Frederick Walter Stephen West was born on 29 September 1941 in England. Over three decades, he would become responsible for one of the UK's most shocking crime sprees, claiming the lives of at least 12 young women and girls through rape, torture, mutilation, and murder.

West's killing spree began in July 1967 with the murder of Anna McFall, a woman he knew. Her body was buried in a field near Much Marcle, setting the pattern for what would become his signature method: disposing of victims at his residences. For four years, West operated largely undetected by law enforcement, evading serious scrutiny despite serving two short prison sentences and being fined for assault.

The dynamic shifted dramatically when West married Rose in 1969. Where Fred's early murders were solitary acts, Rose became his active partner in most of the killings that followed. Their partnership proved devastatingly efficient. In June 1971, Rose murdered Charmaine—Fred's 8-year-old stepdaughter from his first marriage—while Fred was imprisoned. The child's body was buried beneath the kitchen of their Midland Road home, her fingers and toes deliberately removed. This killing revealed Rose as more than an accomplice; she was an independent perpetrator.

By early 1973, just three months after being acquitted of an assault charge, the Wests claimed their first confirmed joint victim: Lynda Gough, a 19-year-old who had lodged at their Cromwell Street property. Over the next six years, they continued their predatory pattern, targeting vulnerable young women. Alison Chambers, a 16-year-old who had fled a children's home, was lured to the house with false promises of farm work and employment. She was murdered on 5 August 1979. Heather West, the couple's own daughter, would later become another victim, her disappearance in 1994 ultimately triggering the investigation that exposed the entire horrific enterprise.