Charles Bronson held staff hostage for me and I saw Rose West and Myra Hindley's 'love' blossom in prison, says Linda Calvey

NOT many people can say they have been forced to regularly wash the hair of 'the most hated woman in Britain' – but Linda Calvey can.

After being convicted of murdering her lover Ronnie Cook in 1990 – a crime she still insists she did not commit – the former gangster was sent to prison for almost sixteen years.

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During this time she was moved between fourteen different prisons, often surrounded by child molesters, pedophiles and murderers, some of whom took a special interest in her.

Lindanow 75, claims she was proposed to by not one but two of the most notorious criminals of all time. Charles Bronson at one point even held prison staff hostage in an attempt to get her released.

She was eventually released from prison in 2008, after getting engaged to her third husband, whom she met on the day of her release.

Linda, who now lives a much quieter life in Chigwell, Essex tells The Sun: “It was amazing, I started a completely new life.

“When you drive away for the last time and you think, 'I can go home now and have a cup of tea whenever I want, eat what I want to eat when I want, be with my family and my kids and just call people and chat .' It's such a wonderful feeling.”

Linda was first sent to prison in 1986 for armed robbery and served three and a half years, mainly in Holloway.

But 18 months after she was released in 1989, a jury found her guilty of paying criminal associate Danny Reece £10,000 to kill Ronnie, with him firing the first shot and her the second.

Her file saw her sent to HMP Durham – where top-level prisoners were locked up, including child murderer Myra Hindley.

She and partner Ian Brady killed five children in the Manchester area between 1963 and 1965, and buried them at the Moors.

Linda already knew Myra, having been in Holloway with her during her first prison sentence, and previously told how she hit her during their first meeting.

In Durham, she says she was forced to keep Hindley company twice a month, wash and dye her hair and make polite conversation – which she did through gritted teeth.

“I found every second of her company painful and repulsive,” says Linda. 'She's bad. It radiates from her.

“Just being in her company set my teeth on edge, and I had to keep reminding myself that I need to be here or things won't look good for me.”

Killer 'romance'

Serial killer at one point Rose West was also on remand in Durham, and Linda says she has become 'close friends' with Hindley.

She describes how they sat together all the time, “having breakfast, lunch and dinner together, taking their tea breaks together, walking around the sports ground together, their heads together, chatting and smiling”.

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Rumors of a romance spread through the prison, but within a month their relationship ended abruptly.

“They never said anything again,” says Linda, despite the fact that there were only 20 prisoners in Durham. “It was really weird.”

Proposals from criminals

Linda had no shortage of admirers inside. She says Charles Bronson wrote to her regularly and proposed several times, calling her 'Black Rose'.

Despite Linda's unresponsiveness, he once called her to say he had taken the wing officer hostage for her.

“I told them to release you, and I'm not letting them go until you get out,” he said.

Linda told him to let them go, and he was given solitary confinement “for a few months.”

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Grew up on streets away from the Kray twinswho was serving a life sentence for organized crime, Linda also received regular calls from Reggie Kray.

She says he also proposed to her over the phone, but then told her to “forget he said anything” when she politely turned him down.

Strangely enough, a month later Linda married Danny, the man who shot her lover Ronnie.

Danny had been visiting Linda regularly for a year to work on their case and appeal, and in 1995 he had proposed that they get married.

“That way we can continue our visits and work on our case and they won't be able to stop us,” he had told her.

Linda's mother told her not to marry him because it would make her look more guilty, but she went through with it because the prison girls were all excited at the prospect of a wedding.

“There were no romantic feelings, it was just to continue the visits,” she insists.

A doomed prison marriage

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Linda's daughter Melanie lent her mother her wedding dress to wear because she had recently gotten married herself – a day Linda missed because she was in jail.

“I was helped into Mel's dress and felt like a child going to a party dressed as a princess,” Linda remembers.

The ceremony took place in the Durham Chapel. Linda had two bridesmaids – both convicted of murder – dressed in black, a nod to her nickname 'Black Widow'.

At the reception they had non-alcoholic soft drinks, pastries and sandwiches.

Linda and Danny's marriage did not entitle them to conjugal visits, but they could continue to see each other three times a month to discuss their case.

But her mother was right: their wedding was in the newspapers, which made them look even guiltier.

“It was the worst thing we could have ever done,” she says. They eventually divorced.

Third time lucky

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In 2008, Linda met her third husband, businessman George Ceasar, while on release.

They started talking at a restaurant, but things quickly turned awkward when he asked her out.

She chuckles: “I told him, 'I can only see you on Sunday afternoons because I'm in jail.' He said, “Can't you be there for something serious if you get to eat out on Sunday?”

Linda waited to see if he would come to the prison to pick her up the following Sunday before telling him the truth.

And sure enough, he did – in a red Rolls Royce.

I said to George, 'I can only see you on Sunday afternoons because I'm in jail.' He said, “You can't be there for anything serious if you can go out to eat on Sunday, can you?”

Linda Calvey

Linda remembers: “He was waving, standing next to the car and the staff took the license plate and said, 'If he's a crook, that's it!'

“They ran a background check on him and he was a legitimate businessman!”

When Linda confessed what she was in prison for, he asked, “Did you do that?” and she said, “No, I didn't,” and he replied, “Well, that's good enough for me.”

“And that was it!” adds Linda.

George began visiting Linda regularly and eventually proposed with a large diamond solitaire ring.

Linda was released on parole on August 1, 2008. Although she had to go to a halfway house for the first six months out of prison, she spent her first Christmas 'out' with George.

She recalls, “I told him I love Christmas, but I haven't celebrated it all these years… We had Christmas trees everywhere and he really went to town to make it special for me.”

'Peaceful' life now

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Sadly, George died of cancer in 2015.

Now Linda says her “peaceful” life is “full of my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren.”

“I was with my son for dinner yesterday and he grabbed my hand across the table and said, 'I love you so much, Mom,'” she says.

“My daughter just got married for the second time and she said to me, 'Mom, we really want you to be involved because you weren't there the first time.'

“That was wonderful, because that was one of my worst days, when my daughter got married for the first time.”

She adds: “I regret the time I spent in prison because so much happened.

“Most of my grandchildren were born while I was in prison, and when I look back I realize how much I missed.

“I missed the normal things. But now I'm very lucky.”

Living Within by Linda Calvey (£20, Welbeck) is out now.

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