Jones - The Krays

The Krays. The Men, The Violence, The Story.

The life and times of East London's most notorious crime family.

Ronnie and Reggie Kray were twin's, but much more than that. Part of the mystique was unlike most sets of twin's they had a telepathy and many people couldn't them apart. Ronnie was known for his drinking and being on many medications for his mental health issues, where as Reggie was always living on his nerves and forward thinking. However their mother Violet could not see any of the twin's wrong doings, as she saw them as her "Golden Boys who could do no wrong".

At the age of 15, Ronnie witnessed their father, Charlie Sr trying to beat up Violet and punched Charlie Sr. The Twins home at Vallance Road (later to become known as "Fort Vallance") was the cleanest home in the East End of London. Upon meeting the twins, everyone knew they were violent and most East End feared them. Ronnie and Reggie were very different from their father Charlie Sr, who was a gentleman, the twins were only gentlemen to those that deserved it and were not greatly intelligent.

Ronnie was openly gay but later admitted to being bisexual, whereas no-one suspected that Reggie was bisexual. The only woman Ron Kray truly loved was his mother Violet, but he had fallen in love with John Raft, but it was publicly known that he had relations with Lord Boothby who was investigated by the police but was brushed under the carpet due to the lack of evidence.

One of Reggie's favourite sayings was "You're going to disappear off the face of the earth" meaning that the other person was likely to be murdered at the hands of himself, Ronnie or another member of The Firm. It is said that the twin's and The Firm murdered seven people, possibly more.

The twin's were well known for having a love/hate relationship and were well known for fighting even in their childhood. Their 1969 downfall was mainly down to them being twin's, but at the same time it was also their strength.

Ronnie and Reggie were born on October 24th 1933 in Hoxton, London to Charles David Kray (10th March 1907-8th March 1983) a scrap gold dealer and Violet Annie Kray (nee Lee 5th August 1909-7th August 1982). They were of Jewish, and Romani heritage. Reg was born 10 minutes before Ron although they are identical twin's. They have an older brother Charles James Kray (9th July-4th April 2000). The brothers also had a sister named Violet, born in 1929 but died in infancy leaving the family devastated. In 1936 when the twins were 3 years old, they caught Diphtheria. Reggie recovered quickly, Ronnie took a while longer to recover.

In 1938, the family moved from Stean Street, Hoxton to Vallance Road, Bethnal Green. In 1942, Ronnie nearly died from a head injury suffered in a fight with Reggie.

Reggie married Frances Shea in 1965, the marriage only lasted 8 months as Frances couldn't handle the lifestyle she had with Reggie. Her life was in effect destroyed during the marriage. Frances took a fatal overdose in 1967.She was only 23 years old. Reggie then went on to marry Roberta Jones in 1997, the couple were married until Reggie's death in 2000. Ronnie married Elaine Mildener in 1985 until their divorce in 1989, when he went on to marry Kate Howard until their divorce in 1994.

In the 1960's, the twin's were widely seen as successful and charming nightclub owners and a major part of the Swinging London scene. Their fame was largely down to their non-criminal activities. They were known to socialize with Lords, ladies, MP's, socialites and stars of stage and screen including George Raft, Judy Garland, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor. Ronnie and Reggie are also well known for being photographed by David Bailey.

Ronnie shot and killed George Cornell a member of a rival gang lead by Charlie and Eddie Richardson known as the Torture Gang. Cornell was shot in the head at the bar of the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel on March 9th 1966. The previous day there was a shoot-out in Mr Smith's nightclub, a Catford nightclub which involved The Richardson's and a Kray associate Richard Hart, who was shot dead. This shoot-out led to the arrest of almost all the Richardson gang. Cornell, by chance wasn't at the club and therefore wasn't arrested. After being at the hospital visiting friends, Cornell chose to visit the Blind Beggar pub, which was only a mile away from where the Krays lived. Ronnie had been drinking at another pub, when he learned of Cornell's location, and went to the Blind Beggar with his driver "Scotch" Jack Dickson and his assistant Ian Barrie. Upon their arrival, Ronnie walked in and in full public view shot Cornell in the head. Cornell died in the hospital at 3am the following day. Ronnie was already suffering with Paranoid Schizophrenia at the time of the killing.

On December 12th 1966, the Kray's helped Frank "The Mad Axeman" Mitchell escape from Dartmoor prison. Ronnie had befriended Mitchell while they were both serving time in Wandsworth Prison. For sometime, Mitchell had felt his parole case should be reviewed. Ronnie thought that by getting Mitchell out of Dartmoor would highlight his case in the media so therefore the authorities would have to act. Once out, Mitchell was held at a friend of the twin's flat on the Barking Road in East Ham. Mitchell was a large man, who was hard to control and according to former University professor Martin Fido (18th October 1939-2nd April 2019) had the "mind of a child of 13 or under". Soon after Mitchell's disappearance, it was thought that Ron and Reg were thought to of murdered Mitchell, but they were acquitted. Freddie Forman had claimed that he had shot Mitchell dead and had disposed of the body at sea as a favour to the twins.

Reggie was allegedly spurred on by Ronnie to kill Jack "The Hat" McVitie in October 1967, 4 months after Frances' suicide, as McVitite had failed to complete a 1,000 contract to kill Leslie Payne, half of which McVitie had been paid in advance. McVitie had been lured to a flat on Evering Road, Stoke Newington on the premise of a party, which led to Ron giving McVitie a torrent of verbal abuse, which led to an argument between the three. Reg had then pulled a hand gun on McVitie's head, pulled the trigger twice and failed to discharge. McVitie was then stabbed multiple times, at this time, Reg, driven mad by grief for his late wife, did not stop stabbing McVitie as he lay on the floor dying. Many members of The Firm felt that McVitie did not deserve to die. In an interview shortly before Reggie's death in 2000, Freddie Forman revealed that McVitie had a reputation for leaving carnage behind him due to his drink and drug habits and having threatened to harm the twins and their family prior to his murder.

Tony and Chris Lambrianou and Ronnie Bender helped to clear up any evidence and tried to dispose of the body. With McVitie's body being too large to fit in the boot of the car, the body was wrapped in an eiderdown and put on the back seats of a car that Tony Lambrianou drove with Chris Lambrianou and Ronnie Bender following in a separate car. Crossing into the Blackwall Tunnel, Chris lost Tony's car and spent around 15 minutes searching the Rotherhithe area, they found Tony outside St Mary's church, where the car had run out of fuel with McVitie's body still in the back seats of the car. McVitie's corpse was dumped in the churchyard still in the car, the Lambrianou's and Bender returned home. Bender then informed Charlie Kray, the twins then found out and phoned Freddie Forman (who was running a pub in Southwalk at the time), to dispose of the body. Where it was taken to Newhaven bound with chicken wire and dumped at sea.