Fred and Rose West

Gloucester, England, a historic city nestled by the River Severn, is known for its magnificent cathedral and picturesque countryside. But for decades, beneath the unassuming façade of a terraced house at 25 Cromwell Street, a darkness festered, a horror so profound it would shock a nation and forever stain the city’s name. This is the chilling story of Fred and Rose West, a couple whose shared sadism transformed their home into a burial ground, and whose unspeakable crimes revealed the depths of human depravity.

The Seeds of Darkness: Fred’s Twisted Path

Frederick Walter Stephen West, born in rural Herefordshire in 1941, emerged from a poor, close-knit farming family. He was described by classmates as scruffy, dim, and prone to trouble, yet displayed an aptitude for woodwork. His adolescence was marred by disturbing behaviour; he claimed sexual abuse by his mother and engaged in bestiality. By 1957, as a teenager, he aggressively pestered and fondled girls, viewing them as mere objects for his own gratification. A severe motorcycle accident at 17 left him with a fractured skull and a lifelong fear of hospitals, alongside volatile fits of rage. In 1961, at just 19, his 13-year-old sister, Kitty, accused him of rape and impregnation. Though the case collapsed when Kitty refused to testify, Fred’s chilling admission to police – “Doesn’t everybody do it?” – hinted at a deeply warped moral compass. Banished by his mother, he was effectively disowned by much of his family.

In September 1962, Fred, then 21, re-encountered Catherine “Rena” Bernadette Costello, a Scottish woman he had briefly dated. Rena, already pregnant by another man, married Fred in November. Their daughter, Charmaine, was born in March 1963, followed by Anna Marie in July 1964. Fred treated the girls harshly, caging them in their bunk bed. Rena, a considerate mother, endured Fred’s escalating violence and infidelity, which included fathering an illegitimate child. A neighbour, John McLachlan, who was having an affair with Rena, frequently beat Fred in retaliation for Rena’s bruises and for Fred’s casual cruelty, such as striking young Charmaine for asking for ice cream. After Fred accidentally killed a boy with his ice cream van in Glasgow in 1965, the family, including Rena, McNeill, and 16-year-old Anne McFall, relocated to a caravan park in Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire. Here, Fred’s dominance over the women intensified, and he began sexually abusing Charmaine and encouraging Rena into prostitution. Rena attempted to escape with her children and McNeill, but McFall, infatuated with Fred, betrayed the plan. Rena left, but frequently returned to check on her daughters, who remained with Fred.

The First Victims: A Sinister Prelude

The true horror began with Anne McFall. In July 1967, McFall, aged 18 and eight months pregnant with Fred’s child, vanished. She was never reported missing. Her dismembered remains, with carefully disarticulated limbs and missing finger bones – likely kept as grisly souvenirs – were found buried at the edge of a cornfield between Much Marcle and Kempley in June 1994. Fred later confessed to stabbing her to death after an argument, though evidence of restraint suggested a more sinister prelude.

The following month, Rena returned to live with Fred, but left again in 1968, leaving the children in social services’ care. It was in early 1969 that Fred encountered Rosemary Letts, a 15-year-old girl who would become his second wife and complicit partner in unspeakable crimes. Rose, initially repulsed by Fred’s appearance, was flattered by his persistent attention. She quickly became the nanny to Charmaine and Anna Marie, initially treating them with affection. Her parents, aghast at her choice of partner, tried to intervene, leading to Rose being placed in a home for troubled teenagers. Despite their efforts, Rose defied them, eventually moving in with Fred in Cheltenham. In October 1970, Rose gave birth to their first child, Heather Ann.

The House of Horrors: Cromwell Street’s Dark Secrets

In June 1971, with Fred briefly imprisoned for theft, Rose was left to care for the three girls. It was during this time that Charmaine West, Fred’s 8-year-old stepdaughter, was murdered. Forensic evidence and testimony from neighbours confirmed Charmaine was killed by Rose before Fred’s release on June 24. Rose told enquirers that Charmaine had gone to live with her mother, Rena. Charmaine’s body was initially stored in the coal cellar of their Midland Road flat before Fred buried her naked body in the rear garden. Missing bones, particularly phalanges, again suggested a chilling pattern of keepsake retention.

Shortly after Charmaine’s murder, in August 1971, Catherine “Rena” Costello returned to Midland Road, likely to confront Fred about her daughters’ welfare. This was the last time Rena was seen alive. She is believed to have been strangled by Fred, possibly in his car, and her extensively dismembered body was buried in Letterbox Field, near Much Marcle.

On January 29, 1972, Fred and Rosemary married, with Fred falsely claiming to be a bachelor. Several months later, they moved to 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester, a three-storey house that would become synonymous with unimaginable horror. To supplement their income, they converted upper rooms into bedsits. Rose soon began working as a prostitute from an upstairs room, with Fred’s active encouragement and voyeuristic participation via peepholes and a baby monitor. Their shared fetishes escalated, involving bondage, dominance, pain, and violence, and they amassed a disturbing collection of related paraphernalia. Rose’s own father, Bill Letts, even visited to have sex with his daughter.

The West children endured horrific domestic violence, mostly from Rose, and were rarely allowed to socialise. Injuries were frequent, explained as accidents, and never reported to social services. Heather and Stephen, two of their children, repeatedly ran away from home, only to return to further beatings.

The Reign of Terror: The Buried Victims of Cromwell Street

The systematic sexual assaults began in September 1972, when 8-year-old Anna Marie West was forced into the cellar at 25 Cromwell Street, stripped by Rose, and raped by Fred with Rose’s active encouragement. This marked the beginning of years of extensive physical, mental, and sexual abuse for Anna Marie, and later, Heather and Mae. The girls were threatened with severe beatings if they ever spoke out. From age 13, Anna Marie was forced into prostitution within the household.

In October 1972, the Wests hired 17-year-old Caroline Owens as a nanny. Owens quickly noted the strange atmosphere and Fred’s incessant sexual talk. When she tried to leave in December 1972, the Wests lured her into their car, where Fred punched her unconscious. At Cromwell Street, she was drugged, gagged, and subjected to a prolonged sexual assault by both Fred and Rose, who remarked on her anatomy and threatened her with further abuse in the cellar. Owens escaped the next day, and her mother reported the ordeal to the police. The Wests were arrested, but due to Owens’ inability to testify, they pleaded guilty to reduced charges of indecent assault and actual bodily harm, receiving only a £50 fine each. This lenient outcome effectively emboldened them.

Three months later, in April 1973, they committed their first known murder together with a definite sexual motive: Lynda Gough, 19, a lodger at Cromwell Street. She was likely suspended from beams in the cellar, gagged with tape, and had tubes inserted into her nasal cavities to allow breathing during prolonged torture before being strangled or suffocated. Her dismembered body, missing bones, was buried in an inspection pit beneath the garage.

Over the next 17 months, four more young women, aged 15 to 21, suffered a similar fate in the Cromwell Street cellar. Each successive victim likely endured greater abuse and torture, suggested by the increasing paraphernalia found in their shallow, cubic graves. These victims included:

Carol Ann Cooper, 15, abducted from a bus stop in Warndon in November 1973. Her skull was bound with surgical tape and her limbs with cord.

Lucy Partington, 21, an Exeter University student and cousin of novelist Martin Amis, abducted from a bus stop in December 1973. Her body was found in the cellar in March 1994.

Thérèse Siegenthaler, 21, a Swiss sociology student, abducted while hitchhiking in April 1974. Fred referred to her as “the Dutch girl” and later concealed her remains under a false chimney breast.

Shirley Hubbard, 15, a foster child abducted from a Droitwich bus stop in November 1974. Her head was covered in tape with a breathing tube inserted into her nasal cavity. Her remains were found in the “Marilyn Monroe area” of the cellar.

Following the murder of 18-year-old Juanita Mott in April 1975, Fred concreted over the entire cellar floor, converting it into a bedroom for his oldest children.

The murders paused until May 1978, when Fred, with Rose’s knowledge, murdered 18-year-old lodger Shirley Robinson. Robinson was eight months pregnant with Fred’s child. Rose, also pregnant at the time, developed a deep resentment, and the motive was likely to remove a threat to their relationship’s stability. Her extensively dismembered body was buried in the garden of 25 Cromwell Street. The unborn baby had been removed, missing several bones. Rose later unsuccessfully claimed maternity benefit in Robinson’s name.

The final murder with a definite sexual motive occurred on August 5, 1979. The victim was 16-year-old Alison Chambers, who had run away from a children’s home to become the Wests’ nanny. Her dismembered body was also buried in the garden, with a leather belt looped beneath her jaw.

The Ultimate Betrayal: Heather West

After Anna Marie ran away in 1979, Heather and Mae West became the primary focus of Fred’s incestuous sexual attentions. The abuse intensified as they reached puberty. Fred was overt, justifying his actions with “I made you; I can do what I like with you.” Heather, particularly, showed severe psychological distress, including nail-biting, drinking, nervous fragility, and nightmares. She confided in friends about the abuse, and school staff noted her injuries and distress. When word reached Fred and Rose that Heather was talking, Fred began escorting her to and from school.

After Heather left school in the summer of 1986, she desperately sought jobs to escape Cromwell Street. Her hopes were pinned on a chalet cleaner job in Torquay, but her application was unsuccessful on June 18, 1987. That night, her family heard her sobbing uncontrollably. The next morning, June 19, 1987, Heather West, aged 16, was murdered. Fred and Rose told various conflicting stories about her whereabouts: she’d gone to Torquay, she’d run away after a row, she’d eloped with a lesbian lover, or she was involved in credit card fraud. Fred chillingly joked to his children that they would “end up under the patio like Heather” if they misbehaved. With Rose’s approval, he later built a barbecue pit directly over Heather’s grave, placing a pine table on it for family gatherings.

The Unravelling: A Daughter’s Courage

The Wests’ reign of terror began to unravel in May 1992, when Fred raped and sodomised his 13-year-old daughter, Louise. Rose, witnessing one of these rapes, merely asked her bleeding daughter, “Well, what did you expect?” Louise, finding immense courage, confided in a friend, who anonymously informed the police on August 4. Police searched the West household, finding extensive sexual paraphernalia. Louise gave a full statement, detailing years of abuse. All the West children were placed in foster care.

The initial case against the Wests collapsed in June 1993 when Louise and Anna Marie declined to testify, fearing Rose’s vindictiveness and wanting to return to their siblings. However, Anna Marie continued to speak with Detective Constable Hazel Savage, emphasizing that her mother Rena and half-sister Charmaine were also missing. Police noted no records existed for Heather, Rena, or Charmaine. Anna Marie’s husband, Chris Davis, revealed Heather had told him, “For Christ’s sake don’t [confront them], because they’ll kill us both!” if he intervened.

The Excavation and Horrifying Discoveries

Armed with a search warrant, Gloucester police began excavating the garden of 25 Cromwell Street on February 24, 1994, specifically looking for Heather’s remains. Rose reacted with hysteria, shouting, “I can’t fucking remember! It’s a bloody long time ago! What do you think I am? A bloody computer?” Fred, returning from work, initially denied everything but later offered to confess to Heather’s murder, claiming it was manslaughter and that Rose was unaware. He led police to the “wrong” section of the garden.

On February 26, police found a human thigh bone protruding from a different section. Soon after, the dismembered remains of Heather West were unearthed, encased in a bin bag, with missing bones and signs of torture. That evening, Fred confessed to two more bodies in the garden: Shirley Robinson and an unidentified victim (later identified as Shirley’s friend).

On March 4, Fred sent a note from prison to Superintendent John Bennett, stating: “I, Frederick West, authorise my solicitor… to advise Superintendent Bennett that I wish to admit a further (approx) nine killings, expressly Charmaine, Rena, Lynda Gough and others to be identified.” Between March 5 and 8, police found six more bodies of young females in the cellar and beneath the ground-floor bathroom. Each victim was extensively mutilated, bearing evidence of extreme sexual abuse and torture, including gags, restraints, and breathing tubes. Fred refused to divulge the whereabouts of the many missing bones.

Rose’s Arrest and the Trial

Despite Fred’s insistence that Rose knew nothing, investigators suspected otherwise. Rose was arrested on April 20, 1994, initially for older sexual assault charges. She was formally charged with Lynda Gough’s murder on April 25. By May 6, Fred and Rose were jointly charged with five murders, with Rose repeatedly declaring, “I’m innocent.”

Fred was transferred to HM Prison Birmingham, where his depression deepened after Rose publicly rejected him and refused his letters. In response, Fred retracted his earlier confessions of acting alone, instead accusing Rose of almost total culpability in all the murders, except Anne McFall’s, which he attributed to his first wife.

On January 1, 1995, Fred West asphyxiated himself in his cell, leaving a chilling suicide note for Rose, professing his love and stating, “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.”

Rose’s trial at Winchester Crown Court began on October 3, 1995. She pleaded not guilty to ten murder charges. The prosecution, led by Brian Leveson, portrayed the Wests as sex-obsessed sadistic murderers, calling the bodies “secrets more terrible than words can express.” They highlighted Fred’s incarceration during Charmaine’s murder and the “feminine” touch on one victim’s gag. Rose herself testified, against her counsel’s advice, sometimes tearful, sometimes joking, denying knowledge of the murders and claiming she was a victim of Fred. However, Janet Leach, Fred’s appropriate adult, testified that Fred had confided in her that Rose had played a “major part” in the murders, including Charmaine and Shirley Robinson, and had participated in dismemberment.

On November 21 and 22, 1995, the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts for all ten murders. Mr. Justice Mantell sentenced Rosemary West to ten life terms with a whole life order, emphasizing her “appalling and depraved” crimes and stating she should never be paroled. She continues to protest her innocence from HM Prison New Hall.

The Lingering Shadows: Aftermath

The Wests’ house at 25 Cromwell Street was demolished in October 1996, its debris destroyed to prevent souvenir hunting, and the site later redeveloped into a public pathway. Fred’s body was cremated, his ashes scattered at Barry Island. The remains of Charmaine and Rena were cremated together, at Anna Marie’s insistence, with no roses at the service.

The surviving West children were given new identities. However, the trauma endured. Anna Marie West attempted suicide twice after testifying. Stephen West also attempted suicide in 2002 and was later jailed for unlawful sex with a minor. Barry West, who claimed to have witnessed Heather’s murder, battled drug addiction and psychiatric problems, tragically taking his own life in October 2020. Fred’s brother, John, also died by suicide in 1996 while awaiting trial for allegedly raping Anna Marie.

Police firmly believe the Wests committed more murders, with Fred hinting at up to 18 undiscovered victims. The 1968 disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm remains unsolved, with strong suspicions of Fred’s involvement. The case of Fred and Rose West stands as one of the most horrifying in British criminal history, a chilling testament to the unspeakable evil that can be hidden behind closed doors.