Saturday 4 May 2013

Bronson - A truly Great Briton

Before any of you think I have taken leave of my senses, I am being extremely sarcastic with my post title.  Prof. David Wilson called him "a paranoid narcissist" and "a man who does not want to be normal".  Bouncer turned author Bernard O`Mahoney simply referred to him as "a dickhead!"  So just who is this man that we should be so grateful to be breathing the same air as.  His proper name is Michael Peterson, born in Luton, who moved up to Ellesmere Port in his teens to live with his grandparents.  My home town.  One small correction in his memoir "Insanity", they did not live in Bellington Road, it is Bebbington Road. (Oh how pedantic of me!).  When he grew older was in trouble with Police and the courts, he lived on the Parklands estate, across the road from me.  Contrary to the documentary about him (The Real Bronson), he was never the perpetually snarling troglodyte, it portrayed.  The only time he came to notice was when he went down for armed robbery.

    He was always causing trouble, so much that he seemed that he would never be released.  Strange that his fanatical fan club forget that he WAS released in 1988 & 1992, but got himself locked up again, both times.  Just who`s fault was that?  Since then, when it seems like he has been forgotten about, he does something to attract attention to himself, not to mention more prison time.  He took a teacher hostage and had a rope tied around his neck, with threats to kill him.  Obviously the teacher did not pay him sufficient "Respect" (that grossly overused word) and had to pay.  His fan club have apparently been claiming that this teacher was this, was that, was the other.  All to excuse the actions of their hero.  He appealed against his sentence for that in July 2010, and his fan club turned up to offer their support.  All thirty one of them!  Bernard O`Mahoney put the pictures on his site for us to have a perusal at.

    What about the "adulation" that seems to be there for him?  On his site, somebody from the Port put, "Charlie, you`re a legend in the Port!"  Really?  I never seem to hear these platitudes making their way over to me.  And he was totally unknown about for so many years, how does he suddenly become "a legend?"  And why do we not hear from jail inmates who think Peterson is a thorn in their side?  Is it fear of people turning on them because they will not grovel or toady to this man?  One man has; Paul Ferris.  He called Peterson the biggest headache in the system.  To all the other inmates.  He said that every time Peterson started his antics, everybody else in the jail suffered as a result.  I have not come across anybody mouthing off about the remarks made by Ferris, and it is easy to see why. Ferris was a notorious Glasgow gangster, so nobody will say anything about him, particularly to his face.  Their mouths will be firmly shut.  Another put, "Anything I can do to help?"  Yes, very simple.  Tell your hero to put his head down and do his time like the rest have to.  But when you are dealing with a "Right Man", what can you do?  What is a "Right Man?"  Somebody who says he is right because he says so.  No matter how wrong, he is right.  You get the idea.  On a final note, what kind of man treats all things from the mouth of Ronnie Kray as words from a great mind or philosopher?

2 comments:

  1. Hi, just returned from my hols and managed to read this excellent post about the ‘leg-end’ that is Bronson. As you’ve succinctly pointed out, it seems that there are in today’s society individuals void of any common sense or actual grey matter that revere and support this complete numpty. His antics have indeed been a cause of much laughter and amusement amongst my friends who view this retarded ‘hard man’ as possibly the biggest moronic tit in the entire penal system. Paul Ferris is bang on about Bronson, and it baffles me how his supporters ignore the opinion and views of a real gangster and suck up to an idiot who appears to get his kicks by being locked up as though it was a fetish. I’ve laughed my way through some of his books (free online, I wouldn’t pay a penny for his thoughts) and his connections with all the hard-men of the UK. His insights into the Krays are just plain cheesy and he actually believes that he has major faces as pals on the outside, as they’ve come to visit him after all (in between his solitary confinement stints). The bloke is a nuisance and quite frankly I’d be embarrassed to know him, let alone claim his as a mate, but alas, maybe it is us who are too ‘straight’ to understand the anger of a wronged criminal genius.

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    1. Hello again, twister. Again, you are a breath of fresh air & you spell it out the way it is. I lived across the road from Peterson when he was jailed, Parklands estate, Little Sutton, Ellesmere Port. Nobody bothered him, he bothered nobody. In fact he was very quiet, not the constantly snarling pillock he has been portrayed as. Anybody says something about his heroes he does not like, it`s "ugg, glug, gurgle, snarl!" A very sensible argument. Yet somebody contacted his website and said "Charlie, you`re a legend in the port" something I have not heard about, and as for the people he rates as hard men, one has produced laughter & ridicule. This man has also been a notorious police informer, and is shit scared of my brother-in-laws family. One used this "hard man"as a punchbag many times. He even growled at him in a chippie and this "legend" ran out! Yep, about Biggs, he flaunted his escaping at every opportunity, but then came back to get medical care for nothing. Did hear about the making of "Moonraker" in Brazil? as soon as he heard a British film crew were there, he leeched on to them quick. Journalists tried to persuade Roger Moore to pose for a photo with Biggs, but he refused. His father was a cop and to have done so, would have been an insult to his dad`s memory. A man of principle. Going back to Peterson, he will always do something to draw attention to himself when nobody is bothered about him. He did a couple of years back, smearing himself in butter and fighting with the screws. If he is released, he will be back inside before he knows it because he will bring it upon himself, something his fan club would never accept. Thanks again, respectfully daryl

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