CULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MOORS MURDERERS AND YORKSHIRE RIPPER CASES by HENRIETTA PHILLIPA ANNE MALION PHILLIPS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Modern Languages School of Languages, Cultures, Art History, and Music College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham October 2016 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This thesis examines written, audio-visual and musical representations of real-life British serial killers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady (the ‘Moors Murderers’) and Peter Sutcliffe (the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’), from the time of their crimes to the present day, and their proliferation beyond the cases’ immediate historical-legal context. Through the theoretical construct ‘Northientalism’ I interrogate such representations’ replication and engagement of stereotypes and anxieties accruing to the figure of the white working- class ‘Northern’ subject in these cases, within a broader context of pre-existing historical trajectories and generic conventions of Northern and true crime representation. Interrogating changing perceptions of the cultural functions and meanings of murderers in late-capitalist socio-cultural history, I argue that the underlying structure of true crime is the counterbalance between the exceptional and the everyday, in service of which its second crucial structuring technique – the depiction of physical detail – operates. Applying the theories of David Schmid and Lisa Downing to a new range of figures and artefacts I demonstrate ways true crime can expose and explore the unequal power relations inherent in capitalism, both constructing the figure of the criminal as – and uncoupling that figure from a mythology that renders them – falsely ontologically seperate from normalised forms of violence. Dedication Dedicated to the memory of Kasper Wibe Solheim 1984-2016 the last of the famous international playboys. The world has lost its greatest true crime and indie pub theorist, its greatest friend and consoler, and will forever be the poorer, harsher and more prosaic for your loss. Thank you for letting me drunkenly practice conference papers on you. Thank you for the worst best intentional misreadings of Christmas films. Thank you for being a friend. How I love the romance of crime | and I wonder does anybody feel the way I do? Oh but I do. I do. :’) Also in memory of: Jasmine Stewart, Who changed my life; without whom I would have heard none of the songs. and Christine and Marcus Phillips and Pamela Ollerhead, without whom I wouldn’t be. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Lisa Downing, friends, colleagues and other works of magic Dewi Evans Geoffrey Humble Holly Pike Richard “GARETH” Whitmill Daisy Payne Lauren Smith Alex Dymock Jacqui Miller Clare Stainthorp Penny Andrews Jon Greenaway Caroline Waters band of Bodøs Susie McComb, Alex Wisgard, Alex Stewart and Tukru Hassinen everyone on the PostgRAD Study Gang and Punk Scholars Network facebook groups, the Theory Reading Group, a few wayward musicians, Kirsty Fife for starting this whole ball rolling in the first place at Fat Swimming, too many other people to count, and Gareth, again, for everything, all of the time. x CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Theoretical Framework ....................................................................................................................... 19 Northientalism ........................................................................................................................................ 23 Gothic Soap Opera: Northern Space and the Unmooring of the Moors .......................................... 29 Northern Masculinity: Subaltern Self-Sufficiency .................................................................................... 34 Oh I’ve An Acquaintance With Both: Brady’s Scottishness .................................................................. 37 Northientalism Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 39 Structure: chapter outline and corpus of primary texts ........................................................... 42 Chapter One: True Crime and Fiction ..................................................................................... 49 Materiality ................................................................................................................................................ 49 Materiality as a specific feature of the true crime genre ....................................................................... 56 Setting (and) the Scene ..................................................................................................................................................... 62 Interiors ................................................................................................................................................................................... 69 A Bit Of The Other: The Northern Body ..................................................................................................................... 79 The Body Of The Killer ...................................................................................................................................................... 83 Temporality: Historical Abuse ........................................................................................................... 93 Gothic Geographies, Occult Histories ....................................................................................................................... 104 Appalling Vistas / In Plain Sight ................................................................................................................................. 120 Sound and Music, Time and Haunting ........................................................................................................ 125 Intertext as Time; Music as Quotidian ..................................................................................................................... 125 Historical Records; Criminal Records ...................................................................................................................... 132 Haunting Melodies ........................................................................................................................................................... 147 Chapter 2: Television and Film ............................................................................................. 152 Bodies ....................................................................................................................................................... 157 Evidential Intertext and Mise-en-scène ..................................................................................................... 159 Actor Intertext ...................................................................................................................................................... 168 Performance .......................................................................................................................................................... 171 Homosociality and Masculine Pedagogy ................................................................................................... 181 Spectacle ................................................................................................................................................................. 187 Scapegoats and Sexualising the Abuser ..................................................................................................... 200 Raw Materials: Reification .............................................................................................................................. 213 In The Frame ......................................................................................................................................................... 218 Chapter 3: Music ......................................................................................................................... 226 1970s-80s: Punk and Industrial ...................................................................................................... 226 1980’s – present day: Indie ............................................................................................................... 252 How I Love The Romance Of Crime ............................................................................................................. 259 Reification and Commodity ............................................................................................................................ 264 Pop Is Always Looking For Trouble ............................................................................................................ 272 It’s What