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The Dark World of Robert Maudsley: Murder, Isolation, and Infamy · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

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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.
10:46
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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today. Thank you so much for listening to ten Minute Murder.