On November 15, 2002, Myra Hindley died in prison, one of the rare women whose crimes were deemed so indefensible that "life" really did mean for life. Without a doubt Britain’s most notorious murderess, her death has done nothing to diminish the shadow she casts across the collective consciousness. But who was the woman behind the headlines? How could a seemingly normal girl, with no intimations of violence in her character, grow up to commit such terrible acts? Her defenders—many of them high-profile individuals—claim she fell under Ian Brady's spell, but is this the truth? Was her insistence that she had changed, that she felt deep remorse and had reverted to the Catholicism of her childhood genuine or a calculating bid to win parole? This book explores these questions and many others, drawing on a wide range of resources, including Hindley's own unseen writings, hundreds of recently released prison files, fresh interviews, and extensive new research. It is the first in-depth study of Hindley, returning her humanity to her and thereby revealing her crimes as even more incomprehensible. Scrupulously researched and compellingly well written, this book is the challenging, definitive biography of Britain's "most hated woman."