Psychologist Hopes To Decipher 'Secret Messages' In Ian Brady's Letters

A criminal psychologist who spent a year exchanging letters with Ian Brady claims he used a secret 'code' to relay hidden messages to her - but she has no idea what he was trying to get through to her, as she can't decipher it.

Emilie Cassinelli, 30, was two years into her psychology degree at Plymouth University when she contacted the notorious Moors murderer in Ashworth Hospital in 2010.

Seven years on, the mum-of-two claims she is still unable to understand the 'eerie' code Brady created by switching between different fonts, ink colours and handwriting.

Credit: Caters

He also repeatedly underlined particular words, including 'capture' and 'captive'.

Now Emilie is revealing the letters to see if others can crack the code and decrypt the child killer's hidden message from beyond the grave.

Emilie, from Barnstaple, Devon, said: "When I look through the letters, knowing that Brady has had his hands on them and written them, it feels eerie.

"It's a strange sort of feeling to know I have the letters of a serial killer.

"Brady wrote in little codes to me. Still to this day I don't know what he was trying to do.

Credit: Caters

"Some phrases were in different colours, different fonts or underlined.

"When we were writing to each other, it did feel like there was a mutual acceptance between us but I don't know if he was trying to manipulate me.

"He'd coded it very well. After I received the letter I'd read it through and be left thinking about it for days.

"It was hard to work out. You could take it as him trying to say something else."

In the letters they exchanged, the killer claimed that most serial killers - himself included - 'couldn't kill a mouse' and that he was only called a criminal because he had been caught.

As well as trying to convey what could have been a hidden message to Emilie, he showed a keen interest in politics and wrote extensively about his hatred for the Labour Party.

He'd repeatedly blame white collar workers, the media and politicians for 'scourging the globe', believing that his own crimes were far less than theirs.

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday