• [Dailystar Icon]
• News
• Weird News
• Charles Bronson

Notorious lag Charles Bronson sat in the middle of the Kray Twins to watch The Godfather

The long-serving prisoner says he watched the gangster flick with the crime lord brothers at HMP Parkhurst and described them as 'two of the best guys he'd ever met'

[Charles Bronson, in 2018]

Bronson was pals with The Krays(Image: / SWNS)

Notorious prisoner Charlie Bronson has revealed how he watched The Godfather movie sitting in-between The Kray Twins. In letters unearthed this week, Bronson - now called Charles Salvador - recalled his time at HMP Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight in 1976. Bronson, now 72, has been in jail since 1974, and was moved to HMP Parkhurst in 1976. Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who Bronson says were two of the best guys hed ever met, had been jailed for life in 1969 for the murders of Jack 'The Hat' McVitie and George Cornell. Ronnie was initially sent to Broadmoor and Reggie to HMP Maidstone, but they both ended up at HMP Parkhurst in the early 1970s.

In newly-discovered letters from Bronson, he tells how he sat down in-between the twins to watch the 1972 movie, which stars Marlon Brando as mafia boss Don Vito Corleone.

[Kray Twins]

The Krays were jailed for life in 1969(Image: Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

The 2hr 55min-long Francis Ford Coppola epic charts the rise of the Corleone family in New York, and is considered one the greatest movies of all time. Bronson writes: I can count on one hand how many movies Ive seen in the last three decades. Coz Im in solitary (and) coz Im not a movie or TV man.

He added, however, that watching The Godfather brought a smile to his face.

He said: But one film that does bring back a smile was The Godfather. I saw it with the Twins in Parkhurst in 76.

He added: Them days we got just one film week which we had in the film room above C-Wing gym. I can close my eyes now and see it - I sat in the middle of Ron and Reg and I had a bag of humbugs and a bottle of pop.

[Charles Bronson]

Bronson said watching The Godfather brought a "smile to his face"(Image: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

He added: "Looking back on it - who can beat that! If thats not classic, what is? Watching the biggest mobster movie ever with The Krays - and I enjoyed it! Them days I was so hyper that it was almost impossible for me to sit still for 10 min, let alone a whole movie. He wrote that it wasnt long before he was moved jails again - leaving his pals The Krays behind - to HMP Wakefield, after he attacked a jail psychiatrist, who Bronson calls a brain surgeon. Bronson wrote: It was at this time a neurologist was brought in to examine me (brain surgeon) - unfortunately I attacked him, so that was the end of that.

[Marlon Brando is Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather I]

Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone(Image: Publicity Picture)

Artwork by Bronson was also discovered with his letters - one showing him on the roof of Broadmoor, another of him climbing walls at HMP Wandsworth and HMP Hull, one of him having his head crushed, and another with him as a robin sitting in a bowl of porridge on a book called Life with The Krays HMP Parkhurst now, along with HMP Albany, make up that is today HMP Isle of Wight. It opened in 1778, but after being used as a military hospital and asylum, but in 1966 it was turned into a maximum security jail.

In 1973 both Ronnie and Reggie were arrested for assault on a prisoner called Stuart Grantham at HMP Parkhurst - although no action was taken in the end.

Ronnie died of a heart attack in Broadmoor in March 1995 aged 61, and Reggie died in October 2000 from bladder cancer at the age of 66.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.

[Dailystar Icon]

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Choose Daily Star as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.