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From Hell

Posted by The Ripper on March 17, 2014
Posted in: Crime, TV & Films. Tagged: , , , .

From Hell
From Hell

There have been numerous films based, albeit loosely, on the ‘career’ of the East End’s most infamous son, Jack the Ripper.  Given the scope for speculation, it is perhaps surprising that there have not been more – but, for dramatic effect, most are inaccurate in their historical portrayal of facts. There is of course nothing wrong with this, as long as the viewer remembers that they are merely dramatic pieces – it’s the difference between reading a novel or an encyclopaedia.

The 2002 film ‘From Hell’ is one such story. Starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham, this film has a graphic novel feels to it – unsurprising as that is how the story started out. So firstly, why ‘From Hell’? In one of the letters written by the ‘real’ Jack the Ripper, this was the return address he used on the correspondence.

Set in 1888 in the East End of London, the film starts by highlighting the plight of the unfortunate poor who spend their appalling lives in the city’s deadliest slum, Whitechapel.

Street Gangs force prostitutes to walk the streets for a living, and Mary Kelly (Heather Graham) and her small clutch of companions lives their miserable existence, consoling themselves with the fact that things can’t get any worse. However, when their friend Annie is kidnapped the women are drawn into a conspiracy with connections far higher up the social ladder than any of them could possibly imagine.

Annie’s kidnapping is rapidly followed by the gruesome murder of another of their group, Polly, and it becomes apparent that the women are being hunted down, one at a time. Even by the standards in Whitechapel at the time, this murder attracts the attention of Inspector Fred Abberline (played by Johnny Depp with a half decent cockney accent), a talented yet troubled man whose police work is often aided by his ‘psychic’ abilities, an ability he attempts to enhance by frequent visit to the numerous Opium Dens prevalent in the area at the time. Abberline is portrayed as an opium addict and when “chasing the dragon” he is able to have visions of the future, a certain psychic ability that allows him to solve cases.
From-Hell-Cover

Being Hollywood, Abberline becomes deeply involved with the case, which becomes personal when he and the attractive Mary begin to fall in love. However, as Abberline gets closer to the truth, the Whitechapel area is becoming more and more dangerous for his love interest, Mary, and the other girls. Whichever individual is responsible for the gruesome acts of murder and evisceration is not going to give up his secret without a fight….

The film is entertaining enough, but sharped eyed members of the audience will spot a number of errors that seem to have been overlooked for ‘poetic license’ purposes.

We are shown a shot of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. However, it only gained its “Royal” status in 1990 – for the rest of its previous 250 years history, from when it was constructed on its present site in 1757, it was simply called ‘The London Hospital’.

A short while after the second murder, Inspector Abberline refers to “Jack the Ripper”. However, the murderer was not to become known by that name until the double event murder and receipt of the “Dear Boss” letter, which took place 4 weeks later.

Like most film and Television versions of the Ripper murders, From Hell shows the Ripper’s victims as being considerably younger and more attractive than in real life. Sadly, the vast majority of the prostitutes in the East End were gin soaked and riddled with disease, which quickly robbed them of their looks. Hollywood lets us down again….

Spitalfields Market

Posted by The Ripper on March 17, 2014
Posted in: Trade. Tagged: , , .

Spitalfields Market
Spitalfields Market in the East End first came into being when Charles the First granted a licence for ‘flesh, fowl and roots’ to be sold on the Spittle Fields – a field adjacent to the hospital and priory of St Mary’s Spittel – which then was an area of London that had remained relatively rural until the Great Fire of London.

Traders had begun operating beyond the city gates – on the site where today’s market stands, following the Great Fire in 1666.

The market was re-founded in 1682 by Charles II as a result of the necessity of providing fresh produce to the ever growing population of the new suburb of London.

Spitalfields Market was a huge success and was open for six days a week throughout most of the eighteen century, but the market began to fall into decline after 1876.

A market porter, Robert Horner, decided to do something about the situation. He bought a short lease on the whole market, and began work on developing new market buildings.

These buildings were sited on the rectangular patch of open ground which retained the name Spittle Fields: Nowadays, the area covered is defined by Crispin Street to the west, Lamb Street to the north, Red Lion Street to the east and Paternoster Row which later became known as Brushfield Street to the south.

Spitalfields Market Floor

However, the market’s popularity was instrumental in its downfall – due to its location, deep in the heart of London; the narrow streets made traffic congestion a real problem. Finally, in 1991, the market was moved to Leyton over in East London, and it seemed that Spitalfields Market was destined to be a name consigned to the history books.

Nevertheless, following almost two decades of careful restoration and regeneration, the market now houses a new collection of artisans. Independent retailers now rub shoulders with restaurants and vintage clothing stalls, bringing this part of the East End back to vibrant life…

The Rag Trade

Posted by The Ripper on March 8, 2014
Posted in: Trade. Tagged: , , , , , .

The Rag Trade
The area of the East End known as Spitalfields has been home to clothing manufacturing businesses (often referred to as ‘The Rag Trade’) for over 250 years.  Started primarily by the Huguenots, religious refugees from Eighteenth century France, the Rag Trade has dominated the area ever since.

Spitalfields represented the most concentrated Huguenot settlement in England and it was said that you were as likely to hear French being spoken in the streets of the East End as the mother tongue of English. In fact, the amount of Huguenot migration from France was so great (estimated at almost twenty five thousand individuals – a huge amount given the population at the time) that it is believed that amongst the current population in the South East of England, more than 90% may have Huguenot ancestors.
Huguenot Wever in the East End

The Huguenots were talented weavers who became very successful and their businesses soon boomed. They invested the money they made to construct the tall, impressive town houses that line the streets of the Brick Lane area (for a chance to glimpse into their world, see the article on Dennis Severs House on this website). With their long windows to let in the maximum amount of light, a factor essential for a weaver, together with their high ceilings, these properties are now highly sought after.

By the nineteenth century the weavers had long gone (primarily due to the joint factors of employment restrictions and mechanisation) and the properties had started to fall into disrepair. The once grand Huguenot homes were then turned into lodging houses where London’s poorest and most desperate could spend the night for a penny. Those who could not even afford the cost of a bed would end up sleeping whilst sitting upright on a bench, their tired and weary bodies held in place by a rope.

The properties became filthy, flea-ridden doss houses where petty crime was rife. Home to gin soaked Whitechapel prostitutes, these sorry individuals would have slept in these common lodging houses whilst Jack the Ripper committed his horrendous murders in the streets outside.

As the French weavers moved out another group of settlers began to move in. Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the persecution of Jews in Russia became even fiercer, and a wave of pogroms swept across Russia and neighbouring countries. Many Jewish families fled Eastern Europe between 1881 and 1914, prompted by economic hardship and increasingly ferocious persecution and moved to the East End for a fresh start.

A large numberJewish Tailors in the East End of Jews who landed in England were actually intending to make their way to America, but about 120,000 stayed in this country. Attracted by the East End’s reputation as a place for cheap living, (and by the fact that it had been home to a Jewish population in previous decades), large numbers of Jews settled in Spitalfields, often finding work in the ‘rag trade’. Indeed, by the end of the Nineteenth century, Jews represented about 95 per cent of the population in the Wentworth Street district of Spitalfields and had also settled around Whitechapel, Aldgate and Mile End.

Eventually, the Jewish community moved further out to the suburbs, such as Golders Green and Hendon, and in their wake, the clothing trade was taken over by another ethnic group, that of Bengali Muslims, who remain to this day. Indeed a visit to Brick Lane nowadays finds the senses assaulted with the sights, sounds and smells of the Indian sub-continent.

The Sidney Street Siege

Posted by The Ripper on February 17, 2014
Posted in: Crime. Tagged: , , , , .

Sidney-Street-Seige
Just over one hundred years ago, deep in the East End, a pitched gun battle took place in Sidney Street, a thoroughfare just off the Whitechapel Road. The Siege of Sidney Street, which was often called the “Battle of Stepney”, was a notorious gunfight that broke out on 3 January 1911.

It is believed that the protagonists had been responsible for the Houndsditch Murders where, on 16 December 1910, a gang attempted to break into the rear of a jeweller’s shop at 119 Houndsditch.

An adjacent shopkeeper heard the gang hammering to get through the wall, informed the City of London Police (in whose area the shop was), and nine unarmed officers — three sergeants and six constables (two in plain clothes) arrived on the scene. Two officers were hit, and one, Bentley, collapsed across the doorstep. Another officer, Bryant, managed to stagger outside. In the street, Constable Woodhams ran to help Bentley, but was himself wounded by one of the gang firing from the cover of the house, as was Sergeant Tucker, who died almost instantly. The gang then made their escape via the cul-de-sac at the rear of the building.
Sidney Street under Seige

A few weeks later, on 2 January 1911, an informant told police that two or three members of the gang – possibly including the gang’s leader, Peter Piatkow also known as ‘Peter the Painter’ – were hiding at 100 Sidney Street, Stepney. Concerned that their suspects were about to flee, 200 police officers cordoned off the area and the siege began.

At dawn, on the 3rd January, the battle commenced. Although the gang were heavily outnumbered, they possessed superior weapons and a great deal of ammunition. Word was sent to the Tower of London asking for backup, and news of the siege reached the then Home Secretary, Winston Churchill, who arrived on the spot to observe the incident at first hand.

Churchill gave authorisation for the calling in of a detachment of Scots Guards to assist the police. Six hours into the battle, a cannon that Churchill had authorised turned up at Sidney Street, when it was noticed that a fire was beginning to consume the building. The fire brigade arrived promptly, but Churchill refused to give them any access to the building.

The police stood waiting, with their guns at the ready, expecting at any moment that the men inside would attempt their escape. However, the door to the building remained closed. Instead, the remains of two members of the gang, Fritz Svaars and William Sokolow (both were also known by numerous aliases), were later discovered inside the building. No sign of Peter the Painter was found. Besides the three policemen, a London fire-fighter also died of his injuries.

Whitechapel – the TV Series

Posted by The Ripper on February 17, 2014
Posted in: TV & Films. Tagged: , , .

Whitechapel- The TV Series
Whitechapel, the TV series (a Carnival Films production) was set in 2008 and is based around a group of detectives in London’s Whitechapel district who find themselves dealing with murders which tend to replicate historical crimes.

The initial series was originally broadcast in the UK on 2 February 2009 and depicted the search for a modern copycat killer who appears to have started to replicate the activities of Jack the Ripper. The ensuing series of bloody and seemingly impossible murders are investigated by the shows three main characters: DI Joseph Chandler, a fast-tracked, but flawed OCD Detective Inspector who has been assigned this as his first big murder case; Detective Sergeant Ray Miles, a hard bitten professional copper nearing his retirement, and Edward Buchan, an eccentric and brilliant Jack the Ripper tour guide, author and self styled Ripperologist.

By series two, the action had switched to some other well-known East End villains, The Kray Twins. A series of crimes mirroring those committed by the Krays, leads the Whitechapel team to believe that Ronnie and Reggie Kray have somehow been resurrected and are once again wreaking havoc in the Whitechapel area. This second series was first broadcast on 11 October 2010.
Whitechapel TV Series Characters

A third series was commissioned by ITV in March 2011, which was extended to six episodes as three two-part stories, and dealt with murders in present day Whitechapel that seemed to be paralleling those of Victorian and Edwardian London.

The fourth and ultimately final series was commissioned by the ITV on 24 September 2012. Once again, Whitechapel ran for six episodes, with the first episode being broadcast on 4 September 2013. This time, the team are met with a number of supernatural occurrences that seem to centre round the Whitechapel CID.

On 16 November 2013, Rupert Penry-Jones who played DI Chandler in the series confirmed that ITV had decided not to re-commission the show and had cancelled it.

Dennis Severs’ House

Posted by The Ripper on February 10, 2014
Posted in: Places of Note. Tagged: , , .

Dennis-Severs-House-Header
Despite initial appearances, Dennis Severs’ House is not a museum at all, but a private house that is open to members of the general public and acts as a sort of ‘time capsule’ to The East End of London’s past.

Dennis Severs, an American who sadly passed away in 1999 bought this run-down, and un-modernized Eighteenth century house in 1979. Rather than follow his contemporaries, he decided not to restore the building, but instead to “bring it to life“. Other artists were moving into the Spitalfields area at the time, and given its background as a slum area, was quite bohemian. For example, artists Gilbert & George live nearby.
Dennis-Severs-House-Entrance

Severs decided to live here, at 18 Folgate Street, E1, without electricity and other home comforts we now take for granted. Folgate Street is an atmospheric narrow road with tall townhouses and period lampposts. In fact, there’s a gas lamp flickering over the entrance to the house and should you fancy a drink, The Water Poet pub is opposite. Red wooden shutters cover the windows on the ground floor of the building and silhouette cut-outs appear in the first floor windows

Severs set about the house, creating a Huguenot silk weaver’s home for a ‘Mr Isaac Jervis, his family, and their descendants’.

The Jervis family are imaginary – a fiction of Severs – but the attention to detail in the building is incredible. However, Severs was not a historian and never wanted anyone to think of his home as a museum. It was his interpretation of how Eighteenth century domestic life would have been, and unlike state funded museums around the country, was put together on a very limited budget.

Unlike so many museums, a visit to Denis Severs’ House gives us a glimpse into the lives of the fictional inhabitants he created. Before the public are admitted (on strictly limited days, incidentally) fresh food, drink and flowers are added so although you never see them there are plenty of signs that the Jervis family are close by. It’s all lit by candlelight and there’s a real fire burning in the kitchen.

Dennis-Severs-House-top-floor

There are ten rooms to explore and each looks like a real home, with full domestic trappings – It’s dark inside – remember it is only lit by candlelight – but there are plenty of hints around to help you find out more about the family. As you move around the home it seems more real as it is not ‘perfect’, and you get to see the rooms a visitor would not normally enter.

By the time you reach the top floor, the scene that opens up before you is as if time has moved on – paint is peeling off the walls, everything is dirty and there are holes in the ceiling. It gives you a real sense of the poverty that would have befallen the ‘family’ in later life.

Try out this hidden gem (the nearest tube station is Liverpool Street) – it’s an unusual London Tourist Attraction – one that is far away from the so called tourist trail.

Joseph Merrick – The ‘Elephant Man’

Posted by The Ripper on February 3, 2014
Posted in: Characters. Tagged: , .

Elephant-Man-Banner
Joseph Merrick – who became known as ‘The Elephant Man‘, was not born in the East End, but his involvement with the London Hospital, Whitechapel and with Frederick Treves, one of its surgeons, made him inextricably linked to this part of London.

Joseph Carey Merrick was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England in 1862 and lived until 1890. He began to develop severe abnormalities during the first month or two of his life, and these manifested themselves as thick, lumpy skin on his body, together with a huge bony lump on his forehead. His lips, feet and one of his arms became grossly enlarged, and following a fall during his childhood, Joseph developed a severe limp.
elephant man

When his mother died in 1873, and following rejection by his father who remarried two years later, Joseph left home. In late 1879, the 17 year old Joseph Merrick entered the Leicester Union Workhouse.

At the age of 21, Merrick himself contacted a showman called Sam Torr and suggested that Torr exhibit him as a freak. Torr, with a number of associates named Merrick ‘The Elephant Man’, and began touring the East Midlands with their sad cargo in tow.

Merrick then travelled to London where he met another showman called Tom Norman who exhibited him in a shop in Whitechapel Road, directly opposite the London Hospital. Incidentally, the shop stands to this day but now sells Indian saris…

Treves discovered Merrick on one of his sojourns outside the hospital and invited him to be examined and photographed. Merrick agreed, and ended up staying in an apartment in the hospital for the remainder of his life.

Treves would visit him daily and the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also used to receive visits from members of London society, which included Alexandra, Princess of Wales.
Joseph Merrick

Despite his atrocious deformities, Joseph Merrick was an intelligent and sensitive human being, and some of that sensitivity shines through in the intricate model of a cathedral he constructed whilst in his apartment, and which remains in the London Hospital Museum to this day.

Merrick died on 11 April 1890, aged 27. The official recorded cause of death was asphyxia, although Treves, who dissected the body, discovered that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck. He said it was his belief that Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up, supported by cushions, because of the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to “be like other people”.

Cockneys and Cockney Rhyming Slang

Posted by The Ripper on February 1, 2014
Posted in: Culture. Tagged: , , , , .

Cockney
One question often asked in the East End is ‘What is a Cockney’?

Well, a common definition of a cockney is a person who has been born within the sound of Bow bells. This has nothing to do with the suburb of Bow to the east of London but to the church of Saint Mary le Bow, Cheapside, in the City of London.

A study carried out in the Millennium Year 2000 tried to determine just how far the Bells of Bow could be heard, (given the noise levels of today would not have been so prevalent when the term was originally coined!)

The conclusion was that they would have been heard for six miles to the east, five miles to the north, three miles to the south, and four miles to the west. Today, that is an area that covers Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Stepney, Wapping, Limehouse, Poplar, Millwall, Hackney, Hoxton, Shoreditch, Bow, and Mile End, and even Bermondsey which is actually south of the River Thames.

One of the defining features of a being a Cockney, however, is use of the dialect known as Cockney Rhyming Slang.

No quite knows when Cockney rhyming slang originated in the East End of London, but it is thought to have started to be used from around 1840 onwards.

There is some thought that it came into being as an alternative form of dialect – a bit of a ‘code’ between the street traders and costermongers with unsuspecting customers being completely unaware of what was being said about them. Others believe that it may have been used by the criminal fraternity as a way of confusing the Police force of the time.

John Hotton produced a ‘Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant & Vulgar Words’ in 1859 which included, for the first time, a Glossary of Rhyming Slang – some of which are reproduced below. Try it out for yourself.

 

Slang

Meaning

Adam and Eve

believe

Almond rocks

socks

Apple fritter

bitter (beer)

Apple peeling

feeling

Apple tart

heart

Apples and pears

stairs

Aunty Lou

flu

Barnet Fair

hair

Beechams pill

hill

Bees ‘n’ honey

money

Bernard Miles

piles (haemorrhoids)

Boat race

face

Bo-peep

sleep

Bottle and glass

arse

Bow & arrow

barrow

Box of toys

noise

Brown bread

dead

Bubble and squeak

speak

Bunny

talk (from rabbit and pork)

Burnt cinder

window

Butcher’ s hook

look

Cain & Able

table

Chalk Farm

arm

Cherry-og

dog

China plate

mate (friend)

Coach ‘n’ badge

cadge (get money off)

Cock ‘n’ hen

ten or £10

Currant bun

sun

Derby Kelly

belly

Dicky Dirt

shirt

Dig in the grave

shave

Dr. Crippen

dripping

Dog and bone

telephone

Donald Duck

luck

Duke of Kent

rent

Friar Tuck

luck

Frog and toad

road

George Raft

daft (crazy)

Ginger beer

queer

Gold watch

scotch

Ham and eggs

legs

Hampstead Heath

teeth

Harry Lime

time

Heap of coke

bloke

Hen ‘n’ fox

box

Holy friar

liar

Holy ghost

toast

House to let

bet

Jack ‘n’ Jill

till

Jam jar

car

Jam tart

heart

Jeremiah

fire

Jim Skinner

dinner

Joanna

piano

Joe Blake

steak

Kate Karney

army

Lemon squash

wash

Linen draper

paper

Loaf of bread

head

Max Miller

pillar

Mince pies

eyes

Mother Hubbard

cupboard

Mutt and Jeff

deaf

Peckham Rye

tie

Pig’s ear

beer

Plates of meat

feet

Pork pie

lie

Pot ‘n’ pan

old man

Rabbit ‘n’ pork

talk

Reads and writes

fights

Reels of cotton

rotten

Rocking horse

sauce

Rory O’Moore

floor

Rosie Lee

tea

Salmon and trout

gout

Saucepan lid

kid (child)

Sexton Blake

cake

Joe Blake

steak

Six to four

whore

Skin ‘n’ blister

sister

Sky rocket

pocket

Taters in the mould

cold

Tea leaf

thief

Tit for tat

hat

Tom and Dick

sick

Trouble and strife

wife

Whitechapel Bell Foundry

Posted by The Ripper on January 27, 2014
Posted in: Places of Note, Trade. Tagged: , .

Foundry-Header
Just off the Whitechapel Road in the East End lies a small, fairly insignificant looking doorway. It may not look as imposing as other London tourist attractions, but when you were able to venture beyond, you would have stumbled onto Britain’s oldest manufacturing company.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry was established during the reign of the Virgin Queen – Queen Elizabeth I in 1570, and had been in continuous business since.

A long procession of Royal visitors have entered the Whitechapel Bell Foundry – unsurprising really, given its 400 years of manufacture and casting – in fact the foundry’s history spans that of twenty seven crowned heads of England, and when the casting took place for two bells for Westminster Abbey, both King George V and Queen Mary visited the buildings.
Whitechapel-Bell-Foundry

The foundry buildings themselves date from four years after the Great Fire of London and it is thought that the original property was burned to the ground in the ensuing firestorm. Some of the current workshops were part of a building that was originally a coaching inn known as ‘The Artichoke’.

One of the most famous bells in the world, Big Ben, which hangs in what is now known as the Elizabeth Tower at the Houses of Parliament, was the biggest bell ever to be cast at Whitechapel. The gauge that was used to make the mould for the bell hung on the wall of the foundry moulding shop.

Sadly, the foundry closed its doors in June 2017 after almost 250 years at the Whitechapel site. The final bell to be cast there was given to the Museum of London.

The foundry was sold to US investor Raycliff who submitted a proposal to convert the site into a 100+ room hotel with a bell themed cafe. However, this application for conversion proved highly controversial, and in January 2020 the government called in the application thereby preventing the London Borough of Tower Hamlets from proceeding with the planning application until a public inquiry has been held.

A consortium group including The East End Preservation Society, Save Britain’s Heritage, the Ancient Monuments Society, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the Royal Academy of Arts have attempted to have the foundry relisted as a Grade 1 listed building to preserve its historical importance.

The Kray Twins

Posted by The Ripper on January 26, 2014
Posted in: Crime. Tagged: , , , , , .

The Kray Twins
So much has been written about the notoriety of the Kray Twins that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, but the salient points of the lifestyle and rise to fame of the East End ‘Firm’ are detailed below.

Ronnie Kray, together with his twin brother Reggie grew up in the East End during wartime.  The twins had a Romany/Jewish background and their father, Charles, spent most of the time during war years avoiding armed service by keeping on the move. As a result, the twins were raised by their mother, Violet. Violet was so fiercely protective of her ‘wonderful boys’ that she turned the family home in Vallance Road into a safe haven – a place that came to be known as ‘Fort Vallance’.

Krays with Violet and Jimmy Lee
The twins’ grandfathers Cannonball Lee and Jimmy Kray came from a boxing background and were to prove hugely influential upon the twin boys. Ronnie and Reggie, together with their elder brother Charles became accomplished boxers, and as a result of unlicensed bouts against local rivals, the twins’ street reputations became enhanced.

From the very beginning it became apparent that the twins strength was their fierce allegiance to each other – if you picked a fight with Reggie, then you were picking a fight with Ronnie and vice versa. However, it became apparent from an early age that Ron was somewhat slower and less flamboyant than his brother. Ronnie soon began to develop his own fantasy world that centred on a desire for unquestioning leadership.

Their national service was spent mainly in the Military Prison for assaulting NCOs or going AWOL, and they eventually emerged from Shepton Mallet military prison well prepared for a lifetime of challenging any form of authority.

As a result of the many disputes over what they saw as their ‘territory’, the twins decided to stake a claim in a local business. By the time the twins had reached the age of 20, they had taken over a local billiard hall, The Regal, on the Mile End Road and entered a hazy area between security and extortion.

While he was at the billiard hall, Ronnie began to play out the most dominant of his many fantasies, that of being a gangster. It was in 1954 that Ronnie cutlassed members of a Maltese gang that tried to extract protection money from them, and their reputation for violence was established. The twins began to gather a collection of villains around them, with Ronnie dreaming of creating his own empire, a powerful criminal “Firm”, with him and Reggie at the head. Ronnie soon became known to his followers as “the Colonel”.

The Krays soon linked up with Billy Hill, who introduced them to gambling just in time for the legalisation of the industry in 1961. Ronnie and Reggie moved up West – and most of Ron’s fantasies of creating his own crime empire started to come true.

The increasing levels of violence associated with the Krays dealings continued. Whether it was to impose their control over clubland or dealing with recurring feuds between rival gangs, the twins had reputations to protect.

As The Krays bought their way into clubs and gambling establishments in the West and East Ends of London, they started to gain some legitimacy by befriending sportsmen and showbiz personalities, and started to become linked with the 1960’s socialite scene.

the-blind-beggar-pubB&W

The Kray twins had many criminal contacts all over Britain and had worked hard to buy their protection from contacts in many police stations, presenting  an outward appearance of being smart, well-connected – and untouchable. However, it soon became apparent that Ronnie was only able to thrive on conflict, and things were coming to a head. In 1966, Ronnie marched into the Blind Beggar pub saloon bar and shot dead George Cornell, an old enemy in full view of the occupants. Despite every detail of the killing being seen, the twins influence and control over the local population meant that no one would come forward to act as a witness and identify the murderer to the police.

As the Sixties progressed, Ronnie and Reggie became even more convinced of their immunity from any authority. Together, they arranged the escape of Frank “Mad Axeman” Mitchell from Dartmoor Prison (and were later acquitted of his murder). They even contemplated forming an alliance with the Mafia, and looked abroad to expand. But Ronnie’s mental condition was deteriorating and the responsibility for running the firm fell to Reggie, who remained completely devoted to his brother.

However after his wife, Frances Shea, committed suicide, Reggie went to pieces, and with Ronnie’s encouragement he murdered a troublesome fringe member of the firm. The killing of Jack (“the Hat”) McVitie was to be a turning-point. According to one of their former henchmen, Albert Donoghue, Ronnie egged his brother on to kill Jack “The Hat” McVitie, a small time crook and irritant to the brothers. “I’ve done mine,” Ronnie supposedly told Reggie. “About time you done yours.”

McVitie had been lured to a party in Hackney, where he was accused of damaging the Kray name, and stabbed to death by Reggie. Members of the Firm were left to clean up the mess while the body was disposed of.
Kray Twins

The twins could no longer be ignored, and under pressure The Firm began to crumble. Following a police investigation which took the Krays off the streets (as the result of evidence provided by an informer working for the United States Treasury) witnesses to the killings of both Cornell and McVitie were found.

Many of their own gang of thieves and hard men gave evidence against the twins when they finally appeared at the Old Bailey at what was seen as a show trial in 1969. The sentencing judge, Mr Justice Melford Stevenson passed sentence that they should be jailed for life, with a recommendation that they serve at least 30 years.

Ronnie, was eventually certified a paranoid schizophrenic in 1979 and served out his sentence heavily medicated in Broadmoor.