Rose West has spoken for the first time to finally address her rumoured affair with fellow notorious serial killer Myra Hindley, MailOnline can reveal.
The Cromwell Street killer and the Moors Murderer were the two most notorious female prisoners in Britain when they met in Durham Prison in the mid 1990s.
It’s long been believed they quickly developed a sexual relationship which lasted for some weeks before splitting bitterly.
So established is the story that it was even turned into a film, 2020’s ‘Rose West and Myra Hindley – the Untold Story’ which was fronted by former newsreader Trevor McDonald.
Producers used the catchline: ‘The extraordinary story of how the two most notorious women in British crime became friends and lovers.’
But now West has finally addressed what happened for the first time – to insist that her fling with Hindley never really happened.
She even blasted: ‘I had nothing to do with her.’
West is thought to receive thousands of letters a year in prison but was moved to reply to one from a young criminology student apparently because he specifically asked about her time as Hindley’s lover.
This is the letter sent by Rose West from behind bars to a young academic to address her rumoured prison affair with fellow notorious serial killer Myra Hindley
In the letter West spoke of her fury at the suggestion that her and Moors murderer Hindley had enjoyed a lesbian fling – and signed off the letter calling herself ‘Jennifer (aka – Rose West)’
West (right) has finally addressed what happened for the first time – to insist that her fling with Hindley never really happened. Pictured: Fred and Rose West
The young academic, who we are not naming at his request, has shared the letter he received from West with MailOnline.
In it West, 71, insists at length that she had no relationship with the infamous Moors murderer before launching into a sarcastic rant against the student for believing stories in the media.
She writes: ‘I don’t care if you don’t believe me – after all what the press and media says MUST be true.
‘How can it not be!! All that money they rake in – all that power. WOW! They are the leading experts in law, politics, peoples (sic) lives, peoples (sic) deaths.
‘There is NOTHING that they cannot tell you about any subject you choose. Who would DARE to contradict them!!?!!
‘Obviously NOT you. You have soaked this stuff up like a sponge – and you’ve done (like millions of others) almost unconsciously. You don’t even have the gumption to ask me if it’s true!! Don’t be a sucker.’
Unable to restrain her anger, she continued: ‘Tell you what – take my advise (sic) – get something a lot more wholesome, productive and worthwhile to be interested in, and leave these awefull (sic) crimes to those who are charged with trying to understand them.
‘Oh, and don’t bother sending any more letters – I will only have them put through the shredder like I did your first one.’
West signed off her angry denial calling herself ‘Jennifer (aka – Rose West).’
West was writing from HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where she is now housed and was using the name Jennifer Jones, which she reportedly adopted after changing her name by deed poll in 2020.
The student who received the letter said he had first decided to write to her in jail last November because he had always been intrigued about women who murder children.
He said: ‘I asked her what Myra Hindley was like in person, what her relationship with her was like, and how her demeanour was.
West (left) wrote from HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, insisting at length that she had no relationship with the infamous killer Hindley (right)
She also launched a sarcastic rant against the student for believing stories in the media. Pictured: Fred and Rose West captured here in rare family photographs
Pictured: Ten women and young girls who were murdered by Fred and Rose West between 1967 and 1987
25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester — the notorious home of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West, where the bodies of several victims were discovered in 1994
West and Hindley are said to have met while West was in remand at the prison before her trial. Pictured: Rose West being taken to Winchester Crown Court
‘I got no reply from my first letter, so I wrote to her again, and also asked whether she thought her husband Fred might have been homosexual as all his victims were girls or women.
‘I was quite surprised to get a reply from her, and I was quite shocked by how angry and venomous she came across in her letter.
‘It is clear that she wants to distance herself from Myra Hindley. Her words become increasingly angry in her letter. I guess she was upset about me suggesting Fred might have been gay.
‘At the end she is scribbling to get her words out and you can sense she is almost foaming at the mouth.’
Hindley, who died in 2002, had been convicted in 1996 of killing five children and being involved in sexually assaulting four of her victims along with her boyfriend, Ian Brady in and around Manchester in the 1960s in crimes which shocked Britain.
West was given ten life sentences in 1995 for killing ten young women including her own daughter Heather and step-daughter Charmaine after her husband Fred committed suicide before he could be prosecuted for the same.
West, according to recent reports, is increasingly frail and now spends most of her time alone.
She was reported to often eat tomato soup for breakfast while alone in her cell, before spending her days knitting and watching her favourite nature documentaries.
Claims of a relationship also prompted an angry response from Hindley, who made a complaint to the the then Press watchdog, alleging she was the victim of smears and lies.
The BBC published a leaked copy of her complaint and the case made headlines.
But Hindley’s claims of the story being inaccurate were dismissed.
One of the sources for the story was West’s own former solicitor.
Leo Goatley revealed in a book in 2019, published ahead of the 25th anniversary of her convictions, that his former client and Hindley had a short-lived affair on the female wing of the jail where guards encouraged ‘open association’.
The pair are said to have met while West was in remand at the prison before her trial. She later returned there after being convicted.
Mr Goatley based his book Understanding Fred & Rose West on 12 years of letters, interviews and visits to her in prison.
Mr Goatley featured in the Trevor McDonald documentary, stating that former prostitute West had told him she preferred the ‘softness and sensuality of being with women rather than the roughness of men’.
He claimed that she had a number of lesbian relationships in prison and had admitted that she only ever enjoyed sex with women.
Mr Goatley said in the programme: ‘I believe Myra Hindley and Rose West were lovers. Rose West said to me that she ‘wanted to see how it goes, yeah me and Myra get on well.’
He said that West had told him that he found Hindley to be intelligent and was seemingly impressed by her studying with the Open University.
Dr Goatley added: ‘I think Rose West was in awe of her. Myra Hindley stood out as being special.’
Hindley was convicted in 1966, along with her partner Ian Brady, of the murders of Lesley-Ann Downey, ten, and Edward Evans, 17, and jailed for life.
She later confessed to the killing of Keith Bennett, 12, and Pauline Reade, 16, and burying their bodies on Saddleworth Moor, near Manchester.
Hindley was moved from Durham Prison to medium security Highpoint Prison near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in 1998 after 31 years behind bars.
She died aged 60 from respiratory failure in West Suffolk Hospital in 2002 while still being a prisoner and never achieving her dream of being freed.
Former armed robber turned author Linda Calvey, 77, who became known as the Black Widow while spending more than 18 years in jail for the murder of her lover, recalled in the Trevor McDonald documentary how she also got to know Hindley in Durham Prison, and once slapped her in the face.
Talking about West and Hindley’s friendship, she described how the pair would chat over breakfast and tea. She added: ‘It was really weird. They suddenly became best friends. They were with each other all the time…
‘They both murdered children and they both tortured people. Their crimes were very similar… Everyone went ‘God, what a weird combination. These two, they became thick as thieves…
‘They used to go into each other’s cells, and they became really, really close. I think the majority of the wing all thought there was an affair of sorts going on between them.’
West signed the letter off with the name Jennifer Jones, which she reportedly adopted after changing her name by deed poll in 2020. Pictured: West leaves Gloucester Magistrates Court after being remanded again on murder charges in 1994
But Calvey also recalled how the pair split up after being close for between a month and six weeks.
She said: ‘As quick as they became really, really close, they parted. It stopped and they were not even speaking to each other…
‘I spoke to Myra and I said, ‘It was really weird that you were really close to Rose, and then you suddenly parted, and she said, ‘Yeah, well I thought about it, and I thought she killed her own children. Did I really want to mix with someone like that?’
‘I said, ‘Well you killed children’, and she said, ‘Well, they weren’t mine. They were other people’s’. She said it matter-of-factly, as if it didn’t matter. But then that was Myra. Myra didn’t have remorse about anything.’
The crimes of West and her evil builder husband are featured in a new hit Netflix docuseries called Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story.
The couple killed most of their victims in their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, which became known as the House of Horrors after police unearthed nine sets of human remains at the property.
Despite continuing to claim her innocence, the then Home Secretary Jack Straw, who had to set a minimum sentence for her, ruled she should spend the rest of her life in jail.
