Charles Bronson, dubbed one of Britain’s most violent offenders, is among the UK's longest serving prisoners.
Now 70 years old, he's spent most of the past 48 years behind bars, apart from two brief periods of freedom where he reoffended. He spoke about his life in prison, his violent past and even his hopes for the future at a parole hearing on Monday (March 6).
During the time he has been incarcerated, he has held 11 hostages in nine different sieges – with victims including governors, doctors, staff and, on one occasion, his own solicitor. Bronson’s first conviction was in 1974 when he was 21 and was jailed for seven years for robbery, aggravated burglary, assault with intent to rob and possession of a firearm.
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He was convicted for wounding again in 1975, 1978 and 1985, then in 1987 he was released from prison at the age of 34. After 69 days he was back in prison, sentenced in 1988 for seven years for robbery at a jewellers’ shop.
Giving evidence in what is only the second ever parole hearing to be held in public in England and Wales, Bronson held forth on various topics. On the current conditions in prison, he said in the past he has been on wings that were “cold, empty and f****** brutal”, but now things are much more comfortable.
He told the panel: “I’ve got a telly in my cell, I can’t even believe it.” But he said unlike other inmates who have their own bedding, photographs on the walls and comforts such as CD and DVD players, he likes to know he has woken up in a cell.
“I don’t want my cell to be a furnished bedsit … Unfortunately prison today is full of fairies,” he said. Describing his time as an unlicensed boxer, he told the hearing: “I love boxing, my father was a great champion boxer, it is a fraternity, it is a family … we used to box in prison but they are run by namby-pamby people now,” he said.
He said that east London gangsters the Krays had got him into boxing, and that he had six fights – five against men and one against a Rottweiler.
Bronson also spoke about why he changed his name almost a decade ago. Born Michael Peterson, he later changed his name to Charles Bronson while forging a career as an unlicensed boxer, he said for tax purposes.
In 2014 he decided to change his surname to Salvador, which he said means “man of peace”, dismissing any suggested link to Salvador Dali. He said: “Bronson was a nasty bastard. He wasn’t a nice person and I didn’t like him. Salvador is a man of peace. I feel peaceful.”
Describing his criminal history, he said: “Out of the 50 years I’ve been in prison, I have probably deserved a good 35 years of it … but I have been naughty. Not ‘naughty-naughty’, but naughty.”
Now, he describes himself as “a born again artist” and says he is “almost an angel” compared with the past. Bronson told the panel: “When I’m in my cell and I’ve got a bad letter, or something’s happened, or someone has been nasty or whatever, I can sit in my cell now and switch off, and go into myself with deep breathing."
He said he is “just a normal geezer wanting to get on with his life”, and assured the panel: “If some muppet wants to fight me or cause me problems I will handle it in a different way.”
Bronson told the panel he has spent so much time in solitary confinement he wears dark glasses because his eyes are “blown away with the light”.
As for the future, Bronson says he dreams of walking barefoot on a lawn and plans on living in the country if he is released. He said: “It’s no secret I have had more porridge than Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and I’m sick of it. I’ve had enough of it, I want to go home.” Bronson added: “I have not walked on grass for over 30 years and I dream of walking on grass.”
He also spoke about his 95-year-old mother, who he's recently got back in touch with. Referring to her as "my old duchess”, he said it is her wish to see him released.
“You people have got the power to let me out, that’s my mum’s last dream on this planet, to see her son outside, doing well, making an honest living with my art, as you know I’m anti-crime,” he said. “If you’ve got any heart, any compassion, give it to my mum and make an old lady’s dream come true.”
Bronson, who has taken hostages on nine different occasions while in prison, said: “I was a horrible person and I couldn’t stop taking hostages. I went through a phase, I couldn’t help taking hostages.
“I was battling against the system … it was my way of getting back. There’s nothing better than wrapping a governor up like a Christmas turkey.”
On his penchant for fighting, he said: "I love a rumble. What man doesn’t?”
Describing one incident, in which the parole review was told he stripped naked and “greased up”, he said: “I took half a tub of Lurpak with me, stripped off and had the rumble of my life. It was f****** brilliant.”
He said during his earlier years in prison he “lost the plot”, adding: “The only thing I knew was violence.”
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