EVEN now Tom Rhattigan says he can still smell the musty scent of Myra Hindley’s perfume.
He was just eight years old when he encountered her and boyfriend Ian Brady in a Manchester park – and made a hasty decision that would ultimately save his life.
Pictured as a young boy, Mr Rhattigan says the evil duo lured him with the offer of a jam sandwich[/caption]
Hindley’s former home in Longsight. Mr Rhattigan was lured to a terraced house by Hindley and Brady[/caption]
Ian Brady and girlfriend Myra Hindley were both given life sentences for their sickening crimes[/caption]
The notorious couple – known as the Moors Murderers – stalked the city for two years in the 1960s and killed five children, recording their final moments as they begged for mercy and to be allowed back to their mums.
Now 70 and living in the south east, Mr Rhattigan knows he had a lucky escape.
He was alone in a park when “coy” Hindley approached him with Brady in tow and offered him a jam sandwich.
Mr Rhattigan recalls how the depraved pair lured him back to a terraced house. Feeling uneasy, he made a beeline for a window and, after a tussle with Hindley, managed to get away.
Author and artist Mr Rhattigan, who is married with three children and 11 grandchildren whom he asked not to be named, opens up about the chilling encounter for The Sun’s Meeting a Monster series.
“I have no doubt they wanted to kill me,” he says. “I told a teacher once but they were dubious. But I don’t think I’m the only one who they tried and failed to lure away.”
Mr Rhattigan grew up with his six brothers and six sisters in Hulme, Manchester in a three-up, two-down house that was earmarked to be demolished.
“My parents – Elizabeth, who died when she was 84, and James, who died when he was 57 – were alcoholics,” he recalls.
“My dad would even eat boot polish because it contained alcohol.”
One afternoon in late November 1963, he and two of his brothers – Martin, then nine, and Frank, then seven – were sent begging.
“This was common,” he says. “We’d go to school in the morning and then bunk off. We’d beg for ha’penny or look for copper our dad could sell to buy alcohol.
“We’d play in bombed-out houses too, as kids we thought that was fantastic.”
They’d travel miles across Manchester, only vaguely aware at that point that a young woman had gone missing.
“It was November 1963 – I remember because JFK had just been shot,” he says.
“I’d seen posters of a girl, Pauline [Reade – the killers’ first known victim] about, but I thought she’d just run away. It didn’t really register as anything.”
‘Suspicious but not afraid’
Mr Rhattigan says Brady kept a distance while Hindley did the talking[/caption]
On the day he met Hindley, the brothers had travelled from their home across the city.
“We were always hungry and had pinched a railman’s lunch,” he recalls.
“But he saw and as we ran away, Frank got his foot stuck in a railway line. We pulled him and pulled him and he escaped, but in the chaos we all ran in opposite directions.”
The brothers had an agreement that if they were split up they would meet in a park, locally nicknamed Sand Park in the Longsight area of the city, near where Hindley and Brady operated.
“There were some kids playing football there so I played with them for a bit,” Mr Rhattigan says.
“But they went so I just sat on the swing for a while until it got dark.”
It was around 5pm when he spotted a man and woman, who he now knows to be Hindley and Brady, approach.
I have no doubt they wanted to kill me… I told a teacher once but they were dubious. But I don’t think I’m the only one who they tried and failed to lure away
Tom Rhattigan
“I was both suspicious and not afraid,” he says. “I always wanted food and would beg and go into strangers’ homes for food and water.
“But I simultaneously had it drummed into me to be wary of strangers.”
He says initially, Hindley came over, while Brady kept a distance away.
“The man and woman were standing over a low wall,” he recalls. “There was barely a flicker of light, and then she came over to me and said ‘Hello’.
“I completely ignored her, so she tilted her head to one side and said ‘Hello’ again.
“I was quite abrupt. I said to her, ‘I’m eight… I’m not scared of the dark’.”
Mr Rhattigan told how Brady (pictured at home in the 1960s) was smoking a cigarette and told Hindley to ‘hurry up’ while speaking to him in the park[/caption]
Police search the house in Hattersley, Manchester, home of the Moors Murderers[/caption]
Hindley continued to chat to him while he remained sat on the swing.
“She said something like, ‘You don’t have to be scared of the dark, there’s nothing in the dark to harm you’,” Mr Rhattigan explains.
“She was interested in where I came from, and said she hadn’t seen me around.
“My sister had drummed my address into me so I blurted out, ‘I come from 24 Stanford Street, Manchester’.”
“Hindley, she seemed surprised. She said, ‘The lad’s from Hulme’ to Brady. He was smoking a cigarette and told her to hurry up.
“She said, ‘You look hungry.’ She threw the hint of a smile at me, so I threw one back at her.”
He says at this point she asked his name.
All I could think about was my jam butty. I felt guilty I was getting a treat and my brothers weren’t
Tom Rhattigan
“She was so close to me,” Mr Rhatigan recalls. “I’m there now. I can see myself sitting on that swing and smell her hairspray and perfume.
“I told her my name. She said, ‘How about a jam butty?’ I was well up for that and got off the swing.
“I went to hold her hand and she pushed it away, adding: ‘You must not be seen walking with me, you’ll be getting into trouble’.”
Mr Rhattigan says he recalls walking through Manchester past churches and a pub.
“There was a group of teens outside one and she just barged through the middle of them, she didn’t care,” he says.
“All I could think about was my jam butty. I felt guilty I was getting a treat and my brothers weren’t.”
‘Uneasy’
He recalls her urging him to “hurry up” before they walked down an alleyway. As he entered a terraced house, Brady followed, and he felt uneasy.
“He [Brady] closed the door and we went to a back room,” he says.
“There was a table there with drop-down sides. It had three chairs around it. She took her headscarf off and she was all in black.
“I asked for some water and she came back with cheap sherry for her. It smelled like what my parents drank.”
He said the smell of the alcohol and overall sense of unease made him realise he had to get out.
Hindley grabbed my ankle but I freed myself and ran, jumped over a metal fence and hid in wasteland
Tommy Rhattigan
“There were sash windows and I pulled one,” he recalls. “It briefly got stuck but then opened and I jumped out.
“Hindley grabbed my ankle but I freed myself and ran, jumped over a metal fence and hid in wasteland.”
He thinks they chased him before giving up.
The encounter stayed with him – but he was still shocked in May 1966 when he saw in the newspapers that the duo had been found guilty of various counts of murder, torture and sexual assault – and realised just how lucky he had been.
The victims of the moors murderers. – pictured from left: John Kilbride, 12, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, Edward Evans, 17, Pauline Reade, 16, and 12-year-old Keith Bennett[/caption]
Hindley passed away from respiratory failure in 2002, aged 60[/caption]
Brady denied Mr Rhattigan’s claims in the neatly written letter he sent from Ashworth Hospital[/caption]
Their victims included Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, Keith Bennett, 12, Lesley Ann Downey, 10, and Edward Evans, 17.
Sadly Keith’s body has never been found.
“As I learnt more and more about them I realised how truly evil they had been,” he says.
Both were handed life sentences for their sadistic crimes.
Hindley passed away from respiratory failure in 2002, aged 60, while Brady, who was diagnosed a psychopath in 1985, died in 2017 aged 79.
As I learnt more and more about them I realised how truly evil they had been
Tom Rhattigan
Mr Rhattigan heard from Brady in 2000.
“A letter came from the high-security hospital where he was,” he says.
“He had very neat hand-writing and said, ‘I’m afraid you are very much mistaken in your belief that you encountered us when you were a kid.’
He also said Brady wrote “how ordinary we were and not dripping blood”.
Mr Rhattigan says Brady’s denials mean nothing to him.
“I don’t believe a word he wrote,” he says. “I know what happened.
“I’m so glad I was streetwise and managed to escape or I wouldn’t be here now. They were pure evil.”
Mr Rhattigan has written two Sunday Times Bestseller books – ‘1963 A Slice of Bread and Jam’ and ‘Boy Number 26’.
Police searching Saddleworth Moor for the remains of 12-year-old Keith Bennett in October 2022[/caption]
