London's Gangs at War

by Dick Kirby

  Just as controversial was the moment when McVitie’s widow Sylvia pointed at the dock and screamed, ‘It’s them! They killed him! It took ten of them – ten of them, it took to kill him, because he was a man and he wouldn’t bow down to you!’

  Harry Hopwood – friend of the twins’ parents and fellow Army deserter with Charles Kray Sr. – told the court how, following McVitie’s murder, the brothers turned up at his flat ‘smothered in blood’.

  John Dickson, who had given evidence in the Cornell case, returned to say that following the McVitie murder he had met Charlie Kray outside a Bethnal Green café who told him that, ‘McVitie had been “done” by the twins at a party’; when Dickson asked Ron how badly he was done, Ronald Kray had replied, ‘He was done proper’.

  Nipper Read gave evidence that Chrissie Lambrianou denied ever being at the party at Evering Road and that when he suggested to Ronnie Bender that he had been concerned in the killing, he replied, ‘It’s a joke to me.’

  When Read charged the twins with McVitie’s murder, Reg had replied, ‘Not guilty’, whilst Ron’s response was, ‘Your sarcastic insinuations are far too obnoxious to be appreciated’ – make of that what you will!

  Ronnie Kray went into the witness box to deny murdering Cornell, going to the Blind Beggar or going anywhere else with Barrie that night – and when he heard of the murder, he had got drunk in case the police blamed him, ‘because they blamed me for other things I hadn’t done’. Suggestions that he had changed his clothes were ‘lies and rubbish’, and he had not been identified on a parade that autumn which was run by Tommy Butler who, he claimed, had told a national newspaper that he was convinced that Mr Kray had nothing to do with the crime. Right.

  A witness was called to say that another man had killed Cornell and that Ron was ‘a good bloke’. The witness’s name? Francis Davidson Fraser, aka ‘Mad Frankie’, currently serving his fifteen-year sentence from the Torture Trial. Since he and Cornell had been fellow torturers, it was just a wonderful excuse for a day out and another chance to snub the authorities; as he left the witness box, calling out, ‘Good luck, Ron’, nobody was in any doubt about Ronnie’s sanity in calling him in the first place. John Platts-Mills must, by now, have favoured slitting his wrists.

  From the dock, Ian Barry denied both Cornell’s murder and the incriminating statement which he had made to Harry Mooney.

  Nipper Read had previously produced a statement made to him by Cornelius Whitehead – who had three previous convictions, including one for assaulting the police – in which he said that the twins explained to him why they had killed McVitie and that Reg had told him that if the police ever asked about the party, he was to say he had never been there.

  It was alleged by the prosecution that Mrs Whitehead and her son were afraid of Reg and that this was a matter which had to be addressed. Reggie Kray did not give evidence but, as he was allowed to, he made a speech from the dock. Telling the court that the evidence against him was ‘a pack of lies’, he was permitted to read aloud a poem which he had dedicated to Whitehead’s son, also named Connie. It is only right that this twenty-seven line poem in its full horror should be revealed here. Speaking softly and seriously, Reg Kray recited:

  Little Connie

  Is bright and bonnie,

  With mischief in his eyes.

  A saucy smile,

  He stood And pondered for a while.

  ‘I mustn’t tell lies, yet I must go out to play’,

  Thought little Connie.

  ‘Wonder what I can say?’

  He knew it was getting dark

  But he did fancy having a lark.

  ‘Mum, can I go out on my bike?

  I’ll only be a little while’.

  ‘No’, said Mum,

  ‘You’ve got to get your sleep’.

  Connie made out to weep

  And said the other kids did as they liked.

  ‘Still, you have got to go to bed.’

  Connie did as Mum said,

  And a Beano comic he read.

  A twinkle in his eyes,

  The comic made him smile.

  He felt, after a while

  Like going to sleep,

  Remembering tomorrow, he could play all day

  And that night, for Mum and Dad he could pray.

  Then little Connie was sound asleep.

  As he sat down, the other defendants writhed in embarrassment and gazed at their shoes. Eye contact was impossible. A detective who was present stated that in order to prevent himself laughing out loud he had bitten his lip so hard it almost bled.

  Things were going downhill. Chrissie Lambrianou denied that Mrs Skinner had seen him carrying a bucket of blood and water (‘She’s been watching too many Dracula films . . . it’s a wonder she didn’t say I drank it as well.’) His brother Tony declared, ‘I’m being framed’ and said that he did not believe for one minute that McVitie was dead, while Ronnie Bender – a man with four previous convictions, which included a three-month sentence for possessing a firearm – denied disposing of McVitie’s body (‘I’m no magician’). He added that Ronnie Kray was ‘a benevolent man; I think the word is philanthropist.’

  But the following day, Reg Kray was on top form. When Kenneth Jones was cross-examining a witness, Reg leapt to his feet shouting, ‘You fat slob! What’s it got to do with this case?’ Next in line for Reg’s disapprobation was Detective Sergeant Trevor Lloyd-Hughes. Referring to Frances’ funeral, he shouted, ‘I’ll tell you something. He followed me to the funeral . . . he followed me to the mortuary – didn’t you? You pigs, fat slobs, bastards!’ Pointing at Lloyd-Hughes he screamed, ‘You dirty pig! I’ve got witnesses, you stinking pig!’

  Mr Justice Melford Stevenson, who must have possessed the patience of Job, had just about had enough and now he snapped: ‘Take him down.’

  As he was dragged off to the cells, Reg Kray shouted at the judge, ‘You’re biased; I’ve had enough of your comments!’ And when this had little or no effect, he screamed at Kenneth Jones, ‘You fat slob – sit down and don’t laugh at me!’

  The façade of calm, respectable businessmen facing trumped-up charges had not just crumpled, it had disintegrated. Ronnie Kray, in particular, when asked by Kenneth Jones about his nickname (‘The Colonel’), shouted, ‘Your name is Taffy Jones to all the prison officers. So you have a nickname as well. We both have nicknames and mine is better than yours!’ Ron’s repartee had sunk to the level of name-calling in the school playground.

  Tony Barry, one of those on trial for McVitie’s murder, told the jury that he had taken the gun to the party because ‘if I hadn’t gone round with the gun, they would definitely have come back . . . and I would have ended up getting hurt as well as McVitie.’

  The gun which he had thrown into a canal had been retrieved by the Yard’s Underwater Search Unit, exactly at the spot where Barry had said he had discarded it. Examination revealed that the mechanism was defective and would have caused the weapon to misfire, just as it had when Reg Kray had tried to shoot McVitie.

  Barry also mentioned that he had seen Reg slash an ex-boxer named Henry ‘Buller’ Ward in the face with a knife; when this was corroborated by Dennis Clarke, a doorman at the Regency Club, Reg Kray leapt to his feet shouting, ‘Can we have Buller Ward in court?’ Dock officers tried to restrain him, while Reg shouted that this was not a fair trial and demanded, ‘Get him here and ask him – this is a trial within a trial!’ It was just as well for Reg that Ward was not called; examination of his face would have revealed that the knife wound had required thirty stitches.

  Tony Barry’s brother John, a co-manager of the Regency Club, told of one of the doormen being badly assaulted by the Firm, after which he paid £50 per week to Ronnie Kray.

  Freddie Foreman believed the twins to be ‘very nice people’, and Barrie denied any involvement with the shooting of Cornell. At the time, he had been drinking elsewhere with several people, including Charles Kray Sr. Believing that the police would
blame the Krays for the murder, he thought it best to leave the district and adopt a false name, because although he had nothing to hide, everyone connected with the Krays was being ‘scooped up and put in prison’.

  Mr Platts-Mills’ final speech for Ronnie Kray lasted twelve hours and five minutes; William Howard QC for Barrie suggested that the barmaid at the Blind Beggar was ‘not absolutely sure’ when she identified his client; and Paul Wrightson QC for Reg Kray asked the jury, perhaps rather helplessly, ‘Is it not unfortunate to be a Kray twin?’

  James Ross QC, counsel for Tony Lambrianou, described Ronald Hart’s testimony as ‘unspeakable’, while Tony Barry’s barrister, Mr W.M.F. Hudson, did very well in rowing his client to the shore, saying, ‘Barry is here today because he carried that gun and for nothing else. What a diabolical way to get a man bound to silence.’ Charlie Kray did not give evidence, but his counsel, Desmond Vowden, said there was no reliable evidence against his client; and Tom Williams QC for Foreman urged the jury to consider only the evidence and not its implications.

  During his summing-up, Mr Justice Melford Stevenson commented that Ronnie Kray’s defence to both charges was, in effect, ‘I wasn’t there’. But if he had gone to ‘Blonde Carol’s’ flat, why deny it? And with regard to Tony Barry, was he under duress when he took the gun to Evering Rd?

  The all-male jury’s retirement lasted six hours and fifty-five minutes before unanimously reaching their verdicts. They did believe that Tony Barry had been placed under duress since they acquitted him of McVitie’s murder; and as a woman in the public gallery cried out, ‘Thank God!’, he was discharged. Ron Kray and Barrie were found guilty of Cornell’s murder. Both twins, the Lambrianou brothers and Ronald Bender were found guilty of McVitie’s murder. Charlie Kray, Freddie Foreman and Cornelius Whitehead were found guilty of being accessories to McVitie’s murder.

  Sentences were passed the following day, 5 March 1969. Albert Donoghue had changed his pleas to guilty in respect of a conspiracy to effect Frank Mitchell’s escape from prison and harbouring Mitchell. He had already pleaded guilty to being an accessory following McVitie’s murder, and for these three offences he was sentenced to, respectively, two periods of eighteen months and one of two years’ imprisonment, all to run concurrently. He adhered to his not guilty plea to murdering Mitchell, and Kenneth Jones offered no evidence on that charge, saying it was proposed to call Donoghue at a later stage for the prosecution.

  ‘I’m not going to waste words on you’, the judge told Ronald Kray. ‘The sentence is that of life imprisonment. In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities.’ In sentencing Reggie Kray, the judge said, ‘For the same reasons I have already indicated when dealing with your brother Ronald, you will go to prison for life and I recommend that you also be detained for thirty years.’

  Charlie Kray was sentenced to ten years, the judge telling him, ‘I am satisfied that you were an active helper in the dreadful enterprise of concealing the traces of the murder.’ The same sentence was imposed on Freddie Foreman, the judge saying that he had played an essential part in disposing of traces of the murder. Connie Whitehead received a seven-year sentence; this was consecutive to a two-year sentence for possessing forged American dollars.

  John ‘Scotch Ian’ Barrie received the mandatory term for Cornell’s murder, with a recommendation that he serve twenty years; Ronald Bender got the same sentence for McVitie’s murder; and the Lambrianou brothers received fifteen-year recommendations.

  The judge praised the jury and also Nipper Read, of whom he said, ‘I cannot part with this case without saying that the debt owed to Detective Superintendent Read and the officers who served under him cannot be overstated and can never be discharged.’

  It was all over. The trial had lasted thirty-nine days, one of the longest criminal trials in British legal history. Twenty-eight self-confessed criminals had volunteered their services to the prosecution. Twenty-three barristers had been employed, including nine Queen’s Counsel (five of whom were Recorders), two MPs and one former MP, an Attorney-General of the County Palatine of Durham and an Old Bailey Commissioner. The legal costs were in excess of £75,000, to which the Krays contributed nothing.

  They had been granted legal aid.

  CHAPTER 22

  The Mitchell Murder Trial

  The next trial at the Old Bailey, with Mr Justice Lawton presiding, commenced on 15 April 1969. The three Kray brothers pleaded not guilty to the murder of Frank Mitchell, as did Freddie Foreman. Also named was a Ronald Olliffe, who had failed to appear; a warrant was issued for his arrest. Connie Whitehead pleaded not guilty to harbouring the defendants knowing they had murdered Mitchell.

  The three Krays, Whitehead, Patrick ‘Big Pat’ Connelly (currently serving a two-year sentence for possessing a gun) and Wally Garelick all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to effect the escape of Mitchell from Dartmoor; and although Charlie and Ron Kray denied harbouring Mitchell after his escape, this was admitted by Reg Kray, Tommy Cowley and Connie Whitehead.

  After Kenneth Jones for the prosecution had stated that Cowley and Whitehead were ‘minor characters’ in the case, the judge jailed each of them for nine months, in Whitehead’s case this being consecutive to his previous sentence. Perhaps surprisingly, Garelick and Cowley were both granted bail, with substantial sureties. This was especially surprising in Garelick’s case because his former girlfriend, who was receiving continuous police protection, was due to give evidence.

  Jurors were challenged, at the request of John Platts-Mills on behalf of Ronnie Kray, to determine whether or not they were partial, given the enormous amount of publicity generated by the previous trial. Perhaps this was superfluous, because Mr Justice Lawton told them they would be receiving police protection.

  Before the trial got underway, Garelick changed his plea to guilty and the Crown offered no evidence against Whitehead for harbouring Mitchell’s alleged murderers.

  The court heard evidence of Mitchell’s lifestyle at Dartmoor: of his almost unrestricted freedom, his womanizing in a nearby town and his ability to purchase large amounts of spirits and cider. In fact, a former prisoner told the jury that there was an unwritten law at the prison that Mitchell could do what he wanted. Possibly recalling his father’s draconian regime as a prison governor, the judge remarked, ‘This just sounds like cloud-cuckoo land, does it not?’

  Over the next few days, evidence was heard of Mitchell’s escape and of his behaviour becoming more and more disruptive at the Barking Road flat, but the prosecution now rested on the testimony of Albert Donoghue. He stated that he had visited the flat several times while Mitchell was there and that following a meeting with four men he was told to be outside the flat, with Mitchell, at 8.00 pm on 23 December. One of the men, whom he referred to as ‘Jerry’, was standing by a van door and signalled him to bring Mitchell out. Donoghue told the court:

  I brought Frank out and he got rather excited when we passed a policeman on patrol. I took him to the van and Jerry told him to get in. The other three men were in the van. Frederick Foreman and a man called Gerrard were sitting on the left. Ronald Olliffe was driving. Foreman told me to go to the front of the van and tell the driver the route. As I walked up and got in, both doors closed and two guns started firing as the van drove off. I spun round and saw Mitchell on his knees, clutching his chest. The guns were just blasting away at him. One was a small revolver, which Gerrard had. The other was a black automatic with a silencer. It was Foreman’s. Mitchell fell back on his shoulders, his knees were up. Mitchell started making noises from his throat. Foreman held the gun about a foot away from Mitchell’s chest and fired three shots. The material of Mitchell’s coat was jumping up and down. Mitchell made some more noise and Gerrard said, ‘The bastard’s still alive. Give him another one, Fred; I’m empty.’

  Donoghue later told of seeing Foreman at his pub and handing him an envelope from Reg Kray containing £1,075; he said that Foreman had described disposing of Mitchell’s body, c
ourtesy of an unknown man in the country whom Foreman described as ‘a funny old fella’. Donoghue believed the body had been dismembered because Foreman had described Mitchell’s heart as being ‘ripped and burst’ and, cupping his hands to indicate size, had said it was ‘surprising how small his brain was, for a big man like that’. There was, said Donoghue, a reference to putting Mitchell’s body ‘into the pot’, which he took to be an incinerator.

  If Donoghue’s testimony was to be believed it was pretty impressive, and damning too. As to other alleged murderers, Ronnie Olliffe had disappeared, as had Jeremiah Callaghan and Alfie Gerrard, wanted by the police for car thefts and assaults.

  Freddie Foreman’s barrister, Tom Williams, tore into Donoghue, accusing him of being the murderer and suggesting that the whole story had been manufactured between him and Billy Exley – something which was just as resolutely denied.

  On 24 April, after legal submissions had been made, the judge directed the jury to acquit Charlie and Ronnie Kray on the murder charge. However, the case was rather weakened after Nipper Read gave evidence that police had received thirty-five sightings of Mitchell, with twelve people saying they had seen him on various occasions.

  Reggie Kray now took the stand to say that on 23 December he had been at Pat Connelly’s birthday party and had given John Dickson £200: £100 each for Lisa Prescott and Mitchell who, he understood, was going to be spirited out of the country by boat.

  Lisa Prescott had previously told the court that Reg Kray had told her that if she ever mentioned anything about Mitchell, no matter when or where, he would always find her. She said, ‘He was not rude at all, very quiet spoken. He meant he would kill me.’

  Asked by his barrister, Paul Wrightson, if he had told Miss Prescott not to tell anyone, Reg blandly replied, ‘I didn’t think there was any reason to.’

  In fact, he stated that Donoghue had told him there had been an argument about Mitchell wanting to leave with Miss Prescott, whereupon Mitchell had grabbed him by the throat and Donoghue had panicked and shot him.