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Bronson Paperback – May 1, 2009
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Charlie Bronson has spent 28 of the last 30 years in solitary confinement, during which time he has gained a fearsome reputation as one of the world’s toughest and most dangerous convicts. He has been locked in dungeons, in iron boxes cemented into the middle of cells, and in a cage much like that used on Hannibal Lecter. Yet Charlie is a man of great warmth and humor who has—despite perpetrating numerous kidnappings—never killed anyone. He lives by a strict moral code and is respected and admired by prison officers and prisoners alike. In this new edition of his bestselling autobiography, Charlie reveals the truth about his extraordinary life behind bars.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJohn Blake
- Publication dateMay 1, 2009
- Dimensions4.5 x 1 x 7 inches
- ISBN-101844546551
- ISBN-13978-1844546558
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Bronson
I Fear No-One. Violence Just Makes Me Madder and Stronger.
By Charles BronsonJohn Blake Publishing Ltd
Copyright © 2008 Charles Bronson and Robin AckroydAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84454-655-8
CHAPTER 1
'Now I've got you. Take your last fucking breath because this knife is going in you. You're the bastard that slagged my cartoon off.
'Right. You keep quiet now, because most people want to keep quiet for a time before they die. If I don't get what I want, they can carry us both out in body bags.'
Charlie was making loud noises ... shouting, swearing and cursing. He was making monkey-like noises. He was acting like a crazed madman. I passed out, I think from fear and adrenalin. I kept drifting in and out of consciousness ...
'Charlie, where are you?'
'Speak when you're fucking spoken to. You talk too much.'
Charlie re-tied me in a different way. He tied my left arm to my body and to the chair, and then tied my wrists together. I was still convinced that I was going to die.
Charlie found a snooker cue and then with a bandage he began to bind the handle of the knife to the end of the cue. The result was a spear. Charlie held the spear by his side and then began marching up and down like a soldier. It was as if he was in some sort of trance.
I thought I was going to be sacrificed on the snooker table. I felt that I had to keep a rapport going with Charlie to try and save myself. He tied one end of the skipping rope around my neck and held on to the other end.
'Dance!'
I started marching and doing silly steps to keep Charlie amused. Every minute felt like an eternity. Charlie then began to sing 'I'll Never Walk Alone'.
I felt like I was being treated like a dog on a lead. Then Charlie said something to me.
'You've been my best hostage. This is the big one. You are also one of the few who hasn't physically shit himself.'
* * *
1 February 1999 is a day that will live with that man for the rest of his life. It was the day he must have prayed to God that I would not kill him.
The skipping rope went around his skinny ostrich neck and the knife went up to his face.
'You're mine, you faggot!'
The longest British prison siege in living memory had started. Hull max secure unit was mine. I was the governor.
* * *
There is no turning back the clock, but now I'm going back to the beginning. The beginning of the journey which saw me fall into the pit of no hope, trussed up like a chicken in the modern equivalent of a straitjacket, crawling like a worm across a concrete floor to eat food out of the plastic dish left for me. Being transferred from high-security jail to high-security jail at no notice. Strapped up, stark bollock naked, in a 'body-belt', hands cuffed in medieval-style metal hoops by my sides. Slipped out of the back of one prison into the back of another.
A seemingly endless journey. Sometimes in a wheelchair, like Hannibal Lecter. Not because I'm disabled, but because they wanted to keep me under control. Because I had earned the unenviable reputation as the most violent prisoner in British penal history.
Charles Bronson. Danger man. Serial hostage-taker. One-man army. Double dangerous. Twelve screws plus dogs needed to unlock him. And all looking 'hard', chewing their gum and staring. Big, tough guys. Jangling their keys. I'd like to see their faces if I met them on the outside, without their batons, without their closed-circuit TV.
Don't get me wrong. There are screws I respect, and governors, too. Fair men. Men who have given me a chance. It's been a long journey and I've met the good, the bad ̵
Product details
- Publisher : John Blake; Media tie-in edition (May 1, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1844546551
- ISBN-13 : 978-1844546558
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 4.5 x 1 x 7 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,976,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,295 in Crime & Criminal Biographies
- #6,997 in Criminology (Books)
- #56,719 in Memoirs (Books)
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Also, as portrayed in the movie, I wanted to know what was the deal with the shoe polish. I will leave it at that, as I do not want to be a spoiler for the movie or book.
This is really a good read in that Bronson provides a very detailed; sometimes, disturbing look into prison life and his methods for coping with isolation, mental health services, the prison system.
Since this is a kind of auto-biography, I won't do much of a plot summary. One reason being that the majority of this book takes place in prison, and Bronson spent the majority of his years in solitary confinement. It starts out with Charles giving a quick rundown of his life as a young boy, and into his teen years when things started to get a little out of hand. He would just go and do things, regardless of it being a good idea or not, which is what would often lead him to trouble. Charles brings up one instance where he went to a parking lot, messed up a bunch of cars, and waited for the owners to come out. He promptly got beat up for that. We learn that his parents are very respected people, and when it comes down to it, Charles is the black sheep of the family. Once in jail, Bronson pays respect to nearly every single person he got along with, giving us their full names and little notes about those that touched his life the most. Unfortunately, most of those moments are very brief, but I suspect his other books about prisoners are where the real good stuff is. After all, this is a story about him, right?
While I knew he went to prison for little things like robbery, I had no idea about some of the things Bronson did in prison. I knew he beat up guards, held numerous hostages, and beat up other inmates, but some of the things Bronson writes about, like how he straight-up tried to kill several inmates, really surprised me. Bronson's reasons for those cases are that he had nothing left to lose, and was at the end of his rope because of how depressed he was for having thrown his life away. He also has zero tolerance for anyone who does bad things to women and children, so it's good to see that he has morals like the rest of us (not that I doubted it, but I'm just throwing it out there). I think I learned more about just how bad the British prison system is than I did Bronson's life, because most of this book talks about how he was moved to dozens of locations in a short time, and how no one wanted him because of his reputation. Charles was put in an asylum for a while, and once he was moved back to a prison, several doctors who checked him out wondered why he was put in an asylum in the first place. It's pretty messed up, and I think you'll feel bad for him over how he was treated more than anything. There are some funny stories too. My favorites being whenever Bronson got on the roof of a building after he escaped. He has a thing for going up on roofs and tearing everything apart up there, and I'd laugh out loud whenever I got to those parts, especially since it happened more than once. You won't believe how much the damages cost once he was done with everything. I also appreciated them including a few pages of pictures of Bronson when he was a kid, and some pictures of him working out and with his family the few times he was free. You see some genuine happiness on Bronson's face in these, and it put a smile on my face as well.
I feel bad giving this book 4 stars, especially since it's not like Bronson could write about much more than prison stories, and it's not his fault, but time and time again you'll read about him moving to a new place. One chapter is almost entirely moving segments. I would've liked more about his fights and thoughts while he was doing time. There are a lot of times where he'll talk about what went through his mind, but they're very short. Sincere, but short. Some will criticize the lack of detail because he's "just a criminal", but the man is intelligent and has a heck of a tale to tell, and it's too bad he doesn't tell much of it. There's one instance where he got paid to fight a dog, and ripped part of its lungs out. Punching through bulletproof glass was amazing enough, but that? Do I even have to bring up how no one should ever mess with Bronson? He constantly talks about how other prisoners or guards would mess with him, which lead to more time being added to his sentence. You'd think these guys would know better. 'hope their time in the hospital was worth it. What knocks the rating down, almost to 3 stars, is that there's a lot that he doesn't bring up at all. There's no mention of his conversion to Islam and the wife he had at that time. No mention of why he's nicknamed the Birdman. And maybe they're just petty details, but I would've liked to know why he grew his massive beard, or why he sang Yellow Submarine during his final (in this book at least) hostage situation.
Overall, Bronson is an interesting read, and worth your time and money. Keep in mind that the profits go towards charities for children and animals, so you're also doing a good thing by buying the book new. This is only the second book of Bronson's that I've read, but I plan to get the rest of them now. Bronson's a good author because of how he writes- it's like he's right there with you, saying everything directly to you. While some might think it's weird, the guy's my hero, and it's a shame that his talents and knowledge are being wasted behind bars when he could be helping people in the real world.
But to read Charlie's accounts of his years of solitude and imprisonment is truly heart breaking. Any one who has been jailed for even a short time knows what it does to the mind and self esteem. Charlie is a worst case scenario, and yet you feel his humanity and honesty throughout the book.
If you liked the movie, read this. It will make the movie seem cheap and superficial.
Max respect, Charlie.
It is a rare opportunity to read a madman's journal, but there wasn't much to be learned, and reading for entertainment is just pointless, because it's so repetitive. He moved from one prison to another, and another, and another, etc. After the second chapter, I just kept reading, wondering if it will get any better. It doesn't.