She was Prisoner 965055, the tabloids' killer from hell. He was one of the most influential British newspaper editors of the late-20th century, champion of Nelson Mandela, liberal opponent of Suez and patron of the best and the brightest, from George Orwell and Arthur Koestler to Kenneth Tynan and Clive James. When Myra Hindley became the object of David Astor's philanthropic sympathy, the lives of the murderer and the journalist became strangely connected. It's a story, buried in Astor's private papers, that has never been reported.

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