| Wannabe in my gang?
- Articles |
??/??/??
- Early Days - East End Boys
Ronnie and Reggie were brought up with a fierce loyalty
to family and friends. Outside that circle, they quickly
learned the dividends that unrestrained aggression could
pay. Reggie was the first of the twins to be born, late
on 24 October 1933.
Ronnie followed him less than an hour later. Their mother.
Violet, was delighted, even though twins would strain
the family's finances. They already had a four-year old
son. Charlie. Their birthplace. Hoxton, was one of the
poorest areas in Britain.
It was even looked down upon by people from other poor
parts of East London. Traditionally the only ways of escaping
its poverty were either boxing or crime. Their father,
Charlie Kray, "pestered" for a living persuading
people, to sell him clothes, silver and gold for resale
at a profit.
His work. travelling across England, kept him away from
home a lot, and from the very start Violet was the dominant
figure in Reggie's and Ronnie's lives. Throughout their
childhood, she doted on them, always taking care to treat
them with scrupulous equality.
In a world where no one owned much of value, she found
in her twins something that made her stand out. and they
became the pride of her life. Despite the twins' identical
appearance, as they grew from babies into young boys,
various differences in their character began to emerge.
Reggie was slightly brighter and more outgoing. Even at
an early age he found it easier than Ronnie to talk to
people. Ronnie found ways to compensate either by sulking
or screaming to gain attention, or trying to outvie his
twin in over-blown displays of love for their mother.
Each twin would pay close attention to every move the
other made.
Fiercely loyal to each other. they were also the greatest
of rivals. If one started a fight, the other had to join
in. And soon Ronnie learned how to turn this to his advantage:
by beginning a fight and drawing Reggie in they became
equal partners in misbehaviour, with no chance of Reggie
becoming the golden boy.
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II. the Kray
family moved from their house in Hoxton to Vallance Road
in Bethnal Green. Although Violet took her three sons
to live in the comparative safety of the Suffolk countryside
early in the war to escape the German bombing. she missed
London and her family too much, and they soon moved hack.
Fighting thrill
Amid the devastation of the Blitz, the twins discovered
the excitement and thrill of fighting. On the bomb sites
and in burned out buildings, they fought with rival gangs
of boys, and quickly earned a reputation as the toughest
of scrappers. The war also gave the twins practical experience
at outwitting the law.
In 1939. their father had received his military call-up
papers, but preferring to keep his business going he went
on the run. He would occasionally return home to visit
his wife and children, however. Twice when he was in the
house, the police arrived to try and apprehend him.
The first time, old Charlie Kray hid beneath the table,
sheltered from view by the tablecloth, while the twins
were questioned about his whereabouts. On the second occasion.
Charlie dived into a cupboard. With a policeman poised
to open its door. Ronnie called out. "You don't think
my dad would hide in there, do you?" The constable
shrugged, and went to search elsewhere.
Teenage boxers
Rapidly the twins were learning the art of survival outwitting
the forces of law and order, and making use of their taste
for fighting. For a while, however, it looked as if they
might direct physical prowess into legitimate channels.
Their elder brother, Charlie, had joined the Royal Navy
during the war, and soon established a promising reputation
as a forces' boxer.
While on leave, he started to teach the twins a few tricks,
hanging a canvas kit bag from the ceiling of a bedroom
at Vallance Road to use as a punch-bag. The first time
the twins stepped into a boxing ring was at a fair held
in a local park. One of the main attractions was a booth
where hardened fighters would take on challengers who
wanted to go a few rounds.
If the challenger survived the allotted number of rounds,
he stood to win a few pounds. On one occasion, none of
the fair-goers were eager to take a chance, despite the
exhortations of the ringside manager. Suddenly Ronnie
shouted he was game for a try. Laughter broke out around
the booth, while the manager joked that there was no one
small enough to fight him.
At this point, Reggie called out that he was prepared
to take on his brother. The two of them stepped inside
the ring and, cheered on by the audience, they attacked
each other for all they were worth. After three rounds,
the match was halted, and they were paid half-a-crown
(12 and half pence) each.
Their potential as fighters caught the eye of a local
coach, and the twins embarked on a strict regime of training.
In pursuit of a career in boxing, they went without cigarettes
and drink, and began to win bout after bout.
Different styles
Reggie was the more promising of the two. In 1948, he
won the London Schoolboys Boxing Championship, and after
turning professional at the age of 16, he won all seven
of his bouts. Ronnie was not far behind him, but whereas
his brother had the technique of the true professional.
Ronnie would wade in to overwhelm his opponent through
sheer power. But the twins' big problem was an inability
to confine their violence to the ring. Their first serious
brush with the law came in 1950, when they beat up a 16
year-old fellow EastEnder in a Hackney alley. Two witnesses
had seen the fight, and named the Krays as the attackers.
Their evidence was backed up by the victim, and Reggie
and Ronnie were remanded in custody for trial at the Old
Bailey. Before the trial took place, however, both the
witnesses and the victim were reminded of the dangers
they ran if they repeated what they had seen in court,
with the result that when the case came up it was rapidly
dismissed for lack of evidence.
Already the twins had learned the power of threats backed
by violence, and how easy it was to gain immunity from
the law by instilling fear in victims and witnesses.
Assault charges
A year later, in the summer of 1951, the twins were charged
with another assault. They had been standing outside a
cafe on the Bethnal Green Road, when a policeman pushed
Ronnie in the back and told him to move along. Ronnie
turned round and punched him in the mouth, knocking him
to the pavement.
The brothers made their escape, but within an hour they
were stopped by two officers and Ronnie was arrested.
Although he had nothing to do with the original incident.
Reggie felt he had let his brother down badly.
As a matter of honour, he went back to the Bethnal Green
Road in search of the policeman Ronnie had hit. When he
found him, he tapped him on the shoulder. As the policeman
turned round. Reggie punched him on the jaw and laid him
out for the second time that afternoon.
On probation
A few days later, the twins appeared before a magistrate,
but once again the Krays escaped serious trouble. With
the help of a local priest who pleaded on their behalf,
they received nothing more serious than probation.
By now. Ronnie and Reggie had stumbled on the combination
of binding loyalty and rivalry that would both carry them
forward and protect them in the adult world. Where one
led. the other had to follow and the one who pushed the
hardest would be the one in control. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
|
|
|
