The twins
They were two different people.
There was the beast
and there was the gentleman.
They were split personalities.
You could take 'em home
to meet your mum,
and they'd be perfectly polite.
I'd like to have a bit
of family life now, you know?
I intend to get married
in the near future.
Well, I'd like to go abroad
for a short while,
and then I'd like to be left alone.
But something inside their brain
clicked like that,
and they turned into something
so destructive.
They were dangerous people.
The Kray twins had such power
at the time in the East End.
It frightened people.
Reggie asked him
one or two questions,
and, with that,
he's pulled out a flick knife
and striped the man
right across the face.
By this time, the whole Kray
publicity caravan was in full flow.
Photographers were always ready.
They were criminals,
and they felt it was perfectly OK
to court publicity,
because nobody could touch them.
But it didn't last.
You see, one part of me
really loves 'em.
They're my cousins, you know,
but there's a side
that I just think is sort of
I can't comprehend it.
These were people who'd got into
the deepest end of violence -
m*rder.
Why would you wanna do that?
I don't I don't get it.
I don't get what they did.
There was a code in the underworld
that you didn't
talk about these things.
But they wanted the world
and their brother to know
just what they'd done.
They really had no limits
any more.
Here were people
who were willing to k*ll,
willing to take on
the establishment.
Willing to do anything.
The Krays were out control.
The reason the Kray twins
have become that much-overused word,
"iconic", is because
they were the first villains
to understand celebrity.
Celebrity had just kicked off.
So, you've got mini skirts
music, dope, Black immigration.
All that is happening,
and, suddenly, celebrity matters.
And I think, when they
realised that, they joined in.
Ah
I was voted
"England's most popular singer"
by the New Musical Express in 1961.
Er, I'd al
I was famous overnight,
unbelievably famous.
And, when I met them,
they were big celebrities.
They They were on the level
of Jess Conrad.
They were beautifully dressed,
and they were celebrities,
like the rest of us.
They just fitted into the picture.
They love publicity.
If the Krays were around now,
they would be on Big Brother,
they would be on
Celebrity Come Dancing,
they would be on
all of these things,
because they craved publicity
and they were actually good at it.
They loved it, and every time
they had a decent photograph,
it raised their opinion
of themselves
and other people's opinions
of who they thought they were.
I think celebrities
liked being with the Krays
because they had become big stars
and they drew so much publicity.
Barbara Windsor Joe Louis
They loved all that.
Diana Dors,
she did like a naughty boy.
So, to have the two naughtiest boys
in England at one of her parties,
she loved it. They were icons.
They were just overwhelmed by
by the whole celeb thing.
For them, it meant they'd arrived.
They'd crossed over
into another kind of culture.
But they weren't prepared
to compromise on the villainy.
NEWSREEL: 'The West End
has 500 nightclubs -
'a breeding ground for protection.
'They are the centre
of recurring violence.
'It could be a petrol b*mb
through the window,
'it could be a visit
from hired th*gs.'
They were making their money
from extortion.
They took protection money
from clubs.
Going after them
with threats of violence.
The twins They were volatile.
They were dangerous.
They were out to make a reputation.
You didn't mess about with 'em.
They'd beat people.
They used knives, bayonets
hammers.
They would stripe people
with a razor at the drop of a hat.
They shot people in the legs
on numerous occasions.
These were a couple of serious guys.
Their modus is to make it clear
that, for a payment,
they will look after
that pub or club.
For the most part,
they only preyed on other criminals,
dealing with people
who had some connection with crime.
They would be very wary
of upsetting straight people
cos straight people
could go to the police.
Of course, many of the people
that ran clubs
were straight people, as well.
They were being extorted,
losing their livelihood.
It was a big problem.
Nipper Read is a career copper,
and, by 1964, he's got promoted,
and he's got a good reputation.
A copper's copper, and
he's called up to the office,
and he's the man that they think
can bring in the Krays.
So, Nipper Read knows that the Krays
are involved in
a number of criminal activities
because, in the newspapers,
journalists were writing articles
about protection rackets
and these criminals running free.
The Krays have been given a free run
from '64,
when the police lost
in the Lord Boothby case.
He's a genuine policeman
trying to put away the bad guy.
So, he set up a small team
to get the Krays.
INTERVIEWER:
What sort of a man was Nipper?
Lovely. Obviously, I'm biased.
Husband - great.
He wanted to do his best
for the police force.
It was his life, in fact.
And he didn't want to be beaten.
He wanted to go out
and get the bad men.
Nipper goes round to see
nightclub owners,
were they paying blackmail
to the Krays?
But no-one will come forward
and say,
"Yes, the Krays are leaning on me
for money."
"I'm having to pay protection."
It was awkward,
trying to talk people round
into telling the truth,
and they were worried.
They didn't want to go to court
and stand up in front of the Krays.
Oh, people were frightened
of the Krays, obviously,
because they were
such violent people.
They shot people,
they stabbed people.
Some people who were actually shot
never even came forward,
because they was still frightened
of the repercussions.
So, Nipper Read has six months of
banging his head against the wall.
He knows that what they're doing
is ill*gal,
but he cannot find any witnesses.
By this time,
the failure of the police
gave them this sense
of invulnerability.
Both Ronnie and Reggie,
they thought they were untouchable,
and, in a way they were, but they
just pushed it a little bit too far.
Make yourself comfortable.
The inquiry's fizzling out
when Nipper gets a call
to say that
a man called Hew McCowan,
who owns a nightclub called
The Hideaway in Gerrard Street,
uh, is willing to tell him that
he is being leant on by the Krays,
who not only want money,
but they actually
want a share of the club.
So, Nipper Read interviews McCowan,
interviews his assistant manager,
Sydney Vaughan,
thinks McCowan's OK, but
Sydney Vaughan is a good witness.
Nipper Read goes to McCowan,
and he says,
"Are you sure
you wanna go through with this?"
And he says,
"Yes. This is despicable,"
"and I'm willing to testify."
He's delighted, obviously.
This is gold at the end of the road.
Ronnie and Reggie are arrested.
My name's Ivan Lawrence,
and I was junior counsel
in defence of the Krays
in a number of their cases
in the 1960s.
I had no idea who the Krays were
In fact, until I, erm
appeared for them at court,
and there was this crowd
of photographers
and journalists outside,
erm, brought home to me
that they were actually
very important people
in the criminal world.
The allegation was that the Krays
were muscling into The Hideaway,
demanding money by menaces -
threats which leave the recipient
of the threats unable to,
erm, make any other decision
than to accept.
The charge of demanding money
with menaces
resulted in about 14 years
in prison,
so the Krays would have been put
away for a very long period of time.
When they were arrested in 1965,
Violet was in a terrible flap.
Typical mother, crying and saying,
"Why have they been arrested?"
Someone said,
"They were demanding money."
She said, "Well
why would they demand money?"
"They've got plenty of money -
more money than anybody round here,"
"so that's another lie, isn't it?"
Hew McCowan made a statement
to the police
that Ron and Reg
had threatened him
..that if they didn't, erm,
get an interest in The Hideaway,
they would see the place smashed up.
Well, I have here my notebook,
which is dated January 15th, 1965.
Oh, this was obviously, er, McCowan.
"Ronnie suggested we draw up
an agreement to protect me.
"In return for the protection,
I would give him 50%.
"I said I thought
it was a pretty high percentage.
"Ronnie said
it would well be worth it.
"There would be no trouble at all
at the club.
"I said I didn't expect
any trouble, anyhow.
"I said I thought
it was a lot to ask
"as we were just opening up.
"It was proposed
that if I did open the club,"
"I would have trouble."
There was a determination
by the police
to make this a prosecution
that stuck.
So they went for trial
at the Old Bailey.
McCowan just feels
that he can cope with this.
That they're not all that,
and that, maybe,
if somebody stood up to them,
then maybe they would go away.
I would suggest that's quite naive.
At the trial, the witness
didn't substantiate the allegation
that the Krays had threatened him
and had demanded money with menaces.
So there was no evidence
that the Krays
had done either of those things.
The assistant manager,
Sydney Vaughan, recants his story.
He's Nipper Read's best witness,
and he has swapped sides
and says that what he said
about demanding money with menaces
wasn't true and he was instructed
by McCowan to say that.
They've got to
Nipper Read's main witness,
basically working on fear.
There was threats of violence.
There was witness intimidation.
It's what goes on.
The twins
..they could convince you it was
in your interest to let go.
And, unfortunately, the whole thing
was brought to a standstill.
And the jury acquitted the Krays
of the allegations of blackmail.
The Krays have won.
They believe they're untouchable.
The newspapers
are reporting something similar.
Nipper Read has been told
to back off
and is sent off to another division
to, er, forget about the Krays.
He said they were vicious -
excuse the language - b*stards.
And he knew they'd done something
wrong and they'd got away with it.
They were welcomed back to
the East End as conquering heroes.
The police had allegedly
tried to stitch them up,
but they'd got off with it.
This added to this sense of
they could do whatever
they wanted to do.
There was such a day
in Vallance Road,
and there's all those lovely
pictures of 'em shaking hands,
the neighbours came out.
See, everybody in the East End,
all the neighbours -
what we call
the "normal" East Enders -
they were so happy
that they was acquitted.
Because, again, they thought,
"One to the Krays, nil to the law."
One of the very few times I've seen
Ronnie Kray what I call happy,
really happy, erm
really smiling.
He very rarely smiled.
He had this little sort of Mm-mm.
..sardonic grin
that went up to the side.
He was the happiest probably
that I've seen him, was that day.
Do I think that justice was done
in the case of blackmail?
I, as the barrister,
could only go on the evidence
as it was adduced in court.
But, erm, I'm as suspicious
as everybody else is, I suppose.
By this time, the whole Kray
publicity caravan was in full flow.
Photographers were always ready,
and they had a famous interview
with the BBC at this particular time
about their life in clubland.
My investment in the Kray twins
began essentially
when I joined the BBC.
I invested in them journalistically.
I was interested in the rise
and rise of the Kray twins.
I think they must have thought that
it might be useful
to have friends in the press,
and I certainly thought
it would be useful
to have friends
in the world of gangsters.
And when they were found not guilty,
I knew them well enough
to invite them
to BBC Broadcasting House.
A lot of people have got
the impression from this trial
that clubland, London,
is very tough.
Do you think it is?
Well, in all clubs, you get
an occasional drunk, you know,
and, sometimes,
they have to be slung out,
and that's why
there's doormen there, but, erm
I suppose it's like clubland
all over the world, really.
It's just the same as
I don't suppose it can be that bad,
or else people wouldn't go to 'em,
really, would they?
What do you think
about clubland in London?
'Well, I think most clubs
are very respectable'
LAUGHS '..and I don't think
'there's any trouble at all in 'em.
Except occasionally.'
It shows me quietly
having my trousers taken off
by two very clever people.
How much has this trial cost you?
It's cost us roughly £8,000.
And how do you feel about that?
I don't suppose anyone
likes the idea
of spending that money
for no reason at all, you know?
Does it leave you broke, or
How does it leave you?
Doesn't leave us broke,
but, at the same time,
it's a lot of money
to have to pay out
when one is innocent, you know?
Both of them looking like
hurt victims of justice.
You know, they couldn't understand
why they'd been arrested.
And they answered it, er,
just taking the mickey, really.
What are you going to do
now that it's all over?
Well, I'd like to go abroad
for a short while,
and then I'd like to be left alone.
I think their decision
to give that interview
was, er, the beginning
of real fame and power for them.
They were known from one end
of this country to the other,
and the police couldn't touch 'em.
They were at a new a new level.
They had a talent for two things
and that was violence and publicity.
They did crave it.
They liked the idea of being
the bosses of London's underworld,
and they wanted
the photos to prove it.
These are supposed
to be top gangsters,
but they're having
their photos taken
by the most prominent
society photographer of the time,
David Bailey. Quite amazing.
INTERVIEWER: So,
what are your memories of that day?
CHUCKLES Christ.
It was a long while ago. Er
It was just another day at the
studio, really, with Ron and Reg.
I thought
they weren't very intelligent,
being that they'd let me
photograph them,
cos I thought, "If I was a gangster,
I'd want to be a secret gangster."
"I wouldn't want to be
known as a gangster."
But they liked
having their picture taken.
They liked the glamour of the '60s,
I think.
Well, Reg was all right.
Reg wasn't frightening.
Ron was.
I was really careful with Ron
what I said,
because I knew that
he couldn't control
..his emotions.
Ronnie was bad news.
He was a dual personality.
He was going to this doctor
every f*cking day,
getting more pills, more pills,
more pills, and that
He just couldn't control himself.
The dominant twin was,
of course, Ronnie.
I don't think there's any doubt
that Ronnie was psychotic.
Reg was nervous of him
and just sort of always
He was always looking to his side
to make sure that Ronnie was OK
and wasn't setting off
about anything.
Reggie had a different character -
much more sober.
Ron, I wouldn't care less
if I never saw Ron again,
and Reg, I sort of became
kind of fond of him.
He was kind of like
a lost soul, in a way, Reg.
He said to me once, "Here, Dave"
You know, everything's a secret.
"Here, here"
I said, "What's up?"
Reggie said, "Er, you know, Dave,
"I wish I could have done it legit,
like you."
I think Reggie wanted to be
a businessman, no fighting,
no extortions,
wanted to get on that way.
Reggie would have been, er
far more successful without Ronnie,
I think.
It was Ronnie pulling him away
all the time, that was the problem.
If he wanted to go left, Reggie,
Ronnie would pull him to the right.
No he never had a chance.
And you can't
you can't live like that, you can't.
You've got to have
a life of your own.
I'd like to have a bit
of family life now, you know?
I intend to get married
in the near future.
I did before this case,
but it's put back over the case,
and, erm just get married
as soon as possible, you know?
Frances Shea was a very
ordinary, working-class girl.
She was with Reggie on and off
for eight years.
They were both from the East End,
and that really worked for Reggie,
because he really wanted
an East End girl on his arm,
and the girl that was gonna be on
Reggie's arm had to look stunning.
Part of the image.
I first met her
when she was in Vallance Road,
in Mrs Kray's. Erm
Lovely dark brown eyes, red hair.
Quite slim, but very vulnerable.
Reggie was able to persuade her
to marry him and she agreed.
I was in the house in Vallance Road
on the morning of the wedding,
and, er, they had
the most horrific argument,
the twins, Ronnie and Reggie.
And, in the end, he said,
"Well, I'm not going
to the bloody wedding."
And Reggie said, "Well,
you've got to come to the wedding."
"You know, you're my best man."
"Well, if you're not coming,
I can't get married,"
which probably would have pleased
Ronnie Kray.
He was very jealous
of, erm, women that liked Reggie,
because he always thought a woman
would come and take him away.
And when it did happen,
that's why he didn't like Frances.
I mean, I loved him, he's my cousin,
but if he didn't like someone,
he'd make their life a misery,
and I can imagine
he was quite nasty towards her.
Ronnie hated Frances.
One of his favourite tricks
was to say,
"Don't she have horrible legs?"
in front of her.
He didn't like her at all, Ronnie.
Jealous.
He was always having little pops
at her, you know?
So like you say that to someone
who's already quite
you know, fragile,
it's it's not good, is it?
It's not nice to do that.
He really did not want
that wedding to happen.
But then he's thought to himself,
"Well, I better go.
"There'd be all the attention
and everybody there,"
"and all the photographs."
Ronnie didn't want to be there,
because he didn't want this
to be happening,
but they also knew
it was brilliant publicity for them.
MUSIC: 'Chapel Of Love'
by The Dixie Cups
Goin' to the chapel
And we're gonna get married
Gee, I really love you ♪
So, the wedding was also
a publicity event,
as far as they were concerned,
because that's what
they were about then.
Which, when you consider
they were criminals,
was quite ridiculous.
Well, the wedding
Oh, how can I put it?
I mean, we was only kids.
It Everything looked staged,
do you know what I mean?
It was sort of
It was all done perfectly,
but, to me,
it weren't an happy event.
It was false.
They were married
in the full glaze of publicity,
with David Bailey taking the photos.
Goin' to the chapel of love. ♪
I remember she looked a bit lost.
Reg looked worried.
He looked really worried, Reg,
and Ronnie just looks like Ronnie.
If I was captioning it,
I'd say, she's thinking, "What"
"What have I got myself into here?"
She doesn't fit in
with the two of them.
I don't think
she was happy that day.
I think there was a lot
of pressure from her parents,
obviously, not to get married.
They certainly didn't want
Reggie Kray as a son-in-law.
Her parents
were against the whole thing,
because they realised
what the Krays were.
Frances' mother turned up
all dressed in black.
Everything black -
even a ring with a black stone.
We was sitting in the pews,
and me brother, he was going,
"Who's that Who's that woman
all dressed in black?"
And she went, "That's her mother."
"That's her mother, that is,"
like that.
And, you know, she was, like,
dressed up for a funeral.
Done it as a statement,
I think it was a statement to say,
"I don't agree with it."
But, of course, by then,
it was too far gone.
So she married him,
and they went on a honeymoon
to Athens.
The honeymoon proved
to be a disaster.
Most nights,
Reggie would go out and get drunk
and leave Frances in the hotel.
It was not a good honeymoon.
They were away for a week.
They came back,
and they had a drink
with Micky Fawcett.
In came Reggie with Frances,
and she said, "Do you know,
he hasn't laid a finger on me"
"in all the time we've been away.
He hasn't touched me."
I don't remember being surprised.
Let me put it that way.
He couldn't make love to her.
We knew Ronnie was totally g*y,
but but Reggie, erm, you know,
I heard a couple of girlfriends that
he had that he actually slept with,
but I don't think
it was to his pleasure.
Reggie was g*y,
but didn't want to be g*y.
He wanted to be one of the chaps,
one of the boys.
I think he probably thought
he'd go on holiday with Frances
and do the business,
whatever needed to be done,
and to prove it to her
and the rest of us.
And, er, he just froze
and couldn't do it.
I know he was embarrassed
by Ronnie's overt h*m*,
because, in those days, you know,
it still wasn't a great thing
to be g*y, publicly g*y.
Reggie Kray was was g*y.
He had many, many boyfriends,
which people didn't know about.
He got married - waste of time -
to make it look like it was kosher,
but it wasn't all that kosher.
She married him, not knowing the
real measure of living with Reggie.
She'd never lived with him.
She'd never shared a room with him.
He'd always insisted
on separate rooms.
But the worst thing that Reggie did,
and it really was the worst thing,
was to move them to a flat
underneath Ronnie's
flat in Cedra Court.
Every night, Ronnie
was having parties with young men,
orgies, all kinds of stuff going on,
and Reggie would go up there
and leave Frances in the flat,
night after night.
INDISTINCT CHATTER,
MUSIC THUMPING
God knows what I can imagine
what he's doing up there.
And then she'd have to
listen to that.
She'd be in her bed down below,
having to listen
to what's going on up there.
You know, it's it's not right.
'Her diary revealed so much
that she had to put up with.
'She'd written it down,
'and there it was,
in black and white.
'Her life had turned into
a nightmare.'
"Staying in a dark room,
barely any furniture,
"his suits hanging round the wall.
"On my own until four,
five in the morning,
"when he came in drunk.
"Always swearing and shouting at me.
"My nerves were terrible."
"Talks to me like a pig.
"Mental cruelty.
"Shouting, swearing, aggravating,
provoking, threats.
"Habitual drunkenness,
knives and g*ns,
"and had a r*fle
by the side of the bed, loaded.
"Brother used to torment me."
"Swearing and abuse.
'Shut your mouth.'"
Ronnie was always
on his case to leave
and spend more time with him.
I heard him say many times,
"I dunno what you got married for.
What are you married for?"
You know,
"You don't care about the business."
"I have to do everything."
Ronnie always wanted
Reggie with him.
Wanted him standing by his side.
Wanted him at his beck and call.
And Frances got in the way of that.
She was like
a rose between two thorns, er,
and she was crushed.
She couldn't handle it.
It sent her into a spiral
of nervous breakdowns.
She started taking
different kinds of drugs
that psychiatrists would prescribe.
She was in a desperate state.
And the consequence was
that she left,
and she went back to her family.
And there is a separate sheet
of paper, torn from a notebook,
which is clearly a letter to Reggie.
"I've finished with you forever,
"and don't come crawling back,
guttersnipe.
"Have the decency
to let me live my type of life,
"and you can stink in yours,"
"unless you want
a ghost to haunt you."
The marriage for Reggie was a way
of separating himself from his twin,
but I don't think he understood
his own psychology enough
to realise that he couldn't
get away from his twin.
Reggie also wanted to protect Ronnie
from his illness.
Ronnie was diagnosed
as schizophrenic in the '50s,
and he was ill.
In 1966, his mental health
was deteriorating
because he wasn't getting
the right treatment.
He could go off into these rages
that you really think
he could k*ll everybody,
Reggie included.
With Ronnie and his mental problems,
sometimes, he found it difficult
to separate, you know,
fact from fiction.
Reality from fantasy.
He thought he was a character
in a Hollywood gangster film.
Ron was always living out
his gangster fantasies,
right from being a young boy.
He wanted to be the Colonel, the
man in charge of this gangster army.
And extreme violence
was very much part of that fantasy.
He'd had the g*ng fights,
he'd cut people's faces,
he tortured people,
but here was another step
in the gangster career
..to m*rder someone.
Cos that's what gangsters
do on-screen.
The tension was building up.
Ron Kray's mental illness
was building up.
His obsession with violence
was building up.
Someone had to die.
George Cornell and Ron Kray -
now, they had history.
Cornell had had a fight
with Ronnie Kray and beaten him.
So that wasn't good
for his reputation.
Georgie Cornell strong as a bull.
Very, very strong man.
One of the best street fighters
in London.
Georgie gave Ronnie Kray
a good hiding in a club.
Cornell had also, in the past,
called Ron Kray "a fat poof".
Your reputation in Bethnal Green
and the East End of London mattered,
and if you were insulted,
somebody called you a "fat poof",
you know, that could not go
without revenge.
He had a grudge against Cornell,
but he also had a thing
about violence generally.
You know, he was a very violent man.
He liked weapons, he liked g*ns,
so the next step for him
was to was to k*ll,
and here was an ideal opportunity.
He hated him. He said to me nan,
"I'm gonna do summat."
So she said,
"What are you gonna do?"
She said, "You be careful.
Don't get yourself in trouble."
And he said to her, "See, some
people, they don't respect you."
"They don't show you no respect."
He said, "They got to be
taught a lesson."
Even got me granddad
to clean a g*n for him.
It was 1966 when George Cornell
went to The Blind Beggar's
to have a drink,
and he was off his manor,
and he was on the Krays' manor,
which they didn't like.
Ronnie Kray, who always knew
everything that happened
in his patch,
was told that George Cornell
was in The Blind Beggar.
He actually
walked into The Blind Beggar.
He walked up to the bar,
where George was sitting.
George said, "Look who's here."
And he pulled out the g*n.
GUNSHO
He shot him in the head,
and that was it.
And walked out
as calmly as he walked in.
Ronnie Kray's right-hand man
apparently fired a few shots
into the ceiling of the pub
and said, "Everybody here",
"you keep your mouths shut
if you know what's good for you."
And they turned round,
and they walked out.
I was shocked.
There was a code in the underworld
that you didn't talk
about these things,
but Ronnie Kray
had done this blatantly,
in front of people -
there was a crowd of people.
You know, it's just
it's just madness.
There is no logical reason
for sh**ting George Cornell.
This wasn't an instrument or act
that was going to further
his gangster career,
that he was gonna make money from.
Why did he k*ll him?
Because he's raving mad
and he wanted to be in the action.
That's it.
He didn't need any logic, though,
Ronnie.
Just his insanity.
When I spoke to Ron, you know,
about the k*lling of George Cornell
in The Blind Beggar,
Ronnie actually said to me,
"I'd never felt so f*cking alive."
So there wasn't remorse.
They wanted publicity.
They wanted the world
and their brother to know
just what they'd done.
In no time, everyone knew
throughout the East End
who had committed this crime.
I was still at school at the time,
and I can remember people
talking at school
about the sh**ting
in The Blind Beggar pub, er
talking about it
like it was a football result.
It was something
that the Krays had done.
We were sitting in the kitchen,
Violet and me, and she said,
"There's lots of people
saying things are happening"
"round the East End about Ronnie."
She said,
"Well, people are very jealous.
"They're always talking
about my twins.
"Always saying that, you know,
it's cos they're successful,"
"or their sons are not success
which I think is a lot of jealousy."
But everybody in the East End
knew it was Ronnie Kray.
The moment you sh**t someone dead
in a London pub
in front of other people,
the law are gonna come for you.
The police knew within
a matter of hours who it was,
and they go down to The Blind Beggar
and start inquiring
as to who was there.
The principal witness
was the barmaid,
who saw the k*lling,
who also knew Ronnie Kray,
so there was no question of her
making a mistake with the g*nman.
This is an extraordinary document.
This is an unpublished manuscript
from Ronnie Hart.
Now, Ronnie Hart
is the cousin of the Krays,
and he's then a member of the firm.
Ronnie Hart writes about
the George Cornell k*lling.
"The following evening,
"Ronnie began boasting about
k*lling George Cornell.
"And I said,
'Fancy going into a pub,
"'just like that,
and sh**ting a man.
"'Aren't you worried about
the other people who were there?'
"He said,
'No, they won't say anything."
"'Otherwise, they will go as well,
and they know it.'"
The Kray twins had such power at
the time in the East End of London
that if you were told not to speak
about them, you wouldn't.
They shut people's mouths,
and family members were threatened.
People were terrorised.
They arrest Ronnie Kray.
They put him in a line-up.
The witnesses that turn up
do not identify Ronnie Kray.
They know that Ronnie Kray
walked into a pub and shot somebody.
Therefore,
he is not scared of anything,
and if he can do it
to George Cornell,
he can do it to them.
And Ronnie Kray is released.
By now, Ronnie believes
almost that he is impregnable,
certainly when he's not picked out
on the identification parade.
For the police, the attempts to nail
the Krays have gone west.
They know that
they're doing protection rackets.
They know
they're threatening people.
They know they're k*lling people,
but they don't have any witnesses.
These were people who, now,
had got into the deepest end
of violence.
m*rder.
Who were they gonna do next?
At the beginning of 1967,
Reggie was still hovering.
He wanted Frances
to still be part of his life.
She was already separated
from Reggie.
She wasn't living with him.
She tried her best
to remove herself.
He didn't want her to be able
to talk to other people about him,
because people were so scared
of the Krays now
that he actually wanted
to keep her on side,
so he would go round there
every Friday
with an envelope stuffed with money
and put it through her letter box.
He wouldn't go into the house,
because the family wouldn't have him
in the house.
She was in a pretty nervous,
frail state.
She was seeing psychiatrists.
She wasn't in a good way.
She was trapped by the circumstance
of being married to a Kray.
She'd made up her mind.
She wanted out.
She'd had enough.
On the 7th of June, 1967
..her brother, Frank,
goes to wake her up in the morning,
puts the cup of tea by the bed.
She's asleep. He goes away.
Comes back a few hours later.
She's not asleep. She's dead.
She's k*lled herself
with an overdose of barbiturates.
She's gone.
He was sitting at my mum's house,
and someone got in touch with him,
and they said, "I think
Frances has k*lled herself."
I've never seen anyone
as devastated like that.
I mean, even as a young kid,
I can remember him sitting there,
and he'd just look into the fire
the whole time, and I went to him,
like, you know, typical kid,
"Do you like my doll?"
And he went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."
And I went,
"I'm gonna name her Frances."
And he just pulled me to him
and hugged me, like that, you know?
And I remember that,
and even makes me go shivery, like,
thinking of it now
because I remember how sad he was.
When I saw Reggie a few days after
Frances had committed suicide,
erm, he was in a terrible state.
I went round to Vallance Road.
He came down, and I saw him crying,
and I all you could say was,
"I'm very sorry, Reg.
She was a lovely girl."
Cos you daren't say anything else.
I couldn't believe that I'm looking
at Reggie Kray crying like this.
And that's the only time
I ever saw him cry.
Me mum went to the funeral
and she said he was inconsolable.
Trying to throw himself
in the ground and everything.
He was trying to get in with her.
As if he wanted to go in with her.
And once she was gone,
nothing mattered any more.
He didn't care about anything
no more.
I think he thought he loved Frances,
but he wanted to possess her,
and that's not the same
as loving someone.
But I don't think he understood
because possession and love, to him,
were the same thing.
Her family were distraught.
Of course, they blamed Reggie Kray.
They felt that
they had k*lled her.
I never heard Violet blame, er,
Reggie of anything
to do with Frances.
I think she just blamed it
on Frances' state of mind
and thought that Reggie
was a good husband.
This is all I ever heard from Vi.
She wouldn't hear no wrong
about either of them.
It was such a short time
between marriage and death.
It seemed so sad, really.
I think
she was caught between two people
who squeezed the life out of her.
The suicide of Frances Kray
had a big impact.
Reg completely went to pieces.
He was using drugs. He was drinking.
He was mourning the loss
of his young wife,
despite the peculiar relationship
that they obviously had.
Reg lost his business-like,
smooth, club-owner facade
and became someone
who was increasingly unpredictable.
When Frances committed suicide,
I thought, "Pfft,
don't wanna to get anywhere near."
"Whoa, he'll be in a terrible state."
"Keep away from him."
Ronnie would ridicule him.
He wasn't giving him any,
erm, consolation
or put his arms around
his brother and say, "Never mind."
Ronnie's screaming at him
after his wife's death.
This is all to a man who's just
sitting there, crying, drunk.
He was in such a bad way.
I mean,
he wasn't right after Frances.
Ronnie now could get control,
because Ronnie knew
his brother was vulnerable and weak.
In his manuscript,
Ronnie Hart writes,
"Ronnie was always talking
about his k*lling of Cornell.
"He was very proud of his m*rder
and was constantly getting at Reggie"
"and asking him
when he was going to do his."
Ronnie said,
"Then we're together, then.
"Then it'll be,
like, twins together."
"We've both done it."
So, the pressure was on him to do
to do his m*rder.
Ronnie was shouting out to Reggie,
"I've k*lled mine,
now you k*ll yours!"
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