Not for the first time, but this time for good, London’s notorious Kray twins were put behind bars 50 years ago today.
The 34-year-old Ronnie and Reggie Kray were arrested during a series of dawn raids on various properties in and around London. Initially boasting they would be out on bail in days, in fact they would never again be free men. Ronnie later died in jail of a heart attack while Reggie was only released on compassionate grounds with terminal cancer, dying just a few weeks later.
The identical twin brothers were not alone in being arrested early on the morning of May 8th, 1968. Their elder brother Charlie (41) was also picked up along with 15 other members or associates of their gang, known as “The Firm”. The police team, led by Detective Inspector Leonard “Nipper” Read, Of Scotland Yard, kept each of the suspects isolated so they could not co-operate.
Police had been monitoring the activities of the Krays and their powerful criminal ‘firm’ for several years, but operations were stepped up after the murders of two underworld figures, George Cornell and Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie. Each of the suspects arrested on May 8th was offered one chance to ‘turn Queen’s evidence’ in order to reduce their own sentence. Some, facing long prison terms, took the opportunity and their evidence led to further arrests as the Krays’ organisation began to fall apart.
On the surface the Krays were successful businessmen, owning a string of nightclubs in the West End, East End and Knightsbridge and often pictured in the press rubbing shoulders with celebrities. But it was an open secret that the former amateur boxers, born and raised in the tough East End, made their money from protection rackets, extortion, armed robbery and other criminal activities.
The twins were the first to be arrested when police forced their way into their mother’s council flat in Finsbury, finding them both still sleeping. The entire operation had been conducted under strict secrecy and on a ‘need to know’ basis to avoid the Krays or their associates being tipped off, as had happened before. It worked and many of the key figures of London’s criminal underground were caught as the net tightened.
Detectives had also been building their evidence for more than a year, with key witnesses offered police protection in return for giving evidence about the gang’s criminal activities. Many were happy to co-operate, despite the ‘wall of silence’ which supposedly existed among the criminal fraternity. In truth it was riddled with petty rivalries, grudges and power struggles and the arrests provided an opportunity for some to gain retribution.
A string of charges was brought against the Kray twins, the most serious being their roles, both direct and indirect, in the murders of Cornell and McVitie. It would be 10 months before the case was brought to trial at the Old Bailey, dominating national newspaper headlines. The fame the twins had courted as ‘successful London businessmen’ now worked against them.
At the end of the trial in March 1969 they were both convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a ruling they serve at least 30 years before being considered for parole. Their brother, Charlie, got 10 years for his part in the murders. Many felt the sentencing judge, backed by the government, had made an example of them to help stamp out organised crime in London, but few protested at that time.
As the years passed they faded from public memory until a 1990 film about them, featuring pop star twins Gary and Martin Kemp, reignited interest and fuelled a campaign to get them released on parole. It failed, with successive Home Secretaries refusing to release them. Ronnie Kray died of a heart attack in prison in 1995. His twin, Reggie, was later diagnosed with terminal cancer and released on compassionate grounds just a month before his death in October 2000.
Fascination with the Krays and their rule of the East End in the 1950s and ’60s remains to this day, spawning a string of books, films and TV documentaries. A 2015 film, “Legend”, saw actor Tom Hardy highly praised for playing both twins and capturing their distinct and ultimately destructive personality traits.