Legend and life: "the boyfriend's death" and "the mad axeman."

Folklore, Annual, 1998 by Michael Wilson

The Case of Frank Mitchell

On 12 December 1966 Frank Mitchell absconded from Dartmoor Prison at Princetown(1) in an escape orchestrated by the infamous East End gangsters, the Kray Twins. Mitchell was a physically huge man who had originally been jailed for robbery with violence and had spent eighteen of his thirty-two years in secure establishments. He had never been a murderer (although he was once acquitted of attempted murder) nor a rapist, but his reputation for violence was well known. He had been birched several times in prison for violent behaviour. He was also of very limited intelligence and had acquired the nickname of "The Mad Axe-Man" after an incident when he threatened an elderly couple with a felling axe while on the run from a hospital for the criminally insane (Pearson 1984, 219).

Previously he had been in Wandsworth Prison, London, and whilst there had befriended Ronnie Kray. After Kray was released and Mitchell had been transferred to Princetown, the two remained in close contact. It is Mitchell's time at Dartmoor that is particularly interesting, because the Governor at the time, realising that continual birching and punishment simply served to toughen Mitchell up and nurture his violence, decided to introduce a more liberal regime. Mitchell was treated as a trusted prisoner and was allowed to work outside the prison on the open moorland, where he showed an extraordinary ability to train wild ponies. In the meantime the Governor promised to press for his early release.

Whilst it seems that the Governor's policy had impressive results in transforming Mitchell's behaviour, it also appears that, especially considering that he was rated as a dangerous prisoner, he was allowed extraordinary privileges enjoyed by no other inmate. He was allowed to come and go practically as he liked. He was a regular visitor to some of the remote pubs on the Moor and even had an affair with a local schoolmistress. Indeed, stories about Mitchell visiting the pub before returning to prison for the night are still told around Dartmoor. Apparently it was not uncommon to see him walking back from the pub across the Moor of an evening.

However, the Governor's attempts to secure parole for Mitchell did not bear fruit. The Krays needed to boost their image in the criminal underworld, and so Mitchell's escape was planned. Once outside the prison walls, Mitchell was driven to London and had already been installed in a safe house by the time the authorities realised he was missing. A massive hunt was launched as Mitchell briefly became Britain's most wanted man and the Moor was combed for the fugitive.

However, Mitchell, the Mad Axe-Man,(2) was never seen again. The story goes that he became restless and unpredictable whilst lying low and in the end the Krays had him murdered, although no body was ever found and nothing could be proved. The Krays were eventually accused of his murder, but they were acquitted for lack of evidence. In the meantime, there were sightings of Mitchell as far away as Melbourne and Casablanca, but the trail always went cold. As Pearson says, "to this day the Axe-Man is still officially on the run, one of the few men in history to have made a successful getaway from Dartmoor" (Pearson 1984, 237).