The Real Hannibal: Robery Maudsley

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Nineteen sixty one, Liverpool, London. An eight year old boy and his

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three older siblings stand outside the Nazareth
House, a Roman Catholic orphanage, waiting

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to go home. For many children
in the childcare systems around the world,

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this would be a happy occasion,
but for Robert Monseley this was one of

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the worst days of his life.
Robert was fourth in line of what would

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eventually be twelve children born to George
Mauldesley, a man whose name would become

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almost as infamous as one of his
own children would later on. The truth

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is that Robert and his older siblings
had been taken into care because of the

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dire conditions at home, and particularly
because of the way George treated them.

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Older brother to Robert, Paul Maudesley, spoke about their childhood and said,

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at the orphanage we had all got
on really well. Our parents would come

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to visit, but they were just
strangers. The nuns were our family,

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and we all used to stick together. Then our parents took us home and

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we were subjected to physical abuse.
It was something we'd never experienced before.

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They just picked on us one by
one, gave us a beating and sent

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us off to our room, but
it was Robert who seemed to be the

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biggest target of all. All I
remember of my childhood is the beatings,

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he later said. Once I was
locked in my room for six months and

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my father only opened the door to
come in and beat me four or six

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times a day. He used to
hit me with sticks or rods, and

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once he busted a twenty two caliber
air rifle over my back. Robert also

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claimed that during this period he was
sexually abused and raped by his father,

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and that was the life that waited
for Robert and his siblings back at home,

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and it was the life that he
would return to whenever the Liverpool child

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Care Services would send them back to
the Maudsley household for trial periods. These

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periods were never permanent, but the
damage inflicted during most of them certainly was

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During the late nineteen sixties, when
Robert became a teenager, he decided that

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enough was enough. He moved to
London to finn for himself and resorted to

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selling himself to men on the London
streets just to get by. Crippling drug

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addiction quickly followed, and Robert found
himself seeking help after several failed suicide attempts.

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It was while he was in care
for these attempts that he admitted to

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doctors that he heard voices that were
telling him to kill his parents. If

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I had killed my parents in nineteen
seventy he later said, none of these

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people would have died. What Robert
had meant by that statement started in nineteen

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seventy four with a man named John
Ferrell. John solicited Robert's services in wood

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Green, London, and for whatever
reason, decided to show Robert pictures of

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young children. John claimed to have
been sexually abusing. This confession made a

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switch flip in Robert's mind and there
was no going back. Robert then attacked

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John and strangled him with the garrot
until he was dead. Instead of running,

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John then surrendered himself to the police. He confessed to the murder and

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asked to be admitted into psychiatric care. That was a request that the courts

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granted when they found that Robert was
unfit to stand trial, and they sent

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him to Broadmoor Hospital, the oldest
high security psychiatric hospital in England. Robert

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spent three years there in relative peace, but that all changed when another patient

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crossed him the wrong way. His
name was David Francis, and his crime

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was child molestation. Upon learning this, Robert and another patient named David Cheeseman,

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who was ironically serving a sentence for
the rape and sexual assault of a

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sixteen year old girl, took matters
into their own hands. When David Francis

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was admitted into Broadmoor Hospital, he
already had one strike against him for his

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crimes, but after the alleged attack
and rape of two other inmates for David,

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Robert believed that there would be no
redemption. Robert and David Cheeseman cornered

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David Francis and slowly tortured and killed
him over a period of nine hours.

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The discoververy of Robert Maudsley's new crime
marked the end of his psychiatric care.

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Robert was then charged with manslaughter and
transferred to Wakefield Prison. A later sentencing

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made the transfer permanence, and he
was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation

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that he should never be released.
The courts threw the book at him.

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For some this would have been the
end of their story and the end of

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their crimes, but Robert Maudsley was
far from finished. Within the year,

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he had struck again, and this
time, he had bigger ambitions than ridding

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the world of one measly criminal.
This time, Robert planned to take out

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seven, and he started with Souney
Darwood. On the surface, it looked

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like Soundly and Robert were actually friends. He would regularly give Robert French lessons,

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but Robert was only biding his time. One day, he invited Soundly

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over to his cell, where he
suddenly a viciously attacked him. He first

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strangled him with a garrot and then
stabbed him with a shank until he was

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dead. Robert then hid his body
under the bed so that he could continue

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his killing spree undisturbed. Unlike the
first two, Soudney was not a convicted

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child molester or abuser. This time
Robert's victim was imprisoned for killing his wife.

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But it looked like Robert had cast
the net of potential targets wider than

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he had before. With Soundee's body
still stashed away under Robert's bed, he

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then tried to lure more inmates into
his cell, where he intended to finish

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them off as well. Perhaps sensing
that something was wrong, all of the

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other prisoners refused to follow Robert,
realizing that he would have to work a

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little harder to get his next kill. Robert then left his cell and went

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on the hunt. As he stalked
the wing, he found William Roberts asleep

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in his bed. William was in
prison for abusing a seven year old girl,

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and as soon as Robert saw William
lying there, he bounced. Robert

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first stabbed at William's head several times
with his shank, and then he began

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bashing his head into the wall until
he was also dead. Roberts, all

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calm and collected, then walked up
to the guard's post, handed over his

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shank, and told them that the
next roll call would be two inmates.

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Short. Needless to say, his
confession shocked the prison and the country.

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That was twice now that Robert had
struck right under the administration's noses, and

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the second time around he'd managed to
take out two victims without getting caught.

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It was clear that the British justice
system had no ordinary criminal on their hands,

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and this was a fact that would
later become known nationwide. When his

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story reached the press. Some outlets
published a false report that Robert had actually

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eaten part of one of his victim's
brains and Robert Mautsley turned into an overnight

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sensation. He was now known as
Hannibal the Cannibal, and almost like they

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were playing into the hype, Wakefield
Prison built Robert his own cell. They

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buried him in the basement, caged
in a glass cell with metal bars,

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and locked him away in solitary confinement. If he is to ever leave a

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cell, he is to be guarded
and monitored by four prison officers at all

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times. That was the order.
Days became weeks, weeks became months,

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and months became years, and years
became decades. Still, Robert Maudsley is

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in solitary confinement. In two thousand, over twenty years later, Robert begged

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for the torment to end. Quote. I see this in part as going

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back to my childhood and going back
to the room where I was detained for

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six months and that torments me,
he said. He asked for either conditions

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of his solitary confinement to be eased, or for him to be given a

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cyanide capsule so that he could end
his confinement himself. Both of those requests

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were re fused, as was another
request for him to get a pet bird

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to keep him company in his cell. That has since become known as the

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cage. Are we not all products
of our environment? Robert later asked in

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a letter Wakefield prison authorities perceive me
as a problem. Their solution to that

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problem to date has been to bury
me alive the cage. Ultimately, for

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them being my concrete coffin, I'm
left to stagnate, vegetate and regress,

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left to confront my solitary head on
with people who have eyes but don't see,

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who have ears but don't hear,
and who have mouths but don't speak.

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Consequently, I too am left with
no voice, nowhere to turn.

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But inward. I had five years
sleeping on a mattress on the floor and

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just a slop bucket in my cell. I complained to the Board of prison

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visitors, but all they said was, well, you have a bed,

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what are you complaining for. Robert
Maudsley remains the longest prison are held in

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solitary confinement in Britain to date.
He is currently in his seventies and hasn't

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had regular human contact for over forty
years. He says that at this point

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he would find it very difficult to
get used to seeing and talking with the

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other inmates again, but that he
worries for the other younger prisoners who are

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kept imprisoned under the same circumstances as
he is. That's ten minute Murder for

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today brief and bingeable true Crime.
I'm Joe, I'm the host, and

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thank you so much for taking the
time to listen to ten minute Murder.

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And I guess you could consider this
this episode a serial Killer Sunday even though

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I don't really do that anymore.
Some of the episodes that you're going to

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hear me release on Sundays aren't actually
serial killers, which you could consider this

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a serial killer Sunday episode. Robert
Maudsley, that's a disturbing story and one

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that if you kind of have a
heart and can I don't want to say

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look past what he did, but
you almost have to look past what he

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did to see him as a human
if you see him as a human being.

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Let me put it that way,
if you see Robert as another human

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being, you kind of feel for
him a little bit, and you don't

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feel for him. And the fact
that you know you don't need to murder

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people. You've been through a lot. You've been through like the worst that

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you can go through and still be
alive, but killing people is not the

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answer. And he's obviously mentally unwell, and that's a horrible situation that he

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has found himself in for over forty
years in that prison. Some would say,

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well deserved. Hey, if you're
a brand new listener to the podcast,

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make sure you hit subscribe wherever you
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then boom, it's going to be
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to Joe at ten Minute Murder dot
com is my email address if you want

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to get in touch with me.
And that's it. That's your episode for

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today. Thank you so much for
listening to ten Minute Murder.