there were 20 other bodies... spread around and he would give police one a year."
Copyright 1995-2005 by Elisabeth Wetsch
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