How a seemingly ordinary girl became one of the most evil women ever
Looked picture-perfect
Born in North Devon in 1953, this woman was raised by her parents alongside six siblings. Even before birth, her mother underwent electroconvulsive therapy for severe depression, which some believe influenced the child’s early development.
Her family looked picture-perfect from the outside. Her father, Bill Letts, had served on aircraft carriers during the war and was polite and charming. Her mother, Daisy, petite and dark-haired, was considered a local beauty — shy, soft-spoken, and seemingly content with her life.
In 1950, the family moved into a new council house in Northam. Daisy already had three children, and Bill was often away, still serving in the Navy.
Alone at home, Daisy’s struggles began to surface. She sank into bouts of depression and became obsessed with keeping the house spotless, scrubbing herself and her children into an unnatural level of cleanliness. Her behavior became increasingly erratic, teetering on the edge of neurotic.
Electroconvulsive therapy
By 1953, Daisy suffered a breakdown and was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Bideford, where she underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). This involved shaving her head, attaching large electrodes, and sending surges of electricity through her brain — causing blackouts and violent convulsions.
Even though she was pregnant with her fifth child, the treatment continued, sending shocks through her body and through the child in her womb, right up until days before the baby’s birth.
When the baby finally arrived, everyone commented on her beauty, but something was off. She would rock her head for hours, and her older siblings often complained about her banging her head rhythmically against the cot at night.
As she grew, these strange habits persisted; she would swing her head back and forth in long trance-like motions, lost in her own world. It was the first sign that life for this little girl would be anything but normal.
