Translated material
“I just killed the rapist. Will you help me? "
When Robert Modley was 21 years old, he strangled a man with a belt who confessed to pedophilia. Once in prison, he killed again - another pedophile. Modley spent most of his life in prison for brutal killings, but his relatives believe that he can be understood, and strangers leave signatures to soften his punishment. Why is he finding an excuse-in the material of the weekly trigrum of the “cold” section .
A man has been in prison almost all his life for brutal killings. They sympathize with him, because he killed only "bad"
In February 1977, 26-year-old David Francis, together with 23-year-old Robert Modley, guests of a psychiatric hospital for criminals in the village of Croutorn in the south of England, were sitting in the courtyard of the clinic and watched as 32-year-old David Chizman played mini-football with other prisoners.
After the match, Chizman asked the orderly to open the door to the pantry to bring boots. Three patients went inside, but when the orderly wanted to go after, Modley did not let him in. Chizman put a homemade knife made of radio details to Francis’s throat, and said to the orderly: “Get out, I have a knife.”
The orderly saw that Modley and Chizman tied Francis's hands with a wire from the player and began to kick him in the stomach. The door was barricaded with cabinets. “There were blows and crackle, [was heard] a very loud gurgling sound and a knock of legs on the floor, as if someone was fighting in a dying agony,” the prosecutor read out the testimony from the case file.
The torture lasted nine hours. Francis was beaten and cut alive, and then strangled and hung the body at the glass door so that the guards saw what happened to him. Soon, 24-year-old Modley was known throughout Great Britain-this was not his first and not the last murder.
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"Robert died"
Robert Modley was born in June 1953 in Liverpool, where his father worked as a truck driver, and was the fourth child in the family. Modley was less than two years old when social workers took him from his family due to the “critical shortage” of his parental attention, and he, along with two brothers and sister, ended up in the shelter of the Nazareth Sisters, a charity Catholic organization in which the nuns worked .
In the shelter, Robert, according to his memories, lived better than at home. “We all got along very well. Our parents visited us, but they were like strangers, ” said Robert Paul's brother. “The nuns were our family, and we kept together.”
The children lived in a shelter for about six years before there was a family, ready to adopt the older brother of Robert. To complete the procedure, it was necessary to notify biological parents - George and Gene Modley. However, they suddenly decided to take the children back to the family. And the eight -year -old Modley and his brothers and sister returned home - by that time, eight more children appeared in the family. They regularly suffered from physical violence. “[Father] was just an old man who beat us with fists, a belt, and sometimes a stick,” said Paul. “However, our mother was the initiator of half of this.”
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Robert got the most: “Everything that I remember about my childhood is beatings. I was locked in the room for six months, and my father opened the door only to enter and beat me, four or six times a day, ”Robert recalled . Once his father hit him with a pneumatic rifle on his back - the blow was so strong that the trunk bent. In 1965, Robert, the only of 12 children, sent them to the foster family - biological parents told his brothers and sisters that Robert died.
Voices in the head
In 1969, the 16-year-old Robert escaped from the foster family to London. He tried to make suicide twice, because of which he lay in a psychiatric hospital for several months. Modley doctors said that the voices in his head are calling him to kill his parents. Modley also suffered from drug addiction - to get money for substances, he stole and engaged in prostitution.
One of his clients was the worker John Farrell, who, after a recent divorce, realized his attraction to men. Journalist Alan Warren, who wrote about Modley, described the events on March 14, 1974: when Modley was once again in the house of Farrel, he took out a box of photographs from a chest of drawers. “Look at these pictures. They are magnificent. They really excite me, ”he said . In the photographs there were children whom he raped.
“I want you to do everything that they tell you as one of the boys in these pictures,” said Farrell. Modley retreated to the door, not knowing how to react. Next to him on the floor was Farrell's belt. Modley slowly lifted him, returned to the bed, threw his belt around Farrell's neck and tightly tightened the loop.
Then Modley himself came to the police and said : “I just killed the rapist, and here I am. Will you help me? " He understood that he was dangerous to others. He was recognized as insane and sent for treatment in Broadmar - a psychiatric hospital for criminals in the village of Croutorne.
In 1977, Modley committed a new murder: together with another patient, David Chisman, he brutally killed David Francis who convicted of pedophilia.
One of the guards recalled : Francis's head was “broken like a boiled egg”, a spoon stuck out of the skull, and part of the brain was absent. The media wrote that Modley ate the ceremony of the victim. Later this information was refuted, but it is still compared with Hannibal Lecter.
Hannibal Lecter is an antagonist from a series of novels by American writer Thomas Harris. This is a serial killer, cannibal and a brilliant psychiatrist who could learn a lot about a person only by his smell. He received aristocratic education and had a sophisticated taste. In the film " Silence of the lamb " the role of Lecter was played by Anthony Hopkins, and in the series " Hannibal " - Mads Mikkelsen.
“When I killed, I imagined my parents. If I killed my parents in 1970, none of these people would have to die, ”Modley said at the trial. “If I killed them [parents], I would have walked around the world as a free and carefree person.”
Two names are shorter
After the murder of Francis Modley, Wakefield was transferred to a closed prison. She was called the “mansion of monsters” due to the fact that they mainly contained dangerous criminals-however, even they were afraid of Robert and shunned him. Among the prisoners there were rumors about the murders committed by Modley, and he himself was nicknamed “Cannibal” and “Brave Ducers”.
Modley did not like living in a maximum regime prison. In order to be considered insane and returned to BroadMur, he decided - several people need to be killed.
The first of them was Salnie Darwood, convicted of the murder of his wife. Modley lured him into his camera, hit him several times with a home -made knife, after which he strangled and hid the body under the bed. Modley came out in search of the next victim - however, none of the prisoners wanted to follow him. “We all saw madness in his eyes,” one of them later recalled .
Then Modley made his way to the camera of 56-year-old Bill Roberts, convicted of rape of a seven-year-old girl. Modley attacked the sleeping Roberts, cut a skull with a knife and hit his head several times on the wall. After that, Modley, with a relaxed look, approached the prison overseer and said that the next roll call would be two names in short.
In 1979, Modley received a second life sentence. He was transferred to Parkherst prison on White Island, where he met psychiatrist Bob Johnson.
“Now it’s much easier for me to talk about a lot - about which I wouldn’t find a word about six months ago,” Modley said during one of the recorded meetings with a psychiatrist.
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According to Johnson, the key moment in Modley's progress was the awareness of his own cruelty. He understood that, killing the rapists, as if taking revenge on his parents, whom he continued to see in each of them.
“We need to admit that part of my nature, my social roles and connections, in fact, are rooted in childhood. Horror, numbness, panic, fear ... Complete, absolute impotence, ”explaining L Modley.
Johnson later told reporters that the patient managed to advance in his treatment and reduce the level of aggression. However, in 1983, Modley was returned to the Wakefield prison without warning.
“As far as I can judge, the prison authorities are trying to break it. Every time they see at least some of his progress, they insert sticks into the wheels, ” said Robert Paul's brother. - His problems began when the child was locked in the room. All that they [the authorities] do is again immerse him in that injury. ”
"I promise to love him and not eat"
In Wakefield, Modshi was placed in a single camera, which was built specifically for him in 1983. It was a room of 5.5 by 4.5 meters with glass bulletproof windows . From the furniture in the chamber stood a table and a chair from a light compressed cardboard, a concrete slab with a mattress instead of a bed, a mirror and a toilet with a sink, bolts screwed to the floor. The entrance to the camera was closed by a steel door, at the bottom of which there was a window - through it the guards passed on to Modley food and took the dishes.
Every day he was taken for an hourly training for six prison warders dressed in protective equipment. The rest of the time, Modley was sitting in the cell, and he was forbidden to communicate with other prisoners, use the radio or TV .
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Modley told his relatives that prison employees mocked him. They could wave cigarettes in front of his face, laugh and say: "You will not get them." To deprive them of such an opportunity, Modley quit smoking - then the employees, according to him, began to spit into his food.
“I am doomed to be among people who have eyes, but they do not see who have ears, but they don’t hear who have mouths, but they don’t say,” Modley wrote in 2000 the Times journalist. “The prison authorities see in me a problem, the solution of which began to put me in a solitary chamber and throw the key, bury in the concrete coffin alive,” he wrote . - It doesn't matter to them whether I am a bad person or went crazy. They do not know the answer, and they do not care, if only from the eyes of down, out of their hearts. ”
Modley asked him to give him a TV, cassettes with classical music and a parrot. “Why can't I have a wavy parrot instead of flies, cockroaches and spiders that I have now? I promise to love him and not eat, ” wrote Modley. “If [the prison administration] says“ no ”, then I will ask me to provide me with a simple capsule with cyanide, which I willingly accept, and the problem of Robert John Modley will solve easily and quickly.”
As a result, Modley allowed to listen to classical music, and over time they brought a TV and even a game console to his camera.
Talented prisoner
In 2017, the nephew of Modley Gavin, the son of Paul, gave an interview about the life of his 64-year-old uncle in prison. Modley, who at that time spent 39 years in a single chamber, told his relatives that he “does not want” to be released. He even refused the only hour a day allotted for training in order to stay alone in the cell.
“He lives in his own small world. He has a TV, music and PlayStation 2. His favorite game is “Call of Duty” ( first -person shooter; different parts of this series of games are devoted to both real and fictional military conflicts. - Approx. “Cold” ). He says that he is pleased with life, and really looks happy, ”Gavin said . - He knows that he will die in prison, and is calm about this. He says that in the rest of the world there are so many bad people that he would prefer to remain with himself. ”
In addition to classical music, Modley was fond of poetry and visual arts. He dreamed of getting a musical education and even wrote a work on the theory of music, but at the University of Manchester, which collaborated with the Wakefield prison, she was not accepted.
Modley could not see other prisoners, but compensated for the lack of socialization by shouting through the wall with one of the most famous robbers of Great Britain by Charles Bronxon (the real name is Michael Peterson).
“I often hear Charlie Bronson when I visit my uncle, because they are in the same wing. They cannot see each other, but communicate with screams, ” said Gavin. - They have periods when they get along, and the periods when they become enemies. They quarrel because Charlie as an abnormal pester him [Modley] with the words: “Let's join the team”. ”
As before, Modley could leave the camera only accompanied by six guards - and considered it ridiculous. At the same time, he was treated much better than before: “Because he survived most of the overseers who hated him,” Gavin explained this change.
However, some continued to be afraid of Modley and call him "Hannibal-Cannibal." “Bob ( the short form of the name Robert. - Approx.“ Cold ” ) considers this nickname stupid - he never ate anyone, just broke the skull of one of the victims that it looked like she had no part of the brain,” Gavin said . - Some guards still believe that he can turn their head with two fingers. He even plays chess with others. ”
However, once Modley still attacked the guard-he hit the head with a tray when he brought food. He was angry from the fact that a noisy neighbor who screamed at night and interfered with sleeping in his wing. “The attack on the guard was the only way to ensure that he was heard,” Gavin said . “But I don't think he injured him too much.” He [Modley] told me: “Come on, it was just a plastic tray.”
Hunger strike
On February 26, 2025, all Wakefield prisoners were taken out of the cameras-someone said that weapons were carried to prison, so searches were carried out in all rooms. According to Paul, the brother of Robert Modley, soon the prisoners were taken back to the cells - however, Robert was detained for a couple of days, because he allegedly behaved rudely. When Modley returned to the camera, he found that his TV, PlayStation, radio and popular science books were missing. Then Modley declared a hunger strike.
“That day he called me from prison, and his voice was angry and alarmed. He said: “I am announcing a hunger strike, so do not be surprised if this is the last time I call you,” La Paul told you. - Previously, he had a phone in his cell, but he stopped calling, and we think that perhaps the phone was taken away. Bob is 71 years old, we do not know how long he can hold out without food. We cannot contact anyone to find out about what is happening, and we are very worried. ”
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Friends and relatives believe that over the years in the Modley prison, he has changed: he became a soft and kind person with a good sense of humor. Jane Hiton wrote to Modley three years ago, after which she corresponded with him and visited him in prison. “Since I met Bob, I have read a lot of prison documents about him. Everyone concentrates on the crimes that he committed 25 years ago, as if they live in a temporary loop, ” said Hiton. “And no one is ready to look at what he is now.”
Neil Samworth, who worked in prison for many years, also believes that Modley acted “wrongly”: “He is in full isolation, and this is unfair. Now he does not pose a real danger - he is an elderly person. It is necessary to let him live in the last days in more humane conditions, ”he says.
However, Modley never repented his crimes. “He will not apologize for what he did. He believes that they were all pedophiles, so his actions were justified, ”says Robert Kevin's brother.
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Author: Daria Voloshina Photo: Reproduuce / Mubi