The Name is Kray (1969 Documentary)

Ronald cray company director convicted of murder 30 years Reginal cray company director convicted of murder 30 years these two men twins born in the East End of London 35 years ago defi Society for most of their lives their recommended sentences are the longest ever passed of the Old Bailey for murder Society said the judge deserved a rest from their activities activities that brought London as close to the bad old days of Chicago as it's ever likely to [Music] get I'll take from the very start on their own private manner a word they borrowed from the police to describe the streets pubs and clubs of the East End on their own private manner they fought for a name for a reputation they got it by learning quickly just how to turn insecurity and above all fear to their own Advantage there is no story of a fight against poverty or a broken home at valence Road in Bethel green like a lot of East Enders and the postwar years they lived a comfortable and close-knit family life number 178 now coming down as part of a slam clearance plan VI and Charlie cray a dealer in secondhand clothes brought up four children Charles Jr the Twins and a daughter Violet next door lived Auntie May and a grandfather once the famous Cannonball Southport a professional boxer and as youngsters for the twins too boxing was the consuming interest they papered their bedroom walls with pictures of the Champions at school it was the only thing they did really well they both left at 14 with a reputation already as tough young tearaways soon afterwards they joined the famous Repton Club the so-called Nursery of Champions a probation officer had asked the club to take them in RI and agreed on the understanding that they'd behave themselves and for a time it did seem that the discipline required by the club was having an effect they were never any trouble they joined in the strict and strenuous training sessions they were fit and fast learning how to handle themselves boxing of course has always been a draw for East End Boys for one thing if you're good there's money in it and the cray Twins were above average in 1950 at the age of 17 they turned professional on their first appearance six round preliminaries at milin bath they both won in all Ronald had six fights and won four Reggie had seven and won the lot people who know them well say that if they'd gone on with their boxing careers they might have settled down up to then they'd had only minor brushes with the law but now came the first real test the first genuine confrontation with authority national service they've been told to report to the roal fusers based a ston throw away from home at the Tower of London on the first day they hit the sergeant in charge and ran 6 months later they were caught and eventually sent to shepon Mallet then an army prison in Somerset 9 months detention had little effect the Army could do nothing with them a day after their sentence was over they were discharged from further Service as far as they were concerned they'd beaten the system for the first time too they'd been away from the moderating influence of their elder brother Charles now at the the age of 22 they were back in the East End and convinced that they could defy authority and if not exactly get away with it at least make it and the people around them come to terms the first step was to open a billiard Hall in a back street off the milin road just a small Affair four tables in an old Hut but it had its purpose it brought in some tough characters and word soon got through to Jack's spot in the early 50s the so-called King of the underworld that two young terway were around who could prove useful spot took them on and sent them to the racers part of spot's money came from bookies he controlled some of the pictures it was the cra's job to collect the duws and deliver them for a cut it wasn't exactly a lucrative Pastime but they were learning learning about pension jarring zumpa cars Slaughter the corner game and dozens of other obscure underworld practices at the same time they were trying things out for themselves in the East End local cafe owners and shopkeepers were paying out money small sums a few pounds a week to save any trouble Roland Millington was a detective superintendent in the district he knew only too well what was going on he tried many times to get people to stand up in court to give evidence Against The Craze no one would do it they were simply too scared he took his problem to Scotland Yard but apparently there was little they could do either but on November the 6th 1956 Ronald Craig did land in court on his first serious charge causing Grievous bodily harm he was sentenced to 3 years with 6 months concurrently for carrying a loaded revolver the recorder sir Gerald Dodson said Cay and two others involved in the attack had plunged parts of the East End into an abyss of brutality to cra's disgust he was sent to a security Wing at longrove mental hospital Epsom to prove his sanity as he later put it he escaped on Whit Monday 1957 Reggie cig came into the visitor's room where wearing identical clothes Ronnie went out for the tea and never came back by the time the authorities had sorted out which twin was which Ronald was in comfortable hiding in London 5 months later he gave himself up the object had been achieved he was regarded as sane enough to be sent to Winchester prison to complete his sentence in the East End incidents like long grve all added to the cray reputation the people there read about it talked about it the name cray was taking on a very special meaning it was time to try something bigger beyond the small cafes and restaurants to a particular kind of gambling Club they were illegal but at that time they were doing good [Music] business in the East End they're known as Spas a kind of gambling Den George misel a bullan merchant was in a partnership which bought up this particular speler 11 years ago it's known officially as the green dragon luncheon and Social Club but it's solar trct action is gambling day and night 7 days a week East Enders come here to play Ramy individual Stakes range from 1 to5 a game the C let George misel know they wanted to protect him he refused and the club was smashed up finally his co-directors persuaded him that the only way to keep in business was to pay up at that time I had a manager who was connected to the firm all people know a firm and he paid it and how much did you pay £40 a week for how long approximately 10 years so that means you've paid out something like £20,000 uh in that region yes the money so here was a form of regular income the money was coming in and so long as people went on paying so long as they remained afraid the money would keep coming in so far they were now now in their middle 20s the cra's reputation was based entirely on brutality and violence it wasn't enough they wanted admiration from society at large and to get it they began by opening their own club the dou r in BO Road it provided a comfortable headquarters on the floor above they built a gymnasium they invited the British heavyweight champion Henry Cooper along to the opening ceremony next they approached Robert hair the then mayor of bethl green to find out how they could help his Charities on one occasion they took the initiative themselves to everyone's embarrassment every said got some stuff for the old people so we carried in bundles all right through the gang well these old people Checker Barry grew up in the East end with the craze he watched them develop followed their careers closely and we went to leave so the M says don't go yet he said I want to give you some cheers from the old people well you know I'm bit Shar if you like so is Ronnie so said you take the bells he says I'll see you later went to run out so we don't go without me and I went to run off the stage and all so he said no stay and the May ELD us and he says right fre cheers hip hiip hoay and it was cheering away you know after gr open not to slip through it and I so embarrassed and we run down the aisle and as we was running walk through the gangway people was Pat us on the back and cheering us was a president coming home to the United States of America and uh the thing is I didn't know till afterwards a few years afterwards this stuff could have been upot I suppose it was upot and the thought of it if the police AR ra that place then there would been the mayor me Ronnie and about 200 Old pensioners all in C you know on receiving charges at the local Town Hall they sat on subcommittees set up by the Mayors to organize charity functions one of the most popular was a boxing tournament often they were organized by the Repton club and while the youngsters trained themselves up to take part the twins would buy hundreds of pounds worth of tickets mostly ring sign these they resold or gave away to prominent and Personalities in all they claimed they'd raise more than £10,000 money that did go to charity even if the motive was somewhat suspect the Secretary of Repton Boxing Club Mr Harry Minter explains how he felt they were using the club I think it was what I would term a front because if ever they were in trouble they were able to say quite truthfully what they did through CH for charity through the rapon club stood them in good Stead character was to keep up their image in the summer of 62 The Craze opened the Kentucky Club it was still in the East end but with £2,000 spent on the decorations just the place to bring the sort of people they now wanted to impress the club's name featured in Joan littlewood's copney comedy Sparrow can't sing shot almost entirely in East End locations unwittingly the film was a gift for the first time it gave the twins an opportunity to play host to people in the real show business World in March 1963 they held a party in the Kentucky Club to celebrate the film's world premere the photographers were there as they were whenever the CRA wanted them with boxers Rocky Marciano Sunny Lon Freddy Mills with entertainers Sophie Tucker Shirley Bassie Billy Daniels with peers and politicians Lord Effingham Tom drberg this business of trying to get into photographs with celebrities and sometimes they didn't know it was happening often went to extreme lengths I remember on one occasion at the Repton Club as a charitable evening the twins had Harry Mitchell a journalist in the East End for 40 years and uh the local di going through the list of people who were around to have their photographs taken found that the crate twins had got themselves positioned almost behind Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden who were the guests of honor for the evening well needless to say he got cracking very very quickly and they were not behind the final part of the whole business was it made them respectable it gave them some respectability something to base their lives on you see and of course people thought from that you see they weren't bad fellows they weren't bad fellows where an actual fact that their money was easy to come and they could afford to spend it because it wasn't theirs by 1964 their home in Valance Road Fort Valance as it was called because of the collection of Swords they kept there was an East End Landmark outside stood one of the few obvious signs of affluence a maroon Ford Galaxy now owned by a South London caler The Craze bought it originally on high purchase but for the Neighbors at least it provided a sure sign that the owners were doing well even though they were still based at their parents' home it was imaculate inside um a tiny little Victorian Terrace workman's Cottage every single door had a lace curtain over it tied back with pink ribbons place was full of our NE Lethbridge as a young barister defended The Craze on a number of minor charges uh guilt glasses horse brasses you know everything that gave it this shining sparkling Gypsy like appearance what happened when when you got there well I was taken to an upstairs sitting room and um again beautifully polished room there were people in every single room you know there appear to be conferences Going On Here There and Everywhere what do you think was there reputation in the East End was it based purely upon fear I don't think so obviously but one speaks now with hindsight after all that's happened in this case fear played a large part in it and I think this is because they always did what they threatened I there was no messing about if they threatened to do a thing it was was done and this is why people really did fear them at the same time people in the East End would say to you um oh I was with Ronnie and Reggie last night just as actors was I was in the white elephant with Larry and Alby you it was the the summit of Glory to be seen in the company of the Twins and to be bought a drink by them and undoubtedly they were generous and they did give to charity and so on and so forth of course one mustn't inquire too closely into the origin of the money that went to Char it but they never repudiated their Cockney Origins and they never left the East End six for the bank and two the bank WIS but soon their operations at any rate did begin to spread West in the early 60s gaming in Britain became a legal Pastime the prospects of huge profits was not something the craes were slow to appreciate they bought themselves into Esmeralda's Barn then a fashionable Club in nightsbridge as a business venture it failed The Craze used the club as a one-way bank somewhere to get money out of without putting it back but at asmer ERS for the first time they did come in touch with a so-called High Life they thought they'd made it at last cuz we had a man working there you know I bir you know I mean we come from the eastn lon this man had a tight L and he to say to me now look at them lot they all owe me money everyone ran at table owes in money and they're all you know people like that and they say I'll just show excuse me and this man used to come over of our birth and I say will you give me two te's please and he say just run away and come and say now he's earning1 15 a week for us and they're looking down on us he said those days are over when we was in the East End of London and all these snobs look down on us he said now he said we're equal to him March 1965 The Craze are in the do with the Old Bailey charged with demanding money with menaces from a baronet after a retrial the jury disagreed the crazes were acquitted back home at Valance Road the family was triumphant the acquit was taken as yet another sign of how far the craz were now above the LW people were calling them The Untouchables the Legends were growing but in Gerard street at a celebration party the very next night a man was about who four years later was to give those Legends the lie detective inspector Leonard Reed as he was then nippa Reed had been involved in the protection inquiries he'd taken a colleague down to the party to identify the members of The Firm gathered together when they saw him they Jered they were now so confident that all subtleties were being abandoned their name was inspiring so much fear that club Owners rarely refused when asked to contribute to what was euphemistically called the pension scheme often members of The Firm or the gang they'd now built around them collected the money themselves sometimes they were allowed to keep it as a form of payment for loyalty the Regency Stoke Newington lost thousands to The Craze it began with nipping that's to say running up vast bills for food and drink which they knew the owners would never dare ask them to pay Tony and John Barry joined owners of the Regency described the night members of The Firm came to put them on the pension broke the doors in to get in they're downstairs Adam went down to see what it was all about and they got hold him right away and give him a CL with a gun pushed the gun up his nose and they said get old of Johnny Barry we want to speak to him you're going on the pension skeme I said what's it all about I said uh penion scam he said you're going to pay 50 a week so I said uh I thought there's going to be some trouble there you know what I mean I I said all what probably I said I'll pay it I said uh say got a v i said like let's have a drink cuz I was frying but what I was going to do and as I'm talking one of the firms got the gun on Allan and he said and if you don't pay he said we're going to shoot one of your men every week he said he can go now he said if you want to be funny so I said leave all I said uh you know I said let's have a drink I said I'll P it I said and that's the end of it Telly give me some examples of the kind of violence that the CRA were involved in uh well one night we was out I came back from St was my night off and uh I've been out with Mr Clark who our DOR as we came into the foyer I was arguing with a man who we know and um Reggie ask him one or two questions and with that he's pulled out a flick knife the striped man right across the face that man was Bull Ward got to we about 30 stitches 36 stitches something like 32 stitches I'm not quite sure and what was that why did one of the twins have to use a knife well I think was cuz um I don't know if they thought that I was a bit too much for one of them because when he threw me these punches I said to him if that's the hardest you can hit you'll have to do a lot better than that and consequently this is what happened didn't it ever cross your mind Tony that you could stop this by calling the police by the time You' have called the police and they have got it crazy would have gone and apart from that there would have been repercussions afterwards they could always come back here whereas you can never find the police could never find them they seem to be above the the Autumn of 1966 Joe Louis is in Britain for a series of guest appearances at clubs and boxing matches in Northern cities it was a tour arranged and controlled very firmly by the twins they were using the ex-champion as a cover Louie never knew it but he was no more than an excuse to get the twins into the northern clubs to extend their protection racket Sunday October the 23rd Louie the Twins and eight others travel first class to Manchester Joe Lou is unaware that two admirers in the party are carrying guns the attraction at this time was that Manchester had developed a rash of smalltime casinos and strip clubs numbering 70 at least and all ripe for [Music] protection but what the CR didn't know was that the local police had been tipped off and were shadowing them from the moment they arrived the CRA booked themselves and Louie into the four-star Midland Hotel and in the tea Lounge next day club Owners were summoned to a so-called business conference right a conference witnessed not only by plain clothes police at adjoining tables but also by David Burton he'd been employed to drive Louie and the twins about and saw the strange Affair that followed I knew Jo people who were sat in the lounge you know having cocktails and things they wondered what was going on cuz it wasn't very nice to see 15 people with feet the feet up on the table you know sprawling out what about about this club owner who came in and told them to clear out and told them he wasn't going to pay any money they told him to sit down didn't ask him to sit down they said sit down as a command this he did and they said uh you know we're thinking of doing some business in Manchester and we've left ourselves rather short of money would you just lend us £500 to TI us over to pay the bills Etc this fellow looked at his assistant and sort of smiled half smiled half and they said well we'll give it you back and we'll give it you back in Fruit machines and cigarette machines and this chap turned around to them he said I know what you're getting at you can you know in other words go that stuff it had taken club Owners and police just 24 hours to outmaneuver the Twins and send them back to London traveling second class this time they got similar treatment at Newcastle Blackpool and Southport so attempts at establishing a provincial Network failed not that it particularly worried them life now is treating them well they could afford expensive holidays abroad and they did travel quite widely ten Jers was a particular favorite even at home life on the firm as they put it seemed little more than fun and games one time was me and Ronnie another fellow was coming down this Lane and Reggie and big Pat and a couple of more just went Galloping through the the woods but took the no as we came running down L very small ponies and this is true you might not believe it it's true we come down to the end then big Pat and Reggie come tearing out on on the the alers wasn't running fast but they was moving back and forward and R to get away you know cuz he's frighten your a g he's pushing his horse so anyway they had a few words of the horse so he said if you touch my horse he going to kick your so regie got off his off true them sitting here and W Smash and hit the hor on the chin and the O went down all for and and fell and as it fell Ronnie walked off the O as it fell down the doctor said Ronnie walk off of it and get all reg start p and making these old Gallop you know this has some lovely fun out there but nothing could really disguise the true activities of the firm the way the money was got to pay for all the fun for Alan peris life on the firm was far from a joke he knew the Sinister side of it all knew how they set about persuading people to join them after I was released from Canterbury uh I found my financial means very low at the time and uh I was asked uh to uh meet uh various people that were connected with the twins but at that time I didn't know they were actual members of the twin game The Proposition was approached to meet in certain business deals uh I agreed to this and uh he told me to wait at home and later on in time they get in touch with me well M job was on wages then wasn't a lot about 2025 per week wages from whom I was on the um wages from the twins um they paid you every week oh yes yes most definitely yes for doing what well for nothing at that time until they could find a business arrangement for me and I know people that actually work for the craze that that were behind them at sometimes that never even got paid by The Craze but they just wanted to be with the craze to say that they work on the firm but they never got a penny from them well this is a fact they're willing to get the to protect them to shoot people and yet to uh just to say that I work for the craze was that for Prestige well um a lot of people wanted to use their name I mean in business is you go up to a certain person and you you're going to take a lot of money off him and if he refuses you can say well I'll work for the C uh well with a thing like that it stops a man dead in his tracks he says to himself what am I on here if I don't pay I'm sure to have them down on me shoulders how much money do you think came into the firm on average it's probably an impossible impossible question to answer but well it is I I couldn't I wasn't that tremendously in with them I was in with them right up to the degree whereas I was told what to do who to do and where to be and what the case may be but many many thousands of pounds I know many many well quite considerable sums pass through my ends that went to them in fact Justice caught up with you and you went to prison oh this is it yes well this is a penalty you pay um how did they look after you when you were in prison well when I was away at the time um if I wanted anything inside because they got the firm inside as well as outside uh of course uh if I was short of anything or I wanted anything done like uh one time a person that did turn me over outside while was still inside if you understand what I mean and uh of course I sent a message out and the person that did turn me over was turned over himself by the members of The Firm you mean beaten up oh so yeah severely how was discipline maintained in The Firm well discipline was maintained in various aspects um I myself was uh disciplined once oh uh well as I say through business and everything else I was in my office and uh they come up to see me um called them to Reggie I wasn't doing things right and that the money wasn't coming in quick enough I argued with him uh through the argument I took a slap around her face and pushed into the chair you you were slapped by Reggie yes you're you're a big man you can presumably look after yourself what did you do well what could I do I mean I known bigger men than me they bow down to them if you were SLA by the twins you didn't slap back oh nobody did I've yet to see men who ever come up was only one man I know that did retaliate but of course they got him in the end and they cut him the pieces was violence an everyday factor in living with a firm oh naturally I mean there was a person that was coming around causing aggravation with me well not one fell two or three when I explained the prision regie said well you got to do it the Y way of course I was supplied with a firearm and with a firearm a gun what sort of firearm what was a 410 shotgun which I did actually use well the police know of this because uh the police were at that time were understanding because they knew the position I was in and uh I explain this to Commander devose and to n Reed uh but of course they said that uh owing to the fact the predicament I was in cuz I've got a family and I've got to protect them uh I like to use the gun but I never used used to actually at the person I just used it to scare him away one night when we were sit the El Morocco and everybody was looking sort of a bit miserable and Karen hung around the fringes of the FM for about 6 years nobody would speak she knew the scene well and I think I said to Reggie you know what's all about Bo and he said we're looking for such such a person so I said oh don't you know where he lives and he said no I said go well leave it to me boy I'll get together for you and I made a meet and I got the character out of bed and he came on the club what did he say when you got him out of bed I think he said he knew it was coming to him or was that effect he knew he'd done something out of order and he had to sort of pay for he walked down like a little lamb and he was greeted sort of you know with a right hand which I suppose du respects he deserved did you find that any people who were attacked by them still maintain some sort of loyalty towards them some people do give me an example well you don't have to name him or her well I know somebody who was let's say well attended to down to absolutely nothing really but they were sort of well seen to and they finished up with 182 old siters but even to this day you couldn't go to them and say you know give evidence against Lon Edie because this character he wouldn't sort of do this not for fear of them or anything because he's sort of loyal and he sort of I don't know he digs them really and truly people had no reason to be frightened of them but 182 stitches in the face would frighten me years I suppose in a way to frighten me but there again it wouldn't really cuz you can have you're either dead or plastic surgery you know why do you think so many of their friends including members of The Firm have now given evidence against them well I think mainly because they were all up to little sort of uh no how can I put it they R all up to various little bits of scull dugery of their own which they knew at some time or other had to come to an end and I think various people like the weasel nifer Reed and so various other people said to them well you know if you don't sort of go our way about this we'll have you for that this is not only something I think this something I know so there wasn't really that much loyalty in the air now everybody was out to save their own skins and this is why Ronnie and Reggie have been put in a position they're in which in naturual fact they don't deserve to put in they you know if you know them well they are sort of decent guys you know apart from the pet all right same as you and I might have a r and I might sort of stick a glass in your face they exactly the same exactly the same in the second week of March 1966 the violence reached its climax with murder first there was the gunfight at Mr Smith's Club catford in which one man was killed and sever injured it was between two gangs one of them the Richardson gang to establish who should collect protection money from the club the craz weren't involved the catford shooting was a south of the river affair on the Richardson territory but across the water the very next night Ronnie cray walked openly into the bar of the blind beggar and shot one of the Richardson gang dead in full view of the customers friends say George Cornell was killed because he was one of the few men who stood up to the craze there was another reason though by choosing to commit murder in public Ronald cray was trying to prove that he was Supreme gang leader in London that he too could kill and get away with it it almost worked as it did when he and regil or Jack mcvi a smalltime criminal to a flat and stabbed him to death half these 10 knew who'd done it but no one would talk to the police not until the Twins and most of the firm were in custody on other charges by now the violence was going too far even for some of the firm themselves and it could well have gone on Norman Lucas Chief crime writer for the Sunday Mirror was one of seven people including superintendent Reed on a murder list they began making uh telephone calls to my home in Sor uh or rather they didn't but obviously some of their henchmen did uh they were telephone calls that came sometimes during the night uh sometimes it would only be heavy breathing down the phone uh I had the experience um of a mystery car turning up at my house at half 11 at night fortunately when I was spending a weekend in the country why do you think they managed to operate virtually unhindered throughout nearly the whole of the 60s now what had happened was that the Metropolitan Police were undergoing so much criticism uh and quite a lot of criticism that that came not only from certain newspapers but from members of parliament who were ill informed on various uh criminal matters uh that uh there was a period in the Met police when almost anything would be done to avoid criticism so that the the police were working completely by the book and a directive went out from the yard instructing detectives that they must not frequent clubs and they must not associate with criminals well this put a gross limitation upon their work uh and at that time the craze grew and they knew that no single detective would take a chance um of criticism it's a situation that has now of course changed or been changed it's changed because uh in the end the situation became so grave that um I know the assistant commissioner crime at the yard Peter bro and Commander John Jose thumped their desks and said no matter what criticism we get this Gang has got to be smashed and we've got to put an end to gang activities in Ron because of course they knew that the mafia was beginning to move in and it was to try to meet the mafia that Ronald went to New York he'd always wanted to go but he wasn't certain he'd get a visa from the American Embassy so he flew first to Paris got his papers there spent the night with a business contact and on April the 3rd 1967 left for New York he checked into the war Hotel on West 54th Street and his bill there was paid for by one of his American contexts federal agents kept a close eye on cray throughout his visit there's no no real evidence that he ever actually contacted the mafia in America though he certainly met people he thought were Mafia in fact most of Ronald's time in New York was spent like any other tourist doing the sites but at the giant McGraw Hill publishing house he did have a business lunch with the boss Frank Taylor they talked about the American edition of a book that's coming out on their life in London too there had already been attempts to commercialize their story on the back of a poster on sale in the West End the caption compares the stories of their explo exps with those of Frank and Jesse James for a time they were taken up by some sections of society they did become Chic and they in turn became more and more publicity conscious or friends and relations as they called it Tom mango the twins had also by this time acquired a real writer to produce their authentic life story they even arranged special parties to impress him with the pesque nature of their lives and for one of these occasions they hired a couple of midgets from a theatrical agency they would have hired a couple of giants as well but they found in the end that the tallest men around were on the firm anyway these inconsistencies these irreconcilable threads hung even more Loosely towards the end and I'm talking now about March April and May of last year I saw the twins for the last time in this Bethal green Pub a few weeks before their arrest one thing was certain they knew it was coming to them but each reacted in a different way Reginald I thought was tense and uneasy with the knowledge and wanted to get away from London from The Firm and from his dominant twin Ronald on the other hand was plotting some sort of prosperous future my last evening with them was understandably uncomfortable for everyone I was making inquiries Into The Disappearance of their very good friend Frank Mitchell in the course of this difficult evening one curious interlude stood out on learning that I was about to go to Vietnam Reginald took me to one side and asked very seriously and insistently whether he could come with me he said he was prepared to do anything out there now the motive for this became a little clearer much later on when I learned that he'd also approached a London litery agent with another extraordinary proposition was the government aware he had asked how economically disruptive dock strikes could be to the country how would the government react he wondered if the firm were to drive down to the London docs and act as unofficial industrial peacemakers was it the sort of gesture he wondered that would be taken the right way at tentagel house when nippa Reed and his Squad were inexorably marking off the last days of the firm the police work had been continuing in its own quiet and complicated way for well over a year in the last few weeks before the arrest The Firm went out less and less the twins stayed in their favorite East End pubs there was a lot of drinking plenty of talk but not that much action the pensions were still coming in but discipline was beginning to disintegrate too many people knew far too much by now key members of The Firm were quietly lining up with the police old loyalties were dying easily at dawn on May the 8th 196 a team of detectives arrived at the new Sky Tower Block in clarenell where the cray family had now moved they jammed the lift walked up the stone steps to the ninth floor and jamed their way into flat 43 this was at 6:00 in the morning all the raids had been timed synchronized to be at the same time and we knew that the craze the night before had been to a West End club and they didn't return Chief superintendent Leonard Reed in his operations room at tinel house and in fact they were in bed uh they were taken out of their beds they caused us no concern or or or trouble at all how much danger were you in during the inquiry well it's difficult to to gauge really there was suggestions from various sources that there was some personal danger I took what I considered to be reasonable precautions I used to go home frequently on a different route and also um I go running in the mornings about 5 miles every morning uh when I was interviewed by the Press I deny this emphatically because I considered that at that time in the morning alone in a a vest and running shorts I would be very vulnerable unless I could run faster than them of course it's been said a police officer develops some sort of relationship with the criminals that he's hunting what relationship did you have with the twins well there was no real relationship between the craze and myself I'd known them for some time but I never felt any animosity towards them this was a a facade that was built up I think by The Craze they projected this to the public generally that this was some sort of hate campaign between themselves and the police and particularly myself but this is not the case at all I know that they disliked me intensely I know that they at one stage bought a snake which they called Nipper Reed and there was great Jubilation when this this snake died Ronald cray I understand used to feed it live mice one assumes you had to use um fairly unor Ox methods on occasions well of course uh all detectives use disguises as you know in this case probably more than most uh we used a variety of disguises and and uh they were quite successful for instance I from time to time posed as a Parson uh as a dustman and uh as a road sweeper and this kind of thing one of my officers I think G POS as a BBC television interviewer what about the use of um so called double agents we did employ this from time to time and very successfully uh of course a double agent can never be fully trusted and bearing that in mind they were used mainly to uh influence the craze that that we were taking certain action whereas in fact we were not in other words to feed them completely false and bogus information how does this case differ to all the others that you've had a hand in uh it was completely independent from New Scotland Yard we broke away entire from the normal routine I had to answer only to the deputy assistant commissioner Mr John D Rose and in that light it was quite different from other inquiries it was necessary for secrecy to be maintained this was most important and uh towards that end detective superintendent Donald Adams handpicked most of the men that came onto the inquiry subsequently originally the officer who was deputed to under undertake this investigation had to let it be known amongst his colleagues that he had been given a confidential inquiry concerning a domestic matter within within the force and those circumstances nobody troubled to ask him any further questions but as the team was augmented it became obvious that some people might learn something of what was happening with that in view the whole of the team was transferred from New Scotland Yard to tinel house where we operated quite successfully each and every one of these items was recovered during the course of the crane P some of them are quite obvious in their use perhaps the one thing which is unique certainly unique in my experience is this what appears to be perfectly innocuous case but down here we have a hypmic syringe this bottle here was to have contained cyanide the idea of the operation was that this needle here would protrude not as far as this at the moment but just a little way out of the box and by manipulating this ring here the pl the plunger would be released which would release the cyanide which is inside the hypodermic syringe out into the needle now the the way in which it would have been used would have been to have swung the case so the needle penetrated the victim the cyanide would enter the victim's body and he would be deil in seconds it's important to remember that the police can take no action against anyone unless there is evidence available this so far as the craze was concerned was always the difficulty it was essential of course that if the police launched an operation against the craz and their empire it had to be successful we could not afford an abortive inquiry this would have damaged the police Public Image and we just could not afford to do that uh it's also important to remember that uh had this happened had we had an abort of inquiry The Craze had many influential friends in all sorts of walks of life and uh I can visualize that an a large complaint would have would have ensued shortly after Ronald cray was sent on ran to Brixton he wrote A Cheerful letter to a woman friend asking her to send him a book about General kuster but if he saw himself making his last stand at the Old Bailey if the Twins were beginning to believe in their own Legend they were soon to be firmly disenchanted there's nothing romantic about the cool clinical atmosphere of the central Criminal Court in court number one it was time for society to take its first long detached look at the firm's activities Richard Whitmore covered the trials it's been a long run on and off a year of different Court hearings sometimes times deadly dull sometimes funny sometimes revolting to listen to the real climax came in January with the Cornell and mcvi murder trial it was to last 40 days the longest the most expensive murder trial in British history in the dock 10 men charged either with murder or as accessories the judge tried to make them wear numbers to simplify things but the twins ripped theirs off shouting that this wasn't a cattle market and the judge ented in fact one would barely have noticed the twins if it hadn't been for their regular outbursts big slob animals bastard liar caused I suspect not just by anger but by the tension that built up daily and needed an outlet and from the witness box some horrifying Stories the twin's former henchman who saw Jack mcvi murdered quote Reggie got the knife and stuck it in mcv's face he stuck it in his stomach then he got a stride and stuck it in his throat and twisted it or the unfortunate barid at the blind beggar who saw Ronald cray shoot George Cornell dead in front of the customers after 3 years of private nightmares and a life spent in hiding the day comes when she has to face Ronald cray across the courtroom a hundred pairs of eyes on her as she points a trembling hand and says he did it she returned on the last day to see the twins sentenced to 30 years each and taken down the steps from the dock into the musty bowels of the Old Bailey murderers who've walked down here have killed for many reasons passion greed jealousy panic but the cray twins said their prosecutor killed purely as a matter of business not for profit but for Prestige outside in the East End the army they once boasted was second loany to the minister of Wars has gone The Craze probably had about 100 men they could call on at the height of the firm's activities now like so much of the old East End itself they've crumbled away vanag to group and regroup with others who undoubtedly try to fill the Gap as for the CRA themselves their real power over people came from a reputation based entirely on fear and the myths and legends that that fear created once it was proved that they were as vulnerable as the people they ruled their hold was gone the violence was bound to overtake them in the end their home at valence Road Now lies condemned Society demanded something better of it and of them after they got their imprisonment the oldies tend seem to go dead and very quiet not many people on the street it might be all in my mind and it might been in other people's mind but everyone noticed this power has some strange e isia effect on people and these people who really were powerful this is attractive to people of rather simple mind whatever their background although they are going to take very unhappily to 30 years inside they will read all the newspaper reports and they will puff out their chest organized crime as such can no longer flourish in this Society the police have the the means the Manpower and the ability to completely combat it thank you for watching if you enjoyed the video please join our Facebook group it's called CRA crime Lords of London we're a friendly moderated group with over 1,000 cray and other celebrated gangster videos available for view there's also thousands of images in the photos sections the link for the group is in the YouTube description section I hope we see you there [Music] soon

Channel: The Krays Crime Lords Of London Facebook Channel

Views: 92,703

Keywords: The, Kray, Twins, Ronnie, Ron, Reggie, Reg, Firm, London, Gangsters, Krays, The Name Is Kray 1969 Documentary

Id: pPg8HshR0n0

Length: 49min 56sec (2996 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 05 2024