John Thomas Straffen - Britains longest serving prisoner (until 2007). John was born in Hampshire in 1930. By the time he was 8 yrs old, hed already come to the attention of the police. First, he was referred to a child guidance clinic for stealing and truancy. Then he came before the juvenile court, for stealing, and was given two years probation. Johns father was in the military and his mother was too busy in the household so Johns probation officer took him to a psychiatrist, suspecting there was something quite wrong with the boy. By 1940, he was 10, but was found to have an IQ of 58 with a mental age of 6 and authorities had him placed in a residential school for mentally challenged children. He was certified as mentally defective under the Mental Deficiency Act. By the time John was 14, he had been moved to another school for older children. He didnt respond well to correction and is suspected of strangling two of the school officers geese. In 1946, when John was 16, his IQ was listed at 64 with a mental age of 9 1/2 years old and was discharged back to Bath (he was still certified under the MDA) where his family lived. He worked at odd jobs, but started breaking into homes in 1947. Already under suspicion for burglary, he strangled five chickens belonging to a girls father hed argued with. Authorities later found out hed assaulted a 13 yr old girl and told her What would you do if I killed you? Ive done it before. When they arrested John, hes said to have cheerfully confessed to what they suspected him of, plus many more incidents. Once again certified (and listed as not dangerous), John was sent to Hortham Colony in 1947. The program at Hortham tried to train mentally challenged offenders re-enter and be productive members of society. He did well and was transferred to a lower security facility in 1949, but was caught stealing and sent back to Hortham the next year. When John turned 21, he was reassessed twice. The first assessment was for 5 more years of certification but his family appealed and it was lowered to six months, then he was to be discharged. On July 15, 1951 John was on his way to the movies and saw 5 yr old Brenda Goddard in her yard. He lifted the child over the fence and strangled her then hit her head against a rock. Then he continued on to the movie. On August 8, 1951 he met 9 yr old Cicely Batstone at the movies. He took her on the bus to a meadow and strangled her. Multiple people saw them together and John was arrested. He confessed but was found guilty but insane at his trial and remanded to Broadmoor, which had originally been termed a criminal lunatic asylum. The following spring, John went with another patient and an attendant to clean one of Broadmoors outbuildings. While the other two were inside cleaning, John went out to shake his duster and hopped up on the roof and went over the fence. Twenty minutes later, he asked for a drink of water from a nearby home. An hour and a half later, he was at an elementary school where he found 5 yr old Linda Bower riding her bicycle. Thirty minutes later, she was dead, strangled. Next, he was drinking a cup of tea with another homemaker and she was even kind enough to drive him to the bus stop. When they arrived at the bus stop, they saw two men in uniform and John got out of tge car and ran off. The homemaker reported the odd behavior to the men, who turned out to be nurses from Broadmoor, and John was soon recaptured. John was tried for murder, again, and found guilty. He was initially sentenced to death, but was later given a reprieve and his sentence was changed to life in prison. Over the years, John was moved around to different prisons, the last being Durham, which also houses Ian Brady (who, with Johns death, became Britains longest serving prisoner). John had been described as a long, emaciated, miserable figure - like a dying butterfly or caged animal that kept to himself and only spoke if he had a question. A crime author wrote the shambling lunatic is only in prison because no mental institution is secure enough to guarantee his confinement. By the time John died in 2007, he had served 55 years in British prisons. ~ Sister Sadist
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 21:05:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015