Charles "Charlie" Bronson (born
Michael Gordon Peterson, 6 December 1952) is an Anglo-Welsh criminal often referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain".
Early life
Bronson was born Michael Gordon Peterson at 59 Long Croft Road,
LutonLuton is a town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 32 miles north of London. Luton, along with its near neighbours of Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of over 230,000.Luton is home to non-league Luton Town Football Club, whose...
, England. His parents, Eira and Joe Peterson, would later run the
Conservative clubThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
in
AberystwythAberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. It is often colloquially known as Aber, and is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....
, and his uncle and aunt were
mayor"Mayor" is a modern title used in many countries for the highest ranking officer in a municipal government....
and mayoress of the town in the 1960s and 1970s. His aunt, Eileen Parry, is quoted as saying "As a boy he was a lovely lad. He was obviously bright and always good with children. He was gentle and mild-mannered, never a bully – he would defend the weak."
When he was a teenager, Bronson moved with his family to
Ellesmere PortEllesmere Port is a large industrial town and port in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated in the south of the Wirral Peninsula on the estuary of the River Mersey, and to the north of the city of Chester...
,
CheshireCheshire ; also known, archaically, as the County of Chester) is a ceremonial county in North West England. The traditional county town is the city of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn, Macclesfield,...
, where he started getting into trouble. Bronson later returned to
LutonLuton is a town and unitary authority of Bedfordshire, England, 32 miles north of London. Luton, along with its near neighbours of Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of over 230,000.Luton is home to non-league Luton Town Football Club, whose...
, which is often referred to as his home town, where he earned a living as a
circus strongmanThe circus strongman is one of many acts found in a modern circus. The strongman demonstrates great strength, power and agility to the audience. The strongman/strongwomen were very popular attractions in the circus in the 19th century....
. He was married in December 1970 to Irene, with whom he had a son, Michael.
Boxing career and name change
Prior to being imprisoned, Bronson had a short-lived career in bareknuckle boxing in the
East End of LondonThe East End of London, known vernacularly as the East End, is the area of London, England, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames, although it is not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries...
, during which time he became an associate of
Lenny McLeanLeonard McLean , better known as "The Guv'nor", was a famed East End of London bareknuckle fighter, bouncer, former criminal and prisoner, author, businessman, bodyguard, enforcer, weightlifter, television presenter, and actor; McLean was often referred to as "the hardest man in Britain".McLean...
. It is stated on his website that, contrary to press reports, his name was changed by his fight promoter in 1987, thirteen years after his initial imprisonment and that his choice was not made in relation to the actor,
Charles BronsonCharles Bronson was an American actor best known for his "tough guy" image, who starred in such classic films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Evil That Men Do and the popular Death Wish series...
. However, it has often been suggested Bronson changed his name by
deed pollA deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention. It is, strictly speaking, not a contract because it binds only one party and expresses an intention instead of a promise.The most common use is a name change through a...
to be more in line with a "tough guy" image
Life in prison
Bronson was imprisoned for seven years in 1974, aged 22, for a bungled armed robbery at a Post Office in Little Sutton, a suburb of Ellesmere Port, during which he stole just
£The pound sterling , often simply called the pound, is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory...
26.18. His sentence has been repeatedly extended for crimes committed within prison, which include wounding with intent,
woundingIn medicine, a wound is a type of injury in which skin is torn, cut or punctured , or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion . In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.-Types of wounds:-Open:Open wounds can be classified according to the...
, criminal damage,
grievous bodily harmGrievous bodily harm is a term of art used in English criminal law which has become synonymous with the offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861...
,
false imprisonmentFalse imprisonment is a restraint of a person in a bounded area without justification or consent. False imprisonment is a common-law misdemeanor and a tort. It applies to private as well as governmental detention...
,
blackmailBlackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand made upon the victim is met. This information is usually of an embarrassing and/or socially damaging nature...
and threatening to kill.
Bronson has served all but four of his years in prison in
solitary confinementSolitary confinement is a punishment or special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, excluding members of prison staff. Usually cited as an additional measure of protection from the criminal, it has also been called a form of torture...
due to a number of
hostageA hostage is a person or entity which is held by a captor. The original definition meant that this was handed over by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement, or as a preventive measure against certain acts of war...
situations, rooftop protests, and repeated attacks on prison staff and on other inmates. His dangerous behaviour has meant that he has spent time in over 120 different prisons, including all three special hospitals: (
Broadmoor HospitalBroadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...
,
Rampton Secure HospitalRampton Secure Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in Nottinghamshire, England...
, and
Ashworth HospitalAshworth Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital in Maghull, Merseyside, England.Ashworth is one of the three "special" hospitals in England and Wales, along with Rampton and Broadmoor, that exist to work with people who require treatment in conditions of special security due to their...
)
Bronson also attempted to murder another patient, a paedophile, whilst in
Rampton Secure HospitalRampton Secure Hospital is a high security psychiatric hospital near the village of Woodbeck between Retford and Rampton in Nottinghamshire, England...
. He claimed that his wishes were to kill his victim, in order to return to prison for life and escape the asylums. Instead, Bronson was then moved to
Broadmoor HospitalBroadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...
.
In 2000, Bronson received a discretionary
life sentenceLife imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious felony crime where the convicted person is to remain in prison for the rest of his or her life...
with a three year tariff for a hostage-taking incident (see below). His appeal against this sentence was denied in 2004.
Bronson has spent a total of just four months and nine days out of custody since 1974. He was released on 30 October 1988 and spent 69 days as a free man before being arrested for robbery, and then released again on 9 November 1992, spending 53 days as a free man before being arrested again, this time for conspiracy to rob.
In 1999 a special prison unit was set up for Bronson and two other violent prisoners from
WoodhillHM Prison Woodhill is a Category A men's prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. Woodhill Prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
, to reduce the risk they posed to staff and other prisoners.
Bronson remained a "Category A" prisoner when he was moved to
Wakefield High-Security PrisonHM Prison Wakefield is a Category A men's prison, located in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service, and is the largest maximum security prison in the United Kingdom .-History:...
. He was due for a parole hearing in September 2008, but this was postponed when his lawyer objected to a one-hour parole interview, requesting a full day to deal with Bronson's case. The parole hearing took place on 11 March 2009 and parole was refused shortly afterwards. The Parole Board said that Mr Bronson had not proved he was a reformed character.
Hostage incidents
Bronson has been involved in over a dozen hostage incidents, some of which are described below:
- Bronson took hostages and staged a 47-hour rooftop protest at Broadmoor in 1983, causing £750,000 of damage.
- In 1994, whilst holding a guard hostage at Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , often abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is also the principal town of the Borough of Milton Keynes. It was formally designated as a new town on 23 January 1967...
, he demanded an inflatable dollA sex doll is a type of sex toy in the size and shape of a sexual partner for aid in masturbation....
, a helicopter and a cup of tea as ransom. Two months later, he held deputy governor Adrian Wallace hostage for five hours at Hull prisonHM Prison Hull is a Category B/C men's local prison. The term 'local' means that this prison holds people on remand to the local courts. Hull Prison located in Kingston upon Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...
, injuring him so badly he was off work for five weeks.
- In 1998, Bronson took two Iraqi hijackers and another inmate hostage at Belmarsh prison in London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. He insisted his hostages address him as "General" and told negotiators he would eat one of his victims quickly unless his demands were met. At one stage, Bronson demanded one of the Iraqis hit him "very hard" over the head with a metal tray. When the hostage refused, Bronson slashed his own shoulder six times with a razor blade. He later told staff: "I'm going to start snapping necks - I'm the number-one hostage taker." He demanded a plane to take him to CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
, two Uzi sub-machine guns, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, and a cup of beansBaked beans is a dish containing beans, baked in a sauce. Most commercial canned baked beans are made from haricot beans, also known as navy beans - a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris - and sold in a sauce....
. In court, he said he was "as guilty as Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
". He said: "I was on a mission of madness, but now I'm on a mission of peace and all I want to do now is go home and have a pint with my son." Another seven years were added to his sentence.
- In 1999 he took Phil Danielson, a civilian education officer hostage at Hull prison. He can be seen in CCTV footage singing the song "Yellow Submarine", walking around with a makeshift spear having caused havoc to the prison and caused the wing to be locked up for over 40 hours footage of which which can be seen here
- In 2007, two members of prison staff at Full Sutton
HM Prison Full Sutton is a Category A men's prison in the village of Full Sutton, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Full Sutton is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service and holds some 600 inmates.-History:...
high security prison in the East Riding of YorkshireThe East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Yorkshire is a local government district with unitary authority status, and it is a ceremonial county of England. It is named after the historic East Riding of Yorkshire , which also constituted a ceremonial and administrative county until 1974...
were involved in a "control and restraint incident", in an attempt to prevent another hostage situation, during which Bronson (who now needs spectacles) had his glasses broken. Bronson received £200 compensation for his broken glasses, which he claimed were made of "pre-war gold" and given to him by Lord LongfordFrancis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
.
Second marriage and second name change
In 2001, Bronson married again, this time in
Milton KeynesThe Borough of Milton Keynes is a unitary authority and borough in south central England, at the northern tip of the South East England Region. For ceremional purposes, it is in the county of Buckinghamshire...
to Fatema Saira Rehman, a Bangladeshi-born divorcee who had seen his picture in a newspaper and began writing to him. Rehman had visited Bronson ten times prior to their wedding.
For a short time, Bronson converted to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
(Rehman is
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
) and wished to be known as Charles Ali Ahmed. However, he and Rehman have since divorced. Rehman has since written two books regarding her short marriage to Bronson, portraying him in a negative light. Bronson responded by claiming that she is an attention-seeker and that she would be nobody if it were not for her connection to him.
Occupations and projects
Whilst in prison, Bronson has developed an extreme fitness regime and claims to do 2500 press-ups a day. In 2002, he published a book
Solitary Fitness (ISBN 1-902578-12-0), detailing an individual training process with minimal resources and space.
For the past ten years, Bronson has occupied himself by writing poetry and producing pieces of art; he has had eleven books published, including in 2008 his only self-penned book 'Loonyology: In My Own Words'. He has won 11 The
Koestler TrustThe Koestler Trust is a charity which helps prison inmates and detained psychiatric patients in the UK to express themselves creatively, and with the aim of promoting the arts in special institutions, encouraging creativity and the acquisition of new skills. as a means to rehabilitation...
Awards for his poetry and art.
Film of Bronson's life
BronsonBronson is a 2009 British biographical crime film directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Tom Hardy. The film follows the life of notorious prisoner Michael Gordon Peterson, who was re-named Charles Bronson by his fight promoter...
, which loosely follows Bronson's life, produced by Vertigo Films, was released in Britain on 13 March 2009. It stars
Tom HardyEdward Thomas "Tom" Hardy is an English actor.-Early years:Hailing from East Sheen, London, Hardy began his career in war dramas...
in the title role, and is directed by
Nicolas Winding RefnNicolas Winding Refn is a Danish filmmaker who currently resides in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Career :Refn went to the United States in 1981 and was educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1993...
. There was some controversy caused at the première, when a recording of Bronson's voice was played with no prior permission granted by officers at HM Prison Service, who called for an inquiry into how the recording had been made. Large parts of the film depict events that never happened; in particular the sequence where Bronson is released 'for being sane' during the 1980s, goes to live in a brothel, starts a bare-knuckle boxing career and gets his 'new' name, then proposes to a girl before being sent back to prison for attempting to steal an engagement ring.
External links