| Wannabe in my gang?
- Articles |
30/11/03 - A life of crime
in film
Greg Lewis
Wales on Sunday
A VALLEYS gangster has lifted the lid on the violent
world of the brothers dubbed the Welsh Krays.
Leighton Frayne and his brother Lindsay were notorious
Welsh villains who befriended Reggie and Ronnie Kray
and lived the life of career criminals.
They wore dark suits, white shirts and red ties and
had swept-back hairstyles like the London gangland twins
they aspired to be. They were even in negotiations to
play Britain's most famous gangsters in a film.
But in 1992 they were jailed for robbing a building
society in South Wales with a sawn-off shotgun.
Today, Leighton Frayne speaks for the first time about
their connections with the vicious London hoodlums which
made them headline news in the 1990s.
He says he has put his life of crime behind him and
still maintains he and his brother had nothing to do
with the armed robbery.
And he also now rejects any comparison with the Krays
and claims that friendship helped get them jailed. We
were judged 'guilty by association', he says.
"We went down for the armed robbery because we
were known to the police for fighting and because we
were friends with Reggie and Ronnie," said 42-year-old
Leighton. "We did a lot of business for them, but
it was legal."
The two 'weekend gangsters', as they were dubbed at
the time of their trial, came from a working class South
Wales family from Newbridge. Their father was a union
leader and a Plaid Cymru councillor. Their mother was
a school dinner lady.
But they were always fighters, both in the ring and
out. Leighton boxed for Newbridge ABC and, as he puts
it, his "boxing skills spilled out onto the streets".
Then in the late 1980s, a female relative was attacked
- and the Fraynes took revenge. They went to a pub to
find the two brothers behind the attack and, as Lindsay
punched one of the men to the ground, Leighton kept
his friends at bay - with a loaded .44 Magnum.
"They all put their hands in the air and Lindsay
by then was kicking the sh*t out of the brother, splattering
blood all over the barman," Leighton writes in
The Frayne Brothers, the shocking new book which he
says tells the true story behind their life of violence.
"As we backed out of the door, Lindsay gave one
final boot to the top of the brother's head."
The Fraynes then went after the other guy, but the
police beat them to it. Officers were now after them
as well so they jumped on a bus to Newport and, buying
a replica pistol, they ditched the Magnum.
They were arrested and, during a two-and-a-half year
prison sentence in Cardiff prison, they met a man called
Joey Martin, an old friend of the Krays.
Leighton says this is where the relationship with Britain's
most notorious gangsters began. Martin said the Fraynes
reminded him of the Krays and he asked Lindsay to write
to Reggie.
Reggie Kray began writing back and said he wanted them
to audition for the roles in a film about the Krays.
The parts went to Martin and Gary Kemp, but the Fraynes'
association with the Krays had begun.
After serving their time, the Fraynes claim the main
thrust of their business became 'legit'.
"We had two bed and breakfasts, were building
four or five houses and were buying farmland on which
to buy an estate of 50," said Leighton.
They had also turned an interest in art into a potentially
massive money-spinner.
They even approached the Welsh Development Agency for
a grant and were given £250,000 to produce paintings
and drawings which they hoped to sell to the poster
giant Athena. They reckoned they would employ 30 people
to start off with, but planned to expand.
They were also working for the Krays but claim that
work too was 'just business', dealing with publishers
and promoting the Krays' image through the sale of merchandise.
They became frequent visitors to Ronnie at Broadmoor
and Reggie at Lewes jail in Sussex and today have between
500-600 letters from the twins.
They also went to old Krays' haunts such as the Blind
Beggar pub in Whitechapel and laid flowers on their
mum's grave.
But the boys were still using their muscle too, helping
businessmen who "came to us with their problems".
Leighton said: "I wouldn't call it protection
money because we never said to people give us money
or else. People told us 'I've got grief' and we went
along to help with our fists."
He said that although they never actually owned any
pubs or clubs in South Wales "we began to control"
a number of them. They had never even been to some of
those they had influence over.
Leighton Frayne describes leading a gang which set
about one rival with a car jack. He had been taking
"liberties" with some of the pubs. Frayne
was arrested and handcuffed when the manager came up
to him and started "laying" into him.
"The coppers turned their backs and let him give
me some digs, but he couldn't punch his way out of a
paper bag and he was beginning to p*ss me right off
so I slammed my head into him, splitting open his nose,"
he writes. "I laughed in (the police officers')
faces, asking them how they would explain me head-butting
the idiot when I had already been arrested by them,
and a dumb look came over their faces."
Frayne was done for criminal damage because a pub window
got put through in the fight, but there was worse to
come.
When the Halifax Building Society in Newbridge was
raided, the two armed men got away with around £9,000.
The robbery was a terrifying ordeal for two clerks at
the office. They had a sawn-off shotgun waved in their
faces and were later too frightened to go back to work.
The Fraynes always denied being behind the robbery
- and Leighton says his claims that he was innocent
were a major motivation for writing his book.
"This is my say," he said. "Everybody
had their say on us, the 'Welsh Krays'. We did work
for them. But it was above board. We dealt with publishers
and journalists for them."
Despite the image and the cover photograph of his new
book, Leighton adds: "We never thought we were
the Krays."
The Fraynes were jailed for eight years for the robbery
and failed in their appeal in 1995. Their businesses
failed with their conviction and £250,000 of WDA
money went to paying off their creditors.
They accused Gwent police officers of misconduct and
dishonesty in the armed robbery investigation. This
week the force said it would now study Leighton's book
to look at the allegations.
The brothers were freed in 1997 and, despite a common
assault conviction four years ago, Leighton says he
is now on the straight and narrow.
"I don't miss that life at all," said Leighton,
now living in the Caerphilly area. "When I'm sat
down with someone on the nine-to-five it does sound
like we had an exciting life. But we paid for it."
THE Frayne Brothers hope their lives as the so-called
Welsh Krays could be immortalised in a film.
Leighton Frayne said there are early discussions for
a movie of their life.
It would star former Wimbledon and Wales footballer
Vinnie Jones as him and London's Burning actor Craig
Fairbrass as 36-year-old Lindsay, who also lives near
Caerphilly.
Ray Winston is also to be asked to appear.
The Fraynes have made a bid for celluloid immortality
before. There were attempts to get them to audition
for the lead role in the film The Krays and there were
negotiations to have them star in a sequel.
RONNIE Kray wanted his brother Reggie to settle in
Wales - if the gangster ever got out of prison.
Leighton Frayne said he asked the Fraynes to "keep
a close eye" on Reg if he was ever released.
They said they would, but he would have to move to
Wales.
Ronnie agreed, because he knew "London had changed
dramatically".
Leighton writes: "It wasn't long before I had
Reg on the phone asking us to look around for a mansion
in Wales for him, so we set about sending him brochures
of various homes for his consideration."
Leighton told Wales on Sunday they found a suitable
place for Reggie Kray near Pontypool.
"It was an isolated house," said Leighton.
But Reggie Kray died of cancer at a hotel in Norwich
a few weeks after his release three years ago. He'd
served 31 years for the murder of fellow gangster Jack
'The Hat' McVitie in a flat in north London.
Ronnie died after collapsing in jail in 1995. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
|
|
|
