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ronnie & reggie Kray
The Kray twins, Reginald (left) and Ronald, photographed by  David Bailey
Born
Ronnie: 17 March 1995 (aged 61) Wexham park Hospital England
Reggie: 1 October 2000 (aged 66) Norwich , England
Alias(es)
In 1968 both were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of thirty years.
Status
Reggie married Frances Shea in 1965
Parents
Charles Kray and Violet Lee
Reginald "Reggie" Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) and his  twin  brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray (died 17 March 1995) were the foremost perpetrators of  organised crime  in  London 's  East End  during the 1950s and 1960s. Ronald, commonly referred to as Ron or Ronnie, suffered from  paranoid schizophrenia . The Krays were involved in  armed robberies ,  arson ,  protection rackets , violent assaults including  torture  and the  murders  of  Jack "The Hat" McVitie  and  George Cornell . As West End  nightclub  owners they mixed with prominent entertainers including  Diana Dors ,  Frank Sinatra ,  Judy Garland  and  politicians , The Krays were highly respected. In the 1960s they became celebrities in their own right, being photographed by  David Bailey  and interviewed on television.
They were arrested on 9 May 1968 and  convicted  in 1969 by the efforts of a squad of detectives led by  Detective Superintendent  Leonard "Nipper" Read, and were both sentenced to  life imprisonment .
Ronnie remained in prison until his death on 17 March 1995, but Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, a few weeks before his death from cancer
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were born on 24 October 1933 in Hoxton,  East London , to Charles David "Charlie" Kray, Sr, (1906 - March 1983), a scrap gold dealer, and Violet Lee (5 August 1909 - 4 August 1982). Reggie was born 10 minutes before Ronnie. Charlie and Violet already had a six-year old son, also called Charlie, who was born 9 July 1927. A sister, Violet, born 1929, died in infancy. When the twins were three years old they were struck down with  diphtheria  and recovered. Ron almost died from a head injury suffered in a fight with his brother in 1942.Early life
In 1939, having previously lived in Stene Street,  Hoxton , the Kray family moved to 178 Vallance Road,  Bethnal Green . At the start of the  Second World War , Charlie Kray Senior was called up into the army, but went into hiding travelling the country as a trader and avoiding the law.
The twins first attended Wood Close School in  Brick Lane  and then Daniel Street School. There they were said to have shown none of their future criminal tendencies. A teacher said of them: "Salt of the earth, the twins; never the slightest trouble to anyone who knew how to handle them." "If there was anything to be done in school, they'd be utterly co-operative… they'd always be the first to help. Nothing was too much trouble."
The influence of their grandfather, Jimmy "Cannonball" Lee, led both boys into amateur  boxing , which was at that time a popular pursuit for  working-class boys in the East End. An element of rivalry between them spurred them on, and they achieved some success. They are said never to have lost a bout before turning professional at the age 19.
National Service
The Kray twins became famous locally for their gang and the mayhem they caused. They narrowly avoided prison several times and in early 1952 they were called up for  National Service  with the  Royal Fusiliers . They deserted several times, each time being recaptured.
While  absent without leave , the twins assaulted a  police officer  who had spotted them and was trying to arrest them. They were initially held at the  Tower of London  (they were among the very last prisoners ever kept there) before being sent to  Shepton Mallet military prison  in  Somerset  and jailed for a month awaiting  courts-martial . They ended up being jailed in the  Home Counties  Brigade Depot "nick" in  Canterbury ,  Kent . Their behaviour there was so bad that in the end they were given a  dishonourable discharge  from the service; for the last few weeks of their imprisonment, when their fate was a certainty anyway, they tried to dominate the exercise area immediately outside their one man cells. They threw tantrums, upended their latrine bucket over a  sergeant , similarly dumped a dixie (a large camp kettle) full of hot tea on a guard, handcuffed another guard to the prison bars with a pair of stolen cuffs, and burned their bedding. Eventually they were discharged, but not before escaping from the  guardhouse  and being recaptured by the army one last time. The escape was executed when they were moved from a one man cell to a communal cell and assaulted the guardman with a china vase. Still, once recaptured and while awaiting transfer to civilian authority for crimes committed during their most recent period at large, they spent their last night in Canterbury drinking cider, eating crisps, and smoking cigarillos courtesy of the young national servicemen who were acting as their guards (and who were quite ready to tangle with them again if the farewell "do" should result in another escape attempt). The twins did not take kindly to the military and after an altercation with one of their training sergeants, they beat him up and absconded back to Vallance Road. The police arrested them the next day and they were returned to their regiment (Royal Fusiliers) for punishment.
It was during this period that Ron started to show the first signs of  mental illness . He would refuse to eat, shave only one side of his face and suffer wild  mood swings , sitting still for hours before erupting into a violent frenzy. On one occasion, Ron climbed into the prison  rafters  and, according to one guard, refused to come down for some six hours in spite of brother Reggie's pleas. It is not clear whether at this stage it was another prank to annoy their guards, or if Ron had become unbalanced. Guards at the Canterbury military holding prison were convinced he was dangerously psychotic.
Criminal careers
Nightclub owners
Their criminal record and dishonourable discharge ended their boxing careers. As a result, the twins turned to crime. They bought a run down local  snooker  club in Bethnal Green, where they started several  protection rackets . By the end of the 1950s, the Krays were involved in  hijacking ,  armed robbery  and  arson , through which they acquired a few clubs and other properties. In 1960 Reggie Kray was incarcerated for 18 months on charges of running a protection racket and related threats, and while he was in prison,  Peter Rachman , the head of a violent landlord operation, gave Ronnie the Esmeralda's Barn, a nightclub in  Knightsbridge . This increased the Krays' influence in the West End of London, with celebrities and famous people rather than East End criminals. They were assisted by banker Alan Cooper who wanted protection from the Krays' rivals, the  Richardsons , who were based in  South London . [7]
Celebrity status
In the 1960s, they were widely seen as prosperous and charming celebrity  nightclub  owners and were part of the  Swinging London  scene. A large part of their fame was due to their non-criminal activities as popular figures on the celebrity circuit, being photographed by  David Bailey  on more than one occasion; and socialised with  lords ,  MPs ,  socialites  and  show business  characters such as the actors George Raft ,  Judy Garland ,  Diana Dors ,  Barbara Windsor  and singer  Frank Sinatra .
Ronnie Kray: "They were the best years of our lives. They called them the swinging sixties.  The Beatles  and the  Rolling Stones  were rulers of  pop music ,  Carnaby Street  ruled the fashion world...and me and my brother ruled London. We were fucking untouchable". From Ronnie Kray's autobiographical book My Story
Lord Boothby and Tom Driberg
The Krays also came into the public eye when an exposé in the  tabloid newspaper   Sunday Mirror  alleged that Ron had had a  sexual relationship  with  Lord Boothby , a UK  Conservative Party   politician . Although no names were printed, Boothby threatened to sue, the newspaper backed down, sacked its editor, apologised, and paid Boothby £40,000 in an out of court settlement. As a result, other newspapers were less willing to uncover the Krays' connections and criminal activities.
The police investigated the Krays on several occasions, but the twins' reputation for violence meant witnesses were afraid to come forward to testify. There was also a political problem for both main parties. It was neither in the interests of the  Conservative Party  to press the police to end the Krays' power lest the Boothby connection was again publicised and demonstrated, or those of the  Labour Party  because their  MP   Tom Driberg  was also rumoured to have had a relationship with Ronnie.
Frank Mitchel
The once notorious Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road in quieter times. (November 2005)
On 12 December 1966 the Krays assisted Frank Mitchell (nicknamed "The Mad Axeman") in escaping from  Dartmoor Prison . Ronnie Kray had befriended Mitchell while they served time together in Wandsworth prison. Mitchell felt the authorities should review his case for  parole , so Ronnie felt he would be doing him a favour by getting him out of Dartmoor, highlighting his case in the media and forcing the authorities to act. Once Mitchell was out of Dartmoor, the Krays held him at a friend's flat in Barking Road. However, as a large man with a mental disorder, he was difficult to deal with and the only course of action was to get rid of him. His body has never been found and the Krays were acquitted of his murder.  Freddie Foreman , a former member of The Firm, in his autobiographyRespect claimed that Mitchell was shot and the body disposed of in the sea.
George Cornell
Ronnie Kray shot and killed  George Cornell  in the  Blind Beggar  in  Whitechapel  on 9 March 1966. There had been a confrontation at Christmas 1965 between the Krays and  the Richardsons  at the Astor Club, when Cornell, an associate of the Richardsons, referred to Ronnie Kray as a "fat  poof ". However, Ronnie Kray denies this and says that the reason for the killing was because he gave him and Reggie threats. The result was a gang war between the two, and Kray associate Richard Hart was murdered at Mr. Smith's Club in  Catford  on 8 March 1966. Ronnie Kray avenged Hart's death by shooting George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road. Mad  Frankie Fraser  was taken to court for Hart's murder but was proven not guilty. A member of the Richardsons claimed that he saw him kicking Hart. George Cornell was the only one to escape from the brawl in top condition so it is likely that Ronnie thought that he was involved in the murder. Due to intimidation, witnesses would not co-operate with the police.
Jack "the Hat" McVitie
The Krays' criminal activities continued hidden behind their celebrity status and "legitimate" businesses. In October 1967, four months after the suicide of his wife Frances, Reggie was alleged to have been encouraged by his brother to kill  Jack "the Hat" McVitie , a minor member of the Kray gang who had failed to fulfil a £1,500 contract paid to him in advance by the Krays to kill Leslie Payne. McVitie was lured to a basement flat in Evering Road, Stoke Newington on the pretence of a party. As he entered, Reggie Kray pointed a handgun at his head and pulled the trigger twice, but the gun failed to discharge. Ronnie Kray then held McVitie in a bearhug and Reggie Kray was handed a carving knife. He stabbed McVitie in the face and stomach, driving it deep into his neck, twisting the blade, continuing as McVitie lay on the floor dying. Several other members of The Firm including the  Lambrianou  brothers (Tony and Chris) were convicted of this. In Tony's biography he claims that when Reggie was stabbing Jack his liver came out and he had to flush it down the toilet. McVitie's body has never been recovered.
Arrest and trial
When  Inspector  Leonard "Nipper" Read of  Scotland Yard  was promoted to the  Murder Squad , his first assignment was to bring down the Kray twins. It was not his first involvement with Reg and Ron; during the first half of 1964 Read had been investigating their activities, but publicity and official denials surrounding allegations of Ron's relationship with Boothby had made the evidence he collected useless. Read tackled the problem of convicting the twins with renewed activity in 1967, but frequently came up against the East End "wall of silence", which discouraged anyone from providing information to the police.[ citation needed ]
Nevertheless, by the end of 1967 Read had built up evidence against the Krays. There were witness statements incriminating them, as well as other evidence, but none added up to a convincing case on any one charge. Fifty percent of ticket profits from  Broadway  shows at the time were given to a charity supporting the Krays in their ambition to be released and feature in their own show, "A Banana is better than a gun".
Early in 1968 the twins had sent a man named Elvey to  Glasgow  to buy explosives for rigging a car bomb. Police detained him in Scotland and he confessed he had been involved in three botched murder attempts. However, this evidence was weakened by the involvement of a man named Cooper, who claimed to be an agent for the  United States Treasury Department  investigating links between the American  mafia  and the Kray gang. The botched murders were his work, in an attempt to pin something on the Krays. Read tried using Cooper as a trap for Ron and Reg, but they stayed away from him.[ citation needed ]
Conviction and imprisonment
Eventually, a  Scotland Yard  conference decided to arrest the Krays on the evidence already collected, in the hope that other witnesses would be forthcoming once the Krays were in custody. On 8 May 1968, the Krays and 15 yet other members of their "firm" were arrested. Many witnesses came forward now that the Krays' reign of intimidation was over, and it was relatively easy to gain a conviction. The Krays and 14 other were convicted with one member of the firm being acquitted. One of the firm members that provided a lot of the information of the police was arrested yet only for a short period. Out of the 17 official firm members, 16 were arrested and convicted. The twins' defence, under their counsel  John Platts-Mills ,  QC , consisted of flat denials of all charges and the discrediting of witnesses by pointing out their criminal past. The judge, Mr Justice  Melford Stevenson  said: "In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities." Both were sentenced to  life imprisonment , with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of Cornell and McVitie, the longest sentences ever passed at the  Old Bailey  (Central Criminal Court, London) for murder. Their brother Charlie was jailed for 10 years for his part in the murders.
Imprisonment
On 11 August 1982, under tight security, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were allowed to attend the funeral of their mother Violet, who had died of cancer the week before, but they were not allowed to attend the graveside service at  Chingford  Mount cemetery in East London where their mother was interred in the Kray family plot. The service was attended by celebrities including  Diana Dors  and underworld figures known to the Krays. The twins did not ask to attend their father's funeral when he died seven months later in March 1983: this was to avoid the publicity that had surrounded their mother's funeral.
Ronnie was eventually once more certified insane and lived the remainder of his life in  Broadmoor Hospital ,  Crowthorne , dying on 17 March 1995 of a massive  heart attack , aged 61. His funeral on 29 March 1995 was a huge event with people lining the streets.
Reggie Kray was a Category A prisoner, denied almost all liberties and not allowed to mix with other prisoners. However, in his later years, he was downgraded to Category C and transferred to  Norfolk 's Wayland Prison .
During incarceration, he became a  born again Christian . After serving more than the recommended 30 years he was sentenced to in March 1969, he was finally freed from Wayland on 26 August 2000, at the age of almost 67. He was released on compassionate grounds as a result of having inoperable  cancer . The final weeks of his life were spent with his wife Roberta, whom he had married while in Maidstone prison  in July 1997, in a suite at the Townhouse Hotel at  Norwich , having left Norwich hospital on 22 September 2000. On 1 October 2000, Reggie Kray died in his sleep. Ten days later, he was buried alongside his brother Ronnie, in  Chingford  cemetery.
Elder brother Charlie Kray was released in 1975 after serving seven years, but returned to prison in 1997 for conspiracy to smuggle  cocaine  worth £69m in an undercover drugs sting. He died of natural causes on 4 April 2000, six months before Reggie's death..
Personal lives
Ronnie was  bisexual . Despite cultural attitudes towards homosexuality at the time, he was open about his bisexuality within the Firm, where it was accepted. Reggie reportedly affirmed and denied Ronnie's claim that he was bisexual on different occasions. He once had a  one night stand  with  Barbara Windsor , whose  Eastenders  character  Peggy Mitchell  was reputed to be based on Violet Kray (e.g. her matriarchy over two thuggish twins).
Controversies
Some believe the Krays' sentences were harsher than deserved and that they were being made an example. The Kray twins were tried as separate, responsible adults, although it was argued that Ronnie dominated his brother. He was also a  paranoid   schizophrenic .
There was a long-running campaign, with some minor celebrity support, to have the twins released from prison, but successive  Home Secretaries  vetoed the idea, largely on the grounds that the Krays' prison records were both marred by violence towards other inmates. The campaign gathered momentum after the release of a film based on their lives called  The Krays  in 1990. Produced by  Ray Burdis  , it starred ex members of  Spandau Ballet  brothers  Martin Kemp , who played the role of Reggie, and  Gary Kemp , who played Ronnie.
Some argue that Reggie's several attempted murders, and the murder of  Jack McVitie , were carried out as a result of Ronnie's prompting, and to show that he was equal to Ronnie's earlier murders. Reggie wrote: "I seem to have walked a double path most of my life. Perhaps an extra step in one of those directions might have seen me celebrated rather than notorious." Others, however, point to Reggie's violent prison record when he was being detained separately from Ronnie and argue that in reality, the twins' temperaments were little different.
Reggie's marriage to Frances Shea in 1965 lasted eight weeks, although the marriage was never formally ended. An inquest came to the conclusion that she committed suicide in 1967, but in 2002 an ex lover of Reggie Kray came forward to allege that Frances was actually murdered by a jealous Ronnie. Bradley Allardyce spent three years in Maidstone prison with Reggie and explained, "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 Ronnie killed Frances. He told Reggie what he had done two days after."
When Ronnie spent three years in prison, Reggie is said to have turned the "firm" around, putting it on a sound financial footing, and removing many of the more violent and less appealing aspects, if not actually turning it legal. Some speculate that without his brother, Reggie could have turned the "firm" into one of the largest and most successful criminal organisations in Europe; however, the Kray business was always built on their reputation for savage violence, and it was Ronnie who was principally responsible. The twins were never able to cope well apart.