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04/01/02 - Police to investigate
Kray case
BBC News
The Metropolitan Police are to investigate claims that
Ronnie Kray killed his brother's wife. An inquest at the
time concluded Frances Kray had committed suicide. Reggie
Kray's gay lover has claimed that Frances was forced by
Ronnie to take the pills that killed her.
However Reggie's widow, Roberta Kray, said Bradley Allardyce
had misunderstood her late husband, who had not meant
it literally. Mrs Kray said: "Reg told me on several
occasions that Ron had killed Frances but he didn't mean
it in a literal sense.
Homosexual killing
"What he meant was that Ron bullied and terrorised
her and made her life a misery and Reg did nothing to
stop him." She said investigating the claims would
be a "huge waste" of police resources. Bradley
Allardyce was released from prison three years ago after
serving nine years for armed robbery.
He spent three of those years in Maidstone prison, four
cells along the landing from Reggie Kray. On Monday, it
was revealed that another former prisoner had claimed
that Kray had confessed to him that he killed a young
homosexual.
Peter Gillett, who did time with the notorious gangster
in Parkhurst and Maidstone prisons, claims the confession
was made in jail 16 years ago. His revelation, in a television
documentary The Krays: Their Empire Behind Bars, comes
after the feared East End gangster made a deathbed admission
that he committed an as yet unknown about murder.
Alcohol and drugs
Gillet refused to reveal the identity of the victim and
it was widely thought to have been Edward "Mad Teddy"
Smith, who has been missing since 1967. He told the television
programme: "Sixteen years ago Reg burdened me with
the secret of this other murder he did.
"It was not a villain, not a policeman but a young
boy, a young gay boy ...he was disgusted with himself
for realising that he enjoyed that sort of thing, knowing
he was gay or bisexual, and he shot the kid." Gillett
also claimed he himself had been approached by Kray for
sex in prison and that Kray had a free reign in jail when
it came to alcohol and drugs.
Kray, who died two years ago, was serving life for the
murder of Jack "the Hat" McVitie. Kray and Allardyce
both denied they were more than just friends.
'In denial'
But Allardyce told the BBC: "I am openly admitting
for the first time that we had a sexual relationship as
much as it was against my will and he knew it was against
my will. "So I was always in denial." But he
added: "There is not one day I would change with
mine and Reggie's relationship." The pair spent most
of their time at Maidstone in each other's company.
Allardyce revealed that in prison Reggie Kray revealed
to him the crime that haunted him the most - the apparent
suicide of his first wife. "I was sitting in my cell
with Reg and it was one of those nights where we turned
the lights down low and put some nice music on and sometimes
he would reminisce. "He would get really deep and
open up to me.
"He suddenly broke down and said 'I'm going to tell
you something I've only ever told two people and something
I've carried around with me' - something that had been
a black hole since the day he found out. "He put
his head on my shoulder and told me Ron killed Frances.
He told Reg what he had done two days after."
The Krays' years of crime were ended by a team of Scotland
yard detectives led by Leonard "Nipper" Read,
who thinks the allegations should be investigated.
"No doubt"
Mr Read said: "Whatever else it is it is an allegation
of murder - somebody has made an extreme allegation."
Roberta Kray insists that there was "no doubt at
all" that Frances had taken the pills herself. "Look
at the circumstances.
Frances was living in a flat with her brother and his
wife," she said. "I think it is ridiculous to
suggest that at some point Ronnie Kray went around to
see her without anyone else seeing him, persuaded her
to take pills and then told Reg that is what he had done.
"I think this is just a situation where Reg has said
to Bradley 'Ron killed Frances, he made her take pills',
but he didn't mean it in a literal sense." |
| Contact : bernard.omahoney@bernardomahoney.com |
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