London's Gangs at War by Dick Kirby

Author:Dick Kirby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2017-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Krays

It seems to me that about once a week another book is published about the Kray brothers; each one contains startling new revelations about them and previous facts which everyone thought to be gospel are debunked.

In outlining the history of the brothers Kray – briefly, I hope, because most Kray aficionados will be fully aware of what follows – any new disclosures will be few and far between. To grip your attention, I should love to impart to you that Ronnie Kray was the father of twenty-three illegitimate children or that Reggie was secretly married to Princess Margaret, but alas, neither would be true. Nevertheless, it is necessary to outline the accomplishments of the brothers to show how their preoccupation with gang warfare brought about their demise.

The twins – Reggie and Ronnie – were born within ten minutes of each other on 24 October 1933 in Bethnal Green. They were the latest additions to the family of Charles David and Violet Annie Kray, who already had a son, also named Charles, who was seven years older than his siblings; a daughter, Violet, born in 1929, died in infancy. By the time the Second World War arrived, the family had moved to 178 Vallance Rd; and even at this early age, it was clear that the twins would fight any of their contemporaries, as well as each other, at the drop of a hat. They came from a fighting family; whilst their father was not a violent man, his father was known as ‘Mad Jimmy’ Kray, a well-known street-fighter, whilst the twins’ maternal grandfather was boxer Jimmy ‘Cannonball’ Lee.

Any parental control was minimal; their father deserted from the army and was away from home for long periods, while their mother doted on them (and vice versa) and refused to acknowledge any of their wrongdoing. So when Reg was arrested, aged twelve, for firing an airgun out of a train window, Violet was furious – but only with the police. Father Hetherington from the local church spoke up for Reg (as he would do on several more occasions) and he was placed on probation; however, a condition of the order was that he should attend the local boxing club in order to instil a little order into his life. In fact, both boys already trained at a lads’ boxing club south of the river, so to have this made the a subject of an order suited Reg down to the ground; and where he went, Ron followed. Boxing became a religion to them; a gym was fitted out on the first floor of Vallance Road and they trained incessantly. They fought as amateurs and also in fairground boxing booths; their fighting skills were honed in beating up anyone who crossed them and even people who didn’t. They were now gathering an arsenal of weapons, including a revolver which they hid under the floorboards in their bedroom; their home was nicknamed ‘Fort Vallance’.

In 1950 came their first serious confrontation with the law.

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