Portraits of madness: Some were brilliant. All had a compulsion to kill. Broadmoor's first inmates caught on camera

They may look like any other old Victorian photographic portraits — the subjects formal, stiffly posed and somewhat self-conscious.



But, in fact, they are the deranged killers and would-be murderers who were among the first patients at Broadmoor, which opened 150 years ago.



The pictures are the work of Henry Hering, a pioneering photographer, and some were taken at Bethlem (or ‘Bedlam’ as it was known), the lunatic asylum in South London.



Broadmoor has been home to some of the most dangerous killers or would-be murderers for the past 150 years

Others were shot at Broadmoor after Bethlem patients had been transferred to the newly opened institution in Berkshire.

Until it was built, dealing with violent lunatics was simple. They were either hanged or set free, depending on the mercy of the jury.



But a new breed of compassionate Victorians demanded that criminals should be spared the gallows and locked up in asylums instead.

Historian Mark Stevens, author of a new book on Broadmoor, says: ‘It was built not just to house these people but to try to rehabilitate them. And the Victorian doctors were surprisingly compassionate.’

Today, Broadmoor houses many of Britain’s most high-profile criminals, such as Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe. The Victorian regime seems somehow gentler by comparison.

Stevens, through his access to archives at the Berkshire Record Office, has researched the fascinating stories of the patients.

The murderous artist

Richard Dadd murdered his father after he became convinced he was the Devil in disguise. The painting he is working on in this picture is now owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Richard Dadd, from Chatham, Kent, was an artist who became noted for his depictions of fairies.

In 1842, while on a painting expedition on the Nile, he underwent a dramatic personality change, becoming violent and believing himself to be under the influence of Egyptian god Osiris.

On his return home, he became convinced his father was the Devil in disguise, stabbed him to death and fled for France.



En-route, he tried to kill a tourist with a razor but was caught and was committed to Bethlem and then Broadmoor.

He continued to paint until his death from lung disease in 1886. One of his masterpieces ended up in the Tate Gallery. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber owns the painting he is working on here.

The teenage terror

John Payne, 19, was sent to Broadmoor after getting drunk and beating a man to death with a shovel

Nineteen-year-old John Payne was a professional thief who arrived in London from Birmingham in 1857 and soon found himself in the poor house in St Martin’s-in-the-Fields.

Because he had manic tendencies, he was strapped down in his bed at night, but he managed to free himself and beat a fellow inmate to death with a shovel.

Payne was discharged from Broadmoor in 1873.

The drink-sodden mum

Mary Meller spent three years in Broadmoor after trying to cut her maid's throat in an alcohol-fuelled rage

One morning in November 1867, Mary Ann Meller hit her housekeeper over the head and tried to cut her throat.



Aged 27, Meller had four children and was expecting another.



Committed to Broadmoor, she gave birth to a boy who went to join his father and siblings in South London.



Mrs Meller’s violent rages were the result of heavy drinking. She became sober and within three years, she returned to the family home.

The cutlass-wielding captain