Brady is known primarily for the series of sadistic murders that he committed with his lover Myra Hindley in England from 1963 to 1965, which were dubbed the Moors murders; all but one of the known victims were buried along the Saddleworth Moor near Oldham in Lancashire.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1966; since 1999 he has been in a mental hospital. Since 1999 Brady has been trying to gain the right to commit suicide through hunger strikes. He has been force-fed through feeding tubes intermittently since beginning the strike.