by John Pearson
In reproducing a few of these letter here one gets some idea of the way he wrote and spelled and because on re-reading them myself they kept an echo across the years of his inimitable voice.
‘Twins is special’ – Ron
Reg at eight weeks old.
The proud mother.Violet Kray between her two boys, Ron (left) and Reg (right), when they were still promising young boxers.
Indistinguishable from one another – the Twins’ passport photographs taken when they were twenty.
Not wanted in America – Ron’s visa to America which was cancelled on his arrival in New York in the aftermath of the Boothby case.
Photograph of the Twins as young boxers, signed by Reg and given to the author and his wife.
Ron and a friend enjoy a cigarette outside their hotel in Morocco in 1965.
Reg was already dressing like his hero, the American movie gangster George Raft, in this photograph taken in 1964 at Steeple Bay in Essex.
Gangster chic – a rare picture of all three brothers together taken outside ‘FortVallance’ their home in Bethnal Green.
Victory – Ron Kray (left) with his mother, Violet, and twin brother, Reg, looking on, being congratulated by his grandfather, ‘Cannonball’ Lee, outside the house in Vallance Road after their acquittal in the McCowan case.
The young reporter Michael Thornton at around the time that he was beaten up outside his home for ‘not respecting’ Ronald Kray.
The happy pair – Reg and Frances after their engagement.
One of the family – a wedding day picture of Frances in her wedding dress, standing rather warily between her new brother-in-law Ron Kray and her husband Reg Kray on the right.
Doing the business – Reg and Ron together on the eve of their arrest in 1968.
Farewell to Frances –the card which Reg Kray designed for the funeral of his wife, Frances, in 1965, complete with the poem he wrote in her memory.
Still no escape – the last resting place of Frances Kray in ‘Kray Corner’ in Chingford cemetery, next to her mother-in-law, Violet.
Farewell Morocco – the banning order from the Governor of Tangier excluding Ron Kray from his country as an ‘undesirable’ in September 1966.
The man from the Mafia who was Ron’s most faithful visitor in Broadmoor.
Lord Boothby and Ron Kray with another gay friend – ‘Mad’ Teddy Smith.
Ron Kray (third from right) having dinner at the old ‘Society’ restaurant with Christine Keeler as his guest.
The Boothby case – Lord Boothby and Ron Kray at Boothby’s flat in Eaton Square, together with rent boy and burglar Leslie Holt.
The letter of congratulation sent by Lord Boothby to Ron Kray after the twin’s acquittal at the McCowan trial.
The photograph that Ron Kray kept as evidence of his friendship with Lord Boothby. From left to right: Charlie Clark, cat burglar, Boothby’s butler, Goodfellow, Boothby, unidentified teenage boy, Ron Kray, and Billy Exley, gangster, with his wife, dining together at the old ‘Society’ restaurant in Jermyn Street, London.
The Twins’ necessary sacrifices: George Cornell murdered by the Twins.
Jack McVitie, murdered by the Twins.
The Blind Beggar scene of the Cornell murder.
‘Blonde Carol’ Skinner in whose flat Jack the Hat was murdered.
Frank Mitchell,‘the Mad Axeman’.
Ron Kray with his accusers – Ron, third from right, has dinner with two close associates who later betrayed him – on the left his cousin, Ronald Hart, and next to him the most successful con man in London, Leslie Payne. On the right is the old-time gangster, Sammy Lederman.
The spymaster from the USA Admiral John H. Hanly, head of the US Secret Service in Europe, who took on the Twins and caused more trouble than he bargained for.
‘The good guy’ – arsonist Geoff Allen among his friends.
The stately home which the Twins said was theirs – Gedding Hall in Suffolk, now the home of former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman.
Retirement home – ‘The Brooks’ in the village of Bildestone in Suffolk, which the Twins owned at the time of their arrest.
Twins united.
The tombstone of Ron and Reg in ‘Kray Corner’ in Chingford cemetery.