Who were Rose West’s parents Daisy and Bill Letts?
ROSE West is one of the nation’s most notorious killers.
She was jailed for life in 1995 for killing 10 young women, but what do we know about her twisted upbringing?
Who were Rose West’s parents Daisy and Bill Letts?
Rose West’s mother Daisy Letts hailed from Chadwell Heath near Romford, Essex.
Her father, Bill Letts, served on aircraft carriers during the war.
The couple moved to a local authority house in Northam in 1950.
Daisy herself was very troubled – she struggled with depression and had several manic episodes.
In 1953 she had a nervous breakdown and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Bideford where she treated with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). ECT involves the attachment of electrodes to the skull and the application of severe electric shocks.
It was towards the start of her ECT treatment that Daisy fell pregnant with her fifth child, Rosemary. She continued with the ECT up until Rosemary’s birth.
When Rose was born, she displayed strange repetitive movements, which some have linked to the ECT treatment whilst she was in the womb.
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Meanwhile, Rose’s father, Bill Letts, developed OCD and frequently had violent outbursts.
He was abusive towards Rose’s mother and siblings during his psychotic episodes, and is reported to have sexually abused Rose.
Rose’s parents separated when she was a teenager.
Daisy told journalist, Howard Sounes: “He was a tyrant but you got no help in those days. We literally suffered hell behind those doors.”
Dr David Holmes, a criminal psychologist, said Rose’s abusive childhood “limited her development”.
He added: “She was learning the wrong skills and wrong motivations for life.
“She was on a path that would also certainly lead to abusive relations in the future and be a instigator of abusive relations as well.”
Rose met Fred West when she was just 15. He already had two daughters was 12 years her senior.
Rose’s parents were horrified at their daughter’s relationship with 27-year-old Fred.
Latterly, Daisy has spoken about how she used to visit her daughter in the mid-70s whilst she was living with her husband, Fred West.
She said she knew her daughter had been crying before most of her visits.
Daisy said: “Dad used to say we’ll go and see if she’s alright,
“We used to go over there. Most of the time she’d been crying but she would never tell us what was wrong.”
“Her eyes were always red and you could see she’d been crying. Dad used to say to me, ‘I’d like to know what is going on.'”
“We used to say where’s Fred? And every time we’d ask where Fred was she’d say he’s working. Dad used to say to me, ‘he’s not working at this time of night.'”
Did Daisy and Bill have any other children?
Rose West was the fifth of seven children.
Rose was reportedly obsessed with her pubescent body, and would parade naked around the family home.
When Rose was 13, she would creep into her nine-year-old Graham’s bedroom at night and molest him, as well as her youngest brother Gordon.
The son of Graham Letts was caged for 18 years in 2017 after abducting a girl and raping her.