Fred West suicide location, Birmingham

Here I am outside Winson Green Prison in Birmingham where murderer Fred West hung himself on New Year’s Day 1995 while on remand for murdering twelve people. He made a knotted rope from a blanket he’d stolen from the prison laundry. He wound the rope round the door handle and a window catchment and sank to his knees. Let’s hope the prisoner guards saw him and left him to a long slow demise. Beside him was a suicide note which read:

“To Rose West, Steve and Mae,

Well Rose it's your birthday on 29 November 1994 and you will be 41 and still beautiful and still lovely and I love you. We will always be in love. The most wonderful thing in my life was when I met you. Our love is special to us. So, love, keep your promises to me. You know what they are. Where we are put together for ever and ever is up to you. We loved Heather, both of us. I would love Charmaine to be with Heather and Rena.

You will always be Mrs West, all over the world. That is important to me and to you. I haven't got you a present, but all I have is my life. I will give it to you, my darling. When you are ready, come to me. I will be waiting for you.”

His 53 year-old body was cremated nearly four months later in Coventry. The service lasted for five minutes and was attended by four family members. The Reverend quoted sections of Psalm 23, adding "also remember everyone else who has also suffered because of these tragic events". The ashes were scattered at the Welsh seaside resort of Barry Island where he’d holidayed as boy and man.

He killed a minimum of 12 people between 1967 and 1987. Where his evil sprung from is unknown but he told authorities that his father had incestuous relations with young girls and it affected him. Perhaps it was the time he was in a coma for a week after sustaining serious head injuries a motorcycle accident when he was 17 (a metal plate was placed in his head.) His behaviour became erratic after this and he was accused of impregnating a 13-year-old girl who was a friend of the Wests (causing his banishment from the family home.) He escaped a jail sentence as it was claimed that he was suffering fits as a result of the head injury. As a youngster he had also sustained brain damage after falling off a fire escape at a youth club. He may have been plain evil.

The Wests's home at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester was demolished October 1996 and replaced with a pathway leading to the town centre. Most victims were killed and buried there including Fred and Rose’s own daughter who they kicked to death. All the victims were young women. At least eight of the murders involved the West's sexual gratification and included rape, bondage, torture and mutilation.

The prison is on a fairly busy street, not in distant fields surrounded by walls. You can only hope there is a God otherwise the good aren’t rewarded and the evil aren’t tortured.

The victims (that are known of)…

Barry Island where Fred West’s ashes were scattered…

Sorry but I just see boobs…