Broadmoor: An Inside Story

Synopsis

Two years from now, Broadmoor Hospital will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Since 1863 it has housed some of the most dangerous men and women in Britain, including Peter Sutcliffe, Ronnie Kray, and the 'Teenage Poisoner' Graham Young. The Victorians were proud of Broadmoor, believing it to be a progressive innovation, intended for criminals deemed too 'insane' to be held fully responsible for their actions. By the start of the 20th century the hospital was terribly overcrowded: and had become a secretive and scary place. In the 1970s, two nurses exposed practices including violent assaults on patients by staff and the punitive prescription of highly toxic drugs. There were questions asked in Parliament - and a new Mental Health Act resulted. Harvey Gordon, one of the world's leading forensic psychiatrists, is the first Medical Director of Broadmoor to write its history. His inside story deals with the hospital's past and very different present, unflinching in its descriptions of Broadmoor's darkest secrets - and the improvements their exposure led to. With case studies of some of the hospital's most notorious and deadly inmates, Broadmoor: An Inside Story is a comprehensive history of a controversial place, where medicine and law enforcement meet.