Kray twins

Twin brothers Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) and Reginald "Reggie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) were English gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s. With their gang, the Firm, the Krays were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults and the murders of Jack "the Hat" McVitie and George Cornell.

As West End nightclub owners, they mixed with politicians and prominent entertainers such as Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, and Judy Garland. The Krays were much feared within their social environment; in the 1960s, they became celebrities, being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.

They were arrested on 8 May 1968 and convicted in 1969, by the efforts of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. Ronnie remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death on 17 March 1995; Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before his death from cancer.

Early life

Ronnie and Reggie Kray were born on 24 October 1933 in Hoxton, East London, to Charles David Kray (10 March 1907 – 8 March 1983), a scrap gold dealer,^[4] and Violet Annie Lee (5 August 1909 – 4 August 1982).^[5]

They were identical twins, Reggie being born 10 minutes before Ronnie. Their parents already had a six-year-old son, Charles James (9 July 1927 – 4 April 2000).^[6] A sister, Violet (born 1929), died in infancy. When the twins were three years old, they contracted diphtheria. Ronnie almost died in 1942 from a head injury suffered in a fight with Reggie.

The twins first attended Wood Close School in Brick Lane, and then Daniel Street School.^[7] In 1938, the Kray family moved from Stean Street in Hoxton, to 178 Vallance Road in Bethnal Green. At the beginning of World War II, 32-year-old Charles Kray was conscripted into the army, but he refused to go and went into hiding.

The influence of their maternal grandfather, Jimmy "Cannonball" Lee,^[8] caused the brothers to take up amateur boxing, then a popular pastime for working-class boys in the East End. Sibling rivalry spurred them on, and both achieved some success. They are said to have never lost a match before turning professional at age 19.

National Service

The Kray twins were notorious for their gang and its violence, and narrowly avoided being sent to prison many times. Young men were conscripted for National Service at this time, and they were called up to serve with the Royal Fusiliers in 1952. They reported, but attempted to leave after only a few minutes. The corporal in charge tried to stop them, but Ronnie punched him on the chin, leaving him seriously injured, and the Krays walked back to the East End. They were arrested the next morning and were turned over to the army.

While absent without leave, they assaulted a police constable who tried to arrest them. They were among the last prisoners held at the Tower of London before being transferred to Shepton Mallet military prison in Somerset for a month to await court-martial. They were convicted and sent to the Home Counties Brigade Depot jail in Canterbury, Kent.

Their behaviour in prison was so bad that they both received dishonourable discharges from the army. They tried to dominate the exercise area outside their one-man cells during their few weeks in prison, when their conviction was certain. They threw tantrums, emptied their latrine bucket over a sergeant, dumped a dixie (a large food and liquid container^[9]) full of hot tea on another guard, handcuffed a guard to their prison bars with a pair of stolen cuffs, and set their bedding on fire.

They were moved to a communal cell where they assaulted their guard with a china vase and escaped. They were quickly recaptured and awaited transfer to civilian authority for crimes committed while at large; they spent their last night in Canterbury drinking cider, eating crisps, and smoking cigarillos courtesy of the young national servicemen acting as their guards.

Criminal careers

Nightclub owners

Their criminal records and dishonourable discharges ended their boxing careers, and the brothers turned to crime full-time. They bought a run-down snooker club in Bethnal Green where they started several protection rackets. By the end of the 1950s, the Krays were working for Jay Murray from Liverpool and were involved in hijacking, armed robbery, and arson, through which they acquired other clubs and properties. In 1960, Ronnie Kray was imprisoned for 18 months for running a protection racket and related threats. While he was in prison, Peter Rachman, head of a violent landlord operation, gave Reggie a nightclub called Esmeralda's Barn on the Knightsbridge end of Wilton Place next to a bistro called Joan's Kitchen. The location is where the Berkeley Hotel now stands.^[10]

This increased the Krays' influence in the West End by making them celebrities as well as criminals. They were assisted by a banker named Alan Cooper who wanted protection against the Krays' rivals, the Richardsons, based in South London.^[11]

Celebrity status

In the 1960s, they were widely seen as prosperous and charming celebrity nightclub owners and were part of the Swinging London scene. A large part of their fame was due to their non-criminal activities as popular figures on the celebrity circuit, being photographed by David Bailey on more than one occasion, and socialising with lords, MPs, socialites, and show business characters, including actors George Raft, Judy Garland, Diana Dors, Barbara Windsor, and singer Frank Sinatra.

They were the best years of our lives. They called them the swinging sixties. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were rulers of pop music, Carnaby Street ruled the fashion world... and me and my brother ruled London. We were fucking untouchable...

– Ronnie Kray, in his autobiography My Story^[12]

Lord Boothby and Tom Driberg

The Krays also came into the public attention when an exposé in the tabloid newspaper Sunday Mirror alleged that Ron had a sexual relationship with Robert Lord Boothby, a Conservative politician.^[13] No names were printed, but the twins threatened the journalists involved and Boothby threatened to sue, and the newspaper backed down. It sacked the editor, printed an apology, and paid Boothby £40,000 in an out-of-court settlement.^[14] Because of this, other newspapers were unwilling to expose the Krays' connections and criminal activities. Much later, Channel 4 established the truth of the allegations and released a documentary on the subject called The Gangster and the Pervert Peer (2009).^[15]

The police investigated the Krays on several occasions, but the brothers' reputation for violence made witnesses afraid to testify. There was also a problem for both main political parties. The Conservative Party was unwilling to press the police to end the Krays' power for fear that the Boothby connection would again be publicised, and the Labour Party's MP Tom Driberg was also rumoured to have had a relationship with Ron Kray.^[16][17]

Frank Mitchell

On 12 December 1966, the Krays helped Frank Mitchell, "the Mad Axeman",^[18] to escape from Dartmoor Prison. Ronnie had befriended Mitchell while they served time together in Wandsworth prison. Mitchell felt that the authorities should review his case for parole, so Ronnie thought that he would be doing him a favour by getting him out of Dartmoor, highlighting his case in the media and forcing the authorities to act.

Once Mitchell was out of Dartmoor, the Krays held him at a friend's flat in Barking Road, East Ham. He was a large man with a mental disorder, and he was difficult to control. He disappeared, but the Krays were acquitted of his murder.^[18] Freddie Foreman, a friend of the Krays, claimed in his autobiography Respect that he shot Mitchell and disposed of his body at sea.

George Cornell

The Blind Beggar pub in 2005

Ronnie Kray shot and killed George Cornell, an associate of the Richardsons, leaders of a rival gang. The killing occurred at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel on 9 March 1966. Days before, there had been a shoot out at the Mr. Smith's club in Catford involving the Richardson gang. Richard Hart, an associate of the Krays, was shot dead. This public shootout meant the arrest of nearly all the Richardson gang. Cornell, by chance, was not present at the club during the shootout and was not arrested. Whilst visiting the hospital to check up on his friends, he randomly chose to visit the Blind Beggars Pub, only a mile away from where the Krays lived. Ronnie was drinking in another pub when he learned of Cornell's location. He went there with his driver "Scotch Jack" John Dickson and his assistant Ian Barrie. Ronnie walked into the pub with Barrie, straight to Cornell and shot him in the head in public view. Barrie, confused by what happened, fired five shots in the air warning the public not to report what had happened to the police. Just before he was shot, Cornell remarked, "Well, look who's here." He died at 3:00am in hospital.

Ronnie Kray was already suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of the killing.^[19]

According to some sources, Ronnie killed Cornell because Cornell referred to Ronnie as a "fat poof" during a confrontation between the Krays and the Richardson gang at the Astor Club on Christmas Day 1965. The confrontation resulted in a gang war, and Ronnie's associate Richard Hart was murdered at 'Mr Smith's Club' in Catford on 8 March 1966. Richardson gang member "Mad" Frankie Fraser was tried for Hart's murder but was found not guilty. Richardson gang member Ray "The Belgian" Cullinane testified that he saw Cornell kicking Hart. Witnesses would not cooperate with the police in Hart's case due to intimidation, and the trial ended inconclusively without pointing to any suspect in particular.^[20]

Cornell was the only one to escape the brawl without major injuries, and was probably suspected by Ronnie of having an important role in Hart's murder. But at court, Ronnie denied that he had been insulted and that the murder was in order to avenge Hart's death. Instead, he claimed that the reason for the murder was that Cornell had been threatening the Kray brothers.

Jack "the Hat" McVitie

The Krays' criminal activities remained hidden behind their celebrity status and "legitimate" businesses. Reggie was allegedly encouraged by his brother in October 1967, four months after the suicide of his wife Frances, to kill Jack "the Hat" McVitie, a minor member of the Kray gang who had failed to fulfil a £1,000 contract paid to him in advance to kill Leslie Payne. McVitie was lured to a basement flat in Evering Road, Stoke Newington on the pretence of a party. Upon entering, he saw Ronnie Kray seated in the front room. As Ronnie approached him, he let loose a barrage of verbal abuse and cut him below his eye with a piece of broken glass. It is believed that an argument then broke out between the twins and McVitie. As the argument got more heated, Reggie Kray pointed a handgun at McVitie's head and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun failed to discharge.

McVitie was then held in a bearhug by the cousin of the twins Ronnie Hart, and Reggie Kray was handed a carving knife. He stabbed McVitie in the face and stomach, driving the blade into his neck while twisting the knife, not stopping even as McVitie lay on the floor dying. However, it was thought that Reggie never intended to kill McVitie and he was lured to the basement flat to be put straight by the twins, not killed. Whatever the motive, Reggie had committed a very public murder, against someone who many firm members felt did not deserve to die. In an interview in 2000, shortly after Reggie's death, Freddie Foreman revealed that McVitie had a reputation for leaving carnage behind him due to his habitual consumption of drugs and heavy drinking, and had in the past threatened to harm the twins and their family.

Tony and Chris Lambrianou and Ronnie Bender helped clear up the mess and tried to dispose of the body. With the body being too big to fit in the boot of the car, the body was wrapped in an eiderdown and put in the back seat of a car. Tony Lambrianou drove the car with the body and Chris Lambrianou and Bender followed behind. Crossing the Blackwall tunnel, Chris lost Tony's car, and spent up to fifteen minutes looking around Rotherhithe area. They eventually found Tony, outside St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe, where he had run out of fuel with McVitie's body still inside the car. With no alternative than to dump it in the churchyard, and attempt to plant a gang south of the River Thames, the body was left in the car, and the three gangsters returned home. Bender then went on to phone Charlie Kray informing them that it had been dealt with. However, upon finding out where they had left McVitie's corpse, the twins were livid, and desperately phoned Foreman, who was then running a pub in Southwark, to see if he could dispose the body. With dawn breaking, Foreman found the car, broke into it, and drove the body to Newhaven where, with the help of a trawlerman, the body was bound with chicken wire and dumped in the English Channel.^[21]

This event started turning many people against the Krays, and some were prepared to testify to Scotland Yard as to what had happened, fearing that what happened to McVitie could easily happen to them. Leonard "Nipper" Read reopened his case against them.

Arrest and trial

Photograph of London gangster Reginald Kray (second from left) taken in the months leading up to his trial in 1968. The evidence from this file and others resulted in him and his brother Ronald being sentenced to life imprisonment.

Inspector Leonard "Nipper" Read of Scotland Yard was promoted to the Murder Squad, and his first assignment was to bring down the Kray twins. It was not his first involvement with them. During the first half of 1964, Read had been investigating their activities, but publicity and official denials of Ron's relationship with Boothby made the evidence that he collected useless. Read went after the twins with renewed activity in 1967, but frequently came up against the East End "wall of silence" which discouraged anyone from providing information to the police.^[22]

Nevertheless, by the end of 1967 Read had built up enough evidence against the Krays. Witness statements incriminated them, as did other evidence, but none made a convincing case on any one charge.

Early in 1968, the Krays employed a man named Alan Bruce Cooper who sent Paul Elvey to Glasgow to buy explosives for a car bomb. Elvey was the radio engineer who put Radio Sutch on the air in 1964, later renamed Radio City. Police detained him in Scotland and he confessed to being involved in three murder attempts. The evidence was weakened by Cooper, who claimed that he was an agent for the United States Treasury Department investigating links between the American Mafia and the Kray gang. The botched murders were his attempt to put the blame on the Krays. Cooper was being employed as a source by one of Read's superior officers, and Read tried using him as a trap for the Krays, but they avoided him.

Conviction and imprisonment

Eventually, a Scotland Yard conference decided to arrest the Krays on the evidence already collected, in the hope that other witnesses would be forthcoming once the Krays were in custody. On 8 May 1968,^[23] the Krays and 15 other members of their "firm" were arrested. Exceptional circumstances were put in place so as to stop any possible co-operation against any of the accused. Nipper Read then secretly interviewed each of the defendants, and offered each firm member one chance to come onto the side of law and order. Whilst in prison, the Krays had come up with a plan, which included Scotch Jack Dickson to confess to the murder of Cornell, Ronnie Hart to take the McVitie and Albert Donoghue to stand for Mitchell.

Donоghue told the twins directly that he wasn't prepared to be cajoled into pleading guilty, to the anger of the twins. He then informed Read via his mother, who set up another interview in secret, and Donoghue was the first to tell the police everything that he knew.

Ronnie Hart had initially not been arrested, and wasn't a name initially sought after by the police. With Donoghue's testimony, Hart was hunted down found and was arrested. Offering the same terms as the others arrested, Hart then told Read exactly everything that had happened during McVitie's murder, although he did not know anything about what happened to the body. This was the first time that the police knew exactly who was involved, and offered them a solid case to prosecute the twins for McVitie's murder.

Although Read knew for certain that Ronnie Kray had murdered George Cornell in The Blind Beggar pub no one had been prepared to testify against the twins out of fear. Upon also finding out that twins intended to cajole him, Scotch Jack Dickson also turned in everything he knew about Cornell's murder. Although not a witness to the actual murder he was an accessory having driven Ronnie Kray and Ian Barrie to the pub. The police still needed an actual witness to the murder. They then managed to track down the barmaid who was working in the pub at the time, gave her a secret identity and she testified to seeing Ronnie killing Cornell.

Frank Mitchell's escape and disappearance was much harder to get evidence, since the majority of those arrested were not involved with his planned escape and disappearance. Read decided to proceed with the case and have a separate trial for Mitchell once the twins had been convicted.

The twins' defence under their counsel John Platts-Mills, QC consisted of flat denials of all charges and discrediting witnesses by pointing out their criminal past. Justice Melford Stevenson said: "In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities."^[24] Both were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of Cornell and McVitie, the longest sentences ever passed at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court, London) for murder.^[25] Their brother Charlie was imprisoned for 10 years for his part in the murders.

Later years

Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed to attend the funeral of their mother Violet on 11 August 1982 (she had died of cancer the week before), under tight security. However they were not allowed to attend the graveside, which was at Chingford Mount Cemetery in East London where she was interred in the Kray family plot. The funeral was attended by celebrities including Diana Dors and underworld figures known to the Krays, such as James Kemmery.^[26] The twins did not ask to attend their father's funeral when he died in March 1983, to avoid the publicity that had surrounded their mother's funeral.

In 1985, officials at Broadmoor Hospital discovered a business card of Ron's, which prompted an investigation. It revealed that the twins – incarcerated at separate institutions – were operating a "lucrative bodyguard and 'protection' business for Hollywood stars", together with their older brother Charlie Kray and an accomplice not in prison. Documents released under Freedom of Information laws revealed that officials were concerned about this operation, called Krayleigh Enterprises, but believed that there was no legal basis to shut it down. Documentation of the investigation showed that Frank Sinatra hired 18 bodyguards from Krayleigh Enterprises during 1985.^[27]

Ronnie Kray was a Category A prisoner, denied almost all liberties, and not allowed to mix with other prisoners. He was eventually certified insane in 1979^[28] and lived the remainder of his life in Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire.^[29] Reggie Kray was locked up in Maidstone Prison for 8 years (Category B). In his later years, he was downgraded to Category C and transferred to Wayland Prison in Norfolk.

Personal lives

In his book My Story and a comment to writer Robin McGibbon on The Kray Tapes, Ronnie states: "I'm bisexual, not gay. Bisexual." He also planned on marrying a woman named Monica in the 1960s whom he had dated for nearly three years. He called her "the most beautiful woman he had ever seen." This is mentioned in Reggie's book Born Fighter. Also, extracts are mentioned in Ron's own book My Story and Kate Kray's books Sorted; Murder, Madness and Marriage, and Free at Last.

Ronnie was arrested before he had the chance to marry Monica and, even though she married Ronnie's ex-boyfriend, 59 letters sent to her between May and December 1968 when he was imprisoned show Ronnie still had feelings for her, and his love for her was very clear. He referred to her as "my little angel" and "my little doll". She also still had feelings for Ronnie. These letters were auctioned in 2010.^[30]

A letter, sent from prison in 1968, from Ronnie to his mother Violet also makes reference to Monica; "if they let me see Monica and put me with Reg, I could not ask for more." He went on to say, with spelling mistakes, "Monica is the only girl I have liked in my life. She is a luvely little person as you know. When you see her, tell her I am in luve with her more than ever."^[31] Ron subsequently married twice, marrying Elaine Mildener in 1985 at Broadmoor chapel before the couple divorced in 1989, following which he married Kate Howard, whom he divorced in 1994.^[19]

In 1997, Reggie married Roberta Jones^[19] whom he met while still in prison. She was helping to publicise a film being made about Ronnie.^[32]

In an interview with author John Pearson, Ronnie indicated he identified with the 19th-century soldier Gordon of Khartoum: "Gordon was like me, homosexual, and he met his death like a man. When it's time for me to go, I hope I do the same."^[33]

Controversies

There was a long-running campaign, with some minor celebrity support, to have the twins released from prison, but successive Home Secretaries vetoed the idea, largely on the grounds that both Krays' prison records were marred by violence toward other inmates. The campaign gathered momentum after the release of a film based on their lives called The Krays (1990). Produced by Ray Burdis, it starred Spandau Ballet brothers Martin and Gary Kemp, who played the roles of Reggie and Ronnie respectively. Ronnie, Reggie and Charlie Kray received £255,000 for the film.^[19]

Reggie wrote: "I seem to have walked a double path most of my life. Perhaps an extra step in one of those directions might have seen me celebrated rather than notorious."^[34] Others point to Reggie's violent prison record when he was being detained separately from Ronnie and argue that in reality, the twins' temperaments were little different.

Reggie's marriage to Frances Shea (1944–67)^[35] in 1965 lasted eight months when she left, although the marriage was never formally dissolved. An inquest came to the conclusion that she committed suicide,^[36] but in 2002 an ex-lover of Reggie Kray's came forward to allege that Frances was actually murdered by a jealous Ronnie. Bradley Allardyce spent 3 years in Maidstone Prison with Reggie and explained, "I was sitting in my cell with Reg and it was one of those nights where we turned the lights down low and put some nice music on and sometimes he would reminisce. He would get really deep and open up to me. He suddenly broke down and said 'I'm going to tell you something I've only ever told two people and something I've carried around with me' – something that had been a black hole since the day he found out. He put his head on my shoulder and told me Ronnie killed Frances. He told Reggie what he had done two days after."^[37]

A British television documentary, The Gangster and the Pervert Peer (2009), showed that Ronnie Kray was a man-on-man rapist (commonly referred to in criminal circles as a "nonce case"). The programme also detailed his relationship with Tory peer Bob Boothby as well as an ongoing Daily Mirror investigation into Lord Boothby's dealings with the Kray brothers.^[38][39][40]

Deaths

Funerary monument, Chingford Mount Cemetery

Ronnie, still serving time at the Prison Hospital at Broadmoor, died of a heart attack on 17 March 1995 at the age of 61 at Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire.^[41]

During his incarceration, Reggie became a born-again Christian.^[42] He was freed from Wayland on 26 August 2000 after serving more than the recommended 30 years that he was sentenced to in March 1969.^[43] He was 66, and was released on compassionate grounds for having inoperable bladder cancer.^[44] The final weeks of his life were spent with his wife Roberta, whom he had married while in Maidstone Prison in July 1997,^[45] in a suite at the Townhouse Hotel at Norwich,^[46] having left Norwich Hospital on 22 September 2000.^[47] On 1 October 2000, Reggie died in his sleep.^[48] Ten days later, he was buried beside his brother Ronnie in Chingford Mount Cemetery.^[49]

Older brother Charlie Kray was released from prison in 1975 after serving seven years,^[50] but was sentenced again in 1997 for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine in an undercover drugs sting.^[51] He died in prison of natural causes on 4 April 2000,^[52] aged 73.^[50]

In popular culture

Film

• The Krays (1990), film biopic starring Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp as Ronnie and Martin Kemp as Reggie
• The Rise of the Krays (2015) a low budget film starring Simon Cotton as Ronnie and Kevin Leslie as Reggie^[19]
• Legend (2015), a biopic starring Tom Hardy as both Ronnie and Reggie^[53]
• The Fall of the Krays (2016) a low budget sequel to the earlier 2015 film, again starring Simon Cotton as Ronnie and Kevin Leslie as Reggie ^[19]

In addition to films explicitly about the twins, James Fox met Ronnie whilst the twins were held at HM Prison Brixton as part of his research for his role in the 1970 film Performance, and Richard Burton visited Ronnie at Broadmoor as part of his preparation for his role as a violent gay gangster in the 1971 film Villain.^[19]

Literature

• Gaines, J.H. (2012). The Krays Not Guilty Your Honour.  Biography
• Kray, Reggie; Kray, Ronnie (1988). Our Story.  autobiography
• Kray, Reggie (1990). Born Fighter.  autobiography
• Kray, Ronnie (1994). My Story.  autobiography
• Kray, Reggie (2000). A Way of Life: Over Thirty Years of Blood, Sweat and Tears.  Autobiography of Reggie Kray

Music

• Ronnie Kray is mentioned in the Blur song "Charmless Man", in the line: "I think he'd like to have been Ronnie Kray".
• Ray Davies repeats the line "...and don't forget the Kray twins" in his song "London", later adding, "very dangerous people those Kray twins".
• The former singer of The Smiths and solo artist Morrissey mentions each Kray brother by name in his song "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" saying, "Reggie Kray do you know my name?" and "Ronnie Kray do you know my face?". It was reported that Morrissey sent a wreath to Reggie Kray's funeral in 2000.^[54]
• Renegade Soundwave released their first single, "Kray Twins", in 1986. They also recorded a video for the song. Lyrics reference The Blind Beggar pub.
• The Libertines song "Up The Bracket"" references the Kray Twins as "two shadow men on the Vallance Road".

Television

• The television drama series Whitechapel includes a three episode mini-series which was first aired 11 October 2010. In this series twin brothers were portrayed as the alleged biological sons of Ronnie Kray.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus parodied the brothers as the ridiculously violent gangsters Doug and Dinsdale Piranha, and chronicled their arrest at the hands of Police Superintendent/amateur actor Harry "Snapper" Organs.
• The Kray twins were one of the subjects of the fourth episode of the UK version of the TV show Drunk History.

Theatre

Two plays were produced in the 1970s that were based on thinly-veiled versions of the Krays:

• Alpha Alpha, by Howard Barker in 1972^[19]
• England England, a musical by Snoo Wilson with music by Kevin Coyne and directed by Dusty Hughes in 1977, starring Bob Hoskins and Brian Hall in the lead roles.^[19]

References

External links

• The Kray Twins: Brothers In Arms at the Crime Library
• Krays BBC TV interview (1965)
• BBC: On this day...1969: Kray twins guilty of McVitie murder, Richard Whitmore's BBC report on the Kray murder trial
• Professional boxing record for Reg Kray from BoxRec
• Professional boxing record for Ron Kray from BoxRec
• "200 years of The Krays' Family History" from Time Detectives