Charles Arthur Salvador (born Michael Gordon Peterson; 6 December 1952; formerly known as Charles Ali Ahmed), better known by his professional name of Charles Bronson, is an English criminal notorious for his violent life both between and during multiple prison sentences. 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. Further sentences were imposed because of attacks on prisoners and prison officers. 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, after the American actor. He was returned to prison in 1988 on conviction concerning another robbery. He was a violent prisoner, and had taken numerous hostages in the course of confrontations with prison officers, resulting in sentences of life imprisonment. He has been held at times in each of England's three special psychiatric hospitals.
Bronson has been featured in books, interviews, and studies of prison reform and treatment. He has said: "I'm a nice guy, but sometimes I lose all my senses and become nasty. That doesn't make me evil, just confused." He was the subject of the 2008 film Bronson, a biopic based loosely on his life, starring Tom Hardy as Bronson, with Kairon Scott Busuttil and William Darke playing him as a child.
Bronson has written many books about his experiences and the famous prisoners he has met throughout his incarceration. A fitness fanatic who has spent many years in segregation from other prisoners, Bronson wrote a book about exercising in confined spaces. He is an artist; paintings and illustrations of prison and psychiatric hospital life have been exhibited and won him awards.
In 2014, he changed his name again, this time to Charles Salvador, in a mark of respect to Salvador Dalí, one of his favourite artists. The Charles Salvador Art Foundation was founded to promote his artwork and "help those in positions even less fortunate than his own" to participate in art. In 2023, his application for parole was rejected.
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Life
Early life
Born Michael Gordon Peterson in Luton, Bedfordshire, he was one of three sons of Eira (née Parry) and John G. Peterson. His father later ran the Conservative club in Aberystwyth. His uncle and aunt each served as mayor of Luton 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".
Peterson lived in Luton from the age of four. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, where he started getting into trouble. At the age of 13, he was part of a gang of four robbers and was reprimanded in juvenile court after he was caught stealing. He enjoyed fighting from an early age, and was often absent from school. Peterson later returned to Luton, which he refers to as his home town. His first job was at Tesco, which lasted a fortnight before he was dismissed for attacking his manager. He passed through a number of jobs, working as a hod carrier and in a number of factories. He was imprisoned for the first time at Risley, serving time on remand for criminal damage after he smashed some parked cars following an argument with his girlfriend's father. Following his trial, he was fined and given probation.
Peterson worked as a furniture remover, while regularly fighting on his nights out. After being involved in petty crime, he was in serious trouble with the authorities for the first time after crashing a stolen lorry into a car. He was apprehended in his parents' home, 90 miles (140 km) from the scene of the incident. The driver of the car survived the collision, resulting in Bronson not facing serious penalty, receiving fines and probation. After his trial, he returned to petty crime and menial labour. Aged 19, Bronson was convicted for his part in a smash and grab raid. The judge gave him a suspended sentence.
He met Irene Kelsey in 1971, who described him as "so different from any other boys I knew. He always wore tailored suits, had perfectly-groomed sideburns and a Cockney accent." Eight months later in 1972, when Kelsey was four months pregnant, the couple married at Chester Register Office. Their son is Michael Jonathan Peterson. Five years later they divorced, and Kelsey later remarried.
1974–1987
Bronson was convicted of armed robbery in 1974, aged twenty two, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. He was sent to Walton Gaol, and soon ended up in the punishment block after attacking two prisoners without being provoked. He was transferred to Hull in 1975. After refusing prison work, he smashed up a workshop after an altercation with a prison officer, and was sent to the punishment block. He was injected with the sedative chlorpromazine, which made him violently ill, and six months were added to his sentence.
After recovering, he continued to prove a highly challenging inmate, and was repeatedly placed in solitary confinement for several months. He attacked fellow prisoner John Henry Gallagher with a glass jug, and was charged with grievous bodily harm. The charges were later dropped to unlawful wounding, and he was convicted. Nine months were added to his sentence. He was transferred to Armley Gaol.
Peterson found that his reputation as a violent and highly dangerous inmate preceded him. During 1975 to 1977, he was switched between Armley, Wakefield, Parkhurst, and Walton prisons. He was taken from Yorkshire to London chained to the floor of a prison van. Kept in solitary confinement, he began a fitness programme. He continued to attack other convicts and damage prison property. While recovering in solitary from a beating given to him for punching two prison officers, Bronson was handed the divorce papers filed by his wife.
At Wandsworth, he attempted to poison the prisoner in the cell next to him. He was moved to Parkhurst Prison in 1976, where he befriended the Kray twins, whom he described as "the best two guys I've ever met". He was moved back to Wandsworth after threatening to kill a prison officer. He spent four months in isolation after he was caught trying to dig his way out of his cell. After being returned to the prison's general population, he caught up with the prisoner who had informed on his escape plan, and attacked him, scarring him for life.
The governor at Wandsworth wanted to transfer Bronson out of his facility, and only the C Unit Psychiatric Wing at Parkhurst was willing to accept him. Bronson was returned to the Isle of Wight. There he attacked a prisoner with a jam jar, and was again charged with grievous bodily harm. He attempted suicide and attacked another prison officer, and was made subject to a transfer direction order under the Mental Health Act.
1987–1999
Upon his release from Gartree, Peterson was met by his family and stayed with his parents for a few days in Aberystwyth. He took a 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 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."
On New Year's Day 1988, to the surprise of his girlfriend Alison, 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 term of imprisonment.
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 removed Bronson's alibi, and 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. At Brixton, Bronson was placed in a top-secure unit of 16 prisoners. 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 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. He eventually "went over the edge" and ran riot in the nude, clutching a spear he fashioned out of a broken bottle and a broom handle. After another incident in which Bronson ran amok, he was placed in 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 frequently 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.
2001–present
In 2001, Bronson married again, this time in HMP Woodhill to Fatema Saira Rehman, a Bangladeshi-born divorcee. She had seen his picture and an article about him in a newspaper and began writing to him. Rehman had visited Bronson ten times before they married. She had worked at a women's shelter before they met, but lost her job when her employer found out about the relationship.
For a short time, Bronson converted to his wife's faith of Islam, and wished to be known as Charles Ali Ahmed, but did not change his name legally. After four years, he and Rehman divorced, and he renounced Islam. During this period, Bronson appealed against his life sentence. Three appeal court judges rejected the application in April 2004. In court, with six prison guards surrounding him, Bronson said his wife and her daughter were helping to rehabilitate him, and references about his character, including reports from psychiatrists, were positive on this occasion.
In 2007, two prison staff members at Full Sutton high security dispersal prison in the East Riding of Yorkshire were involved in a "control and restraint incident", in an attempt to prevent another hostage situation, during which Bronson had his tinted glasses broken. Bronson received £200 compensation for his broken glasses.
Bronson remained a Category A prisoner when he was moved to Wakefield High-Security Prison. He was due for a parole hearing in September 2008. 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, with the board refusing parole shortly afterwards.
In August 2013, a petition with 10,000 signatures was presented to 10 Downing Street calling for his release. In an enclosed note, Bronson appealed to prime minister David Cameron for him to be able to "live what's left of my life and not be buried in the prison system".
On 28 February 2014, Bronson violently attacked the prison governor in a television room in HMP Woodhill, over a dispute that his mail was being withheld, including two letters from his mother. The governor had serious bruising. In July 2014, Bronson was sentenced to two years. The prison accepted that his mail may have been unacceptably processed.
Occupations and projects
While in prison, Bronson developed a fitness regime and in 2008 claimed he could still do 172 press-ups in 60 seconds and 94 sit-ups in 30 seconds. In 2002, he published the book Solitary Fitness, detailing an individual training process with minimal resources and space.
I'm the king of the press-ups and the sit-ups. I've already said I once did 25 press-ups with two men on my back, and I've squatted with three men on my shoulders! I've been making prison fitness records for as long as I can remember. Show me another man – a man half my age – who can pick up a full-size snooker table. I can. Show me another guy who can rip out 1,727 press-ups in an hour. I can ... I once went eight years without using weights, then I went into a gym and bench pressed 300lb ten times. I'm 5ft 11in, I weigh 220lb and I feel as strong as did when I was 21 ... There's something deep inside me that pushes me on. I'm a solitary fitness survivor.
Since 1999, Bronson has occupied himself by writing poetry and producing artworks. He has had eleven books published, including in 2008 his only self-penned book Loonyology: In My Own Words. He has won 11 Koestler Trust Awards for his poetry and art.
On 28 April 2010, BBC News reported that artwork by Bronson was displayed on the London Underground at Angel tube station from 26 April 2010 for two weeks. The display was organised by Art Below, which is unrelated to the official Transport For London art programme. The National Victims' Association, which represents families affected by crime, queried the desirability of allowing Bronson "to engage with the British public in this way". His work was soon removed by an unknown party for unexplained reasons.
In 2014, The Guardian reported that the sale of several of Bronson's artworks, which were formerly owned by Ronnie Kray, raised several thousand pounds for his mother to have a holiday. It followed her being upset after Bronson's reported attack against 12 prison guards at HMP Woodhill.
In 2016, he auctioned one of his artworks to raise money for the treatment of a child with cerebral palsy.
Biographical film
The film, Bronson, which loosely follows Bronson's life, was released in Britain on 13 March 2008. It stars Tom Hardy in the eponymous role, and is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Controversy was caused at the premiere 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.