Prisoners known by Tom Vaughan

Home Page   Family History    Vaughan Family Start   28 March 2007

Tom during his career inevitably came to know a number of well known prisoners amongst them Klaus Fuchs, the spy; Alfie Hind, the escapologist and Mad Mitchell

Klaus Fuchs was born in 1911 in Germany. A member of the Germany Communist Party, he was forced to flee the country after the Nazis gained power in 1933. . On the outbreak of the Second World War, Fuchs was briefly interned but was released when it was discovered that his knowledge of physics would be useful to the British government. In 1943 Fuchs was sent to the United States where he worked at Los Alamos on developing the atom bomb Fuchs was regarded as an excellent scientist and researcher, a serious man who focused with great intensity on his work. No one suspected that Fuchs had been transferring very detailed notes on the bomb project to a Soviet courier After the war Fuchs returned to England where he became head of the physics department of the British nuclear research centre at Harwell. On 5th September 1945, Igor Gouzenko, a KGB intelligence officer based in Canada, defected to the West claiming he had evidence of an Soviet spy ring based in Britain. 

Fuchs denied any involvement in espionage and theintelligence services did not have enough evidence to have him arrested and charged with spying. he eventually confessed on 23rd January 1950 to passing information to the Soviet Union . Six weeks later Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years in prison. . After serving nine years of his sentence, Fuchs was released. He illegally relocated in East Germany, where he was granted citizenship.

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Frank Mitchell was as strong as an Ox with a long history of violence and, from the age of seventeen, was in and out of prisons or mental institutions. Whilst declared insane he wasn't really crazy just very simple. While serving time in Broadmoor, he escaped and broke into an old couple's house and held them captive. He forced them to watch television while he drank tea with an axe neatly balanced across his knees.

Frank was sent to Dartmoor , No one could control him. He would roam the moors while out on working parties and was even allowed visit the local with a prison officer. As long as he was back in time he was left to his own devices.

On the 12th of December 1966 Frank Mitchell escaped from Dartmoor with the help of the Kray Twins. The Twins subsequently stated their reason for breaking him out of prison was to highlight the fact that Frank hadn't been given a release date. Frank was kept locked up and supplied with a woman (Lisa Prescott) to occupy him. Lisa knew who Frank was and hit it off with him straight away. But Frank felt trapped when he had very bad mood swings he threatened the Twins.

According to Ronnie Kray Billy Exley offered to get Mitchell out of the country but found him too difficult to control and ended up killing him. Albert Donoghue's version is that he took Frank out to a waiting van and, as he sat on one of the wheel arches, Frank was shot twelve times.   http://www.thekrays.co.uk/mitch.htm 

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Alfie Hinds:   
 This song about escape king and public hero Alfie Hinds - nicknamed "The British Houdini" - was sung by Martin Carthy live at the pilot programme for the Hullaballo TV series in 1964. It was included in 2001 on the anthology 
The Carthy Chronicles.      Lyrics:

Now most people, they are willing
Some are young and some are old
To pity poor old Alfie Hinds
The man they cannot hold

Now he blew up a safe in Maples
In nineteen-fifty-three
The Judge says Alf was guilty
But Alf did not agree

So he dived out through a canal
In nineteen-fifty-five
And he hopped on a plane to Old Ireland
And there he did survive

But at last on one day in Belfast
They caught him flogging cars
And with gas and chains and tommy-guns
put Alf back behind bars

Now everyone is wondering
If his story has finally been told
Or will he flit away again
He's the man they cannot hold

But they caught him building houses
In nineteen-fifty-six
And they carted him back to Old England
To pay for all of his tricks

Now, one day at the Old Bailey
He caught a great How-do-you-do
He shot against two policemen
And locked them in the loo

But they caught him down at Bristol
The papers gave him fame
But after a year the warder yelled
Oh Gawd, he's gone again

Yes, he disappeared completely
Vanished from the fold
Three cheers for good old Alfie Hinds
The man they cannot hold

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke.  http://www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~zierke/martin.carthy/songs/balladofalfiehinds.html

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