h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Moors Murders - A9357348
Author: Annie - Motown fans - please visit Peer Review! - U128652

Uncanny that this pair are on the front page of The Sun todayso I'm taking that as my cue to pop this into PR.

Difficult subject, I've tried to stick to the facts without embellishing with personal opinion.

Annie


Submitted 14 Feb

I think you've done a great job with this, Annie.

It may be worth mentioning the famous picture of Myra Hindley, which has become some sort of iconic image of evil. Also, there's Marcus Harvey's controversial artwork, where he recreated this image using children's handprints. I remember it being vandalised.

I hope they give this one a picture or two in the edited guide.

Thank you

How's this?

The police mugshot of Myra Hindley became an iconic image of evil. Controversial artist Marcus Harvey (born 1963) created a 13ft by 10½ft monochrome portrait of Hindley using stencilled childrens' handprints. When 'Myra' was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in September 1997, four members of the Academy resigned in disgust. The portrait was vandalised while on show by egg-throwers and ink-splatterers; it is now displayed behind glass at the Saatchi Gallery, County Hall, South Bank, London.

Fantastic entry Annie, on a horrible subject.

Good piece, this.

But are you sure Harvey's 'Myra' is still on display? I haven't been able to confirm it, but hasn't it been superseded by the 'Triumph of Painting' stuff? In any case, Saatchi is due to be evicted from the former GLC building, so even if the Entry is true now, it soon won't be.

Might be an idea to use a past tense for that bit you've just added.

Excellent read, Annie!

I'm not sure if it's appropriate to incorporate this in the entry - or even if you would want to do so - but you might be interested to know that there's another work of art that refers to the Moors murderers: the album "Babble" by Kevin Coyne and Dagmar Krause (Virgin, 1979). British singer-songwriter Coyne wrote the album after reading Emlyn Williams' book "Beyond Belief".

http://www.kevincoyne.de/

may have more info.

Best of luck with your entry.

Thanks everyone!

I have changed the exhibit to past tense as I can't confirm it's still on show.

I can remember my Dad being very badly affected by "Beyond Belief" so I'll check that link out tomorrow and add some more info, thanks Nite Owl

<>

I don't think I'll mention that, I've already quoted their thoughts on each other.

This is really well-written - managing to cover such an emotive subject while reporting simply the facts .

I've got to agree that you've put enough detail in about their thoughts on each other; any more might seem odd. May be worth mentioning that it has long been a subject of fascination for some people, hence the art and music?

I'm thinking of the overal structure. You have it laid out as follows:

Brady
Brady's description of Hindley
Hindley
Hindley's description of Brady.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have to two descriptions the other way around? That is:

Brady
Hindley's description of Brady.
Hindley
Brady's description of Hindley

I have switched around the descriptions.

Does it make more sense now?

Yep - the structure of this entry actually makes a lot of sense now - it works nicely

oh my


you've done a good job with this one.

Thank you honey

Excelletn entry, Annie. Thanks for writing this. I have never seen all the info like this in one place. What a terrible topic to research. Brava.
W

*bangs head on desk* Preview button!

Sorry, make that excellent

Thanks Wilma

Hi Annie!

I've finally got around to having a detailed read of this.

Moors murderers Ian Brady1 and his girlfriend Myra Hindley -- I think you could remove "Moors murderers" from the start of this, since it's in the title of the piece, the quote at the start and in the sentence following this one.

(1942 - 2002), tortured -- remove the comma

They escaped the death penalty as 'The Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act 1965' had come into effect just four weeks before their arrest. -- I think this sounds too technical. It would be better as:

They escaped the death penalty as it had been abolished as a form of punishment just four weeks before their arrest.

The Header Brady and Hindley doesn't really tell us very much, since each of the murderers has their own name in a header later. I think this would be better as "Joint Conviction" or something like that.

both were jailed for life on 6 May, 1966. -- perhaps add a footnote that at the time, a 'life' sentence was normally taken to mean 30 years. This will prepare us for the fact that Hindley didn't get out after 30 years, which you mention later.

was displayed behind glass at the Saatchi Gallery, County Hall, South Bank, London, alongside mutilated animal carcasses exhibited in formaldehyde, and an unmade bed. -- I think you'd be better just saying "alongside other controversial works of art". At the moment it almost sounds as if the mutilated carcases were part of the 'Myra' work.

died in hospital from a serious chest infection -- I think you can omit the word 'serious' here.

attacked with a hatchet by Brady at 16 Wardle Brook Avenue, Hattersley5 -- instead of giving the address and a footnote to say it was their home, I think you should just say:

attacked with a hatchet by Brady at Brady and Hindley's home

G

Thanks Gnomon

I have made all the alterations you suggest, with the exception of:

"Later it was displayed behind glass at the Saatchi Gallery, County Hall, South Bank, London, alongside other controversial works of art like mutilated animal carcasses exhibited in formaldehyde, and an unmade bed."

I've added what you said "other controversial works of art"
but I really want to leave that in about the animal carcasses and the unmade bed because when I told my father what had happened to the portrait, he gave me the biggest smile I've seen in quite some time.

If the sentence is too long now I'll willingly split it.

However, if one of the eds thinks it's too risky for me to name the exhibits or other Peer Reviews find it offensive, I'll remove the reference, and leave it as you suggest.

and thank you for your review.

Just as a point of interest, do you think this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4735068.stm
belongs in the entry?

Although it would be speculating on the contents, and I don't really want to go there, I would add it (the facts) as an update while I still can, if anyone wants me to.