Charles Bronson (born Michael Gordon Peterson, 6 December 1952) is an English criminal often referred to in the British press as the “most violent prisoner in Britain”. In 1974 he was imprisoned for a robbery and sentenced to seven years. While in prison he began making a name for himself as a loose cannon, often fighting convicts and prison guards. These fights added years onto his sentence.
Regarded as a problem prisoner, he was moved 120 times throughout Her Majesty’s Prison Service and spent most of that time in solitary confinement. What was originally a seven year term stretched out to a fourteen year sentence that resulted in his first wife, Irene, with whom he had a son, leaving him. He was released on 30 October 1988 but only spent sixty-nine days as a free man before he was arrested again.
