SERIAL killer Fred West had access to a network of secret underground tunnels he could have used to carry out 12 murders.
The serial killer is said to have had detailed knowledge of the complex ‘underground world’ beneath Gloucester that has been shrouded in secrecy for decades.
Urban explorers have uncovered evidence that is believed to show 22 miles of interconnected tunnels passing through many of its major sights.
Some of the subterranean chambers are just yards away from the so-called House of Horrors in Cromwell Street.
West is also known to have had contracts to carry out works across the city that would have given him access to the network, locals claim.
Despite this, some authorities have refused to acknowledge their existence – with some speculating there is concern it would open a ‘huge can of worms’ in relation to the infamous killers.
West was charged with 12 murders but took his own life in prison in 1995, aged 53, before his trial.
Rose West was convicted of 10 murders in November 1995 and is serving a life sentence.
One long-serving council employee, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said: “There are a lot of people high up that are very, very twitchy about the tunnels.
“There are plenty of reasons for it too, but I’m pretty sure the main one is to do with Fred West. He did a lot of work under the city – a lot of work.
“And it’s anyone’s guess what could be down there. It’s a can of worms, and no one wants to touch it.”
Speculation was heightened among the community in May 2021, when the Clean Plate Café on Southgate Street saw extensive excavations take place in its basement as part of an investigation into the unsolved disappearance of local girl, Mary Bastholm in January 1968.
Fred West was said to have been contracted to carry out various building and construction work in the basement of the café, and previous excavations at that site.
In the 1990s during the police investigation into the Wests, some blue fabric and part of a school exercise book were recovered from a hidden space behind a wall in the basement of the cafe, believed by many to have belonged to Mary.
However, when the area was re-examined by investigators in 2021, it was found that in the intervening years, the void had been mysteriously backfilled, preventing any further investigation of the site.
Between them, Fred and Rose West raped, tortured and killed 12 women and girls between 1967 and 1987.
Anna McFall
The nanny of Fred and Rena West’s children, McFall was believed to have been murdered in 1967.
She was pregnant when she died, with West believed to have been the father. Her body was found in June 1994 in a shallow grave.
Fred West denied murdering McFall but he is said to have confided to a visitor after his arrest that he stabbed her following an argument.
This happened before Rose West met him.
Charmaine West
With Fred in prison for the theft of car tyres and a vehicle tax disc, Rose was left to look after Charmaine and Anne Marie.
The former just eight-years-old, was Fred West’s stepdaughter from his previous marriage.
A neighbour Tracey is said to have found Charmaine tied to a wooden chair with her hands behind her back with Rose standing with a large wooden spoon.
Rose claimed she’d been taken by her mother, but her skeleton was found at the Midland Road property, hidden and missing bones.
Rena West
Fred’s first wife Rena is believed to have been murdered by strangulation.
Rose was not charged for this murder.
Lynda Gough
Lynda Gough was the first sexually motivated killing conducted by the Wests.
She moved into Cromwell Street in April 1973, having had affairs with several lodgers. The Wests later claimed she’d been asked to leave after hitting one of their children.
Strangulation and suffocation were the likely causes of death.
Carol Ann Cooper
Cooper was murdered in November 1973, aged just 15.
On the night of November 9, she was allowed to spend the night at her grandmother’s house before a doctor’s appointment the next morning.
She attended the appointment and then met her boyfriend, before somehow ending up on Cromwell Street.
Her body was found more than twenty years later.
Lucy Partington
A 21-year-old medieval English student at Exeter University, Lucy returned home for Christmas in December 1973.
She left a friend’s house in a rush to get the last bus from Cheltenham to Gretton on 27 December, with it believed she was abducted from this bus stop.
She was found more twenty years later, her dismembered body in the cellar of Cromwell Street.
Therese Siegenthaler
A 21-year-old Swiss sociology student at Woolwich Polytechnic.
She had planned to hitch-hike to Ireland in Easter 1974. Her family reported her missing having not heard from her for some time.
Prosecution believe she was abducted before being killed, with Fred West later building a fake chimney over her grave.
Shirley Hubbard
Just 15 at the time of her death, Hubbard is believed to have been abducted by the Wests.
Her body was found following an excavation in the concrete and plastic membrane of the cellar floor.
Juanita Mott
In the summer of 1974, Mott moved into 25 Cromwell Street but later went missing when she was living in Newent.
Her body was found in March 1994, 19 years later, with West having concreted over the floor of the cellar.
Shirley Robinson
The first victim buried outside the house, Robinson had an affair with Fred West, and by autumn 1977, she was pregnant with his child.
It was initially claimed she had moved to Scotland but her body was later found.
When questioned, Rose West, herself pregnant with her daughter Tara at the time of the murder, claimed she did not remember her, which was described as “ludicrous” by the prosecution.
Alison Chambers
The last murder with a sexual motive established. She disappeared just before her 17th birthday, having been seen at 25 Cromwell Street throughout the summer.
Her body was buried underneath the patio.
Heather West
The first child born to Fred and Rose West, there is no evidence she was aware of the killings.
Sexually abused by her parents and having told friends, she suddenly went missing in 1987, with her mum claiming she had gone to Wales to be with a lesbian partner.
The couple would joke to their other children that they would “end up under the patio like Heather” if they misbehaved. This, and their changing stories, led to the search warrants for the property, and subsequently to their arrests.
And local speculation about the potential dark secrets being contained within the tunnels mounted again when a recent storm exposed a sinkhole in the city.
The so-called House of Horrors in Cromwell Street, which has since been demolished, was located just a couple of minutes walk away from known entrances to the ‘underground world’ in Eastgate.
There are other multiple locations believed to access it, including the Cross Keys, the Fleece Bar, the Monks Retreat and around the cathedral.
One local added: “We know back in the 80s Fred West had the contract to do building maintenance work and had access to it.”
Another explorer even said they had visited the tunnel from a bar’s basement close to where Fred was known to have done work and felt the ground change to a ‘spongy’ surface at one point.
They said: “We went down there and it opened up into a massive cellar. We noticed a spongy floor at the end of the tunnel by jumping up and down on it.
“We did not know much about Fred West’s connections to the place, but it felt like there was something under that ground.
“We were looking at going back but it was set on fire and you can not get into it anymore.
“We thought it was odd but it was only when we mentioned it later to someone in authority, they turned white. It was then feared Fred West could have used it for bodies.”
Locals say that in places entrances have been blocked up, with some speculating the city is trying to “whitewash” its associations with Fred and Rose West.
One said: “They don’t want this place under the glare or spotlight and a lot of this has been managed.
“People don’t want our city to be most famous for Fred West but you can not escape what has happened.
“You can not whitewash history and pretend it never happened.
“It is still so shrouded in mystery. How can authorities deny the tunnels exist when so many people have seen them?
“Everyone knows they are there. Whatever the reason only fuels the local speculation. Entrances are blocked up but if there is nothing to be seen, then let us down there.
“A lot of cities have tunnels, it is not usual, but why are Gloucester’s shrouded in secrecy.”
Another local said the police excavations of the Clean Plate Cafe added extra weight to the theory.
They added: “No one knows when it happened, but there are a lot of question marks, about when it was bricked up. It must have been a coordinated effort to close it all up.
“Maybe that was Fred’s job to seal up the tunnels and he used it to hide or put things away.
“It is all speculation but it has to be on the table as a possibility. The fact in Gloucester we can not have an open conversation makes it all the more unnerving. What are people afraid of?
“I think it will all be exposed and happen naturally. One of the tunnels will collapse.”
Paul Cowmeadow, of Gloucester Paranormal Investigation Services, said they wouldn’t comment on anything related to Fred West, but said the presence of the tunnels was not in doubt.
He said: “There are rumoured to be over 22 miles of tunnels under the city of Gloucester, which would make sense based on the publicly known archaeology of the city dating back to the Roman times.
“There are entrances to the tunnel network from the cellars of several pubs in the town centre and we’ve seen them.
“The Fleece Hotel, which is now closed, has got an entrance in the basement that goes into a tunnel that’s been bricked up and it seemed to be heading under Westgate Street in the direction of the cathedral.
“It’s also well-known that there are old tunnels in the Café Réné bar on Southgate Street.
“It’s believed that the tunnel system was used for several purposes over the centuries, ranging from smuggling, to the English Civil War, and then later in World War Two it is rumoured that the secret services and military also made use of them.”
Spencer Marsh, owner of Spalite Hotel, said he believes there’s evidence of a tunnel hotel in his basement.
He said: “We have a tunnel entrance in the basement of the hotel here. It’s anyone’s guess where it leads, because it’s blocked off and you can’t get very far down.”
And during a previous tour of the tunnels back in 2019, Westgate councillor Pam Tracey described the tunnel network as “far more extensive than I could have imagined.”
She said at the time: “I think it would be ideal to open up the tunnels to the public, however I think some of the areas should be left, because goodness knows what they would find.”
Geoffrey Mansell, best-selling Fred West biographer, said it was a possibility the killer used the tunnels – but it was unlikely to ever be proven.
He said: “There are many places he stored bodies, whether in tunnels in Gloucester or other sites, we will probably never know. But he was innovative in disposing of his victims.
“It is certainly possible. I can not say I ever heard in any police interview with Fred or Rose, and I have listened to them all, that there was any documentation or references made to tunnels in Gloucester.
“But it is possible and nothing would surprise me when it comes to Fred West. He was an odd job man, builder, worked on the motorways – he did all sorts of things. He liked being busy and dashing about.
“He was difficult to pin down. Targeting the tunnels of Gloucester wasn’t something that came up – but he may have done it. He was more opportunistic though.
“It was once memorably put to me by a police officer that you can not dig up the entire county of Gloucestershire in a search for more bodies.
“I don’t think we’ll ever fully know what Fred did, beside the ones we already know about. It is likely there are many more victims.
“I would certainly be interested in any new developments as would anyone who has spent as much time on the case as I have. But it is a question of police time and resources and I certainly would not be demanding police explore all the tunnels.
“There is always a lot of speculation about this site and that site.
“If I knew I would certainly be talking about it. It always comes up every time, and in many ways inevitable. But the mystery of Fred West won’t be solved – probably ever.
“He was a monster in plain sight in our midst. He could operate absolutely beneath everyone’s radar. No-one took him seriously – but he was very serious and very dangerous.
“He had a lot of experience labouring in one form or another – knocking things down, digging holes and was not afraid of hard labour. He enjoyed it and it was all part of his personality and character.
“But I don’t know if he knew there were tunnels. He may well might have but everything I’ve heard or read there has not been a mention of the tunnels.
“That is not to say he did not use or take advantage of it. The point is it has always been a mystery about where the other victims were, who knew, where they are buried – it is one of the fascinations of the case.
“We will never get to the complete bottom of it – it is one of those that will go on and on.”
