The House of Horrors: Fred and Rose West's Reign of Terror
How a Gloucester couple murdered at least 12 victims over two decades, hiding bodies in their family home
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Quick Facts
Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on 29 September 1941. His wife, Rosemary West, whom he married in January 1972 at Gloucester Register Office, would become his accomplice in one of Britain's most horrific criminal enterprises. Together, they transformed their modest family home at 25 Cromwell Street into a prison of torture and death.
The confirmed death toll stands at least at 12 murders spanning over two decades. Among the earliest documented victims was Anne McFall, an 18-year-old who disappeared in July 1967 while pregnant with Fred's child. In 1971, Fred's first wife, Rena Costello, aged 27, vanished after discussions about child custody—she too would later be found dead.
But it was after Rose entered the picture that the killings intensified and took on a more systematic, sexually driven character. In September 1972, Fred raped his own eight-year-old daughter, Anna Marie, in the cellar at 25 Cromwell Street, with Rose's encouragement. Within months, in early 1973, the couple murdered Lynda Gough, a 19-year-old whose dismembered remains were buried in the garden. This marked what investigators believe to be their first joint murder.
Other confirmed victims included Charmaine, Fred's stepdaughter, killed by Rose alone; and Shirley Hubbard, just 15 years old, the youngest victim found at the house. At least eight of the murders involved rape, bondage, torture, and mutilation—crimes driven by sexual gratification.
The Cromwell Street property itself became a physical manifestation of their depravity. The cellar served as a makeshift 'sex dungeon' equipped with bondage suits and holes drilled into ceiling beams for hanging. Victims were bound, gagged, and subjected to systematic abuse before their deaths. Bodies were dismembered with methodical precision and hidden throughout the property—beneath floors, within walls, and buried in the garden.
Rose's role evolved into something more visible when she began working as a prostitute from a room upstairs, dubbed 'Rose's Room,' after the birth of their child in June 1972. The room was fitted with a red light, peepholes, and even a baby monitor, allowing Fred to observe her interactions with clients. This veneer of normalcy masked the horrors occurring below.
