These never-before-seen letters show Moors Murderer Ian Brady reminiscing about life before jail - including sailing trips with Myra Hindley.
Brady, now 79 and being force-fed against his wishes after embarking on a hunger strike in 1999, boasts of having been “flush with money” in the 60s and enjoying trips to “posh” bars.
He also describes going sailing with ‘M’ - in an apparent reference to fellow killer Hindley.
The letters describe playing card games inside - and blame his barely legible handwriting on staff at Ashworth Hospital - where he’s been held in the psychiatric unit for 32 years.
He accused them of “deliberate” medical neglect of his cataracts.
The handwritten notes were sent between December 2013 and October 2016.
In the letters Brady - who murdered multiple children with Hindley - complains about ‘gentrified’ former home city Glasgow and compares it to a ‘graveyard’.
In October 2013, Brady’s pen pal - who is also from Glasgow – started writing to the killer to quiz him about his childhood in the Scottish city.
Two months later, Brady replied with a Christmas card bearing a stamp from Ashworth Hospital.
In it, Brady thanked the source for the letter, but he complained: “Gentrified Glasgow is a graveyard compared to the busy industrial working class bustle it once was.”
He added: “As for it now being ‘Cosmopolitan’, in the 1960s there still wasn’t any immigrants there.”
Signing off the letter, Brady wrote: “PS excuse my handwriting, caused by 14 years deliberate medical neglect of my cataracts here in Ashworth”.
In a reply to Brady, the source quizzed the murderer about claims he cooked with gangster and fellow convict Ronnie Kray in jail.
Confirming the story, Brady wrote: “Ronnie Kray and I did the cooking at Durham A Level Security Wing, in the 1960s after three riots there.”
In another letter, dated April 2 2016 the killer chillingly reminisced on a carefree life in Manchester with pals as a young man - though it is unclear exactly which chums he is referring to.
He wrote: “On Hyde Rd [sic] at Denton there is a small public Garden, a long straight road leads to a large hotel at the top.
“Four of us used to play Bridge upstairs in that hotel, as the father of one associate was the landlord.
“We played into the midnight hours. One of the players was a member of the BBC Northern Orchestra.”
Discussing Glasgow, on May 30 2016, Brady wrote: “On incognito business meetings to Glasgow, we used a red bench in that Necropolis.
“I used to get there early morning and breakfast on a wedge of strong cheese and Cockburns Port, while waiting, viewing the then brewery, river, and city below.”
In a reply, the source explained a pal worked in a Glasgow cemetery Brady himself frequented as a young man.
Brady’s response, dated July 26 2016, included the lines: “Coincidence that your [friend] once worked at the Eastern Necropolis, perhaps our paths crossed on my regular meetings up there in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
“I made plenty of money and enjoyed a much higher lifestyle than Glasgow. But I always enjoyed visiting Glasgow family and friends.
“I even illegally returned to Glasgow for a Holiday six months after being ordered out, flush with money and everything.”
Brady was sent away from his hometown by a judge as a teenager in 1954 following a spree of petty crime.
He was sent to live with his mother and stepfather in Manchester, and in his letters bragged of his illegal return to his hometown.
In the same letter, Brady wrote: “I spent the fortnight taking family members up to the posh Trocadero bar and restaurant, round the side of the big Odeon Cinema on Renfield St back then, also took pals down to the old tenements Gorbals and waterfront bars on Clyde Street.
“I was an apprentice at Harland & Wolfe in Govan when I was fifteen before being ordered out of Glasgow later that year.
“The Clyde was very busy back then, each shipyard building three ships simultaneously.
“Ten years later it was like a ghost town, empty and rusting.”
In an apparent reference to his killer ex Hindley, who died in 2012, Brady said: “M and I sailed down the Clyde on the last paddle steamer, the Waverly, (which is still sailing today!)”
He added: “Yes, I too visited my old school… Camden St Primary in the Gorbals and Shawlands Academy (Still thriving)”
In a final letter, dated October 30 2016, Brady revealed how he taught himself to play the piano as a youngster.
He also declined the source’s offer to send books, adding: “my eyes are bad now-a-days due to conditions.”
The source wrote asking Brady more about his childhood, but says he is yet to send a reply.
Brady and Hindley killed five children between the ages of 10-17 in the 60s.
Hindley was convicted of two of the murders and shielding Brady after another murder, and given a life sentence. She died in jail in 2002 aged 60.
In 2014 Brady’s mental health advocate Jackie Powell said she believed he was showing signs of dementia.
Brady lost a legal bid to be transferred to a jail in 1985 on the grounds that he is mentally insane.