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??/??/?? - Krays Brotherhood of Evil
For most of the 1950s and 1960s, Ronnie and Reggie Kray
were a terrifying legend in the pubs and drinking clubs
of London's East End, ruling their 'manor' like feudal
warlords. Anything said or done against them reached
their ears within hours, and reprisals were swift and
bloody.
The East End of London has always had a reputation for
producing hardened villains. But on 24 October 1933
two boys were born who would grow up to become the undisputed
'kings' of the underworld. They were the Kray twins.
Reggie and Ronnie, together with their brother Charlie
who was seven years older, were brought up in a terraced
house in Vallance Road, Bethnal Green.
Ironically, the streets where they played had been the
hunting ground of Jack the Ripper some 50 years before.
The brothers grew up tough. In the hurly-burly of East
End street life, in the heart of what was then the thriving
rag trade district, they learned to fight and they learned
to steal.
They quickly earned a reputation as gutsy streetwise
boys with whom you didn't take liberties. They were
fast with their fists and were soon revered for taking
on and beating other street toughs who were bigger and
older.
Professional boxers
Once into their teens it was second nature to follow
brother Charlie into the ring and become professional
boxers. Reggie was considered the better of the twins,
winning all his fights. On one notable night in 1951
all three brothers fought on the same bill at London's
Albert Hall. Charlie, a talented welterweight championship
contender, was beaten by another famous East Ender,
Lew Lazar.
Reggie won on points; Ronnie was disqualified. Army
national service put paid to their boxing careers, but
not to their fighting. Most of their two-year compulsory
stint was spent in the glasshouse for assaulting NCOs
or for desertion.
Eventually the army threw them out and they came home
to the East End, looking for a living. Their options
seemed limited, but then an ideal post came along. The
owner of a snooker hall was having trouble with rowdy
customers. The twins offered to 'mind' the place for
£5 a night. They enjoyed beating up the troublemakers
and throwing them out.
They found that putting the fear of God into people
was both profitable and fun, and they took to their
new careers with relish. By the mid-1950s they were
fully fledged protection racketeers, 'putting the arm'
on dozens of pubs, drinking clubs, restaurants and betting
shops in the East End.
The protection game was simple. If a publican had a
thriving place, it was good business to pay the twins
and their cronies to have their protection. Because
if you didn't pay, a gang of thugs would enter the pub
one night with coshes and razors, beat up the customers,
and smash all the glasses and furniture, and that was
very bad for business.
The Krays were making a fortune. They didn't even collect
the rake-off each week; they paid other heavies to do
it for them. They drove the latest status-symbol cars,
Jaguars or big American jobs. They had wardrobes full
of elegant suits. They saw themselves as showbusiness
celebrities and liked to be seen out in West End clubs
with stars like Barbara Windsor and Diana Dors, or boxing
heroes like Henry Cooper and Freddie Mills.
They were photographed posing with American singing
star Judy Garland and famous aristocrats like Lord Boothby.
They opened their own cabaret club, named after their
initials, the Double R. They upheld all the East End
ideals of the time. They dressed in Savile Row style,
had influential friends and, best of all, they commanded
respect, though in truth it was fear.
To try to balance their gangster image they made a big
show of giving money to local boys' clubs or old folks'
charities, and they doted on their mum, Violet. But
under the sharp suits, the champagne and the showbiz
pals, nothing could hide the fact that they were still
dangerous, violent villains who settled most disputes
with their fists, a bottle or a knife.
The Krays' 'court'
Some businessmen chose to defy the brothers' demands
for money. The punishment was swift and vicious. Heavies
were sent out to grab the unfortunate victims and bring
them to the Krays' 'court', usually held in the back
room of one of their favourite pubs.
There, those who had dared to stand up to the twins
were 'tried', and found guilty. Then their buttocks
were slashed with a razor. Ronnie told friends: "It's
so every time the bastards sit down they remember me."
By this time Ronnie in particular was showing signs
of being highly unpredictable. He was diagnosed as suffering
from psychiatric instability and was prescribed tablets
to try to control his violent mood swings.
Underworld characters
The brothers surrounded themselves with a network of
underworld characters who became known as the Krays'
'firm'. Many of these were hardened robbers and thieves
and several were murderers. Many more were hangers-on
wishing to ingratiate themselves.
Many of these bit-part players were employed by the
Krays in another money-spinning racket known as 'long
firm' frauds, or simply LFs. These involved renting
a warehouse, buying goods on credit, then selling them
and returning for a still larger stock of goods. This
operation was repeated several times until the 'sting'.
Having built up confidence with the suppliers and banks,
the largest-yet load of goods would be bought, sold
off quickly and the whole operation closed overnight
without a penny paid to the suppliers or the banks.
Police estimate that the Krays got away with more than
50 of these operations in the early 1960s.
In 1960 they took over a Mayfair casino club, Esmerelda's
Barn. The Kray twins had made it to the top. But a series
of ugly incidents was to add to the sheer fear they
struck in people. One gambler, David Litvinoff, had
run up a debt of around £1,000. Others had done
the same and had been allowed to get away with it.
But for a reason never explained, Litvinoffs debt offended
the twins, who considered him 'a liberty taker'. One
night during a party at the club, Ronnie dragged the
unfortunate man to an alley at the back of the building,
placed a sword crossways in his mouth and pushed it,
slicing open Litvinoffs face on both sides.
Despite the gruesome injuries, which needed plastic
surgery to repair, it was several years before the police
heard of the incident. Even then, Litvinoff told detectives
he could not remember who had wounded him.
No-one was safe
In another incident a crook who had displeased the twins
was held down and branded with a hot iron. Another gangster
had his face slashed by Ronnie for the sin of telling
him he had put on weight. Even friends were not safe.
Albert Donaghue, a huge Irishman who worked for the
twins, once had an argument with Ronnie in a pub.
Ronnie settled the row by producing a pistol and shooting
Donaghue in the foot. Amazingly, the two men made up
their differences and remained friends. At least two
other men, a nightclub owner from north London called
Jimmy and an east London thief known only as Nobby,
were to suffer the same fate, a bullet in the foot for
daring to upset Reggie.
By 1964, Fleet Street newspapers had started to talk
openly about the scandal of the gangster family which
now openly ruled London. The Krays were not named but
the Daily Mirror made it clear their identities were
known to thousands of people in London. Scotland Yard
had to act. Detective Superintendent Leonard Read, himself
a former amateur boxing champ nicknamed 'Nipper', was
assigned to investigate their activities.
At first Read ran up against the familiar wall of silence
that had led even many of his colleagues to believe
the Krays could never be cracked. But in 1965 Read got
enough evidence to charge the twins with blackmail and
demanding money with menaces. His elation was short-lived.
The Old Bailey trial was a disaster.
The jury could not reach a verdict and the twins walked
from the dock to freedom, laughing. The humiliation
of Scotland Yard in court convinced the Krays more than
ever that they were all-powerful. Within a short time,
confident they could get away with literally anything,
they moved into a new era of violence, even more dreadful
than before.
Ronnie decided that people needed to be reminded of
what happened to those who challenged his authority
or showed any sort of disrespect. By this time he struck
terror into the hearts of even his closest friends -
he was seen as a dangerous nutter, eaten up with paranoia,
and prone to manic rages and instant, horrifying violence.
He planned to murder a man in the most public way possible,
in the certain knowledge that no-one on his 'manor'
would ever dare speak of what they had seen. He cold-bloodedly
shot a rival gangster and old enemy, George Cornell,
in a crowded pub in Mile End Road. Police were quickly
on the scene but, as Ronnie had expected, none of the
many witnesses would tell them anything.
Stabbed to death
Elated by this 'success', Ronnie wanted his twin brother
to prove he could be just as cold and ruthless. "I
have done my one," he told Reggie. "Now you
do yours." The victim, chosen on little more than
a whim, was Jack The Hat' McVitie, a fellow villain
who had once accepted £1,500 from the twins to
carry out a 'contract' but had failed to follow through.
This had not troubled the twins much at the time, but
now it was used as a reason to sign McVitie's death
warrant. He was taken to the flat of a woman friend
of the Krays and stabbed to death. His body was never
found.
A few months later, the Krays were involved in another
killing, that of 'Mad Axeman' Frank Mitchell, whom they
'sprang' from Dartmoor, probably to use as a hitman,
but whose presence soon became a liability. He was shot
and his body disposed of, again in a mysterious fashion.
Rumoured killings
Despite his setback in failing to get the Krays convicted
first time around, Nipper Read was a tenacious detective.
He soon heard the rumours that the Krays had shot Cornell
and done away with McVitie. He was convinced that many
people were so much in fear of the Krays they would
be glad to see them behind bars for Me.
He was sure the Krays would fall if only he could get
the right people to talk. In 1967 Read was reassigned
to start investigating the 'firm' once again. Most approaches
drew a blank - until he approached Leslie Payne, the
crooked accountant whom Jack McVitie had failed to kill.
Payne agreed to talk as long as he could be protected.
He led Read to another former 'firm' member, Freddy
Gore, who also talked. Lenny Hamilton, the man branded
with a hot iron, also answered questions. Then Read
had meetings with an informant who gave details of McVitie's
murder. Things were looking up for the police. The Krays
were rattled. Read learned the brothers had put out
murder contracts on both him and Leslie Payne.
A vital breakthrough came when a telephone tap on one
of the 'firm', Alan Cooper, revealed he was sending
a courier to Glasgow to pick up a dodgy parcel. Detectives
followed the courier, Paul Elvey, and arrested him as
he prepared to board a plane for London carrying a small
case. To their shock, the detectives found that the
case contained 36 sticks of dynamite.
Elvey was in big trouble. Now he talked. The Krays,
he explained, had ordered the dynamite from a contact
in the Glasgow underworld to blow up a rival London
club owner. They planned to wire it to the ignition
in his car. But what Elvey said next had the detectives
really gasping.
Elvey had also been given a specially constructed briefcase
containing a hidden hypodermic needle that was to be
used to inject a victim with cyanide at the Old Bailey.
The case was to be pressed against the victim's leg.
At the same time a trigger in the handle would release
a spring, causing the needle to shoot through the side
of the case into the victim. When Home Office pathologist
Dr Francis Camps examined the case he described it as
"the most lethal murder weapon I have ever seen."
Anyone being pierced by the needle would die within
eight seconds.
The arrests
Elvey said he did not know who the victim was to be.
The briefcase had been made by ex-speedway star 'Split'
Waterman, who admitted his part but denied knowing who
the proposed victim was. Read decided he had enough
to make his arrests.
At 6 a.m. on 7 May 1968, Read's team used a crowbar
to force open the door of the Kray flat in Shoreditch.
Ronnie was in bed with a teenage boy; Reggie was with
a girl. At the same time, a dozen more members of the
'firm' were raided, arrested and told that they would
be facing charges of conspiracy to murder.
Now Read set to work trying to get them to come over
to his side. The Kray twins were charged with conspiracy
to murder Cornell and McVitie plus numerous 'long firm'
and blackmail charges relating to protection rackets.
A week later, with detectives still searching for other
suspects, Read had a major breakthrough. Lennie Dunn,
known by the nickname 'Booksy', gave himself up. It
was his flat that had been used to hide 'Mad Axeman'
Mitchell.
'Mad Axeman' Mitchell
Up to this point the public and police had no idea what
had happened to Mitchell: he had simply vanished. At
first Read was disbelieving, but he got the corroboration
he wanted when Billy Exley, another ex-Kray 'firm' member
in fear of a bullet from the brothers, admitted he had
helped look after Mitchell.
Now the police tracked down Liza, the hostess presented
by the Krays as a 'gift' to Mitchell to keep him happy.
Read listened to her story with bated breath. Many of
the Kray gang now asked to see Read. Some wanted to
help: others remained cagey. Then came another breakthrough.
A barmaid who had been working in the Blind Beggar when
Cornell was shot said she was prepared to tell all now
the twins were locked up. She also said the man who
accompanied Ronnie on the shooting was one of the Krays'
'minders', Glasgow-born lan Barrie.
He was found and arrested. He denied knowing about the
murder, but the barmaid unhesitatingly picked him out
on an identity parade. On 31 May 1968, all three Kray
brothers, plus another 25 of their cronies, appeared
in the dock on remand.
Reggie Kray and the man his brother once shot, Albert
Donaghue, were now charged with murdering Mitchell.
Three weeks later Ronnie and Charlie Kray, plus another
East End 'face', Cornelius Whitehead, were charged with
the Mitchell murder. Within a few days another mainstay
of the Kray 'firm' was starting to crack under pressure.
Donaghue, already charged in the Mitchell murder, asked
to see Read in secret. He told him: "I have been
asked to volunteer to take the rap for Mitchell on a
promise that my family will be looked after. I can tell
you all about who did Mitchell, Cornell, McVitie - the
lot."
Donaghue, totally convinced that the Krays were planning
to have him 'silenced', told the police the whole Mitchell
saga, right from the point where he had gone to Dartmoor
to help Mitchell to escape. Next asking to see Read
was Carol Skinner, who owned the flat in Evering Road,
Stoke Newington, where McVitie had been slaughtered.
She had been interviewed before, steadfastly denying
she knew anything about the crime. But now, as the tears
flowed, she named all those who were present and described
the horrific events. From information given, police
divers went to the canal where the dud gun that failed
to kill McVitie had been dumped.
Then detectives arrested Ronnie Hart, another leading
light in the 'firm'. Hart, in desperate fear of the
Krays, had actually witnessed McVitie's murder and was
prepared to make a full statement. The police finally
had enough evidence to finish the Kray empire. The trial
for the Cornell and McVitie murders started on 8 January
1969 in the world-famous Court One at the Old Bailey.
It was full of drama. All the witnesses and the jury
were under protection to prevent them being 'got at'
by friends of the Krays. On day three, 'Miss X', the
barmaid from the Blind Beggar, was asked to point out
the man she had seen shoot George Cornell. Without hesitation
she pointed to Ronnie Kray.
One by one, former Kray men gave their accounts of what
they had seen and heard. The trial lasted 39 days. On
the last day, one man was acquitted, but Ronnie Kray
was found guilty of murdering Cornell with Reggie convicted
as an accessory. Both twins were convicted of killing
McVitie.
Older brother Charlie was convicted as an accessory.
Both Ronnie and Reggie got life with a recommendation
that they serve 30 years. Charlie got 10 years. On 15
April 1969, all three brothers stood trial at the Old
Bailey again, this time in the Mitchell case.
Albert Donaghue, the huge bodyguard once wounded by
Ronnie, had had his murder charge dropped. Now he was
a prosecution witness, together with Liza the hostess.
Despite their compelling stories it was impossible to
say for sure who killed Mitchell.
This time the jury found everyone innocent except Reggie,
who was convicted of harbouring Mitchell. He was given
a further five years. |
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