I’ve spent the last month completely lost in the Fred and Rose West case. Old crime-scene photos, survivor interviews, and the 1994 excavation footage. Every time I think I’ve processed it, something else crawls out of the files and sits heavy on my chest. Between 1967 and 1987, the Wests murdered at least 12 young women and girls, burying most under their ordinary-looking house at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester. They raped, tortured, dismembered, and lived above the bodies for decades while raising kids and renting rooms to lodgers. Fred took his own life in prison on New Year’s Day 1995. Rose still insists she’s innocent.
What gets me isn’t just the brutality (though God, it’s brutal). It’s how normal they seemed. Neighbours called Fred “laughing, cheeky Fred.” Rose was the stern mum who baked cakes for the school fête. And underneath the patio, in the cellar, under the bathroom floor, twelve women and girls slowly turned to bone. Let’s walk through how two people built a house of absolute horror and almost got away with it.
Fred West’s Childhood: A Perfect Storm of Abuse and Neglect
Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on 29 September 1941 in the tiny village of Much Marcle, Herefordshire. His parents, Walter and Daisy, were poor farm labourers with six kids crammed into a cottage. Money was tight, tempers were short, and secrets were darker.
Fred later claimed his father taught him bestiality with sheep and that incest was “normal” in the family. Detectives never proved it, but multiple siblings confirmed brutal beatings. Fred took the worst of them. At 12, he fell off a fire escape, fractured his skull, and was in a coma for a week. Two years later, a motorcycle crash left him unconscious again. Doctors noted personality changes after both injuries: mood swings, rage, and sexual obsession.
By 17, he was molesting his younger sisters. At 19, he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl. His mother, Daisy, attacked the girl’s father with a knife. The family closed ranks. Fred was thrown out. He drifted to Gloucester, met teenage runaway Catherine “Rena” Costello, and the spiral began.
Meeting Rose: The Partnership That Turned Murder into Routine
In 1962, Fred married Rena. They had two daughters, Anne Marie and Charmaine. The marriage was violent and short-lived. Rena left, taking Charmaine. Fred needed a new “family.”
Enter Rosemary Pauline Letts, born 1953 in Devon. Rose grew up in a house of screaming rows and sexual abuse from her schizophrenic father, Bill Letts. At 15, she was already sleeping with older men. She met 27-year-old Fred in 1969 at a bus stop. Six months later, she moved in. She was pregnant with his child. She was still 16.
They married in 1972 after Fred’s divorce. Rose gave birth to seven children (some fathered by clients when she worked as a prostitute from the living room). The house at 25 Cromwell Street became their torture chamber.
The Killings: A Timeline of Terror at 25 Cromwell Street
The confirmed victims span 20 years. Most were lodgers, hitchhikers, or runaways who simply disappeared.
- Charmaine West, 8 (1971) – Rose killed her while Fred was in prison
- Catherine “Rena” Costello, 27 (1971) – Fred’s first wife
- Lynda Gough, 19 (1973) – lodger
- Carol Ann Cooper, 15 (1973) – abducted from a bus stop
- Lucy Partington, 21 (1973) – university student, cousin of novelist Martin Amis
- Therese Siegenthaler, 21 (1974) – Swiss hitchhiker
- Shirley Hubbard, 15 (1974) – schoolgirl
- Juanita Mott, 18 (1975) – former lodger
- Shirley Anne Robinson, 18 (1978) – pregnant lodger
- Alison Chambers, 16 (1979) – runaway
- Heather West, 16 (1987) – their own daughter
- Ann McFall, 18 (1967) – Fred’s pregnant girlfriend (found at Fingerpost Field)
Methods were consistent and stomach-churning: bondage, rape (often by both Wests), strangulation, dismemberment, and burial under the house. Trophies were kept: kneecaps, finger bones, teeth.
How They Were Finally Caught: The Dig That Shocked Britain
By 1992, police were investigating Heather West’s disappearance. Her siblings joked darkly that she was “under the patio.” A new detective took the joke seriously. Search warrant granted February 1994.
They found three bodies in the garden in 48 hours. Fred confessed almost immediately: “It was Rose, it was all Rose.” Then he changed his story and took full blame. Over months, he led police to nine more graves under 25 Cromwell Street and three at previous addresses. The house was demolished in 1996. The site is now a footpath to the town centre.
The Trials: Fred’s Suicide & Rose’s Life Sentence
Fred West hanged himself in Winson Green Prison on 1 January 1995, before trial. He left a note claiming all murders were his alone.
Rose went on trial in October 1995 for 10 murders. She denied everything, blaming Fred. The jury didn’t buy it. Guilty on all counts. Life with a “whole life” tariff. She is now 71 and still at HMP Low Newton.
Monster or Victim? The Psychology That Still Divides Experts
Fred claimed head injuries “changed” him. He told police he had “no brakes” on his urges. Psychiatrists found no brain damage severe enough to explain his actions. Most agree he was a psychopath with extreme sadistic sexual tendencies.
Rose’s defence painted her as a battered wife under Fred’s control. Evidence showed she was an enthusiastic participant (and killed Charmaine alone while Fred was in prison).
The couple fed off each other. Fred supplied victims. Rose supplied cruelty. Together, they were lethal.
Final Thoughts: Were Fred & Rose West Born Evil, or Made?
I keep coming back to the same question. Fred’s head injuries, Rose’s abusive father, the toxic stew they created together. Was murder inevitable? Or did two damaged people simply choose the worst path possible, over and over, for twenty-five years?
I don’t have an answer. But I know this: twelve young women and girls went to 25 Cromwell Street looking for a room, a lift, or a friend. None came out alive. Rest in peace to every one of them. If this case hit you hard, you might want to read my piece on Dennis Nilsen next. Another British killer who buried victims under the floorboards. Some patterns never change.
