For decades, one half of Britain’s most infamous criminal duo lived a life shrouded in darkness, hiding unspeakable crimes behind the facade of a family home.
Together with her husband, this woman participated in a string of murders and sexual assaults that shook the nation, targeting young women — and even their own children.
Over a span of more than 20 years, the pair committed acts so brutal that they remain difficult to comprehend.
So, what turned seemingly normal young woman into one of history’s most notorious killers? Was she ever truly “ordinary” at all? To understand how she became a mass murderer, we need to start at the very beginning — her childhood.
Looked picture-perfect
Born in North Devon in 1953, this woman was raised by her parents alongside six siblings. Even before birth, her mother underwent electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression, which some believe influenced the child’s early development.
Her family looked picture-perfect from the outside. Her father, Bill Letts, had served on aircraft carriers during the war and was polite and charming. Her mother, Daisy, petite and dark-haired, was considered a local beauty — shy, soft-spoken, and seemingly content with her life.
But behind that calm façade, things were far from ordinary. And there were already serious worries even before the girl who would grow up to become one of the world’s most notorious killers was born.
In 1950, the family moved into a new council house in Northam. Daisy already had three children, and Bill was often away, still serving in the Navy.
Alone at home, Daisy’s struggles began to surface. She sank into bouts of depression and became obsessed with keeping the house spotless, scrubbing herself and her children into an unnatural level of cleanliness. Her behavior became increasingly erratic, teetering on the edge of neurotic.
Electroconvulsive therapy
By 1953, Daisy suffered a breakdown and was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Bideford, where she underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This involved shaving her head, attaching large electrodes, and sending surges of electricity through her brain — causing blackouts and violent convulsions.
Even though she was pregnant with her fifth child, the treatment continued, sending shocks through her body and through the child in her womb, right up until days before the baby’s birth.
When the baby finally arrived, everyone commented on her beauty, but something was off. She would rock her head for hours, and her older siblings often complained about her banging her head rhythmically against the cot at night.
As she grew, these strange habits persisted; she would swing her head back and forth in long trance-like motions, lost in her own world. It was the first sign that life for this little girl would be anything but normal.
Also, her father reportedly struggled with psychiatric issues, including paranoid schizophrenia. According to author Jane Carter-Woodrow, she was groomed and sexually abused by her father and may also have suffered abuse from her grandfather.
Meeting her future husband
The young woman in our story met her future husband at just 15 while waiting at a bus stop. He was 12 years her senior, divorced, and already a father.
Their connection quickly turned romantic, and she became the nanny to his daughters, a seemingly innocent role that would soon set the stage for a partnership in horror.
Her husband’s past was equally troubled. He claimed to have suffered abuse as a child and endured multiple traumatic head injuries, which reportedly altered his personality.
By his teens, he had already committed serious crimes, including sexual assault, and even as a young adult, he continued a pattern of violence and manipulation.
Once the couple married in the early ’70s, their depravity escalated.
Their first child together was born in 1970, but the girl’s older siblings were not spared from abuse. Within months, the young mother committed her first murder, killing an 8-year-old girl in the household while her husband was in jail.
The child was buried beneath the kitchen window of their Gloucester home.
A trail of horror
From 1973 onward, the couple’s crimes expanded. They targeted young women, often luring them to their home under the guise of employment as nannies for their children. The assaults escalated to murder, with victims often tortured, sexually assaulted, and dismembered before being buried on the property.
Their own children were also victims. Over the years, all nine children suffered beatings, abuse, and sexual assault. Between 1972 and 1992, hospital records show 31 admissions for injuries, but social services were never alerted.
The couple’s final known act of violence was the murder of their daughter Heather in 1987, after she sought to escape her parents’ control.
How the crimes were uncovered
Authorities first became aware of the situation through an anonymous tip after Heather confided in a friend. Investigators found corroborating statements from her siblings, and doctors confirmed a history of abuse.
In the records of the Gloucester police, a long-running family “joke” that a missing daughter was “under the patio”.
Despite this, initial charges against the parents were dropped.
A determined detective, however, kept pushing. A search warrant allowed police to excavate 25 Cromwell Street. Heather’s remains were uncovered, and her father eventually confessed to multiple murders.
She, the mother, was arrested shortly thereafter on April 20, 1994.
Soon, the full, horrifying story made headlines, and two names became forever linked to these atrocities: Rose West and her husband, Fred West, who led double lives as serial killers.
All five of their minor children were taken into protective custody when they were arrested.
Trial and conviction
Before Fred could face trial, he died by suicide on January 1, 1995 — but his wife couldn’t escape her fate.
During her trial in 1995, Rose maintained she was a victim of her husband, claiming no involvement in the murders.
However, multiple witnesses came forward to testify against her, including her stepdaughter Anna Marie, her mother Daisy, her sister Glenys, and Owens, who had survived one of the couple’s earlier attacks.
At one point during the trial, Rosemary West wept in the witness box as the evidence against her was laid out. The dark-haired mother of eight broke down in tears and said that she was ”sorry”.
Her defense team argued that Rosemary had no idea what was happening at home and had fallen under her husband’s influence. After all, she was just 15 when they met, and Fred West was already a married man and significantly older — making it easy for him to manipulate her.
The prosecution, however, countered that if Rosemary West was living in the same house as Fred West, she couldn’t possibly have been unaware of what was going on.
“He used to say it wasn’t a place for pregnant women or small children. He would just lock the doors and do whatever he was doing,” said Rosemary West, explaining that Fred West wouldn’t allow anyone into the cellar of their home.
Janet Leach, who had served as Fred’s court-appointed appropriate adult and confidant, also testified, disclosing that Fred had admitted Rose “played a major part” in the killings. She further explained that, before their arrest, the couple had agreed that Fred would assume responsibility for the murders.
After seven weeks in court, Rose was convicted on ten counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She has consistently maintained her innocence, filing appeals that were ultimately denied.
The house at 25 Cromwell Street, where Rose and Fred carried out most of their crimes, was torn down in October 1996.
Rosemary West today
Now serving her sentence at HM Prison New Hall in West Yorkshire, she spends her time listening to music, playing board games, and teaching cross-stitch to fellow inmates.
Transfers between prisons have been frequent, including a move prompted by a discovered plot against her life.
The chilling Netflix docuseries Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, which premiered on May 14, gave many viewers their first real look at the infamous case.
Anna Marie, the Wests’ oldest surviving child, was the only sibling to testify in court about the abuse she and her brothers and sisters suffered at the hands of Rose and Fred.
In May 2025, Anna Marie’s husband told the Daily Mail that she remains estranged from her siblings, even though they live nearby.
”It’s the siblings who live with the misery and pain of what went on in that house and the trauma is probably too much for them to have any contact,” he said. ”Even though some of them live near each other, they don’t speak or see each other because that only opens up old wounds for them.”
He also addressed the renewed attention brought by the Netflix series:
”Every few years the case is back in the media, like now with this new documentary, and the public gets interested again but it’s the children who live with the pain of what happened on a daily basis.”
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