Frances: The Tragic Bride by Hyams Jacky

Author:Hyams, Jacky [Hyams, Jacky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784181864
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2014-09-03T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

SPIRAL

Sunshine and blue skies weren’t a panacea for what Frances was going through emotionally. But at least they did briefly remove her from the ugly truth of her marriage. From early June to mid-August 1965 Frances was abroad, first on the Spanish island of Ibiza, then on Spain’s southern mainland in the holiday resort of Torremolinos.

These dates are recorded in her diary, though there is no detailed account of her time abroad. She wrote that Reggie accompanied her to the airport before the Ibiza trip, which started on 4 June – and noted that she stayed alone there in hotels for long periods. One can only imagine her terrified state of mind at that time, knowing that at some point she had to return.

The timeline for the events written down in her diary is not chronological, but much of it seems to relate to the immediate post-honeymoon period, the months before Frances decided she couldn’t stand living with her new husband and went back to the comparative safety of her family home. After the Spanish trip she briefly tried living with him again, but ran back to her family soon after.

Here is the content of what she wrote in the diary. Exactly when it was written is not clear, though it is most likely to have been penned in 1966, the last full year of Frances’s life.

If it is somewhat confusing to read, it still gives painful insights into what went on between the couple and Reggie’s tragically abusive behaviour in that brief time when they lived together.

It also shows that Frances did briefly date other men before the marriage – and highlights much of the tension within the Kray family during Frances’s times at Vallance Road. What is very clear from the diary is that what Frances wanted most of all was a divorce, a legal end to the marriage.

Where she mentions ‘offence regarding s’ this presumably refers to sex – and the incident she told Elsie about, when Reggie attempted anal sex. The word ‘offence’ was used because she would have seen it in that way, as a shocking act: in those days, anal sex, even between a married couple, was viewed quite differently to the way it is perceived nowadays. (Until the late 1800s in England anal sex or buggery was an offence punishable by hanging.)

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