Fred West used his ice cream van to “camouflage” his crimes – and even killed a toddler while working in Glasgow, a writer has claimed.
Colin MacFarlane, author of The Real Gorbals Story, said: “People often say to me, ‘How rough was the Gorbals?’, and I say, ‘Fred West was my ice cream man’.
“There was a continual stream of violence. The place was inhabited with a conglomeration of psychopaths. Fred West arrived in the Gorbals, where he became quite well known as ‘The Mr Whippy Man’.
He was taken as a bit of a joke character – he had little curly hair and a little smiley face. He quickly became known as a bit of a pervert because he was always interested in chatting up the young girls.
“His motives were very sinister and dark and ice cream was the camouflage for it but he was not seen as a threat because there was so many threatening people going about at the time.
“One day Fred made friends with a little boy almost the same age as me. He promised him ice cream and asked him to wait at a corner. When the boy waited, Fred reversed and ran over him and killed him.”
West was never charged over the killing of Harry Feeney. Former gangster John Knotts revealed that West was run out of the city by a gang in the Gorbals as police were staking out pubs used as gang huts while they closed in on his sex abuse.
He said: “Fred West had moved a lot through Glasgow, in different areas, because the way that he acted was preceding him. No matter where he went to, he had a reputation of molesting kids.
“This guy was bringing far too much heat into the pubs – the police sending in undercover detectives to write down stories and find out whatever was going on.
“The gang leader of the area said to his enforcers, ‘Go down there and tell him to get out of here’. There was some neighbour, she had apparently informed Fred that he was going to get ambushed, and that’s when he just packed his bags and went.”
Timeline of West's sick crimes began with rape of own sister
1941 Born Frederick Walter Stephen West in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, on September 29.
1960 West meets Catherine Costello, of Coatbridge, at a dance hall in Much Marcle. They date for several months before she returns to Scotland.
1961 He is cleared of raping his sister Kitty, 13. She refuses to give evidence against him.
1962 Catherine, known to pals as “Rena”, returns to Much Marcle after falling pregnant to an Asian bus driver. She rekindles her romance with West and they marry, then move to Scotland.
1963 Rena’s daughter Charmaine is born.
1964 Another daughter, Anna Marie, is born.
1965 West reverses over and kills Harry Feeney, three, in Glasgow’s Castlemilk while driving his ice cream van. West was never charged over the death. He leaves Scotland with Charmaine and Anna Marie but leaves Rena in Glasgow.
1966 Rena joins Fred in England, and nanny Isa McNeill and her friend Anne McFall move in with the family. West regularly beat Rena and Isa and they hatch a plan to return to Glasgow with the children. West arrives as they are trying to flee. Anne and the kids remain with West while the others return to Scotland.
1967 Anne, 18, disappears. She is eight months pregnant with West’s daughter. Later that year Rena returns.
1968 He abducts 15-year-old Mary Bastholm, a waitress at a local cafe, from a bus stop in Gloucester. She is believed to have been buried in Bishop’s Cleave, Gloucestershire, but her body has never been found and West was never charged with the killing. Later that year, Rena leaves and the children are in the sole care of West. He puts them into care.
1969 West meets Rosemary “Rose” Letts, while waiting for a bus in Cheltenham, shortly after her 15th birthday. They become a couple. Rose is then placed in a home for troubled teens amid claims she had been working as a prostitute at West’s caravan.
1970 Rose gives birth to daughter Heather Ann. West is jailed for stealing car tyres and a tax disc.
1971 Rose murders Charmaine, eight. The body is stored in their coal cellar then buried in the back garden by West after his release from jail. Rena, now 27, confronts West at his home. It is the last time she is seen alive. Her mutilated body was found in a field in 1994.
1972 West and Rose marry at Gloucester Register Office. Rose falls pregnant and they move to a new home in Cromwell Street.
1973 The Wests murder lodger Lynda Gough, 19. Her remains are buried in a pit underneath the garage, later converted into a bathroom. In November, West kills Carol Ann Cooper, 15, who he referred to as “Scar Hand”. She was found buried under the cellar. Two days after Christmas, Exeter University student Lucy Partington, 21, is abducted from a bus stop. Her body was discovered in the cellar in 1994.
1974 Hitchhiking student Therese Siegenthaler, 21, is abducted. Her family report her missing but she dies before being found. In November, Shirley Hubbard, 15, is abducted from a bus stop. Her butchered remains were found in the cellar.
1975 Lodger Juanita Mott, 18, disappears. She is believed to have been abducted.
1978 Another lodger, Shirley Robinson, 18, disappears. She was eight months pregnant with West’s son.
1979 Alison Chambers, 16, is killed. Her dismembered body was found buried in the garden.
1987 Heather West, 16, is murdered. She is buried in a hole in the garden West made her brother dig.
1994 After reports from West children, a police investigation is launched. Heather’s body is found and the Wests are arrested. In June, Anne McFall’s butchered remains are found.
1995 West dies on New Year’s Day after hanging himself while on remand in jail in Birmingham.
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