Short prison stories

By Gabriell Monro

Following numerous requests from readers, the new crime book "Short prison stories" by Gabriell Monro became a famous International Bestseller in more than 20 countries in the world.

It gives an excellent possibility to read about the secrets of the most notorious serial killers behind prison bars. You will learn about cannibals and details of their crimes. Who was the most famous "brain eater" in the UK and what happened with the Austin Yogurt Shop killer in reality?

This book is based on real stories, which happened in the UK and the USA. Some of the killers have very clear links with each other and they can control the world even from the prison's walls.

The author of this book is well known after the publication of the crime trilogy about serial killers "Traces of blood", which became very popular.

Some of the knowledge which you will gain after reading this book can help you in the future if you will ever find yourself in a dangerous for yourself situation. It can help to save your life one day.

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"It's the best crime stories about serial killers and their crime, which I ever read. It gives a lot of details of the crime and it's fascinating".

"I had never imagined before the real motivation of the killers and their triggers to do the crime. I bought for my daughters all books by this Author, including "Traces of blood" and "Short prison stories".

"My wife admires this reading. She got this book as a present".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gabriell Monro
• Release date: Feb 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215249079

Gabriell Monro

Gabriell Monro is a well-known International Crime Writer, which bestsellers translated into 17 languages all over the world. She is the Author of the famous trilogy about most notorious serial killers “Traces of blood”. The Author graduated from Oxford and worked as a Forensic Consultant Psychiatrist in highly secure prisons with the most notorious serial killers, who are very famous in the world. Her work is highly recognised by US and UK leading detectives. The Author is taking an active part in the charities, which are involved in investigations of “cold cases”, which were closed many years ago due to the lack of evidence from the crime scenes. Gabriell Monro is the only Author who met with serial killers in reality and interviewed them while working in the secure prison service. Her books are unique as she spoke with serial killers after their sentences about the secrets of their crime and their motives to commit the most brutal murders.

Book preview

GABRIELL MONRO

PROLOGUE

Due to numerous requests from readers, Short prison stories

by Gabriell Monro were translated into more than 20 languages around the world. It became an international bestseller in the short time.

The book is written by a Forensic Consultant who worked in highly secure male prisons and interviewed the most notorious serial killers in the world.

All stories which you will read about are real. The names of the prisoners had been changed where it was necessary. What are the secrets of the serial killers, which they had never shared before?

You had never heard about some of the stories as it was part of the cold cases, which were never solved for decades.

The experience, which you get from reading this book will help you to be more careful about who is around you. You never know, it can help you to save your life one day, when you will never expect it.

PRISONER FROM THE HELL. HANGING IN EXECUTIONS AND SELF-HARM.

It was early hours in the morning. When police officers opened the door of the house, they were shocked to see the scene of torture and crime.

The pale wall was covered in blood. There was an iron and a bleach bottle with the spots of the blood on it. It was 3 hours of a brutal attack on a woman while she was almost unconscious most of the time.

The evil named Toby stamped on her face and hit her with an iron. Then he slashed her with a knife and poured bleach over her body. The crime scene was completely messy with all the women’s clothes out on the shelves as the evil was looking around for 27 grams of cocaine.

He finally found the hiding place with the drugs in the house. He was ready to leave the house, but the breathless body in the living room attracted his attention again. He thought for a few minutes, if he needs to leave her alive or kill her without any doubts. Then he called an emergency service himself.

If you think, that it was the end of a woman’s nightmare, you are wrong.

Toby tried to prevent his victim from giving evidence in court and he plotted her murder while being already behind the prison bars.

One day, his friend in the community got a text on his phone about how he was to do a Philpotts and burn the house down. It was the coded message with further instructions on how to commit the crime.

A lot of people remember the terrifying story of Mick Philpotts, a 59 years old man.

He became an example for some the criminals when he was jailed in 2013 for killing his 6 children in an arson attack in his house in Derby.

Toby decided to copycat Philpotts’s crime towards his victim. Five of his friends got a similar text from the prison from a smuggled phone. The revenge was started. He texted first his lover Wendy. She was the one who was found guilty later of conspiracy for the acid attack, later in the court trial and was convicted.

Another friend was Harvey. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit arson with intent and he had been sent down later to Dovegate prison.

The last friend, who got a text from Toby to be a part of this plotting was his friend Ralph. When I was waiting for the prison officer to bring him into the review room, I was wondering, how to look the evils friends. The door was wide open and he stepped into the room.

Ralph’s clothes were accurate and clean. He was 43 y.o. at the time of the crime and he was found guilty of the acid and arson conspiracy. He was recruited by his friend Toby from prison to commit a crime and hide the previous crime. Luckily, the victim survived again. She was brave and firm and she supported the prosecution despite the risk to her life.

Let’s come back to our prisoner Ralph again. If you remember the first criteria for psychopaths, they are charming. Their first impression of people is positive as they are used to manipulate people during their life.

If you look at the hands of this prisoner, you can see numerous old scars over his hands from self- harm.

Most of the prisoners use self harm as part of the distraction.

75% of them have traits or diagnose with sadomasochism. They love to inflict pain on themselves and others.

What about our prisoner Ralph. When he looks at you with his strong predator’s eyes, you can feel that the probably police did not find and discover all his victims. He knows everything about hanging. He has done it 3 times to himself. The first time, the rope was not strong enough to hold his weight and he fell on the floor, which resulted in a broken ankle.

The 2nd and the 3rd times were most successful. He is gaining pleasure from hanging and he stopped usually in time before the oxygen supply is cut off completely to his head.

The main trick with his self hanging is not to break the hyoid bone and thyroid cartridge. It happened usually in 25%.

The visual examination of hanging does not detect usually the fractures in 95%. However, forensic experts use toluidine blue stain with stereo microscopy, which can find these fractures.

It is a fast and effective forensic method.

There are 2 types of hanging: long drop and short drop. The long drop was used previously for executions as death was fast. Person can urinate or defecate during this drop of hanging during

their execution.

Historically, U.S. prisoners guards were responsible for preparing prisoners for execution and dressing them in dignity pants.

This was used for hanging or electrical chair execution, but not

for lethal injections.

Have you ever heard about China’s death’s vans, where criminals are executed and their organs sold on the black market? This still happens in China, nowadays more often, than you can imagine.

As for self-hanging in prisons. The problem is that if prisoners have EUPD (Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder), they can cross over the border one day. It can lead to death as an incident or deliberate action.

Deaths per 1.000 prisoners in England and Wales was 4 death in 2020. Rate deaths in prisons are around 4,15 deaths per 1.000 every year.

In the UK, where firearms are less available, hanging is the most common method among men and the 2nd common method among women.

Prisoners who survive suicide via hanging due to a break of the cord and who were found, can suffer cervical spine fracture and carotid artery injury.

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Hanging. How it works:

During hanging closed carotid arteries.

Then start cerebral (brain) hypoxia-lack of oxygen.

The final stage is breaking the neck which causes spinal injury or it can even lead to decapitation.

Then airways are closed, which ends up with death.

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What happens after hanging:

The face became cyanotic (blue from the lack of oxygen). There is a forensic sign of strangulation, which is called petechiae. It is a little blood marks on the face and both eyes from burst blood capillaries. The tongue can be out.

A good forensic expert can tell you, if it was a suicide or homicide as it leaves a distinctive ligature mark. The main answer is the hyoid bone. If it is broken, the victim had been murdered by manual chocking.

By the way, the last two prisoners executed by hanging in the UK were Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen. They stole £10 and killed a man. They were sent to death.

The execution happened on 13/08/1964. Strangeways prison in Manchester and Walton prison in Liverpool closed historical executions by hanging in British history.

As for our prisoner, Michael Holmes, he continues to self-sustaining himself occasionally. However, we found a distraction technique for him as painting.

He likes his new job in the prison and I saw him a numerous times on the different wings, including CAU with the can of painting and brush in his hand.

If prisoners self-harm and they were doing it all their life in the community for the last 20-30 years, you are not going to stop them. However, you need to be able to see the difference, if they are playing the games with self-harm or they are genuine. Usually, if a person is quiet and not shouting for help, they are the most worrying.

I remember, we had one prisoner, who applied 74 ligatures over the last 3 years. All his ligatures were always loose, without damage his neck and even skin. It was his part of the games, which he loves to play with the prison system and us. This case was manipulative behaviour. He was on constant watch for the last 3 years, however, it has not stopped him from applying all these ligatures anyway.

Self-harm, especially with the use of strangulations, unfortunately, is very common in UK prisons. But every case was individual as it was needed to see which motives and purposes of these actions were to understand it better.

Jump from the 3rd floor.

Prisoner over the railing.

It was a cloudy morning in November 2021. I was going to see one of my patients on wing 1A. My prison keys were in my hand and I was ready to open the last gate and door, but suddenly my hands stopped at the last movement.

There was an unusual silence on the wing. I looked through the door and I noticed, that the wing looked empty. My impression was that there were no prisoners and no officers on the wing.

Suddenly I looked up, on the 3rd floor, I saw a prisoner Felix, who was standing in a bright red T-shirt on another side of the railing, ready to jump to the ground floor.

Other inmates were all locked inside of their cells and banging their doors in an outburst of anger and anticipation of the coming performance, which they were missing inside their cells.

I stepped back inside the corridor as there started unusual movements. There was a riot team arriving at the wing while they carried very heavy black bags with them. They moved to the

officer’s room and closed the door behind them.

A few minutes passed and the door was suddenly opened. Eight tall officers were moving quickly in silence along the corridor.

They were dressed in the special American style of Robocops suits with helmets and all protective equipment over their elbows and knees.

It was very interesting to see them up close in action and I had the excellent possibility to look at every detail of their clothes.

Another group of officers carried out 2 huge plastic covers size 5 by 7 metres to the 3rd floor. I realised that the most interesting part will start on the top floor and I asked the officers permission to go on the top floor with them. The answer was welcome and I join their team following them to the 3rd floor of the wing.

When all of us arrived in the top floor, I noticed that all the plastic covers were very heavy and some of the officers were out of breath for a few minutes after carrying them from the ground floor

in a second.

When I try to touch this equipment, one of the officers asked me to be careful. Then he told me a story about the previous incident in another prison, when one of his mates lost his finger stuck between plastic sheets in the cover during the action.

The officer opened the door to the wing and moved inside of the corridor close to the standing inmates while I stayed behind watching their actions. They placed both plastic covers on both

sites of the prisoner standing over the railing and he can not move anymore to the right or left side to jump.

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Meanwhile, the red mattress, size 9 by 10 metres, was inflated

on the ground floor with the air pump for a few minutes. It is covering most of the floor where the prisoner could fall, if he would jump on the ground.

The only possibility for him to jump was only over the railing from the 3rd floor to the 2nd floor.

However, it will cause him probably maximum damage like a broken neck together with fractured legs and he was not brave enough to take this action. He continues to stand over the railing and rub his shoulder over the metal behind him during the last 30 minutes.

When I went to the 2nd floor to the wing, I saw 3 custodial managers together with the officers planning their further action. The actual plan was to wait for the National Team to take the prisoner down from the railing.

They should arrive from a different prison as the prison staff can not touch the inmate by the legal rules and everybody needed to wait.

One of the officers was standing near to me and I decided to ask him how the National Teamwork in prisons in such situations. I was educated in a few minutes, that they use the PAVA pepper spray as soon as they will approach the prisoner.

Then he will fall to the ground on the inflated safe mattress, where it will be the possibility to grab it further.

Then he will be moved to the Segregation Unit for the most disturbed prisoners as he caused here already a lot of stress and agitation for other inmates. You can hear banging through the cell doors on all 3 floors and the angry shouting of inmates.

Officer, I hope, you do not plan to open the inmates now, I asked the question which started to bother me. As air tension on the wing was showing the approach of a riot on the wing.

No, Miss. Do not worry. We will not open them now as it is too risky and dangerous now. If it will be necessary, we can use our equipment.

He showed me a handcuff and batons (like Monadnock style for self-defence).

If you want, you can hold this baton, if something goes wrong and the situation will be out of control, he offered in a few seconds. I looked at the baton and think: Well, I have no idea, how to even hold it, upside down or opposite way. So I declined his offer.

Then I looked around me and noticed, that I was the only one among the prison officers and the riot team without any equipment. I decided to go back to the Healthcare Unit and come back later, when National Team will arrive to act as it can take up to 1-2 hours.

As soon as I was back in my office, I opened the file of this prisoner who was standing over the railing.

But what about Felix. A young prisoner, who was not known previously to our Mental Health Team.

He arrived us from Bedford prison and he had already caused there a lot of disturbance. Today in the morning he was angry, that he did not get his medication in time and he climbed over the railing in protest and desired to kill himself.

The news which come later was that he was tired to stand for almost 50 minutes on the top of the railing and he allowed later to the officers to step back into his cell. Everything finished this time

without any tragic events.

I was glad to hear about it as we had a case of jumping from the railing by one of my patients called Ellis when he jumped from the 3rd to the ground floor and broke both legs.

It happened in the springtime. Everybody was thinking that it will be the same story a few months earlier.

I remember the news from John Radcliff hospital Ellis. He was very agitated after the jump and he tried to strangle the nurse there as soon as he arrived in A&E. He was retrained there and sedated, which saved her life as he was well known as a staff assaulted.

On a few occasions, he punched the GP during his review in another prison. He was always out of control and dangerous even with both broken legs.

Poor medics managed to do the surgery for him and sent him back to us as soon as possible allowed them to do it. He was moved to CAU(Care assessment unit) and he had been seen in a wheelchair in the corridor most of the time. However, I am sure that he will do the similar jump again as soon as his legs will heal.

Jumping from the railings in UK prisons happened occasionally. Sometimes it leads to death like it happened in 2017 in Altcourse prison in Mereside, when an unnamed inmate jumped from the landing.

His skull was smashed over the floor and paramedics should pronounce him dead on arrival.  It sparked a government investigation into the privately run prison at that time.

In other cases, which happened in Barlinnie prison in 2014, a prison officer was injured while trying to save the life of a suicidal inmate. He hurt his shoulder in an attempt to prevent the jump

of the prisoner together with 4 other prison officers.

The injured officer and prisoner with his broken leg were both taken to Glasgow hospital for emergency treatment.

Unfortunately, the officer was not able to return to work due to severe injury and he was retired after that incident. As for the inmate, he was deported to the Gambia later as part of his deportation plan.

The unique case happened in October 2021, when two prisoners escaped from Sudbury prison in Derbyshire after jumping over a fence.

They had even enough time to pack their two bags with them and an additional rucksack, which they placed over their neck.

They were both convicted of burglaries and driving offences. The public was asked not to approach them and contact the police immediately.

Jumping from the railing has become too common now anywhere in prisons. Sometimes inmates can be too frustrated and attempt to do it on the pick of their emotions.

If a prisoner does not jump over the railing in the nearest 5 minutes, then it is contributing more to the performance of other inmate like some form of protest. However, the prison service takes every case very seriously and respond in a timely manner to deal with these emergencies.

Jumping over the railings is quite common among inmates. That’s why the special security measures are given to design the railing.

For example, all fencing