History has seen chilling examples of a folie à deux relationship. Meaning ‘madness of two’, the relationship is a shared psychotic disorder shaped by delusion, where one individual is influenced by another.
Often characterised by an insular, siege-type mentality, the relationship has led to some shocking and infamous crimes. There have also been cases of folie à famille and folie à trois, involving shared delusion between multiple people.
Here are some of history’s most notorious folie à deux relationships, involving couples whose unhealthy connections led to violence and murder.
1. Leonard Lake and Charles Ng
The case of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng is a particularly brutal example of a folie à deux relationship, with the pair suspected of killing at least 25 people. They met in northern California in 1981, after former US Marine Lake, already a double murderer, placed an ad in a survivalist magazine.
Starting in 1984, Lake and fellow ex-Marine, the self-described 'Ninja Warrior' Ng, lured men, women and children to their violent deaths at a remote cabin.
The police caught up to the pair in 1985. Lake was arrested but during his questioning, he took a cyanide pill and died. Ng initially managed to escape but was later arrested in Canada after being caught shoplifting.
There followed a lengthy extradition battle, with Ng fighting a return to the US. He was eventually tried in California and convicted in 1999 of 11 murders but acquitted of a 12th. Ng was given the death penalty. To date, he remains on death row.
2. Rosemary and Fred West
One of the worst examples of the folie à deux in the UK was the case of Rosemary and Fred West. It was in 1968 when Rosemary Letts first met Fred West, 12 years her senior. Both had experienced abusive childhoods, while Fred was already a convicted child molester and a petty thief. After Rose moved in with Fred and his two daughters, their relationship turned sadistic and murderous.
Between 1973 and 1987, they tortured and murdered at least nine young women, with Rose West also murdering her stepdaughter, Charmaine. As with the Lake-Ng case, the driving force behind the crimes evaded justice, as Fred West took his own life in prison before his trial.
However, in 1995, Rose West was convicted of sexual assault and 10 counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. She is one of the few British criminals subject to a whole life order, meaning she will die in prison.
3. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb
When it comes to lists of notorious crime pairings, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb are often near the top. In 1924, the pair murdered a 14-year-old boy, in what was, at the time, called the crime of the century. The son of a wealthy family and with a reported IQ of 201, Leopold met the equally rich and intelligent Loeb when they were both students at the University of Chicago. They entered a sexual relationship, with Loeb the controlling partner.
Described as a Jekyll and Hyde character, Loeb had already persuaded Leopold to take part in various criminal acts before planning the perfect crime, the killing of young Bobby Franks. They were later arrested, with Clarence Darrow retained as the lead defence lawyer.
Despite Darrow’s impassioned hours-long plea to the court, Leopold and Loeb were each sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years. Loeb died in prison in 1936 following an attack by a fellow inmate. Leopold was released in 1958. He went to Puerto Rico, where he remained until his death in 1971.
4. Myra Hindley and Ian Brady
The heinous crimes committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady ensure they remain among the UK’s most notorious murders. Hindley met the controlling Brady in 1961 and developed an infatuation, which led to her participating in their first murder two years later.
Known as the Moors Murders, the spate of killings took the lives of five children in the Greater Manchester area between 1963 and 1965. However, Hindley and Brady are suspected of further crimes. The bodies of the three of their victims were found on Saddleworth Moor.
In 1966, they were both convicted of three counts of murder. The death penalty had been abolished in the UK a few months earlier, so they were sentenced to life imprisonment, with whole-life terms. Hindley died in 2002 at West Suffolk Hospital. Officially diagnosed as a psychopath, Brady died in 2017 in Ashworth Maximum Security Hospital.
