THEIR deadly urges might appear to make them kindred spirits, but behind bars, the world’s most despised serial killers have often turned against each other in explosive fashion.
From loathsome love affairs to murder plots and gruesome jail attacks, these warped rivalries also expose a dark psychology that drives these infamous monsters, according to a top criminologist.
This week, it was reported that spree killer Joanna Dennehy threatened to kill Rose West behind bars just minutes after she arrived in the same prison as the House of Horrors murderer.
The twisted pair were both caged at HMP Bronzefield in Surrey. West was allegedly taken into solitary confinement before she was transferred to another prison the following day, as prison guards feared the worst.
Dennehy is currently serving a life term in prison for stabbing five men, three who died, is known as one of the country’s most notorious female killers.
Criminologist Professor David Wilson is not at all surprised that Dennehy would want to target West, explaining she is desperate to cement her own self-styled reputation as Britain’s most evil woman.
“Quite clearly Rose West is a convicted serial killer, then you have Joanna Dennehy who isn’t a serial killer, but is a spree killer,” he explains.
“But Joanna Dennehy has carefully constructed for herself a persona where she wants to be seen as the most dangerous woman that Britain has ever produced.
“And therefore having Rose West in the same prison… she undermines that sense.
“A plot for the spree killer to kill the serial killer embellishes and improves her reputation as being that dangerous female murderer. She would be the ultimate top dog.
“These people want to reinvent their brand, sometimes they are polishing that sense of what the public think of them, because these confrontations get reported on. They can enhance and keep their brand in the limelight.”
But Dennehy isn’t the only notorious prisoner to start a bitter feud behind bars with an infamous rival.
And Professor Wilson, also a former prison governor, says there are two key reasons for this – personality and the prison environment.
“Ultimately what characterises them all is narcissism. These people like to be the centre of attention, and as long as they can be the centre of attention that fits their psychological needs,” he says.
“Sometimes a friendship or alliance with another prisoner who has a reputation outside or inside can enhance their narcissistic personality trait.
“But other times if they feel that they are under threat from that person, they will change their behaviour accordingly and they will fall out.
“Then the key sociological aspect is that they are all incarcerated in a maximum security prison or a secure hospital. And there is a prison hierarchy and they have a reputation that they want to retain.
“Sometimes the fact that there is a hierarchy means that they want to position themselves as higher up than another prisoner.
“Or it may be that they see a kindred spirit so that they can combine forces and act jointly to maintain their place in the hierarchy.
“Sometimes there are genuine friendships that develop within secure hospitals and maximum security prisons.”
But often these friendships can twist into deadly and bitter rivalry… as we reveal here.
Rose West and Myra Hindley
Mass murderers Rose West and Myra Hindley were as “thick as thieves” until a sudden split after they quarrelled over who was more famous, a fellow lag claims.
Moors Murderer Myra and Cromwell Street killer Rose first met in HMP Durham in the mid 1990s.
It was claimed they had a “short-lived lesbian relationship” before the fallout.
West’s former solicitor Leo Goatley said: “Rose’s first paramour was the Moors murderer, Myra Hindley, who happened to be on the hospital wing at HMP Durham at the same time in 1995 and early 1996.”
However, Mr Goatley claims their relationship didn’t last long with West saying Hindley could be “very manipulative”.
He told the Daily Mail: “When I visited a few months later, Rose’s opinion of Hindley had changed dramatically.
“She was saying, ‘You have to watch Hindley, mind. She is very manipulative.
“‘You don’t realise it, but she gets you doing stuff for her. Oh, she’s clever, all right. She’s flippin’ dangerous, that one. She ain’t going to take me for a c*** again.’
“And so heralded the end of the romance.”
Fellow prisoner Linda Calvey, who served 18 years inside, later claimed the relationship didn’t last long, saying: “As fast as it happened, it ended.
“There was talk that because Rose was more famous than Myra it had put her nose out of joint.”
Yorkshire Ripper and Ronnie Kray
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and gangland killer Ronnie Kray were both banged up in maximum security psychiatric hospital Broadmoor in the early 90s.
Serial killer Sutcliffe and mobster Kray were once on friendly terms inside, with Sutcliffe being trusted to cut Kray’s hair.
But Sutcliffe told a pal just months before his death that he threatened to kill Kray after the gangster made advances towards him.
In one letter, he wrote: “I did not give Ronnie a beating although I did threaten him when he tried to make advances on me.”
Ronnie Kray died, aged 61, in 1995, while Sutcliffe, who murdered 13 women, died at HMP Frankland from a combination of Covid-19 and heart disease in November 2020, aged 74.
Ian Brady and Raymond Morris
The country’s most notorious child killers, Raymond Morris and Ian Brady, were embroiled in a savage, behind-bars rivalry.
While serving their life sentences the pair often had violent clashes as they argued about who had the greater notoriety.
The Cannock Chase Killer and the Moors Murderer attacked each other in Durham Prison, throwing hot water over each other – and both received treatment for scalds following the violence.
Historian Richard Pursehouse said of one of the attacks: “Assuming the phrase was around then, apparently Brady, who had chosen ‘tea, no milk, plenty of sugar’, had ‘napalmed’ Morris.
“The lack of milk means it would be hot, while lots of sugar means the tea would stick to Morris’s face.”
Walsall monster Morris, who died in 2014, was only ever convicted of the murder of seven-year-old Christine Darby but remains chief suspect in the killings of Margaret and Diana Tift.
Brady, along with his girlfriend Myra Hindley, was convicted of the murders of five children. He died in prison in 2017.
Charles Bronson and Robert Maudsley
One of Britain’s most feared killers is reportedly embroiled in a bitter feud with infamous prisoner Charles Bronson.
Robert Maudsley, who earned the nickname ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ after allegations he ate one of his victims’ brains, has been locked up for more than 40 years.
His dangerous reputation has led to him being kept in isolation inside a glass box underground.
The pair reportedly “hated” each other inside HMP Wakefield, also known as “Monster Mansion”.
In the book, Inside Wakefield Prison, authors Jonathan Levi and Emma French recount how one prison guard, named Jo, described how the pair would torment one another.
“Robert Maudsley, Bob as he is known, hates Bronson. They simply do not get on,” they explained. “When I was on the unit, Maudsley would play rock music loud to annoy Bronson.”
The music would echo through the cell walls and provoke Bronson to “shout” at the killer who refused to respond.
In a particularly twisted form of revenge, Bronson was allegedly known to whistle outside Maudsley’s cell, supposedly because the latter’s mother would lock him in a cupboard and whistle outside the door.
Bronson has claimed he and Maudsley fell out over a rejected gift – and he wants revenge.
He revealed that he sent Maudsley a watch as a gift, only for it to be rejected by the killer, who instructed the prison guard trying to deliver it to throw the watch in a bin.
After the incident he called Maudsley “an ungrateful b*****d and threatened: “I pray to one day bump into him at 300mph and, unlike him, I don’t need a blade.”
Levi Bellfield and John Warboys
Black cab rapist John Worboys bonded with killer Levi Bellfield over their love of football and food – before falling out when Bellfield found out Worboys admitted he was guilty.
Bellfield became “best friends” with rapist Warboys and even offered legal advice, said insiders.
When Worboys was moved to a different prison he kept in touch with Bellfield, one of the UK’s most notorious child killers, by letter.
Despite their friendship Bellfield later wrote to a pen pal claiming they were only pals because he believed Warboys was innocent.
He wrote: “He told me he was innocent when I was there. And if he’s admitted his guilt now I’m a little bit disappointed because I looked to him as being innocent.
“Like a mug I was, but that’s what he told me. That’s what he told everyone.”
Bellfield was jailed for life in 2008 for the hammer murders of Amelie Delagrange, 22, and 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, 18.
Three years later he was convicted of killing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 13, who was abducted on her way home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey in 2002.
Roy Whiting and Gary Vinter
Double killer Gary Vinter set his sights on Roy Whiting because of his notoriety.
Convicted sex offender Whiting had been jailed for life 2001 for the murder of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who disappeared while playing near her grandparents’ home in Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, in July 2000.
Vinter stabbed Whiting in the eyes with a sharpened toilet brush handle in 2011.
He attacked Whiting in an attempt to get his own jail conditions changed, Newcastle Crown Court heard. Vinter told the court: “He [Whiting] was a dirty little nonce. That’s why I did it.”
Vinter admitted the attack and was given an indefinite sentence with a notional five-year minimum jail term.
But that wasn’t the end of his prison violence and Vinter has since become known as one of the most feared prisoners in the British justice system.
In 2016 he was handed another life sentence for trying to kill double killer Lee Newell, a fellow lifer at HMP Woodhill.
Newell was kicked repeatedly in the head. A prison officer said they were the worst injuries he had seen.
Passing sentence, Judge Richard Foster told Vinter: “You must be one of the most dangerous individuals within the prison system today. Your record is truly shocking.”
Edmund Kemper and Herbert Mullin
In 1970s California, there was not one but two serial killers on the loose at the same time.
Eventually cops arrested Herbert Mullin and Edmund Kemper after the deaths of 21 people, and the pair ended up in adjoining cells in prison.
But that despite their grisly common ground, the men did not get along, with Kemper trying to torment Mullin.
Kemper recalled: “Well, [Mullin] had a habit of singing and bothering people when somebody tried to watch TV.
“So I threw water on him to shut him up. Then, when he was a good boy, I’d give him some peanuts. Herbie liked peanuts.
“That was effective because pretty soon he asked permission to sing. That’s called behaviour modification treatment.”
Who are the UK's worst serial killers?
THE UK's most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
- British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
- After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
- Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
- Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
- William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
- Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
- Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
- Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
