Ronnie and Reggie Kray were two of the most notorious gangsters in British history – and a new Amazon Prime true crime special is set to lift the lid even more on their reign of terror.
The Kray twins, born in Hackney in 1933, were prominent criminals, involved in several arson attacks, bribes, robberies, illegal gambling rackets, and even murders.
Known for being as fascinating as they were frightening, the Krays have been the subject of countless documentaries over the years, including Amazon Prime’s new documentary Krays: London Gangsters.
While their private lives were full of dark secrets, their public exploits saw the pair become London celebrities, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dame Joan Collins, Dusty Springfield, and many more.
As part of the Swinging Sixties scene in London, the Krays also gained enough of a reputation to establish links with the New York mafia over the years.
London Gangsters, available on Amazon Prime Video from July 19, charts the Krays’ rise and fall and features interviews with those who knew them best.
Who were the Kray Twins?
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were identical twins, born on October 24, 1933 in Haggerston, Hackney, East London. Reggie arrived 15 minutes before his brother.
The sons of wardrobe dealer Charles and mother Violet Annie Lee, they grew up in the East End with older brother Charles. Another sibling, sister Violet, was born in 1929 but died in infancy.
The pair took up boxing as youngsters, being encouraged to do so by their maternal grandfather, Jimmy ‘Cannonball’ Lee, and later turned professional.
However, this ended after Ronnie and Reggie were called up to do National Service in 1952, only to be given a dishonourable discharge from the Army after assaulting a corporal and going absent without leave.
They were subsequently arrested and imprisoned, where their behaviour became only worse, with the pair dumping a latrine bucket over a sergeant and handcuffing a prison guard to the bars of their cell.
Their criminal records and dishonourable discharges ended their boxing career, and saw them turn towards a life of crime instead.
They bought a run-down snooker club in Mile End, from which they started their criminal gang, The Firm, and became involved in several crimes, including armed robberies, assaults, and murder.
Keeping their dealings secret, the Krays hit celebrity status in the 50s and 60s as trendy nightclub owners, running the Knightsbridge venue Esmerelda’s Barn.
It was there that they became friends with key figures in the House of Lords, prominent MPs, London socialites, and famous faces including Barbara Windsor, and Judy Garland.
What happened to The Krays?
The twins’ life of crime eventually caught up with them after Ronnie shot George Cornell dead at the Blind Beggar Pub in Whitechapel in March 1966. It was the first murder either of the Krays committed.
Cornell belonged to a rival gang, the Richardsons, who ran a scrap metal business in public but were also a secret criminal organisation behind closed doors.
Although nobody was convicted of Cornell’s murder at the time, the Krays soon turned one killing into another – their next victim was Firm member Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie in October 1967.
After McVitie failed to follow through on a contract to kill their financial adviser, Leslie Payne, the pair lured him to a flat in Stoke Newington where Reggie stabbed him to death.
Many members of the Firm believed that McVitie did not deserve to die and, upon hearing about the killing, began to wonder if they would befall the same fate.
The Krays were arrested in 1968 after an investigation by Detective Leonard ‘Nipper’ Reed, who had slowly built up enough evidence against them after two previous investigations in 1964 and 1967.
After having previously been met with a ‘wall of silence’ when investigating the pair, some Firm members began to talk, and the pair were detained in May 1968.
In March 1969, the two were eventually sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for 30 years for the murders of Cornell and McVitie.
Ronnie was a paranoid schizophrenic and was committed to Broadmoor Hospital in 1979, where he remained until his death from a heart attack in 1995, aged 61.
Five years later, Reggie was eventually released from Wayland Prison in Norfolk on compassionate grounds – he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and died weeks later.
What films are there about The Krays?
The Krays’ life story has been told and retold across various TV shows, documentary series, books, and feature films over the last 50 years.
In 1990, The Krays – the first of several films about the criminal twins – was released, starring Spandau Ballet brothers Gary and Martin Kemp as the two Kray twins.
15 years later, Tom Hardy starred as both Reggie and Ronnie Kray in the 2015 biopic Legend, which was based on the 1972 book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, by John Pearson.
A low-budget two-part film series, titled The Rise of the Krays and The Fall of the Krays, was released in 2015 and 2016 after receiving funding from West Ham board members David Sullivan and Terry Brown.
The Krays: Dead Man Walking was released in 2018 and focused on the death of Kray associate Frank Mitchell, while 2021 film Code of Silence focused on the investigation by Nipper Read.
A sequel to Dead Man Walking, titled New Blood, focusing on the suicide of Reggie’s wife Frances, was planned for release, but is yet to see the light of day.
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