John Straffen

John Thomas Straffen (27 February 1930 – 19 November 2007) was a British serial killer who was the longest-serving prisoner in British legal history. Straffen killed two young girls in the summer of 1951. He was found to be unfit to plead and committed to Broadmoor Hospital; during a brief escape in 1952, he killed again. This time, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Reprieved because of his mental state, he had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, and he remained in prison until his death more than 55 years later.

Early life

Straffen's father, John Straffen senior, was a soldier in the British Army. He was the third child in the family; his older sister was regarded as a "high grade mental defective" who died in 1952. Straffen was born at Bordon Camp in Hampshire where his father was then based, but at the age of two his father was posted abroad, and the family spent six years in India. Returning to Britain in March 1938, Straffen's father took a discharge from the Army, and the family settled in Bath, Somerset.