Leslie Ann

                     Ancoats, North West England 
                              Christmas Day 1964

              
                              Dawn elapsed through downstairs curtains of the Downey household unto Christmas. Overlooking whitened residential streets, a..m. hours malingered to pallid morning "the industrial revolution changed all of it"-  as Daddy says over evening tea and papers, recalling a time before the outlined streets pressed onto fruition.
                             Mummy aligned our tree annually in tinsel, lolly, red & green ornaments, only this year
                             as to my tenth birthday; there would be a brand new sewing machine swaddled in wrapping paper with a note: Happy Christmas Leslie Ann!!!  
                                  
                                   "Innocence is wasted on the youthful" Ian Brady December 27 1964

                                   "He was very persuasive, if he told me the earth were flat or the moon to consist of swiss cheese,  I'd surely of believed him" Myra Hindle January 1982

                                  Ten year old Leslie Ann Downey was lured from an Ancoats Fairground, Boxing Day 1964, (day after Christmas).  Brady and Hindley spotted the young girl idling by a ride. The couple jumbled boxes outside the doors of Hindley's minivan, cunningly baiting Downey into assisting Hindley with the boxes.

                                   Something was wrong 
                                   differently this time
                                   Jesus, I know now- 
                                   a heart ripped from my beating chest
                                   still-bleeding crimson & scarlet through 
                                   endless ages of 
                                   mummy's blemished upholstery
                                     
                                   God wouldn't allow me another day
                                   or night 
                                   for that matter.
                                   Mummy expected me home before eight o clock
                                   to teach how to use 
                                   me new sewing machine
                                   daddy would have me a new one 

                                  but something was wrong
                                  differently that time
                                   I mean 
                                  the nice lady and man 
                                  weren't what I expected 
                                  to be
                                  they tied my hands 
                                  behind me back and
                                  stuffed a scarf down my neck
                                  and I
                                  told them I need to see Mummy
                                  and swore to the Bible
                                  though
                                  now
                                  I know it was never enough
                                  my brothers would become men 
                                  God knows I'd never 
                                  see my mummy again
                                  to make clothes for me dolls
                                  with my new sewing machine.       
  
                         

                       Seasons began for some
                       ending for others 
                      autumnal rain pounded
                      that dreary winter
                      on Saddleworth Moor  
                       Lesley Anne Downey's Bones deteriorated
                      in her shallow grave
                      The twisted
                      always get more twisted  
                      
                                                           
                                                                       never untwisting