Charles Salvador, formerly known as Charles Bronson, voiced his discontent after Reggie and Ronnie Kray were listed by this newspaper among a group of villains depicted in his ‘dirty dozen’ collection of artwork, which was recently sold for £545,000 to an anonymous Jersey-based collector.
The nightmarish drawings include written references to a number of the ‘most evil people’ Salvador ever met behind bars – his ‘dirty dozen’, which includes the likes of Fred West and Dr Harold Shipman, as well the Beast of Jersey, Edward Paisnel.
The artworks also refers to the Kray twins but, in his letter, Salvador points out that the former criminal kingpins, who were notorious in London’s East End, were not part of the ‘dirty dozen’ as the article, which was published on 3 August, indicated.
‘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 letter says.
‘The Krays were in a league of their own, where nonces could never be apart. (It is shameful that you put them on the same page.)’
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.’
Despite his dismay with the JEP, Salvador paid tribute to the Islander who bought his artwork. ‘The bizzman [sic] who bought them is a shrewd man. Coz when I’m long gone they will be worth so much more,’ the letter says.
‘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 even 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. In one of his dirty-dozen paintings, Salvador wrote: ‘Tom Hardy nicked my tash.’
THE FULL LETTER
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.)
The bizzman 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.
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.
