The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and its Analysis by the Moors Murderer Ian Brady

Ian Brady

May 2015 · Feral House

About this ebook

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's spree of torture, sexual abuse, and murder of children in the 1960s was one of the most appalling series of crimes ever committed in England, and remains almost daily fixated upon by the tabloid press. In The Gates of Janus, Ian Brady himself allows us a glimpse into the mind of a murderer as he analyzes a dozen other serial crimes and killers.

Criminal profiling by a criminal was not invented by the dramatists of Dexter.

Novelist and true-crime writer Colin Wilson, author of the famous and influential book The Outsider, remarks in his introduction to Brady's book that one must first explore the depraved reaches of human consciousness to truly understand human character.

When first released in 2001, The Gates of Janus sparked controversy attended by a huge media splash. The new edition, the first in paperback, provides the reader with a decade and a half of updates, including Brady's letters to the publisher, both providing information regarding his own demented history along with demands that Feral House remove its unflattering afterword written by author Peter Sotos.

About the author

Ian Brady was born in Glasgow, Scotland on January 2, 1938. As a teenager, he spent time in prison and in young offenders' facilities because of house breaking and burglary. He met Myra Hindley while they were both working at a small chemicals company in Manchester. Together they murdered five children between 1963 and 1965. In 1965, they sought to implicate Hindley's brother-in-law, David Smith, by making him watch as they murdered 17-year-old Edward Evans with an ax. However, Smith reported them to the police and brought their killing spree to an end. Brady was sentenced to life in prison in 1966 and had been held at the psychiatric hospital since 1985. He wrote a book in 2001 entitled The Gates of Janus: Serial Killing and Its Analysis by the Moors Murderer Ian Brady. He died on May 15, 2017 at a high-security psychiatric hospital at the age of 79. Colin Wilson is a renowned authority on the paranormal and is the author of over fifty books, with subjects ranging from mysticism to criminology. He has also written numerous articles and plays and contributed to several newspapers and journals. He regards himself primarily as a philosopher concerned with the meaning of human existence.