World's Worst Crimes: An A-Z of Evil Deeds by Charlotte Greig Page A
Authors: Charlotte Greig
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later said of them:
‘I saw beatings that were unnecessary even by underworld standards and witnessed people slashed with a razor just for the hell of it.’
In 1956, Ronnie Kray was imprisoned for his part in a beating and stabbing in a packed East End pub, and judged insane. But three years later he was released from mental hospital, and the twins were back in business, cutting a secret swathe of violence through the British capital while being romanticized in the British press – along with people like actors Michael Caine and Terence Stamp – as East-End-boys-made-good.
When they were arrested in 1965 for demanding money with menaces, a member of the British aristocracy actually stood up in the House of Lords and asked why they were being held for so long without trial. They were ultimately acquitted.
In the same year Ronnie, who was homosexual, committed his first known murder: of the chief lieutenant of the twins’ main rivals for criminal power in London, brothers Eddie and Charles Richardson.
George Cornell was shot in the head in another crowded East-End pub. But not a single witness was prepared to come forward. When Reggie heard the news of what his twin, known as ‘the Colonel,’ had been up to, he said:
‘Well, Ronnie does some funny things.’
Ronnie, though, was exultant at having got away with the killing and having sent out a message that he was above the law.
‘He was very proud. . .’
— said Hart,
‘and was constantly getting at Reggie and asking him when he was going to do his murder.’
Two years later Reggie chose his mark, a small-time robber and hard man called Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, who was said to have bad-mouthed the twins. Reggie had McVitie ‘escorted’ from a Hackney jazz club to a nearby basement, where Reggie stabbed him to death as his brother shouted him on.
In 1969, after a long undercover investigation, the Krays and their henchmen were finally brought to justice, charged with these two murders and with a third: that of an escaped convict called Frank Mitchell, nicknamed the Mad Axe-Man. Though Mitchell’s murder was never proved, both twins were given life sentences, with a recommendation that they serve at least thirty years.
Their elder brother Charlie, who’d helped to get rid of McVitie’s body, was sentenced to ten years.
In 1979, while still in prison, Ronnie was once more declared insane and sent to a mental hospital. But the myth of the Krays as East-End-boys-made-good – men who never forgot a good turn and loved their old neighbourhood and their mother – continued to cling to them.
A feature film was made about their lives and their careers of crime – in that, too, they resembled the American Mafia in more ways than one.
When they died in prison, five years apart, there were massive turn-outs at their lavish East-End funerals.
A Fatal Falling Out
Computer-generated reconstructions are becoming a familiar feature of murder trials in the United States, but there is increasing concern that juries are accepting them as factual representations of what happened, rather than as just one possible scenario. The dangers of accepting computer-generated reconstructions as evidence was highlighted in 1991 at the trial of Californian pornographer James Mitchell.
Forty-year-old James was on trial for the murder of his younger brother Artie. There was no denying the fact that James had killed Artie, for the five shots that had left the hard-drinking, drug-taking strip-club owner lifeless in the bedroom of his San Francisco home had been caught on tape by a 911 operator.
The question was, had James planned the shooting, or was it committed in the heat of the moment? The distinction was critical as premeditated murder carried a mandatory life sentence in the state, whereas manslaughter would put him away for just five or six years. The pair were known to have had heated arguments that frequently resulted in an exchange of blows, but they had always
‘I saw beatings that were unnecessary even by underworld standards and witnessed people slashed with a razor just for the hell of it.’
In 1956, Ronnie Kray was imprisoned for his part in a beating and stabbing in a packed East End pub, and judged insane. But three years later he was released from mental hospital, and the twins were back in business, cutting a secret swathe of violence through the British capital while being romanticized in the British press – along with people like actors Michael Caine and Terence Stamp – as East-End-boys-made-good.
When they were arrested in 1965 for demanding money with menaces, a member of the British aristocracy actually stood up in the House of Lords and asked why they were being held for so long without trial. They were ultimately acquitted.
In the same year Ronnie, who was homosexual, committed his first known murder: of the chief lieutenant of the twins’ main rivals for criminal power in London, brothers Eddie and Charles Richardson.
George Cornell was shot in the head in another crowded East-End pub. But not a single witness was prepared to come forward. When Reggie heard the news of what his twin, known as ‘the Colonel,’ had been up to, he said:
‘Well, Ronnie does some funny things.’
Ronnie, though, was exultant at having got away with the killing and having sent out a message that he was above the law.
‘He was very proud. . .’
— said Hart,
‘and was constantly getting at Reggie and asking him when he was going to do his murder.’
Two years later Reggie chose his mark, a small-time robber and hard man called Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie, who was said to have bad-mouthed the twins. Reggie had McVitie ‘escorted’ from a Hackney jazz club to a nearby basement, where Reggie stabbed him to death as his brother shouted him on.
In 1969, after a long undercover investigation, the Krays and their henchmen were finally brought to justice, charged with these two murders and with a third: that of an escaped convict called Frank Mitchell, nicknamed the Mad Axe-Man. Though Mitchell’s murder was never proved, both twins were given life sentences, with a recommendation that they serve at least thirty years.
Their elder brother Charlie, who’d helped to get rid of McVitie’s body, was sentenced to ten years.
In 1979, while still in prison, Ronnie was once more declared insane and sent to a mental hospital. But the myth of the Krays as East-End-boys-made-good – men who never forgot a good turn and loved their old neighbourhood and their mother – continued to cling to them.
A feature film was made about their lives and their careers of crime – in that, too, they resembled the American Mafia in more ways than one.
When they died in prison, five years apart, there were massive turn-outs at their lavish East-End funerals.
A Fatal Falling Out
Computer-generated reconstructions are becoming a familiar feature of murder trials in the United States, but there is increasing concern that juries are accepting them as factual representations of what happened, rather than as just one possible scenario. The dangers of accepting computer-generated reconstructions as evidence was highlighted in 1991 at the trial of Californian pornographer James Mitchell.
Forty-year-old James was on trial for the murder of his younger brother Artie. There was no denying the fact that James had killed Artie, for the five shots that had left the hard-drinking, drug-taking strip-club owner lifeless in the bedroom of his San Francisco home had been caught on tape by a 911 operator.
The question was, had James planned the shooting, or was it committed in the heat of the moment? The distinction was critical as premeditated murder carried a mandatory life sentence in the state, whereas manslaughter would put him away for just five or six years. The pair were known to have had heated arguments that frequently resulted in an exchange of blows, but they had always
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