17/03/95 - Killer Ronnie Kray
dies
BBC News On this day
Notorious gangland killer Ronnie Kray has died in hospital
two days after he collapsed in his ward at Broadmoor where
he was serving a life sentence for murder. Police said
61-year-old Ronnie died at 0907 GMT after being transferred
to Wexham Park hospital, Slough, from a hospital in Ascot.
The man, once part of the infamous gang "The Firm",
is understood to have suffered a heart attack. Ronnie,
a homosexual who had been married, was taken to Heatherwood
Hospital, Ascot, two days ago after collapsing in his
room at Broadmoor.
Reign of terror He was transferred to Wexham Park hospital
last night after his condition deteriorated, and he later
died there. Kray and his twin brother Reggie were sentenced
to 30 years in prison in 1969, which ended a 10 year bloody
reign of terror in London.
Ronnie had shot George Cornell in the Blind Beggar public
house in Whitechapel in 1966 for calling him a "fat
poof". And a year later Reggie stabbed Jack "The
Hat" McVitie in a flat in North London. Ronnie was
later judged to be criminally insane and sent to the Broadmoor
secure hospital.
He told friends and family he expected to die a prisoner.
Kray, who shared the ward with Yorkshire Ripper Peter
Sutcliffe, had suffered two earlier heart attacks, the
latest in September 1993 after which doctors warned his
rumoured 100 cigarettes a day habit would kill him.
The Krays have reached iconic status, revered by some
and scorned by others. They ran a brutal gang in London's
East End during the late 1950s and 1960s which netted
them a fortune and allowed them to live a life of luxury.
Since their conviction, an industry has grown around them
with books, T-shirts, television specials and a film starring
pop star twins Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet.
Reggie is understood to have learnt of his twin's death
from a fellow prisoner in Maidstone jail who had heard
it on the radio and was described as "absolutely
distraught".
Their elder brother Charlie, who served seven years for
his part in the crimes, said he was saddened by the loss
and that his late brother had been misunderstood. |
