Kray twins

Kray Twins: Ronald & Reginald Kray
The Kray twins, Reginald (left) and Ronald, photographed by David Bailey
Other names	Ronnie & Reggie
Occupation	Club owners
Spouse	Reggie married Frances Shea in 1965 but she committed suicide soon after
Parent(s)	Charles Kray and Violet Lee
Criminal charge	Murders of George Cornell and Jack "the Hat" McVitie
Penalty	In 1968 both were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of thirty years.

Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) and Reginald "Reggie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) were identical twin brothers, and the foremost organised crime leaders in London's East End during the 1950s and 60s. Ronald — commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie — was bisexual, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had the more dominant personality of the two. His brother is usually referred to as Reg or Reggie.

Their rivals in South London were The Richardsons accompanied by Frankie Fraser.

Early life

The Kray twins were born on 24 October 1933 in Hoxton, in the East End of London, to Charles David "Charlie" Kray Senior (born 1906 - 1983), the son of James Kray, a wardrobe dealer, and Violet Lee (1910 - 1982). Reggie was born 10 minutes before Ronnie. Charlie and Violet already had a six-year old son, also called Charlie, who was born in 1926. A sister, Violet, born 1929, who died in infancy. When the twins were three years old they were struck down with diphtheria but recovered.

Until 1939, having previously lived in Stene Street, Hoxton, the Kray family moved to 178 Vallance Road, Bethnal Green. At the start of the Second World War, Charlie Kray Senior was called up into the army, but deserted and went on the run for 12 years. During this time he roamed the country, buying and selling silver, gold and clothing. He saw little of his sons, who grew close to their mother during his absence.

The frequent presence of military police hardened an anti-authoritarian attitude in Ron and Reg, who were both to desert from the army later in life.

The twins first attended Wood Close School and Daneford Street School, later on attending the Cooper's company School (now the Coopers' Company And Coborn School. There they showed none of their future criminal tendencies. A teacher there said of them: "Salt of the earth, the twins; never the slightest trouble to anyone who knew how to handle them." "If there was anything to be done in school, they'd be utterly co-operative… they'd always be the first to help. Nothing was too much trouble."

The influence of their grandfather, Jimmy "Cannonball" Lee, led both boys into amateur boxing, At that time a popular pursuit for working-class children in the East End. An element of competition between them spurred them on, and they achieved some success. They are said never to have lost a bout before turning professional at age 28.

National service

The fighting did not stop at the edge of the ring, and the Kray twins quickly became famous for their gang of roughs and the mayhem they caused. They narrowly avoided prison several times and in early 1952 they were called up for National Service. They deserted several times, each time being recaptured. The army seemed to hold to the hope of turning them around and making good soldiers of them, but it was not to be.

While absent without leave, the twins assaulted a police officer who had spotted them and was trying to arrest them. They were jailed for a month and afterwards sent to a military prison in Shepton Mallet, Somerset awaiting court-martial. Their behaviour in prison was so bad that in the end they were given a dishonourable discharge from the service; for the last few weeks of their imprisonment, when their fate was a certainty anyway, they ruled the holding room they were in. They threw tantrums, upended their latrine bucket over a sergeant, handcuffed a guard to the prison bars with a pair of stolen cuffs, and burned their bedding. Eventually they were discharged, but not before escaping from the guardhouse and being recaptured by the army one last time.

It was during this period that Ron started to show the first signs of mental illness. He would refuse to eat, shave only one side of his face and suffer wild mood swings, sitting still for hours before erupting into a violent frenzy. It is not clear whether at this stage it was another prank to annoy their guards, or if Ron had become unbalanced. Three years later he would be certified insane while in prison.

Criminal careers

The once-notorious Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road in quieter times. (November 2005)

Their criminal record and dishonourable discharge having ended their boxing careers, the boys turned to crime, buying a seedy snooker club in Bethnal Green, and starting several protection rackets. By the end of the 1950s, the Krays were involved in hijacking, armed robbery and arson, through which means they acquired a small empire of clubs and other properties.

In the 1960s, they were well placed, as prosperous nightclub owners, to be a part of the 'swinging' London scene. A large part of their fame is due to their non-criminal activities as figures on the celebrity circuit, being photographed by David Bailey on more than one occasion; their associates included the Webster Family and show business characters such as the actors George Raft, Judy Garland, Barbara Windsor and singer Frank Sinatra.

The Krays also came into the public eye when Ron's homosexual relationship with Lord Boothby, a UK Conservative Party politician, was alluded to in an exposé in the tabloid Sunday Mirror. Although no names were printed, Boothby threatened to sue, the newspaper backed down, sacked its editor, apologised, and paid Boothby £40,000 in an out-of-court settlement. As a result, other newspapers became less willing to cover the Krays' connections and mis-deeds.

The criminal activities of the twins came to the attention of the police several times, but the Kray name had grown to such a reputation for violence that witnesses would not come forward. There was also a political problem. It was not in the governing Conservative Party's interests to press the police to end the Krays' power lest the Boothby connection was again publicised and was proved to be true. It was equally not in the opposition Labour Party's interests to press for action on the Krays, because Labour Party MP Tom Driberg was also rumoured to have had a relationship with Ron. The result was that the police were under no pressure to 'go after' the Krays - quite the reverse.

Their criminal activities continued behind their apparent social success. In October 1967, Reg was persuaded by his brother to kill Jack "the Hat" McVitie, an unimportant member of the Kray gang. McVitie was lured to a basement flat in Evering Road, Hackney. As soon as he entered, Reg Kray pointed a handgun at his head and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun failed to discharge. Ronnie Kray then held McVitie in a bearhug and Reg Kray was handed a carving knife. He stabbed McVitie in the face and stomach, driving it deep into his neck, twisting the blade as McVitie lay on the floor. The Krays' elder brother, Charlie, was persuaded to assist with the concealment of McVitie’s body; a task he performed so successfully that McVitie’s body was never found. Later Charlie served a 10-year prison sentence, as an accessory to the murder, for his trouble.

This wasn't the first murder the twins had committed. They were also implicated in the deaths of Frank Mitchell and George Cornell, the latter being shot at the notorious Blind Beggar pub by Ronnie on 9 March 1966. Despite a substantial reputation for violence, the twins were convicted of killing only McVitie and Cornell, though they are believed to have continued to hold influence in the underworld until their deaths.

The Krays assisted Frank Mitchell in escaping from Dartmoor Prison. Ronnie Kray had befriended Mitchell when they served time together in another prison. Mitchell was becoming restless as he felt the authorities should review his case for parole, so Ronnie felt he would be doing him a favour by getting him out of Dartmoor, highlighting his case in the media and thereby forcing the authorities to act. Once Mitchell was out of Dartmoor, the Krays held him at a friend's house in Essex. He was a very large man with a mental disorder, they found him difficult to deal with because of this and despite attempts to pacify him with a female they decided the only course of action was to get rid of him. Freddie Foreman, a former member of The Firm, has described in his book how Mitchell was shot and the body disposed of in the sea. Although the Kray twins did not actually kill Mitchell, they were accessories.

Arrest and trial

When Inspector Leonard "Nipper" Read of Scotland Yard was promoted to the Murder Squad, his first assignment was to bring down the Kray twins. It was not his first involvement with Reg and Ron; during the first half of 1964 Read had been investigating their activities, but the publicity and official denials surrounding allegations of Ron's relationship with Boothby had made all the evidence he had collected useless. Read attacked the problem of convicting the twins with renewed activity in 1967, but frequently came up against the famed East End "wall of silence", which discouraged anyone from providing information to the police.

Nevertheless, by the end of 1967 Read had built up a substantial body of evidence against the Krays. There were a number of witness statements incriminating them, as well as other evidence, but none of it added up to a convincing case on any one charge. Most of the statements were given on the condition that they were not used until the Krays were in detention, making a warrant almost impossible to obtain.

Early in 1968 the twins had sent a man named Elvey to Glasgow to buy explosives for rigging a car bomb. Police detained him in Scotland and he confessed he had been involved in three botched murder attempts. However, this evidence was seriously weakened by the heavy involvement of a man named Cooper, who claimed to be an agent for the United States Treasury Department investigating links between the American mafia and the Kray gang. The botched murder attempts were his work, in an attempt to pin something on the Krays. Read tried using Cooper as a trap for Ron and Reg, but they stayed away from him.

Eventually, a high-level 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. Early on 9 May 1968, the Krays and a number of the senior members of their "firm" were arrested. Their reign of intimidation over, many witnesses came forward, and it was relatively easy to gain a conviction. The twins did not really have a defence, other than flat denials of all charges, and discrediting witnesses by pointing out their criminal pasts. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of thirty years, for the murders of Cornell and McVitie. Their brother Charlie was jailed for 10 years for his part in the murders. Many believe sentencing was harsher than was deserved and that they were being made an example of.

Imprisonment

There was a highly publicised long-running campaign, with celebrity support, to have the twins released from prison, but successive Home Secretaries vetoed the idea. The twins were allowed out for the day in August 1982 to attend their mother's funeral. They did not request to attend their father's funeral when he died in March 1983.

Ronnie was eventually once more certified insane and lived out the remainder of his life detained in Broadmoor Hospital, Crowthorne, dying on 17 March 1995 of a massive heart attack aged 61. His funeral was a huge event. It was held on 29 March 1995 and people lined the streets for it.

Reg was a different story, however. For many years he was Category A prisoner, one who is denied almost all liberties, and cannot mix with other prisoners. Such treatment frequently sends men mad, but Reg seemed to maintain some sense of humour about his situation, writing a fitness manual (never published) called The Reg Kray Book of Exercises for People in Confined Spaces. He served over the recommended 30 years he was jailed for in 1969. He was finally freed from Norfolk's Wayland Prison on 26 August 2000 on compassionate grounds as a result of having inoperable cancer. He spent the final days of his life in his suite at the Townhouse Hotel at Norwich, having left Norwich Hospital on 22 September 2000. On 1 October 2000, Reggie Kray died in his sleep. He died as a free man, the only one of the brothers to do so. Ten days later he was buried alongside his brother Ronnie.

Charlie Kray was released in 1975 after serving seven years, but returned to prison in 1997 for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. He died of natural causes on 4 April 2000, just six months before Reg's death.

Criminology

The Kray twins were tried as separate, responsible adults. Ronnie dominated his brother. He was also a paranoid schizophrenic. Many times in his career, Reg Kray expressed a desire to leave crime and "go straight", but each time was prevented either by persuasion from Ron, or by the knowledge that Ron would not cope on his own. Reg's several attempted murders, and the murder of Jack McVitie, were all done at Ron's prompting, to show that he was equal to Ron's earlier murders. Reg was also regarded as by far the quieter and less volatile of the twins, less likely to automatically react with violence or aggression, and perhaps steering the organisation away from additional trouble over the years.

Ron was bisexual and generally preferred the company of other men. However, he married a woman while at Broadmoor. Before his marriage, Ron frequently berated Reg for his relationships with women. Reg's marriage to Frances Shea in 1965 lasted only eight weeks, although the marriage was never formally ended. She committed suicide in 1967.

When Ron spent three years in prison, Reg turned the "firm" around, putting it on a sound financial footing, and removing many of the more violent and less appealing aspects, if not actually turning it legal. Some speculate that without Ron, Reg would have turned the "firm" into one of the largest and most successful criminal organisations in Europe; however, the Kray business was always built on their reputation for savage violence, and it was Ron who was principally responsible for orchestrating it. The twins were never able to cope well apart.

In popular culture

In video Games

• In The Getaway, a gangster named Charlie Jolson says that he used to run London "with real men like Ronnie and Reggie".

• In the The Getaway: Black Monday Danny introduces Arthur, the cleaner of the operation, saying "He used to work for the Krays ya know."

In film

• The feature film The Krays (1990), written by the Bethnal Green-born artist and dramatist Philip Ridley, starred brothers Gary and Martin Kemp of the band Spandau Ballet as the Krays.

In television

Association with (or former association with) the Krays is also seen as a sign of prestige in many differing social circles, or an indication of cockney authenticity. This attitude was spoofed in the British television series The Young Ones with Robbie Coltrane as a bouncer claiming "...and I was at Violet's funeral", a reference to the twins' mother.

• The long-running TV drama EastEnders has featured a gangland organisation called The Firm.

• EastEnders characters, Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell are modelled on The Krays, hence their names, Ronnie and Roxy. As Reggie is a male name, for the EastEnders role of The Mitchell 'SISTERS', the name was changed to Roxy.

• They were also the inspiration behind the Monty Python "Piranha Brothers" sketch. This sketch was rooted in fact; even the tale of nailing someone to the floor is based on the murder of Jack "the Hat" McVitie, who was pinned to the floor with a long knife.

• The British TV series Waking the Dead featured a two parter called Deathwatch in which the cold-case detectives investigate a murder related to a pair of East End gangster brothers from the early 60's called the Suttons who were clearly based on the Krays--One was described as a psychotic and the photos used to depict them in the episodes are very similar to those of the Krays.

• In 1991, a children's TV puppet show called The Winjin Pom featured two crow siblings called Ronnie and Reggie (the "Crows") who were always after the goodies to steal their magical campervan named after the show title, but always failed miserably.

• Kate Kray - the widow of Ronnie Kray, introduces us to the glamorous yet restricted lives of women who have married gangsters in the documentary Gangster's Wives.

• Comic Strip did their take on the Krays with Alexei Sayle in the roles of both twins, as the notorious Moss Brothers, Carl and Sterling, in Didn't You Kill My Brother?

In literature

There are many books about their reign of terror: among the most critically acclaimed is The Profession of Violence by John Pearson.

Carol Ann Duffy has written a poem entitled "The Kray Sisters", in which she changes the story of the Kray twins into a women's format. There are clear links to the original story, with characters in the poem such as "Cannonball Vi", a clear mix of the twins' grandfather and mother.

In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, the main villain, Lord Voldemort is so feared that most wizards and witches refer to him as 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. According to Rowling, this was inspired by the Kray twins very names being taboo.

The Kray twins are mentioned frequently in the first novel by Jake Arnott, The Long Firm (1999), where the main character Harry Starks is a fictional homosexual East End gangster in the 1960s who has a criminal career similar to the Krays.

The Kray twins are mentioned in the second part of Tu rostro mañana, a novel by Javier Marías. One of the characters refers to them in order to explain why he carries a sword in his overcoat.

In music

A number of artists mention the Kray twins in songs:

• The Libertines mention they "saw two shadow men on the Vallance Road" in their song "Up The Bracket".
• The Pop Rivets included "Kray Twins" on their first album Greatest Hits (1978), featuring the singer and artist Billy Childish.
• The all-female British new wave band Mo-Dettes wrote a song about them, also Titled "Kray Twins", on their 1980 album The Story So Far.
• The first single by the electronic band Renegade Soundwave featured "Kray Twins"; Ron and Reg were on the cover artwork of the single, released by the Mute label in 1987.
• Morrissey of The Smiths sings about the twins in "The Last of the Famous International Playboys" (1989).
• Blur mention Ronnie in their single "Charmless Man" from the album The Great Escape, 1995.
• Ronnie and Reggie feature on the cover of the unofficial Oasis interview CD, Wibbling Rivalry released by Fierce Panda.
• James Kensit, the brother of singer and actress Patsy Kensit, is the god-son of Reggie Kray .
• Ray Davies has the line "and don't forget the Kray Twins" in his song "London Town" on the album The Storyteller and EP Thanksgiving Day.
• Oi! band The Warriors wrote a song called "Free Reggie Kray"

External links

• The Krays.co.uk, official website
• 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