David Smith

Carol Ann Lee

In the half-light of early morning on October 7, 1965, 17-year-old David Smith called Hyde police from a telephone box on Hattersley overspill estate in Manchester. The story that he had to tell--of the brutal murder he had witnessed the previous evening--set in motion the detection of Britain's most infamous serial killings: the Moors Murders. Despite standing as chief prosecution witness at the subsequent trial, David Smith was vilified and hated by a public who knew nothing of the facts behind the accusations thrown at Smith by the killers themselves in an attempt to gain lesser sentences. Myra Hindley's own confession, 20 years later, that she and Ian Brady had lied about Smith's involvement in their crimes, did little to diminish the slurs against his name. For almost 45 years, David Smith has been asked by writers and filmmakers to tell his story. With the exception of no more than a handful of very brief interviews, he has refused. Carol Ann Lee met Smith during her research for One of Your Own, her critically acclaimed biography of Hindley, following which he finally agreed to reveal all regarding the case and his involvement in it. In Witness, interviews, archival research, and, most significantly, David Smith's own vivid memories are fused to create an unforgettable, often harrowing account of his life before, during, and after the Moors Murders.

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