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??/??/?? - MURDER 2: Jack the Hat
 Nicknamed
'Jack the Hat' because of the pork-pie hat he wore all
the time to cover his premature baldness, Jack McVitie
had been a long-time associate of the Krays.
On one occasion he had even been a hitman for them,
accepting £1,500 to shoot Leslie Payne, a man
who had helped the twins set up their 'long firm' frauds
but who had turned his back on them because of their
violence.
McVitie, armed with a revolver, had gone to Payne's
house to kill him, but Payne was out and McVitie never
bothered to complete the job. He never bothered to give
the Krays their money back, either. At the time the
brothers had not worried about retrieving their cash.
Now, two years on, it was used as an excuse for murder.
The Regency Club One evening in November 1966 the twins,
fired up with alcohol, went to one of their regular
haunts, the Regency Club in Stoke Newington, looking
for McVitie.
When they found he was at the bar they decided to shoot
him there and then. But the club owner, an old friend
of the Krays, protested so much that they decided to
find a different venue for McVitie's execution.
While two trusted heavies were left to make sure McVitie
did not leave the club, the twins went instead to a
flat belonging to a friend, Carol Skinner, in Evering
Road, Stoke Newington. Practical joke At about 1.30
a.m. they sent two more heavies to fetch McVitie from
the club.
As soon as they arrived inside the house in Evering
Road, Reggie pulled a gun, put it to McVitie's head
and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The gun had
misfired. McVitie, shocked, at first thought he was
the victim of a cruel practical joke.
But when Reggie pulled the trigger again and again without
a result, he began to struggle for his life. In desperation
he tried to jump through a window. But Ronnie Kray dragged
him back into the room, taunting: "Come on, Jack,
stand up and die like a man."
McVitie, now pleading for his life, begged: "But
I don't want to die like a man." Ronnie grabbed
him and pinned his arms behind him while Reggie, who
had thrown down the useless gun and picked up a large
kitchen knife, stabbed him in the face and stomach.
When McVitie finally fell to the floor Reggie stood
over him and plunged the blade into his neck. Afterwards
McVitie's body was wrapped in a candlewick bedspread
and carried outside to a car. What happened to it is
still one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Kray
story. |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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