Continueing the Serial Killer Trail through Jonesville
Rosemary Pauline West born November 29, 1953 to William Letts and Daisy Fuller in Northam Devon. She was the fithe child of seven born into a very poor family. While pregnant with Rose, her mother was suffering from depression and given Electroconvulisve therapy and some believe this treament may have caused prenatal injuries to Rose. She received her last session of ECT days before Rose was born. Rose grew upf very moody and doing poor in school. Her father was paranoid schizophrenic and prone to extreme violence and sexual abuse to Rose and her older sister Patricia. When Rose was a teen, her parents split up and she went to live with her father. Rose was known to walk around naked and she also reportedly raped her younger brothers.
Rose first encountered Fred West in early 1969, shortly after her 15th birthday; he was 27. Rose was repulsed by Fred's unkempt appearance and deduced he was a tramp, but she quickly became flattered by the attention he continued to lavish on her over the following days as he invariably sat alongside her at the same bus stop. Rose twice refused to go on a date with Fred, but allowed him to accompany her home. Having discovered Rose worked in a nearby bread shop, a few days after their first encounter, Fred persuaded an unknown woman to enter the premises and present her with a gift accompanied by the explanation that a "man outside" had asked her to present this gift to her. Minutes later, Fred entered the premises and asked Rose to accompany him on a date that evening, an offer she accepted. Shortly thereafter, Rose began a relationship with Fred, becoming a frequent visitor at the caravan park where he lived with the two children from his first marriage, daughter Anna Marie and stepdaughter Charmaine. Rose became a willing childminder to Fred's daughters, who she noted were neglected and whom she initially treated with care and affection. On several occasions in the early days of their courtship, Rose insisted she and Fred take the girls on excursions to gather wildflowers.
Within weeks of her first meeting Fred, Rose left her job to become full-time nanny to Charmaine and Anna Marie; this decision was made with the agreement that Fred would provide her with sufficient money to give to her parents on Fridays to convince them she was still obtaining a salary at the bread shop. Several months later, Rose introduced Fred to her family, who were aghast at their daughter's choice of partner. Rose's mother, Daisy Letts, was unimpressed with Fred's boastful and arrogant behaviour, and correctly concluded he was a pathalogical liar. Her father vehemently disapproved of the relationship, threatening Fred directly and promising to call DCFS if he continued to associate with his daughter.
Rose's parents forbade their daughter from continuing to date Fred, but she defied their wishes, prompting them to visit Gloucestershire social services to explain that their 15-year-old daughter was having a sexual relationship with an older man. Rose was placed in a home for troubled teenagers in Cheltenham in August 1969, and only permitted to leave under controlled conditions. When allowed to return home to visit her parents at weekends, Rose almost invariably took the opportunity to visit Fred. She became pregnant on one of those visits at age 16. DCFS released her with the understanding she would terminate the pregnancy.
On October 17, 1970, Rose gave birth to her first daughter, Heather Ann. It is unknown if the baby belonged to Fred or her father. Two months later, Fred was put in jail and he served 6.5 months while Rose looked after the three children. According to Fred's daughter Anna Marie, she and Charmaine were physically and emotionally abused by Rose. Anna Marie was submissive and took the abuse but Charmaine was stoic and refused to cry or display any emotions while being abused. This upset Rose, who seemed to like the children in distress. A childhood friend remembers coming over and going in the house to see Charmaine naked standing on a chair gagged and with her hands bound behind her back. Rose was standing there with a wooden spoon and Charmaine was showing no emotions. Hospital records also show that Charmaine went to the hospital in 1971 for a puncture wound in her left ankle which Rose said was a household accident.
Rose is believed to have killed Charmaine shortly before Fred's prison release date in 1971. She is known to have taken Charmaine, Anna Marie and Heather to visit Fred on 15 June. It is believed that she was mudered on that day or shortly after. Foresics had proved that Charmaine died whiel her father was in jail. When friends would visit, Rose told them that Charmaine went to live with her mother in Bristol. Charmaines remains were kept in the coal celler and then her naked body was buried in the yard close to the back door. However, several bones were missing like the finger, wrist, ankle, and toe and it is believed these were kept as a trouphy.
Charmaine's mother, Catherine "Rena" West returned August of 1970 asking for custody of the girls and to find out where her daughter was and that was the last time she was s een alive. It is believed that Fred strangled her and her body was discovered later. When found a short piece of metal tubing was found with her remains and it is believed she was subjected to being restrained and sexually assaulted before being murdered. The body was also dismembered and placed into plastic bags and buried.
When the West children reached the age of seven, they were give chores to perform around the house and they had to follow set rules. They were not allowed to socialise outside the house unless their parents were with them. If they did, they were beaten by Rose and sometimes Fred. The children were not hit in the face or hands due to wanting to keep up appearances in public. Heather and her younger brother Stephen ran away but was returned to the home, and they were beaten. During 18=972 to 1992, the West children were admitted to the local hospitals a total of 31 times, but they were never reported to DCFS. One child remembers being kicked in the head over Rose stepping in his bowl of mop water and another remembers being cut with a knife all over her Rib Cage. Rose and Fred also were abuse to each other and there was a time that Rose chased Fred with a knife and her hand was sliced open.
In September 1972, the Wests led eight-year-old Anna Marie to the cellarwhere the child was ordered to undress, with Rose tearing her dress from her body upon noting the child's hesitation. She was then stripped naked, bound to a mattress and gagged before Fred raped her with Rose's active encouragement. After the rape, Rose explained to the child: "Everybody does it to every girl. It's a father's job. Don't worry, and don't say anything to anybody." Making clear these sexual assaults would continue, Fred and Rose then threatened the child with severe beatings if they ever received word she had divulged the sexual abuse she endured at their hands. Rose would also sexually abuse the girls and make them wear sexual devices and mini skirts while she did chores or binding her to furniture encouraging her father to rape her. At the age of 13, they began Pimping Anna Marie out telling people she was 16. Rose stayed in the room to watch.
In October 1972, the Wests hired 17-year-old Caroline Owens as their children's nanny. They had picked her up one night on a secluded country road as she was hitchhiking home from visiting her boyfriend. Learning that Owens disliked her stepfather and was looking for a job away from home, Fred and Rose offered her part-time employment as a nanny to the three children then in their household, with a promise she would be driven home each Tuesday. Several days later, Owens moved in sharing a room with Anna Marie. Rose, who had begun to engage in prostitution by this time, explained to Owens that she was a masseuse when the younger woman asked about the steady stream of men visiting her. When Owens herself became the recipient of the Wests' overt sexual advances, she announced her intentions to leave and return home. When she left, the West's made a plan to abduct and rape Owens. They offered to take Owens home and Rose got in the backseat and began to fondle Owens. When Owens began to protest, Fred stopped the car, referred to Owens as a "bitch", and punched her unconcious before he and Rose bound and gagged her with a scarf and duct tape. When Owens screamed, Rose again smothered her with a pillow and further restrained her about the neck, and molested on her. Owens stopped resisiting. The following morning, Fred threatened to keep Owens in the cellar and let all his "black friends" come and abuse her and then they would bury her body beneath the Paving Stones. Fred boasted of killing hundreds of young girls and told Owens that she had really been brought back for his wife's pleasure. She agreed to stay on as the nanny and began vacuuming the house. Once she was able to later that day, she escaped. Her mother told the police and they arrested the West's and charged them with assault, indecent assault, rape, and bodily harm. Because she didn't testify, all sexual charges were dropped and the West's agreed to plea guilty to reduced charges.
On August 6, 1992, Fred was arrested for being accused of raping his 13 year old daughter mulitiple times and Rose was arrested for child cruelty. Because she wouldn't testify so the case collapsed. All 5 of the West's younger children was removed from them and placed in foster care. This also brought up questions as to why Heather hadn't been seen since 1987.
Police found human remains and signs of torture at their house and Rose and Fred was arrested in Feb of 1994. During the trial, Rose denied murdering anyone. However she said that her husband committed the crimes alone. She said that she tried to stop him and couldn't. One of the bodies found was Charmaine West. Fred was also charged with 2 other murders from before he met Rose. After his arrest, Fred told the court that Rose murdered Shirley Robinson and dismembered her. She also removed Robinson's baby from her womb in the process. Heather's body was also found. She was murdered June 1987 at the age of 16 from being abused. Her dismembered body was placed under the family patio. The Wests' son said when he was 7 he saw his mother kick Heather repeatedly in the head until she was no longer moving. In a move to control the children, they were told that if they didn't behave they would end up under the patio like Heather.
Fred committed suicide by hanging on Jan 1, 1995. In Feb at pretrial proceedings, Rose plead not guilty to ten charges of murder (Charmaine West was added to this) and 2 counts of rap and indecent assault of young girls. The judge admitted testimony by 3 women that Fred and Rose sexually assaulted. Victims who survived stated that Rose was the more aggressive of Fred and Rose. However, her counsel, emphasised that Fred, before meeting Rose, had committed at least one murder strikingly similar to those at issue in the present trial, and that the prosecution's case was largely circumstantial. He contended that Rose was unaware of the extent of Fred's sadism and urged the jury to not be prejudiced by her promiscuity and domineering manner. Rose testified, even though her counsel told her not to. She was tearful and sometimes remorseful but also sometimes humorous. She would describe herself as a victim of rape and child abuse who married an abusive man but then joke about always being pregnant or one of the victims grandpa glasses. Rose stated that she never met any of the 6 victims buried at her house. She claimed that her and her husband lived seperate lives. She also testified that Hether, her oldest child, was a lesbian who physically and emotionally abused her siblings but that she loved her and didn't know anything about her being murdered.
Many women came forward and claimed that they were attacked by Fred between 1966 to 1975. The final witness was Fred's appointed adult, Janet Leach, who was the rebuttal to tape recordings of Fred confession that Rose had known nothing about the murders. She testified that Fred told her that he and Rose made a pact that he would take the blame though he said some of the murders were to fix Rose's mistakes. Fred also told Janet that Rose had killed Charmaine when he was in jail and she murdered Robinson. He said that he dismembered the victims but Rose participated in the dismemberment and mutilation of Robinson as well as removing her child from the womb. Janet also told the court that Rose played a major part in all the murders.
Oon November 22, the jury found her guilty of all ten murders and called her crimes appalling and depraved. She was sentenced to life in prison with no parole. Rose still maintains her innocence.