Bronson 3

by Charles Bronson

  Work on the prison began in 1811 and was finally completed in 1818 at a cost of £200,000. You might be able to see from the older aerial shot of the prison the four-storey Roundhouse that dominates the view.

  This was a hanging prison that simply carried on the accepted mode of dispatching the condemned. Prior to such a ‘humane’ method of execution, it was common to be burned at the stake!

  Prior to executions taking place at Maidstone Prison from 1831, previously most executions had been carried out at Penenden Heath, where the gallows stood at a crossroads. The last executions performed at Penenden Heath were carried out on Christmas Eve 1830 – a treble hanging. Rumour has it that if you stood at those crossroads on the night of a full moon, you would be able to communicate with the devil.

  A spoon (Old Melbourne Gaol) depicting a hanging, such is the interest in collecting this type of memorabilia

  Although Maidstone Prison was a hanging prison, it was not as prolific as some of the others previously mentioned in this book. From its inception, a total of fifty-eight executions took place at Maidstone Prison, including three women, although only twenty-eight of these executions took place in public, outside the main gate, between 1831 and 1868.

  The modern-day case of the child-killer Mary Bell struck a chord when she was one of the youngest child-killers around at the age of eleven when she was given a life sentence in 1968 after being found guilty of the manslaughter of four-year-old Martin Brown, and Brian Howe, 3, on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

  In 1980, Mary Bell was released and she started a new life for herself under a different name. In 1984, she gave birth to a daughter. An injunction prevents their identities from being disclosed.

  But going back to 1831, the youngest person to be executed at Maidstone Prison was the namesake of Mary Bell, John Bell, fourteen, who was hanged in front of the prison on 1 August 1831 with a crowd of 5,000 onlookers.

  Had Mary Bell been convicted back in that time then she might have been assured a swift hanging, but she escaped, as did the eleven-year-old brother of John Bell, James, who was involved in the crime but turned against his brother and became a witness for the prosecution (Queen’s Evidence).

  Both James and John Bell attacked thirteen-year-old Richard Taylor and robbed him of the sum of 9s when he walked through a wood in Chatham. John Bell was executed by hanging on 29 July 1831.

  Maidstone Prison holds the record for the last public hanging in Britain when, at midday on Thursday, 2 April 1868, 2,000 people watched as Frances Kidder, twenty-five, was hanged for the murder of her eleven-year-old stepdaughter, Louisa Kidder-Staples.

  As if holding that record wasn’t bad enough, Maidstone Prison also holds the record for the last man to be hanged in public in Britain some twenty-eight days after the last woman was hanged in public. On 30 April 1868, Richard John Bishop was hanged for murder. A minor argument had turned nasty, and when Bishop was being led away to the local police station, he stabbed and killed the man he had been arguing with who had also been arrested with him.

  As if holding these two records wasn’t enough, Maidstone also holds the record for having carried out the first hanging under the Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill passed on 29 May 1868, which brought an end to public hangings.

  Under the new law, the first ever hanging took place inside Maidstone Prison when a minor, eighteen-year-old Thomas Wells, was hanged on the 13 August 1868 for shooting his boss. The execution took place in a makeshift execution shed, which was the former timber yard within the prison grounds.

  Anyone remember the case of the ‘Brides in the Bath’ serial murderer, George Joseph Smith? All of Smith’s new brides seemed to drown mysteriously in the bath and he went on to become quite wealthy. Nowadays, such a case would be splashed all over the newspapers and make headline news for weeks and weeks, right down to the man selling Smith the wedding dress … and it did back then.

  The first charge to be put to Smith was a one of bigamy and then the drownings were fully investigated … and the rest is history. Smith was charged with three murders which were proven by an eminent pathologist to be non-accidental. The victims were proven to have been drowned by having their legs pulled down by lifting up the knees with one hand while having their heads pushed down with the other. Aptly, on Friday, 13 August 1915, Smith was hanged.

  The last judicial hanging in Maidstone Prison was rather earlier than the last judicial hanging in Britain when, on 8 of April 1930, Sidney Fox, 31, was hanged for murdering his mother … so no records broken there. The hangings continued, but were transferred from the remit of Maidstone to that of Wandsworth Prison.

  I have never been to HMP Maidstone, so why have I given it a mention? This prison was responsible for hanging a fourteen-year-old boy! That makes it a bad place, no matter how long ago it was.

  I also thought that it is a bit odd that, as one of the main prisons in and around London that I would like to have visited while on my tour of prisons, why have I never been parked up there? I’m a bit of a fan on the statistics of hanging and when I found that Maidstone held some records in this department, I wanted it listed in my book.

  Oldest Working Prisons:

  HM PRISON LANCASTER

  Location: The Castle, Lancaster, England.

  Capacity: 220 beds.

  Category at present: ‘C’ – Male.

  Opened: 1458.

  History: This is the oldest working prison in Europe. The foundations of the castle are that of a Roman Hill Fort dating back to AD 95. Some of the walls in places are over 5ft thick. No tunnelling out of this place.

  You don’t get a meaner-looking place than this! This is how I imagined in my worst nightmares what a prison would look like; it even puts Colditz to shame, but I have been fair and listed it amongst the oldest.

  Oldest Working Prisons:

  HM PRISON SHEPTON MALLET

  Location: Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England.

  Capacity: 220 beds.

  Category at present: ‘C’ – Male.

  Opened: 1610.

  History: This is the oldest and grimmest-looking working prison in England, apart from Lancaster Castle, which has been classified as Europe’s oldest working prison. The place is awash with history; it even housed the Magna Carta, the logs of Nelson’s Flagship, HMS Victory, and a copy of the Domesday Book for protection during World War II.

  During the Second World War, part of the prison was taken over by the American government. As well as serving the USA as a military prison, it also served as a place to execute American servicemen convicted under the provisions of the Visiting Forces Act (1942), which allowed for American Military justice to be enacted on British soil.

  The US method of hanging was outlawed in the UK, as it was a fair bit more barbaric than the British way, they did not have a calculated drop based on the condemned person’s height and weight, they just had a standard drop and the noose was just left coiled on the gallows floor.

  Oldest Prisons:

  BISHOP’S PRISON, 1080

  Now this place will take some beating for age! This is the nearest thing you will get to see what the ‘Clink’ prison cells must have looked like. This prison can be seen in Durham Cathedral, England, where it was used to house bad monks. Yeah, a corrective holding cell for way-out mad monks. And it’s no longer in use!

  Oldest Prisons:

  CLINK PRISON, 1127–1780

  Many claims to the title of the oldest prison in England have been made, but I reckon the original ‘Clink’ gaol, which was in the London borough of Southwark, was certainly one of the oldest prisons in England, although the first mention of a secular prison is made in The Laws of King Athelstan (925-39), which stated that a ‘thief can spend up to 40 days in prison’.

  The use of the saying ‘in the clink’ stems from this prison, which was a franchise of the Bishops of Winchester … so long before Group 4 came along to run privatised prisons, these Bishops had a hand in running them.

&
nbsp; The prison may well have been up and running as early as 1127 when Bishop Gifford had completed his palace when bawds and whores were to be committed to the bishop’s prison.

  The Clink Prison Museum is on the site of the original Clink Prison, which held prisoners from the early Tudor years until 1780. Shakespeare allegedly visited an old schoolfriend at the prison. The museum is located at 1, Clink Street, London SE1 9DG, England.

  Oldest Prisons:

  HEXHAM TOWN PRISON, 1330

  This prison was the first purpose-built prison in England and was used to imprison convicted Reivers. This area is bathed in history and there is mention of St Wilfrid (634–709AD) coming into conflict with the King of Northumbria, who threw him into prison for nine months. This indicates that a prison within Northumbria existed much earlier than the one in Hexham town. On release from prison, Wilfrid was banished from Northumbria and he fled to Sussex. While in Sussex, he played a very important part in converting the South Saxons to Christianity.

  Currently, the old jail is a museum and concentrates on the history of the Reivers with reconstructions, artefacts and interpretation. The museum is open all year, 10.00am to 4.30pm daily from April–October and Saturday, Mondays and Tuesdays throughout the rest of the year. Tel: +44 (0) 1434 652349.

  Oldest Prisons:

  NEWGATE PRISON, 1188–1902

  Not quite the oldest, but it is always laying claim to this title. In 1188, Henry II ordered that a piece of land adjoining Newgate be bought and that a prison be erected on it and, from that, Newgate Prison was built by two carpenters and one smith for the cost of £3 6s 8d!

  I have mentioned the worst prisons, but this prison was built for the worst prisoners. Good job it’s closed down. The whole grisly bunch of prisoners were known as ‘Newgaters’.

  Along came Henry III, and the prison was then enlarged; no one ever comes along to make a prison smaller! But by the 1500s it was in poor shape and had to be given a further facelift, but the Great Fire of London in 1666 came along and burned the place down … what a shame!

  Soon after, the place was rebuilt in 1672, but, by all accounts, it was still a dog of a place. Not much different to many of the places I’ve been incarcerated in – poor lighting, poor ventilation, poor hygiene facilities and a poor water supply … what’s changed?

  Every such prison like this has a dungeon below ground. I’ve been slammed into many such dungeons in what are called ‘modern-day’ prisons; how nice! At Newgate Prison, they had such a place below ground called a ‘stone hold’ where certain prisoners were segregated. These places had no beds; you lay on the stinking ground, like I have had to on many occasions. Historians damn these places, yet they overlook modern prisons! Are they blind?

  By 1778, the prison was demolished and a new one built on the old site, but along came rioters from the ‘Gordon Riots’ and the place was wrecked. Reminds me of the Strangeways Riot, only, in the Gordon Riots, some 300 prisoners escaped from Newgate Prison.

  Between 1780 and 1783, the prison was rebuilt … can’t blame them for not trying! The place was now a hanging prison and many a condemned person was hanged from the gibbet at the front of the place. This was a regular entertainment event and people would pay to get the best seats.

  In 1868, in accordance with new laws, hangings were carried out behind the prison walls.

  In 1902, the place was finally demolished in order to make way for the central criminal court.

  Hardest:

  HM PRISON PORTLAND

  Location: Portland, Dorset, England.

  Capacity: 600 beds.

  Category at present: Closed ‘YOI’ – Male.

  Opened: 1848.

  History: The decision to site such a prison in this location was based upon the presence of quarries where the convicts could labour, and its dominant coastal position, which was convenient for the disciplining of convicts prior to their transportation.

  The conditions within the prison back in the 1800s were cruel and its quarries were a major catalyst in bringing about penal reform in this country.

  The quarries were the scenes of many a convict death; the stone hewn from the quarry by the convicts was used to build Portland’s naval breakwater.

  During the 1870s, the mortality rate among prisoners was high with nearly one prisoner dying every week. With floggings still being a part of the daily punishment and poor working conditions, it meant that many a prisoner’s scream could be heard in the nearby homes of civilians. This was the hardest of prisons by far, and a far cry from the cushy lifestyle the young offenders have know … they only get beaten once a week!

  Prisoners making boots a rather long time ago in HMP Portland. Look at the screw in the background … looks like a Keystone cop.

  A very old photo showing prisoners being frisked by prison officers at HMP Portland. Note the arrows on the prisoners’ clothes.

  These Wade prisoner figures have the same arrows.

  The fitters shop at HMP Portland, looks about 100 years or so ago!

  One of the most famous of prisoners to come out of Portland Prison was a man called John ‘Babbacombe’ Lee. They tried to hang him three times and failed, so he became world-famous as the man they could not hang.

  The history of John Lee was that he had been a servant since leaving school, but in 1879 he had joined the Navy but was invalided out after three years. Eventually, he found work as a boot boy at the Royal Dart Hotel in Kingswear.

  After a short while, he then went back to Torquay and worked as a porter at Torre Railway Station and then as a footman at a large villa in the Warberries.

  In 1883, he was convicted of stealing from his employer and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. In January 1884, he was taken on in the employ of his half-sister, Elizabeth Harris, who had spoken for Lee.

  On 14 November 1884, in the early hours of the morning, the usual quiet of Babbacombe was greatly unhinged when a servant at The Glen discovered some very large fires and she rushed to get help.

  After the fires were extinguished, the body of Miss Keyse was discovered lying on the dining room floor … her throat had been cut and she had three wounds to her head. The killer had tried to cover his tracks by setting fire to the place in the hope that the body would have been burned and so, with it, any evidence of foul play.

  Nothing had been stolen, but John Lee, 20, was the only male in the house and he had a cut to his arm and could not account for the injury or give an account of his movements at the time of the murder.

  At Exeter Assizes on 5 February 1885, Lee was found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang. The evidence against Lee was only circumstantial, and he pleaded his innocence prior, during and after the trial. After being sentenced, Lee said to the judge, ‘The reason I am so calm is that I trust in the Lord and he knows I am innocent.’

  Come the day of the execution, the man in black doing the hanging was James Berry, an experienced executioner. The condemned man stood on the trap door, the lever was pulled … and nothing happened! Three times this was carried out and each time the trap door was tested and, although the trap on the scaffold opened successfully every time it was tested, it failed to open when John Lee stood on it with the noose around his neck.

  The execution was cancelled and the Home Secretary commuted the death sentence to penal servitude for life.

  After serving twenty-three years behind bars, on 18 December 1907, John Lee was released from prison. Rumours abound about what happened to him after his release, but in 1909 he is said to have married a girl called Jessica Bulled in Newton Abbot. By 1911, he and his wife and two children were said to be in London, but Lee deserted his family and possibly went to America or Canada, but it may even have been Australia. Nobody really knows.

  Most Infamous:

  ALCATRAZ

  Location: San Francisco, USA.

  Capacity: 336 beds.

  Category at present: None.

  Opened: 1934 as a prison for criminals.

 
History: In 1934, the old military prison on Alcatraz was given a facelift along with a variety of security upgrades. The type of prisoner being housed here was originally intended as the most dangerous, but time would see unruly prisoners who fought against the establishment making their homes here.

  The place even had tear gas canisters permanently installed in the dining room ceiling and guards and guard stations were strategically placed to further heighten security. Dubbed ‘The Rock’ due to its location on an island, it was used for twenty-nine years to house the USA’s worst criminals, and earned its reputation as ‘Uncle Sam’s Devil’s Island’.

  The federal government wanted to prove to the American public that it was tough on crime, just as the former Home Secretary Jack Straw tried to prove so in England. The Great Depression of the 1920s in the USA brought about a massive rise in serious crime, and organised crime was fast becoming a problem.

  The Rock – Alcatraz, the prisoners’ prison!

  The Prohibition law outlawing booze resulted in major gangster activity and public pressure prompted the decision to open a maximum-security prison to house some of the worst offenders.

  The conditions on Alcatraz were never overcrowded due to the prison never running to full capacity – the one-man-to-a-cell living conditions actually made it a more desirable place to be incarcerated than in other prisons.