by James Morton
By March that year Reggie was the one showing signs of stress and was described as ‘tense and voluble’. Fed up with the same old faces, conversation and routine, both wanted to go on Rule 43, which provided separation from the general prison population. ‘I doubt if their self-imposed isolation will last long’, wrote the Governor on 13 March. On 22 March Ron was sent to the prison hospital when his mental condition deteriorated further. Reg remained on his self-imposed Rule 43.
In September 1972 Reg was in Parkhurst’s Special Security Block (SSB) and his behaviour ‘gave no cause for concern’ but the troubles were expected to begin when he was placed in a ‘normal location’. Unfortunately he had become friendly with a recent arrival ‘whose influence on the wing is not a good one’. The Governor wrote, ‘I do not see him as an inmate leader in a dispersal situation. He is not a strong personality.’56
On 17 April 1973 Ron was found in bed with another prisoner and was told that if it happened again he would be placed on Rule 43. Then at 9.15 a.m. on 22 May armed robber Royal Stuart Grantham, who had spent 16 months in Broadmoor, and who had tried to escape from Gartree for which he lost a year’s remission, looked in on the Twins when they were in a cell together. At one time Grantham had been highly regarded by his fellow prisoners. Then he began to be seen as a grass and his status withered accordingly. A report of the incident read:
‘What then transpired is not yet known but Grantham came out of the cell with severe cuts to the side of his face which required 36 stitches in his face and nine in his left hand, subsequently found to have been inflicted with a broken bottle.’
When warders entered the cell they found a naked Reggie (now transferred to the SSB) sitting astride Grantham and punching him. Other prisoners, including Neil George Adamson, then serving life with a minimum of 30 years for two murders, had joined in punching the bleeding Grantham while he lay helpless on the bed.57 Once an incident is over, prisoners are usually unwilling to cooperate with the authorities both for their own safety and as a show of solidarity. But, not exactly in the spirit of prison omertà (the mafia code of honour), Ron said, ‘He’s an animal. He tried to hit me with a bottle, Gov, and before that he came in and poured a glass of my lemonade out.’ In turn, Reg complained that Grantham used to read his letters.
Grantham, sensitive of his reputation as a grass, behaved rather better. He said not only would he not make a statement to the police, but he wanted to apologise to the Twins. There was clearly enough evidence against them to bring charges of grievous bodily harm, but the prosecution would have had problems. Apart from Grantham’s lack of cooperation, it was thought other prisoners would lie on the Twins’ behalf and that if a prosecution was brought not only would a judge not add to their sentences but their prison reputations would be even more enhanced. The Director of Public Prosecutions declined to lay charges and it was decided they should be sent before Visiting Magistrates, where they lost 28 days’ privileges.58
That incident apart, by October 1973 Reg was once more regarded as the more stable of the Twins and something of a calming influence. That year, however, they were not recommended for downgrading. The Governor was told not to tell Ron ‘unless he asks’.
By August that year they were both again becoming increasingly irritable and Ronnie was showing new symptoms of paranoia. There were suggestions they might be moved to C wing or even to the hospital, but there were fears they would exercise control of other inmates and also that they had the money to organise an escape.
In February 1974 Charlie had been allowed to visit his brothers. Strictly speaking he could have been banned because of his conviction, although this rule was often waived in the case of family members. Strictly it was unauthorized, because although a visit by Charlie had been mooted, there had not been actual Home Office approval. However, both Twins were now suffering from depression and were anxious about their ‘present and future situation’, and the prison doctors thought a visit from Charleie might be beneficial.
High-profile and good-looking male prisoners attract a great deal of what could be called ‘fan mail’ from women on the outside. Often, it is a case of the worse the offence, the more the interest. Generally, there are advantages for both parties. The women often carry a burning reformatory zeal, but are not obliged to face up to the reality of life with the man in question. Instead they are showered with letters, poetry and presents. Another benefit is that there is often no actual danger that the man will be let out for years to come and that dreams will turn into nightmares. If things do go wrong it is generally the woman who suffers.
In a number of cases, for better or worse, but usually for the latter, the correspondence and subsequent visits do lead to marriage. That is the benefit for the prisoner: a home to go to helps with the parole. Over the years the Krays had their fair share of women who for one reason or another wished to attach themselves to them.
Back in 1973 Essex girl Stella Burnette, now enamoured with Ron, was refused permission to see him. She told The People:
‘I want him and am prepared to marry him no matter how long I have to wait. Apart from Ronnie’s mother I am the only woman in the world who cares for him.’59
In July 1974 Ronnie was said to be helping a 30-year-old woman overcome her drug problem, writing to her twice a week. She had apparently met him before his arrest. ‘I realised that he was shy with women. He didn’t know how to communicate with them. But I think I was able to help him over that and I believe I got through to him.’ He had bought her a hairdressing salon in Harrogate and she regarded him as a brother. She was now determined to kick her heroin habit so she could visit him.
Meanwhile, ‘buxom blond bombshell’ Christine Boyce was back on the scene and thought she had Reggie’s ‘licence to love’. She had left the country shortly before the trial. Reggie had given her permission to marry but didn’t want her new husband to accompany her on prison visits, and expected her to be rid of him by the time he was released.60
In his cell Reggie had two Constable prints on the wall as well as a radio, record player and dozens of records. There was also a photograph of Christine Boyce and one of his ex-wife Frances. Frank Kurylo would later write that he believed Christine was the real love of Reggie’s life, ‘far above his love for Frances Shea’, and that years into his sentence she was still writing to him.61
This was juxtaposed with the story of 40-year-old ex-barmaid Chloe, who told how Reggie ‘misses his pint’ and said that apart from his mother, she was the only woman who made ‘the lonely visit to Parkhurst’.62
Even when the Krays were not putting themselves in the limelight, prison officers and other inmates were happy to pass on details of their moves to the newspapers. ‘The crop-haired shaven-eyebrowed Straffen is their waiter and Dennis Stafford their cook,’ wrote Dan Wooding.63 John Straffen had killed two young girls in 1951. Reports that they did weight training three times a week and Reggie had taken up yoga were probably accurate.
In August 1974 they were still on the Special Wing and were described as withdrawn, spending most of their time in their cells. It was accepted that their prolonged stay in Special Security wings had caused personality damage. This situation did, however, have its benefits. They included showers and baths at any time, battery record players, inmates being able to cook for themselves and wearing some of their own clothes; they could write an unrestricted number of letters; they were allowed to receive extra-long fortnightly visits; and they enjoyed more frequent physical recreation. These privileges would cease on being moved back into the general prison population.
On 9 January 1975 the Twins were moved on, this time to C wing. There were, however, still vague fears they might try an escape.64
Two months later Dr Cooper, who had done so much to help prisoners in the aftermath of the 1969 Parkhurst riot, thought both the Twins should be moved to the psychiatric wing.
In July 1976, when both brothers were worki
ng as cleaners, it was reported that ‘neither exerted themselves’. In November that year there were suggestions Reg could be promoted to a Category B prisoner; a report read, ‘He is not prepared to accept he will be treated as any other life sentence prisoner and demands special privileges.’ Unless there was a ‘dramatic improvement, he will go to a dispersal prison’.65
Celebrities were beginning to campaign tentatively for the Twins’ release. In 1977 a rock musical England, England by Snoo Wilson and Kevin Coyne portrayed the Twins as Jim and Jake. Bob Hoskins, champion of the West London villain, and fellow actor John Bindon, thought society owed them a debt:
‘The ultimate paranoia is believing in your own myth then waking up one day and finding that it’s true. We helped to create the Krays because we need our villains. We still do. They got to the top of their profession through sheer animal courage. They were modern-day gladiators.’66
In October 1977 they were moved back to the hospital wing but by now their Category A status was seen as symbolic. In October the next year Reg was saying he hoped to be released in five or six years but it was thought ‘he is manufacturing some basis for hope (especially for mother) from an apparently hopeless situation’.67
In November 1979, there was some thought that Reg should go to Kingston Prison, a smaller, less pressurised establishment. It was hoped he might become an asset there by acting as a stabilising influence in the prison. However, a report in May 1980 suggested he had returned to his old ways and might act as a catalyst in the formation of a gang opposing other prisoners in Parkhurst’s mainstream population. On 5 August 1980 another report thought he had been involved in drugs and would always be involved in some black-market operation:
‘But that is the nature of the beast… he controls the fiddles and exerts considerable influence over other inmates. He has become far too sheltered at Parkhurst.’68
In June 1980 Reggie claimed he was happy to remain in the hospital wing in Parkhurst and wanted to give up his status as a gangster.
Meanwhile Ron’s mental condition had deteriorated sharply. He was in solitary confinement for several months and his future wife Kate claimed he was naked except for a blanket for much of the time. The very humane Dr Cooper arranged for him to have a transistor radio.
On 25 July 1979 he was sent to Broadmoor, and never left.
Nat. Arch. HO 336/869.
ibid.
Convicted in 1965, between 1960 and 1963 Copeland murdered three men, two in Derbyshire because they were gay, something he said he hated. His third victim was a 16-year-old boy in Germany whom he killed after watching the boy have sex with a girl.
Nat. Arch. HO 282/66.
Nat. Arch. HO 336/872.
Nat. Arch MEPO 26/329 [Closed].
Nat. Arch. HO 336/696.
Nat Arch. HO 336/715.
On 11 May 1970, 32-year-old Adamson received two life sentences with a 30-year minimum recommendation after being convicted of the murder of a policeman and a night-watchman during a botched safe-blowing expedition at Farsley, Yorkshire on 15 February that year. Nat. Arch. DPP 2/4817.
Nat. Arch. DPP 2/5288.
People, 14 April 1973.
People, 7 July 1974.
Freddie Foreman with Frank and Noelle Kurylo, Running with the Krays, p. 131.
Dan Wooding, ‘I’ve got Reggie’s licence to love’, People, 7 July 1974.
Dan Wooding, ‘The Kray Kings and their prison courtiers’, People, 30 June 1974. He was sent to Broadmoor the next year and, during the few hours he was at liberty when he escaped, he killed another girl. This time he was deemed sane and sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment. He died still in prison in November 2007.
Mirror, 21 January1975; Guardian, 29 January 1975.
Nat Arch. HO 336/722.
Philip Oakes, ‘Goings On’, Sunday Times, 14 August 1977.
Nat. Arch. HO 336/715.
Nat. Arch. HO 336/713.
Chapter 18
Ronnie Kray in Broadmoor
If Ronnie did not at first live in the lap of luxury in Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, by the end of his life he certainly lived in some comfort and style. Known, in less kindly days, as the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, the old Victorian red-brick building at the end of a long driveway may have initially seemed forbidding with its reputation for a scary clientele, but Ronnie had his own single-bedded room with a separate lavatory, a stereo system, television and radio. He wore his own clothes. A chain smoker, said to smoke up to 140 cigarettes a day, he would sit by his bed and roll his own – 10 or 12 at a time. Safe in Broadmoor, and taking his medication, Ronnie was now effectively untouchable. In her book Murder, Madness and Marriage, his wife Kate Kray claimed that, at his peak, Ron was making £20,000 a year financing and advising on such diverse activities as robberies, counterfeiting, travellers’ cheques and fake designer label clothes. After advising on one successful robbery of a jeweller in Brighton, he bought an interest in a wine bar in the town with his share of the proceeds. He splashed his earnings around on lavish presents for his gay friends – Kate claimed on one occasion she had to buy six Gucci watches for his lovers – and cashmere suits costing £800 for himself. ‘It may be that if he is well enough to be the director of a company, he is too well to be in Broadmoor’, one man complained ineffectually to the Home Office.
It had not always been peaches and cream. Kray was kept in isolation when he first arrived at Broadmoor on 25 July 1979, but shortly after his release into the main block he attacked another prisoner and was sent to the punishment block, the dreaded Norfolk House. On his release from the block he went to Somerset House and after 12 years there he moved to Henley Ward in a new block, Oxford House. His cell had an unbreakable window and he owned 14 shirts which he changed after every visit. Charlie, a fellow inmate, washed and ironed them and for his troubles was given a jar of coffee a week. Ron was allowed four hour-long visits a week and many of his visitors were East End friends who, according to Patrick McGrath, the son of one of the doctors:
‘…handed out liberal tips to patients left and right, and hopelessly disrupted the hospital’s delicate internal economy. After they left, the staff would make the rounds of the wards, relieving disappointed patients of large quantities of cash.’69
They also settled his bar bill (for tobacco and non-alcoholic beer), which over time had been allowed to run to several hundred pounds.
On 5 August 1982 the Twins’ mother Violet died. Over the years she had been a constant visitor, providing them with luxuries such as Brylcreem. She kept her cancer diagnosis secret from her sons right to the end, telling them she had been admitted to hospital for pneumonia. The Twins were allowed out of Broadmoor – Ron was the first ever – and Parkhurst respectively for her funeral a week later on 11 August. They met the coffin at the church, but care was taken that they were each handcuffed to large warders, so diminishing their physical stature. The funeral procession had started at Shoreditch and there were about 1,000 spectators. Mourners included two of the Nash brothers, Diana Dors and the boxer Terry Downes. There were over 300 wreaths which took 50 minutes to load into the cars, including from the train robber Buster Edwards, and a mound of chrysanthemums and lilies from ‘all the boys in Parkhurst prison’.
The faithful Father Hetherington told the congregation that he had the greatest respect and affection for her. ‘Among her qualities was loyalty, a loyalty to that which she held to be right, a loyalty to her family whom she loved, a loyalty to God’. The hymns ‘The King of Love my Shepherd Is’ and ‘Abide with Me’ were sung. There were unkind suggestions that old Charlie Snr was drunk and nearly fell into his wife’s grave.
The Sunday People thought it was a ‘Gangland Circus starring the Terrible Twins’. If, as people said, Violet was the only person of whom they were afraid, why did she not put her foot down more often?
After the service, Reggie kissed
Leicester magistrate Dora Hamilton, who had announced she was going to write a book about Violet. Hamilton simpered, ‘I managed to get a nice kiss from Reggie. They’re always so affectionate, you know’. It was something that added fuel to the speculation she might be removed from the bench, with suggestions that her position as a magistrate was not compatible with her friendship with Kray. She changed her publishers but the book never appeared.70 The Sunday Express thought, ‘Another thing we could do without is female magistrates being kissed by Reggie Kray… the Kray twins went down the aisle like a pair of popes blessing the faithful.’
Next month Father Hetherington felt able to reveal that both were independently studying the Bible, often a helpful step on the way to parole, at least for Reggie. Better still, both had received certificates for ‘understanding its meaning’.
While in Broadmoor Ronnie was alleged to have lived the life of an old-style mafioso to which he had aspired. It is said he had two people executed in London by hitmen and the only reason he did not put out a contract on his hated enemy Nipper Read is that he wanted to reserve the pleasure of killing him for himself. Kray had no time for Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. ‘He’s a nonce. I won’t talk to scum like that who cut up women. He knows better than to even look me in the eye. If I had my way I’d deal with him properly. For good.’71
In due course he arranged for the Glasgow hardman Jimmy Costello, who was serving ten years for firearms offences, to slash Sutcliffe in Parkhurst Prison’s hospital wing on 10 January 1983. The attack took place while Sutcliffe was getting water from a recess. Costello smashed him twice on the left side of his face with a broken coffee jar before Sutcliffe managed to push him away. One deep cut ran five inches from near his mouth to his neck, and another was two-and-a-half inches long, running from his left eye to his ear, requiring thirty stitches. Costello, who claimed Sutcliffe had attacked him, received a further five years.