'I have no compassion for her. I hope she goes to Hell. I wanted her to suffer like I have'

She has been roaming Saddleworth Moor, off and on, for 39 years, repeating her son's name and vowing to "bring him in from the cold" before she dies. When ramblers stop and ask her who she is and what she's doing, she makes up an excuse and walks on.

But Winnie Johnson's hopeless dreams of finding her son Keith Bennett – the only one of the Moors murder victims whose remains have not been recovered – faded further last night, and the knowledge that Myra Hindley died without revealing the secret left her feeling more bitter than she had anticipated.

"I have no sympathy for her even in death," Mrs Johnson, 68, said from her home in Manchester's Fallowfield district. "The pair of them have made my heart very hard and I just hope she goes to Hell. I wanted her to suffer like I have."

Last year, after 14 years of letters that elicited no reply, Hindley seemed to have delivered. She produced a sketch of where she thought Keith's body might lie.

Greater Manchester Police were sceptical and said it revealed nothing new. They were right. "I have no compassion for her," Mrs Johnson said. "I will never have, as long as I live. She is worse than him. What woman would have done that to a child?"

Other mothers have taken the same sentiments to the grave. Sheila Kilbride, whose 12-year-old son John was a victim, died a few years ago, aged 70, and her last words were a plea to keep Hindley behind bars. "If she ever comes out of jail I'll kill her," she said in her only interview, shortly before she died.

Ann West, the mother of 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, also struggled with bitterness, devoting half of her life to keeping her daughter's murderers behind bars.

She sought to further her aim towards the end of her own life by asking for photographs of Lesley Ann bound and gagged on a bed to be shown in public.

She vowed never to set foot on Saddleworth Moor, where police unearthed her daughter's body in a shallow grave, but eventually made a return soon before her death from liver cancer, two years ago.

"The wind cut me to the bone. What must it have been like for our baby in the dark, all alone?" Ms West said.

Clive Elliott, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said he had spoken to Alan West, who was married to Anne West.

He said: "Having spoken to the family and Alan, they believed that during Anne's lifetime she did everything a mother could to ensure Myra Hindley would never be released."

Mr Elliott said it was Anne's wish that Hindley died in jail. She also wanted the judiciary or the media to release the tape recording, made by Hindley and Brady, of her daughter's final 15 minutes of life, according to Mr Elliott.

He said: "Anne always believed it was the only way that the public would understand the utter evil that occurred in that day and would justify all the efforts of the Moors murder victims' families to refuse to allow Hindley or Brady freedom."

For the families of Edward Evans and Pauline Reade, grief has been a more private affair.

Edward's family removed themselves from the public glare entirely, while Pauline's mother, Joan, died several years ago. She had suffered continual ill-health since her 16-year-old daughter vanished in 1963.

John Kilbride's brother Danny, now aged 51, had Winnie Johnson in mind when he discussed Hindley's death last night.

"It's been a terrible few months for her since it was announced that Hindley was likely to gain her freedom, probably around Christmas," he said.

But Mrs Johnson had Ian Brady in her sights. "Whatever happens," she said. "I'll never give up looking for Keith. I'll keep asking Brady."