page_title: Charles Bronson (prisoner)
section_title: 1987 – 1999
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Bronson (prisoner) / Life / 1987 – 1999
caption_attribution_description: Her Majesty's Prison Belmarsh, photographed from the visitor's car park.
context_page_description: Charles Arthur Salvador, better known as Charles Bronson, is an English criminal who has been referred to in the British press as the "most violent prisoner in Britain" and "Britain's most notorious prisoner". He has spent periods detained in the Rampton, Broadmoor and Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospitals.
  First arrested as a petty criminal, he was convicted and sentenced in 1974 to seven years' imprisonment for armed robbery. Additional time was added due to attacks on prisoners and guards. Upon his release in 1987, he began a bare-knuckle boxing career in the East End of London. His promoter thought he needed a more suitable name and suggested he change it to Charles Bronson in 1987, after the American actor. He was returned to prison in 1988 after being convicted of planning another robbery. He is known as a violent inmate, and has taken numerous hostages in the course of confrontations with guards, resulting in his sentence later being changed to life imprisonment. He has been held at times in each of England's three prison psychiatric hospitals.
  Due to his record of violent anger and mental illness in prison, Bronson is one of the highest-profile criminals in Britain.
context_section_description: Upon his release from Gartree, Peterson was met by his family and stayed with his parents for a few days in Aberystwyth. He journeyed by train to London, bought a water pistol, modified it, and used it to intimidate a stranger into driving him to Luton. Bronson embarked on a short-lived career in illegal bare-knuckle boxing in the East End of London on the advice of long-time friend Reggie Kray. He changed his name from Michael Peterson to Charles Bronson in 1987 on the advice of his fight promoter, Paul Edmonds, although he had never seen a film starring the American actor Charles Bronson. He offered to fight Lenny McLean, but was refused. He also said that he killed a rottweiler with his bare hands in a £10,000 underground fight. Later he said that this was "not something I'm proud of because I love animals."
  To the surprise of his girlfriend Alison, on New Year's Day 1988 he robbed a jewellery shop, kept a ring for her, and sold the rest. On 7 January 1988, his 69th day of freedom, he was apprehended and arrested on his morning jog. The arresting officers charged him under his fighting name, Charles Bronson, and he decided at that moment to give up the name Michael Peterson. He was returned to Leicester Prison, as Bedford Prison refused to house him on account of his uncontrollable behaviour during his first stretch in prison. His defence had looked strong as eyewitnesses refused to testify due to fear of reprisals. Alison retracted her initial testimony and became the prosecution's main witness; this not only removed Bronson's alibi but gave the prosecution all the evidence needed to win the case. Bronson made a failed bid to reach the prison's roof, and was transferred to Brixton. Bronson was placed in a top-secure unit of 16 prisoners at Brixton. In June 1988, he pleaded guilty to armed robbery and was sentenced to seven years.
  Bronson was taken to Wandsworth, before being transferred to Full Sutton. There he spent time in isolation for punching a prisoner and a prison officer, and throwing water on the governor. He also spent a month at Durham, where he bonded with a family of rodents that crept into his cell. In 1989 he was moved to Long Lartin, and seemed to settle at the prison. However, he eventually "went over the edge" and ran riot in the nude, clutching onto a spear he fashioned out of a broken bottle and a broom handle. After another incident where Bronson began a one-man riot, he was put into isolation. He spent two months at Bristol, before being moved to Birmingham, Winchester, and back to Wandsworth in September 1989. He was regularly moved and regularly in trouble, particularly so when he punched two prison officers at Gartree and took the Deputy Governor hostage at Frankland. At Parkhurst he was on the receiving end of an attack, when at least two prisoners stabbed him in the back several times; Bronson refused to speak to the police about it. He recovered from the attack without further incidents, and was released from prison in November 1992.
  Bronson spent 53 days as a free man before being arrested once more, this time for conspiracy to rob. He was remanded at the newly opened Woodhill Prison, but insisted that his girlfriend Kelly-Anne, her friend Carol, and her lover were lying to the police in order to get him locked away. On 9 February 1993, the charges of robbery were dismissed; he was given a £600 fine for breaking the nose of Kelly-Anne's lover. Sixteen days later he was arrested for conspiracy to rob and for possession of a sawn-off shotgun. On remand in Woodhill, he took a civilian librarian hostage, and demanded an inflatable doll, a helicopter, and a cup of tea from police negotiators. He released the hostage after being disgusted when the man broke wind in front of him.
  Bronson was taken from Belmarsh to Bullingdon Prison for his trial. For the trial he pleaded guilty to possessing the shotgun, but not guilty for the conspiracy charges. He told the jury he had intended to use the shotgun to blow his head off. On 14 September 1993, he was found guilty of 'intent to rob' and not guilty o
caption: Belmarsh Prison, where Bronson took two Iraqi hijackers hostage
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