Frank Mitchell (prisoner)

Frank Samuel Mitchell (c. 1929 – 24 December 1966), also known as "The Mad Axeman", was an English criminal and friend of the Kray twins who was later murdered at their behest.

Mitchell was one of seven children born into a working-class family from Limehouse, East London. At the age of nine he stole a bicycle from another child, for which he was taken before a juvenile court and put on probation. As an adult, Mitchell possessed great physical strength and liked to demonstrate it by lifting a grand piano off the floor or picking up two fully-grown men, one in each hand. He also had a short temper and, according to Martin Fido, "the mind of a child of 13 or under". From the age of 17 Mitchell was regularly incarcerated in borstals and prisons, mostly for shop-breaking and larceny. During a brief spell of freedom, he fathered a daughter with a girlfriend, but never knew about her.

In prison Mitchell was "a thorn in the flesh of authority". His prison terms were characterised by violence against guards and fellow inmates, and he was punished with the birch and the cat o' nine tails. He was one of the ringleaders in a riot at Rochester borstal. He slashed a guard across the face, and was charged with attempted murder after attacking an inmate he believed had informed on him. He was later acquitted. In 1955 he was diagnosed "mentally defective" and sent to the Rampton psychiatric hospital. Two years later Mitchell escaped with another inmate, and they attacked a man with an iron bar before stealing his clothes and money. When he was recaptured Mitchell attacked police with two meat cleavers, and was sent to Broadmoor. He escaped again, broke into a private home and held a married couple hostage with an axe, for which he was nicknamed "The Mad Axeman" in the press. In October 1958 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for robbery with violence.

Mitchell was sent to Dartmoor prison in 1962, and whilst there his behaviour improved. He kept budgerigars and was transferred to the honour party, a small group of trusties who were allowed to work outside the prison walls with minimal supervision. Mitchell was permitted to roam the moors and feed the wild ponies and even visited nearby pubs. On one occasion he caught a taxi to Okehampton to buy a budgerigar. The governor of the prison promised Mitchell that if he stayed out of trouble he would recommend to the Home Office that he be given a release date. Four years later, Mitchell was aggrieved that he had still not received one.

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