Savile's Travails 1989 - Inside Broadmoor with Jimmy Pt 8

I've chosen a header alleged to be from the Guardian Newspaper dated 1.11.1989.  I found this courtesy of another blogger who has published numerous extracts from the press on the subject of 'paedophiles' - thank you Sir for bring me this !

The page is difficult to read even though the blogger breaks it down into 3 pieces, but Guys and Gals I did what i needed to do to inform you the reader as best I could - here goes !

So, Jimmy was managing building works at BM - what else was he doing ?

More about the building works !

'prevented things getting completely out of control' - nice one Jim !

Good, now we've moved onto the patients and THE OUTINGS Jimmy arranged for them ! Jimmy is described a 'chair' of the BM 'management board' !

Jimmy's words starting from "For the last 20 years ... " could have been lifted from David Cohen's analysis of the problems faced by the patients who were not wanted by any other hospital once they were ready to leave BMH.  

http://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/saviles-travails-01-11-89/

Alan Franey co authored a book - this one !

 

 Extracts from the book are available online for folk who wish to know more about the state of High Security Hospitals in England circa 1988. It was published in 1998 !

I read with astonishment, that things were so bad between the management and the staff that they considered bring the army in !

 

Bad enough not being able to get out for a pee during the night eh !

Sounds like a good guy who gave a shit doesn't it ? 

In my last piece I promised you details of another author who visited BMH and mentioned Jimmy Savile.  Marjorie Wallace wrote a book called 'The Silent Twins' about two 18 year old girls admitted to BMH in June 1982 for, amongst other things, arson.  It's an intriguing, but very sad story and certainly worth a read.  Here's an article from the Independent in 1993 about the tragic death of one of them !

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/inquiry-into-death-of-silent-twin-1497079.html

Ms Wallace mentions Jimmy in her book, again, these extracts are available online !

She goes on 

The book was first published in 1986 although the above is taken from the 1998 edition.  I wondered what Ms Wallace makes of the Savile revelations especially given the fact that she is Chief Executive of Sane a leading Mental Health charity that she founded in 1986 !

http://www.sane.org.uk/what_we_do/about_sane/marjorie_wallace


 Goodness, another great person with a conviction to do good unto others.  I wanted to know moor about her, it seems that she was an investigative journalist too !

Sorry, it's hard to see but that says, The Sunday Times 1972 to 1989.

I'm not sure Marjorie believes the stories about Jimmy if this 2013 piece about 'BBC Groper's' is anything to go by !

 
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/marjoriess-fond-memories-of-bbc-gropers-8629477.html

Ms Wallace is indeed a most remarkable woman whose husband, a Polish Count no less, died around the same time as Jimmy ! She has certainly had an interesting life !

I haven't quite finished my stay at Broadmoor yet.  I may get a parole pass and wonder around the gardens, I could do with a break !

© Rabbitaway



 

'I was in Broadmoor' in 1981 Part 7

Before October 2012 I hardly thought of Broadmoor at all and when I did I didn't associate this image with the place !

No, the image I associated with Broadmoor was this !

Despite numerous references to the contrary in the press etc, Ian Brady was NEVER an inmate of BMH.  He is still in Ashworth and has been since 1965. Just the same, I always think of the place where the worst of the worst are sent, never to be released EVER.  That is, I always thought of it, it is a prison for the criminally insane NOT really a hospital at all !

The following BBC article published 5 months before Jimmy Savile's death shows that I was not the only one thinking this way !

I've just found this page, it makes for interesting reading, especially the bit about SECURITY !

'A series of electronic gates', wait a minute, MWT did not mention this fact when he was brow baiting Alan Franey about Jimmy Savile's 'keys' ? It get's better !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9475000/9475065.stm


Remember Mr Franey describing the 'staff social club' in my earlier blog 

http://rabbitaway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/managing-inside-broadmoor-with-jimmy-pt.html

Or this, from the one before in regard to WHERE Jimmy actually worked and SLEPT !

http://rabbitaway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/an-honary-member-of-nutters.html

BMH has had many scandals and had been the subject of numerous investigations etc and, television documentaries. The one made by the BBC is untraceable but the independent chaps have made at least one that is available to view online.  One is called 'Inside Broadmoor and was made in 2002 by David Cohen.  The presenter immediately tells his audience that :


"Twenty years ago the producers of this program made a film which exposed scandals inside" the onscreen caption reads

The film he refers to is this, made by ATV in 1981 !

http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/mivana/mediaplayer.php?id=9fb2fc1f486c172c5f72fc9318cbe365&media=iwasinbroadmoor_1981&type=mp4



There is only a very short clip on TV Ark but useful nevertheless for the small print at the bottom there.  Indeed 1981 was the International Year of the child'.  I doubt that Jimmy would have been featured in it though, he was busy elsewhere building hospitals.

I'm now willing to bet that Jimmy was NOT in Mr Cohen's film because, although it is NOT available for viewing, there are some copies of the book he wrote about his period of NOT filming inside Broadmoor.  Yes, that's right, he was refused permission to film inside the Hospital or interview any staff or patients.  He did his research though and he spoke to a number of ex patients and staff.

The picture Cohen paints of BM in 1981 is grim.  I was appalled at the descriptions of the patients lives. Unlike prisoners, they have no sentence, their stay being "without limit of time". Here's a description of a normal day, be prepared to be shocked !

A TYPICAL PATIENT'S DAY (Summer)

6.55 am The Day staff unlock the patient's siderooms or dormitories
6.55 -7.20 Wash dress make beds
7.20 - 8am Go to Day room for a cuppa
8.00 Breakfast
8.30 Day Room, medication, prep to go to occupation areas
9.00 - 11.45 Go to occupation Areas (weekdays only) escorted by staff
11.45 Return to wards, wash, assemble for lunch
12.00  Lunch
12.30 Return to Ward under escort, medication and recreation
1.30 Assemble and return to Occupation areas til 3.40
4pm Tea 
4.30 Return to Wards, have meds, siderooms, bathrooms, dorms unlocked. Patients can bathe or wash their clothes etc
6.30 Assemble to visit the garden (airing Courts) under ESCORT
7.20 Back to ward for ROLL CALL
7.30 Supper on Ward served by nursing staff, recreation inc TV, card playing OBSERVED BY STAFF
8.30 Change into bed clothes
8.45 Report to Clinical room for night sedation
9.00 pm BED LOCKED IN THEIR ROOMs/DORMS

That's LOCKED  IN ! In the morning they are woken by the Nurses walking through shouting at them to 'get up and SLOP OUT' ! There is NO PRIVACY, washing, dressing is 'closely supervised' and nurses were known to sneer at the patients as they get out of their weekly bath ! NO one is allowed to stay in bed unless they are ill or in the infirmary !

OUTINGS 

'Few patients remembered going on more than one outing during the whole stay in the hospital, though DURING JUBILEE WEEK in 1977, there was a definate attempt to take patients out for JOLLIFICATIONS'

I include the above information so that the reader can get a feel of the environment these folk are confined to. Good enough for them some would say, but 20% of them have broken no laws let alone kill or maim anyone.

So, where is Jimmy Savile in all this ? Indeed where is the man who wielded so much power and influence pre Task Force that he was able to do what he wanted and go where he wanted ? Well, Jimmy does get a mention from Cohen who obviously has no idea that he is the 'honary Assistant Entertainments Officer'

It's 1977 again folks when 'Brian, despite being beaten up proudly produced for me the program for the Queen's Jubilee week.  There were prawns and steak meals,James Bond films, a VISIT FROM JIMMY SAVILE and disco's.'

The next paragraph is an eye opener too !

'The socials are also one of the few occassions when the sexes meet...... Most houses hold a social evening once a month, which includes a buffet supper and a disco.  Bedtime is pushed back to 11o'clock.  There is dancing but these brief contacts between men and women are HEAVILY SUPERVISED.  

I went in search of others who had done time in BM and lived not only to tell the tale, but to write about it.  One such person is janet Cresswell, her story called 'The Ox Bow' was published in 2006. 

 Ms Cresswell left BM in 2003 if that report is correct, it continues 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/after-a-lifetime-in-broadmoor-the-writer-janet-cresswell-is-free-at-last-433070.html

I felt sure that Ms Cresswell would have made some acquaintance with Jimmy given the fact that she spent night on 27 years in the place.  The following extracts from her book confirm that she was certainly aware of him !

How annoying that the last sentence is incomplete, now I'll have to buy the book ! Then it's back to the Jubilee again and letters to Jim'll Fix it !

There are other literary folk whose paths crossed with Jimmy at BM.  I'll tell you moor about this and Jimmy's role at BM from 1988 onwards next time !








 


 




 




 

 

Reaching in - Inside Broadmoor with Jimmy Pt 6

The above is the front cover of a book of poems by the inmates if Maidstone Prison in Kent published in 1979.  On page 2, the reader is advised that the 'primary objective in producing this book is to create a fund of money which can be donated to children's charities.......The book can also serve to illustrate the point that despite being in prison, it is possible for people to use their energies and creative ability for the benefit and greater good of society.'

I have no idea how Jimmy Savile came to be associated with this effort, but he is obviously supportive of the men inside !

Is Broadmoor a hospital or a Prison ? Jimmy appears to have been quite heavily involved with both.  Here's somthing you might be surprised to learn - the clue is on the cover guys and gals !

What the hell has Lord L got to do with JS I hear you ask ? Well, quite a bit as it happens, read on !

The 'committee' included some famous names from the world of popular music !

 

The above is an extract from the following book available online via google P127

Offensive Literature: Decensorship in Britain, 1960-1982

 By John Sutherland

I'm not sure Jimmy had much involvement, I'm still burrowing for more information.  An article in the Telegraph two years later suggests he didn't have much, if anything, to say on the subject !

 

Goodness, it was all happening in 1970' , no wonder the powers that be are trying to expunge it's memories of the time.  Thirty four years later at the time of Longfords death (October 2006), one ex MP recall's his involvement with the committee !

 The BBC article includes this from Jon Snow one of our leading News Presenters 

 

 

 Other people's sex Lives was a political issue then as now and a very serious one at that.  I managed to find moor information about the committee and it's mission in a book about Paul Raymond !

 The 'billionaire king of Soho' s book continues 

 (From  'Members Only the life and times of Paul Raymond' extract available online.)

'Conference ? I wonder if any of the meetings was televised at the time.  Mrs Whitehouse was indeed a television star, I remember she seemed to be frequently when I was a kid.

A certain fledgling newspaper was in the sights of the righteous few/Majority in the early 70's !

 
 The Sun 'in the dock' ? How times change, forty years later and they and the rest of the msm are colluding with the moral minority to put entertainers from the 1970's in the dock ! 

The above extract from 'The Arts in the 1970's Cultural closure' by Dr Bart Moore-Gilbert includes the Political impact of the 

Have I go off the subject guys and gals, or have I gone on it ? The Tories were successful in 1979, I doubt that they will fare as well in the next election.

 Lord Longford and Jimmy appear to have something in common though wouldn't you agree ?  Here's how the 2006 BBC article on the death of Longford summed up the man and his life's work.

 Strangely enough, the Longford Report made an appearance in the Guardian 41 years after it's first publication.  The September 2013 piece makes mention of the fact that JS was a member of the committee.  Obviously, the writer was not as interested in his subject as I am in mine.  Maybe he/she did not know that the man his industry has been touting as a monster for the previous 12 months was linked to Longford's moral crusade.

Maybe !

Some readers might consider the following extract a little sanctimonious to say the least given this rag's endorsement of the latest moral purity movement !

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/sep/20/lord-longford-pornography-report-1972
 
Read that sentence under the photo again Guys and Gals ! Another philanthropist who cared about those others spurn !

NEXT TIME - Prisoner's or Patients - Inside Broadmoor with Jimmy Part 7

Managing ! - Inside Broadmoor with Jimmy Pt 5

I'm starting to understand WHAT Jimmy Savile was doing at BM Hospital.  MWT does not have this understanding, a fact he made all too clear half way through Exposure Pt 2.  After describing, the high walls, razor wire of the high security establishment he comes out with this !

"It seems no place for a television entertainer, but Savile was given an official role by the hospital in the early 1970's " The program then cuts to a clip of the 1972 documentary 'The Life of Jimmy Savile' wherein Jimmy's voice says the following 

"The hospital asked me officially whether I would join the staff and I am now honarary assistant entertainments officer " (25.23 mins) 

STRANGE, my investigations led me to evidence that, whilst Jimmy was indeed officially recognised, this did not take place until 1974, a decision said to have been 'rubber stamped' by the then  Dr David Owen !

Perhaps Thomas should have spoken to Dr Owen about his recollection of the matter, the telegraph article from October 2012 goes on 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9653901/Jimmy-Savile-gave-job-to-chief-porter-who-had-keys-to-the-wards.html



No, Thomas does not pursue any member of the Labour Party who were in government at the time of Jimmy's official appointment, preferring to chat with an ex Junior Minister from the government at the time that the Task force was set up more than 14 years later.  I've already covered Ms Currie, there was one thing she said that stuck in my mind though.  

In her spot on Irish Televison, Currie described Jimmy as 'creepy', someone who would try to ingraciate himself with the right people - check out 6.12 mins

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxZ_On7Z6CQ

Getting to my point, Currie described a meeting at the rather exclusive Athenaeum club in London Jimmy having taken her there to discus the Task force.  She sneers at the memory of how he was not aware of the fact that women could not eat in the main dining room because they could NOT be full members.

The relevance of the ex Junior Health Minister's memory of this event becomes clear as Thomas turns his attention to the man appointed as General manager and later Chief Executive at BM, Alan Franey,

In his build up to his interview with Mr Franey, Thomas describes the Athenaeum as a regular haunt of Jimmy Savile.  Certainly, Jimmy did patronise the place, and had meetings with both Currie and Franey there, but how regular a 'haunt' could this gaff had been to someone who did not even know a basic house rule !

Ms Currie mentioned that Cardinal Hume put Jimmy up for membership of the very exclusive establishment. The doyens were quick to distance themselves and their hangout from Jimmy post Exposure !

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/9596850/Sir-Jimmy-Savile-causes-anguish-at-the-Athenaeum.html

The 'old boys' did not appear to welcome Jimmy into their little world - funny that !

Another talking head to supply information about Broadmoor is Ray Rowden, former Senior NHS executive in the mid 1990's, who in reference to Jimmy having keys says that he is "gobsmacked" that "a non- member of staff could have access to a set of keys".  Thomas goes on to say that he (Rowden) "challenged the then Chief Exec of BM, Alan Franey about Savile's access in 1996"

"Franey (says Thomas) does not recall the conversation and said, it was not Rowden's place to raise it anyway" I'd be inclined to agree with Mr Franey.  Couldn't the producer's get someone who was actually there at the time to give an opinion.

Let's just back track here a minute shall we ? You may recall that the same Ray Rowden appeared in Part 2 of my blog posts about BM. Remember, he was the one who failed to raise any issues about Jimmy despite having ample opportunity in 2003

http://rabbitaway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/inside-broadmoor-with-jimmy-pt-2.html

Franey gets a chance to put his side of the story as to how he came to be appointed General Manager of BM Hospital in 1989, no, not 1988, that is when the Task force was sent into the hospital.  This newspaper cutting from the Daily Express 29thAugust 1988 provides some background information !

Firstly Mr Franey makes it very clear that he "had no complaints about Savile .... from staff or patients about any inappropriate behaviour " Thomas interupts him suggesting that S could go "anywhere he wanted" but Franey responds assertively "He couldn't go anywhere he wanted.  He couldn't go into patients bedrooms !"

Thomas challenges him again quite aggressively about keys !

Franey stands his ground - "He had had that access for some time.  I didn't see any reason to challenge what he was doing, no reason at all "

Asked what Jimmy's 'role' actually was, aside from "carrying on as assistant entertainments officer " Franey admits that 'no one was very clear what this role actually meant, although he (Savile) did bring celebrities into the staff social club which was OUTSIDE the secure perimeter !

He then grills him about Jimmy's 'role' in his appointment, did he feel "almost indebted to Savile ?" In other words, Jimmy got him the job !

"No, I don't accept that he did, I think I got the job through my own merit " He does however admit that he would not have been interviewed had his name not been put forward initially by Savile.  

Franey defends himself against any suggestion that he would not have stood up to Jimmy "Did you really think you could stand up to him ?"

"Absolutely, there's no doubt in my mind, no doubt at all "

That was the end of that.  Thomas then states that Franey was 'shocked by the recent news about Savile'.  He then goes on to advise the audience that -

"We understand there were NO allegations of abuse while Franey was in charge !"

Here's how one local paper described Mr Franey the day after the program's transmission !  I had problems providing a link so here is the whole piece from the Welwyn Hatfield Times Nov 22nd 2012.

Fancy being told off by a 'former PC' !

Next time - Just why did Broadmoor need 'fixing' in 1988 and why was Jimmy Savile seen as the best man for the job !