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24/10/02 - 'I'm no gangster's
groupie'
By Kate Dilworth, Southport Visiter
ic Liverpool
BECOMING the wife of a notorious gangster was never on
the agenda for Roberta Kray, born Roberta Jones in Southport
in 1959. Not until she reached the age of 38, that is,
when she had a chance meeting with Reg Kray inside HM
Prison Maidstone that changed her life forever.
Now more than five years later, Roberta is the widow of
a man so infamous that, in her words, he has almost disappeared
under his own reputation. This she says is the reason
why she has written her book, Reg Kray, to set the record
straight.
But before she entered into a constant battle to promote
her husband's freedom, Roberta lived a "normal life"
in Birkdale and later in London. She lived on Bickerton
Road and attended Farnborough Road School, staying in
Southport until she turned 18 before moving to London
and taking up a job in publishing.
"I don't really have many links with Southport now,"
she said. "I still have some friends living up there
but it's a long time since I've been back. "My memories
of growing up in the town are fairly happy ones though
- I had a good childhood with my brother and sister."
Once in London Roberta's career moved into media research
and it was through her job that the unmarried 38-year-old
met her future husband. She said: "We ended up meeting
because a friend agreed to do some publicity for a video
which Reg helped make about Ron.
"I didn't intend to go and see Reg at all, but he
asked if I could come and discuss it with him so I did.
And there begins a long story!" When I asked Roberta
if she was attracted to the idea of gangsters, she said:
"I'm not a 'gangster group-ie' if that's what you
mean.
"It was neither love nor attraction at first sight.
I didn't dislike him, but I didn't particularly like him
either. "He was actually warmer and less intimidating
than I had expected." Roberta talked to Reg for two
hours and it was from here that their friendship slowly
developed.
"I did have some preconceptions about him,"
she said. "But I found he was a lot more interesting
and a lot more thoughtful than I would ever have given
him credit for." Roberta admits that a fair amount
of soul searching must go on before you decide to marry
one of the country's most notorious criminals.
Aside from the reactions of her friends and family, she
had to consider how she felt about the crimes he had committed
and the lifestyle he led. "I had to either accept
what he had done or walk away," she said. It's a
fallacy to say that he had no remorse - he knew what he
had done was fundamentally wrong, to take another person's
life, and he knew he had to take the punishment for that.
"He never complained at that but he thought his punishment
would last for 30 years, not the rest of his life."
By the time Reg met Roberta he had spent so long in prison
that his reputation was based more on legend than fact.
So was he a different man to the one who was locked up?
"He became a calmer person over the years, more self-analytical,"
said Roberta. "He constantly questioned who he was
and what he had done - it always came back to fame and
fortune. "Reputation meant everything to Ron and
he was prepared to die for fame and fortune but not Reg
- he believed there were more important things."
Roberta's book travels back in time so the reader can
revisit the early years that Reg spent inside various
of her Majesty's institutions. Stories have long-abounded
that the Kray brothers continued to control the London
crime scenes from their cells, which according to legend
bore little resemblance to any ordinary prison cells and
were fitted with luxury carpets, furnishings and beamed
ceilings.
If this is the kind of dramatising you have come to expect
with the Krays then Roberta's book will come as a refreshing
change - because her aim is to dispel many of the myths
about the man in her life. She said: "The book talks
about what Reg endured in prison.
People have the idea that he got a very easy ride and
ruled the roost, but it uses a lot of factual information
to show how terrible his early years in high security
were." Roberta's book covers Reg's final days of
freedom and his death in a Norwich hotel room with his
wife at his side.
Of his funeral, attended by many thousands, she says:
"He started making the arrangements as soon as he
found out about the cancer. "I think it says a lot
that he shunned the full gangster send-off and chose to
be buried and mourned as Reg Kray the man rather than
Reg Kray the gangster."
His freedom, she continues, was too little and too late.
Reg had five weeks from his final parole but four of those
were spent in hospital. It was only for nine days that
doctors could stabilise him enough to re-enter the public
world.
Roberta said: "He wanted to die outside. The place
we went was called the Town House, in Norwich. It had
a very beautiful view of the river so he could sit and
look out of the window when he wasn't outside." I
asked Roberta how often she has felt a need to defend
her relation-ship and choice of husband.
She replied: "I think I wrote the book to defend
our relationship. After Reg died I felt he was disappearing
under his own reputation. "Other people's attitudes
and opinions were turning him almost into a cartoon and
I wanted to show that he had emotions and feelings - he
was no angel but he was no devil either."
* Reg Kray, published by Pan Macmillan, is on sale in
hard-back in all major bookshops priced £16.99 |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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