Between 1967 and 1987, Fred West and his second wife, Rose committed at least a dozen murders—yet that was only the beginning of the terrible revelations that would come to surround their “House of Horrors” at 25 Cromwell Street in Gloucester.
The Horrifying Romance of Fred and Rose West
In 1969, Rosemary Letts met Fred West shortly after her 15th birthday—when he was already 27 years old.
Before long, the two were dating, much to the consternation of her family. By the time she was 16 years old, Rose had moved in with Fred and was already pregnant with her first child.
Within a couple of years, the two were married, even though Fred was technically still married to his estranged first wife, Catherine “Rena” West. Rena was in no position to contest the arrangement, however.
Her body was already lying in a field where it had been dismembered, placed into several large plastic bags, and buried the year before, making her one of West’s earliest victims.
Fred and Rena had two children, and one of these, Charmaine, was also a victim of the couple, likely killed by the 16-year-old Rose while she acted as guardian to Fred’s children during the time he was serving a jail sentence for theft.
In fact, the murder of Charmaine may have been what precipitated the murder of Rena, when the latter came to try to learn the whereabouts of her children.
Fred West
Photo Credit: IMDbHow Many People Did Fred and Rose West Kill?
All told, Fred and Rose West killed at least a dozen women and girls between them, including several of their own children.
The total number is likely impossible to know, but at least eight of the murders were almost certainly committed by the couple working in tandem.
These killings were not just vicious slayings, however, they were acts of sadistic sexual gratification. Victims were sexually assaulted, bound, and tortured, often for prolonged periods.
Those children of the Wests who survived told of repeated sexual abuse, violence, and degradation, while other children showed significant signs of sexual assault.
From their home in Gloucester, Rose West engaged in prostitution and, later, forced at least one of Fred’s daughters to do so as well, starting when she was just 13 years old.
Fred and Rose also sexually abused many of their children—after Fred first raped his daughter Anne Marie when she was just eight years old, Rose reportedly told her, “Everybody does it to every girl. It’s a father’s job.”
Other victims included young women hired to act as nannies to the family’s many children—Rose gave birth to at least eight between 1970 and 1983, several of whom are believed to have been conceived with clients—lodgers in their home, and their own children.
The remaining West children were often warned that, if they told anyone about what happened in the West household, they would end up “buried under the patio” like their older sister Heather.
House of Horrors: The Fred and Rose West Crime Scene
Rose West
Photo Credit: IMDbIn May of 1992, Fred raped his 13-year-old daughter Louise, who was found writhing in pain by her siblings. When she told her mother what had happened, Rose replied, “Oh well. You were asking for it.”
Despite the numerous threats not to divulge anything that happened within the household, Louise eventually told a friend, which began a police investigation.
Though the sexual assault case collapsed when the victims declined to testify, the police remained suspicious, especially as to the whereabouts of Heather West. In 1994, they successfully acquired a search warrant to investigate the house at 25 Cromwell Street.
What they found there was a nightmare. The remains of numerous young women were found buried beneath the garden, cellar, and house—among them, the remains of Heather West.
Almost all had been severely tortured and mutilated both before and after their death, and many showed signs of violent sexual abuse.
Most were missing certain small bones, which were likely kept as souvenirs, and Heather’s body was accompanied by fingernails piled separately, indicating that they had probably been torn off while she was still alive.
Besides those bodies buried at 25 Cromwell Street, Fred West admitted to other murders, including that of his first wife and stepdaughter.
He denied that Rose had any knowledge of the killings, a denial that he would eventually recant.
In 1995, Fred West took his own life while awaiting trial, leaving behind a suicide note addressed to Rose which read, in part, “I haven’t got you a present, but all I have is my life. I will give it to you, my darling.”
Rose West was charged with ten counts of murder and convicted in November 1995. The judge in the case referred to her crimes as “appalling and depraved” and sentenced her to life in prison, emphasizing that she should never be paroled.
The Fred and Rose West Children: Where Are They Now?
Following the arrest of Fred and Rose West in 1994, their youngest children were put into foster care, and four of them subsequently received new identities, in order to protect them from the notoriety of the case.
Among the other children, it is known that at least two attempted suicide, while Barry West, who was seven years old at the time that Heather West was murdered, took his own life in 2020, at the age of 40.
Anne Marie, the only surviving child from Fred West’s first marriage, published a tell-all book in 1995, Out of the Shadows: Fred West’s Daughter Tells Her Harrowing Story of Survival.
At last account, she was the only remaining child who still visited Rose West in prison.
Anne Marie’s book is far from the only one that was written about the crimes of Fred and Rose West, however.
Another surviving victim, Caroline Roberts, also authored or co-authored several books about her experience, and the infamy of the case has led to numerous books and documentaries, including Fred & Rose by Howard Sounes, which has been hailed as the “definitive account” of the couple and their crimes, “a story of obsessive love as well as obsessive murder” (The Times).
The “House of Horrors” at 25 Cromwell Street was demolished in 1996, with every piece of debris destroyed in order to discourage souvenir hunters.
But the story of what happened there continues to fascinate and appall us even today.
Fred and Rose West Documentary on Netflix
The most recent documentary on the subject is Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story, premiering on Netflix and also adapted from work by Howard Sounes, featuring “recently discovered police recordings and first-person accounts” of the grisly case.
It probably won’t be the last.
Featured photo from Wikipedia and David Foodphototasty / Unsplash
