The Kray Twins: Notorious east London gangsters

The pair used intimidation to run protection rackets and nightclubs in the East and West End. As their reputation grew, they mixed with popular celebrities. The fashion photographer David Bailey even took their photo.

But after being convicted for murder in 1969, the Kray Twins were sentenced to life in prison.

Films and books published since have added the twins to London legend – glamourised as gangsters-with-manners whose sharp image matched the 1960s revolutions in fashion, design and music.

Our collection at London Museum includes two paintings from their decades spent in prison.

The Kray’s parents were Violet Lee and Charles Kray, a door-to-door dealer of clothes and jewellery.

The twins were born on 24 October 1933 on Stean Street, Hoxton. Together with their older brother, Charlie, they were brought up in a house on Vallance Road in Bethnal Green.

Like many boys from the East End, the twins joined a boxing club. They had their first professional fight aged 17. But any hopes of a career ended in 1952 when, like all young men in Britain aged 18, they were called up to the army for national service.

They refused to complete their national service, ignored orders and were sent to military prison, even spending time locked up at the Tower of London. After a court-martial – a military trial – and more time in prison, they were dishonourably discharged in 1954.

After dodging national service and serving time in prison, the Krays took over a billiard hall on Mile End Road, which they used as a base for the scams and extortion carried out by their gang – The Firm.

The twins gained a reputation for violence. One assault by Reggie landed him in prison for three years in the late 1950s. While there he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

In the 1960s the twins’ influence increased significantly when they were recruited by the powerful gangster Billy Hill. The Krays moved into the West End of London, and started running a number of gambling operations and nightclubs.

The clubs they ran made the Krays well-known figures in 1960s London. Celebrities passed through – they met actors like Judy Garland and Barbara Windsor, and invited boxer Joe Louis over from the USA. The brothers also built up influential contacts in politics, the aristocracy and the Metropolitan Police.

Reg married his first wife, Frances, in 1965. But she tragically took her own life only two years later, aged just 23.

The gang’s violence increased significantly during the 1960s. Despite their corrupt contacts, the group’s crimes eventually became impossible for the authorities to ignore.

In 1966 Ronnie Kray murdered George Cornell, shooting him in the head in the Blind Beggar Pub in Mile End, east London.

And in 1967 Reggie Kray murdered Jack “the Hat” McVitie, a member of their own gang, in Stoke Newington, also in east London.

After being arrested, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were tried in 1969 and sentenced to life in prison for the murders. Their brother Charlie was also convicted of helping to dispose of McVitie’s body.

While in prison, the Krays’ legendary status grew. All three brothers, as well as many of the people they knew, wrote books telling versions of their story, and the twins spoke regularly with journalists.

Ronnie Kray died in prison in 1995. Suffering with illness, Reggie was released in 2000 to spend his final weeks with his wife. He died the same year. The twins and their mother Violet are buried at Chingford Mount Cemetery, east London.