John Thomas Straffen – Britain’s longest serving prisoner – was the first patient to escape from Broadmoor Hospital and be prosecuted for a crime committed on the run. I remember seeing … On the afternoon of … Prior to this, at his home in Bath, he was dismissed as an imbecile, a loner, a “child trapped in an adult’s body”. In 1951, Straffen killed two young girls for which he was sent to Broadmoor. Broadmoor, with its dark red brick, its towers, heavily barred windows, gaunt cell-blocks and long corridors, was an intimidating place. If John Thomas Straffen had not escaped from Broadmoor Institution on 29 April 1952, then the day might have been remembered for its beautiful weather. Apparently someone had escaped from Broadmoor and had ran through the side of our school grounds. Within months of being put behind bars Straffen escaped from Broadmoor. It was this escape and subsequent murder that urged the government to … His picture has been flashed on television screens. He had just escaped from Broadmoor, and the warnings about him were stark, reports the Mirror Online. In 1952 whilst cleaning some outbuildings, he escaped over a perimeter wall, and within 2 hours had killed another young girl. John Thomas Straffen – England’s longest serving prisoner – was the first patient to escape from Broadmoor Hospital. He was incarcerated in Broadmoor, a hospital for the criminally insane. Prior to this, at his home in Bath, he was dismissed as a loner, an imbecile, a ‘child trapped in an adult’s body’. “The nation has been warned that Mitchell is dangerous. Broadmoor Hospital is in the village of Crowthorne in Berkshire and was founded in 1863, when it was named Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Frank Mitchell, the Mad Axeman, who escaped from Broadmoor Prison seen inside the police van in the custody of Broadmoor attendants after being recaptured on a London bound Bournemouth coach in Hampshire. AN inquiry is to be launched into how two dangerous murderers managed to escape from their Broadmoor Hospital escorts during separate outings in the past two days. (if anyone knows Ranelagh there is a muddy pathway which goes down the side of the school to the housing estate and Ranelagh's 2nd field). Christopher Hudson, writing in The Daily Mail tells how Straffen “… sauntered into the nearby village of Arborfield and strangled five-year-old Linda Bowyer, who had been out riding her bike.” On July 9, 1958, The Daily Mirror told: “Tattooed Frank Mitchell the mad axeman who escaped early yesterday from Broadmoor, the criminal mental institution in Berkshire, was still at large last night. He killed within hours. There’s still the moaning about patients having it too cushy, allegations of inappropriate relationships between patients and staff or the staff generally being too lax. "The nation has been warned that Mitchell … he killed within hours. 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