Furious Charles Bronson has written an angry letter to a newspaper defending the notorious Kray twins as ‘honourable men’
Furious Charles Bronson has written an angry letter to a newspaper defending the notorious Kray twins as ‘honourable men’.
Britain’s ‘most violent prisoner’, whose real name is Charles Salvador, penned the threatening note after gangsters Reggie and Ronnie Kray were listed among a group of villains depicted in his ‘dirty dozen’ collection of artwork.
The nightmarish drawings include written references to a number of the ‘most evil people’ Salvador, 64, ever met behind bars.
The collection was recently sold for £545,000 to an anonymous Jersey-based collector.
His ‘dirty dozen’ includes the likes of Fred West and Dr Harold Shipman, and the ‘Beast of Jersey’, Edward Paisnel.
But in an article about the sale, the Jersey Evening Post made reference to the Krays as the artwork also refers to them.
Salvador, who is currently serving a life sentence at HMP Wakefield, hit back and said the former criminal kingpins, who were notorious in London’s East End and both jailed for murder, were not part of the ‘dirty dozen’.
And he told the paper it was ‘lucky’ the Krays were no longer around after it made the association.
He wrote: ‘There is no way in a million years I would put the Krays in with my dirty dozen, so please get it right.
‘Each of the 12 have names and a write-up on who and what they are: filthy beasts, vermin from the sewers of Hell.
‘The Krays were in a league of their own, where nonces could never be a part.. (It is shameful that you put them on the same page.)’
Britain’s ‘most violent prisoner’, whose real name is Charles Salvador, penned the threatening note after gangsters Reggie (right) and Ronnie Kray (left) were listed among a group of villains depicted in his ‘dirty dozen’ collection of artwork
It adds: ‘It’s lucky the twins are no longer around as they would have been very upset with your marking them alongside vermin.
‘The dirty dozen preyed on defenceless victims. The Krays despised such monsters.’
In the letter Salvador also paid tribute to the Islander who bought his artwork.
He wrote: ‘The bizzman [sic] who bought them is a shrewd man.
‘Coz when I’m long gone they will be worth so much more.
‘Myself I never took a penny. I don’t create for money, I create for peace of mind and for people in need.’
Salvador earned his reputation as ‘Britain’s most violent prisoner’ for continually assaulting prison guards and taking them hostage, following an initial conviction for planning an armed robbery.
He is currently serving a life sentence in HMP Wakefield, from where his letter is addressed, and has been jailed for most of the last 43 years – 37 of which have been in solitary confinement.
In recent years he has turned his hand to art and changed his surname from Bronson to Salvador in tribute to the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali.
His birth name was Michael Peterson, which he changed in 1987 to Charles Bronson, after the Hollywood actor, when he started a bare-knuckle-boxing career in London’s East End during a spell out of prison.
A film of his life, in which he is played by Tom Hardy, was released in 2008.