My Story


Book Description

Following on from Our Story, Ron Kray fills in the gaps and gives his version of the murders of Jack The Hat McVitie and George Cornell, describing his bisexuality and his marriage in Broadmoor and clarifying many of the misconceptions about the years when he and Reg ruled the London underworld, shot enemies at will and simultaneously socialized with some of the most glittering politicians, celebrities and hostesses of the time.




The Krays: The Prison Years


Book Description

In the 60s, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were Britain’s most notorious gangsters. With violence and intimidation they were the kings of London. They sipped champagne with celebrities and rubbed shoulders with politicians. They were untouchable. Until they weren’t. After an undercover operation, the Kray twins were found guilty of murder and were sentenced to life in prison. They were just 35 years old. But once inside, the twins were determined to make their stay truly historic. The Twins began earning more money inside than they ever did on the streets. They sold branded t-shirts and memorabilia and they allowed books and films to be published about their lives. They didn't stop. Whilst locked up, their mother died as did their brother Charlie, and their associates and friends all fell away. But while Britain changed as a nation, the brothers continued to operate as the gangsters they once were. Their violence ingrained so deep that they couldn’t leave it behind. The Krays: The Prison Years explores the fascinating and largely untold story of the Kray twins following their imprisonment.




Our Story


Book Description

London's most notorious gangsters, in their own words . . . The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller. The Kray twins were Britain's most notorious gangsters. Ruling London's underworld for more than a decade, as gang lords they were among the most powerful and feared men in the city. Photographed by David Bailey and even interviewed for television, they became celebrities in their own right and are infamous to this day. Ronnie and Reg's reign of terror ended on 8 March 1969 when they were sentenced to life with the recommendation that they serve at least thirty years. Ronnie ended his days in Broadmoor – his raging insanity only controlled by massive doses of drugs. Reg served almost three decades in some of Britain's toughest jails before being released on compassionate grounds in August 2000. He died of cancer eight months later. Compiled from a series of interviews with Fred Dinenage from behind prison walls, Our Story is the classic account that explodes the myths surrounding the Kray twins. In it, the twins set the record straight. In their own words they tell the full story of their brutal career of crime and their years behind bars. With an introduction from Fred Dinenage, this compelling, disturbing and highly readable book is the definitive story of two legendary criminals.




The Profession of Violence


Book Description

The classic, bestselling account of the infamous Kray twins, now a major film, LEGEND, starring Tom Hardy. Reggie and Ronald Kray ruled London's gangland during the 1960s with a ruthlessness and viciousness that shocks even now. Building an empire of organised crime such as nobody has done before or since, the brothers swindled, intimidated, terrorised, extorted and brutally murdered. John Pearson explores the strange relationship that bound the twins together, and charts their gruesome career to their downfall and imprisonment for life in 1969. Now expanded to include further extraordinary revelations, including the unusual alliance between the Kray twins and Lord Boothby – the Tory peer who won £40,000 in a libel settlement when he denied allegation of his association with the Krays – The Profession of Violence is a truly classic work. John Pearson is also the author of All the Money in the World (previously titled Painfully Rich), now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott film and starring Michelle Williams, Mark Wahlberg and Christopher Plummer (nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor).




Nipper Read


Book Description

Just after 7pm on the evening of Tuesday 4 March 1969, at the Old Bailey, the jurors filed back into Court 1 to give their verdict on Ronald Kray. The word 'guilty' brought to a triumphant conclusion the months of painstaking work put in by Read and his team in their efforts to bring the infamous Kray brothers to justice. Leonard Read tells his own story, that of the small Nottingham lad, nicknamed Nipper, who went to join the Metropolitan Police because of their less stringent height requirements - and who rose through the ranks to become part of the team solving the Great Train Robbery. In 1964 Read was invited to put together a team to 'have a go' at the Kray gang - the seemingly untouchable East End criminals whose reign of terror involved blackmail, protection rackets and finally murder. In an enthralling recreation of the operation, Read and Morton cover the case from the first time Nipper saw Ronald Kray in a pub in the Whitechapel Road - where he turned up flanked by minders - to the brothers' eventual arrest in May 1968 and the nailbiting suspense of their sensational trial.




The Krays and Me - Blood, Honour and Respect. Doing Porridge with The Krays


Book Description

Two names reigned supreme in London's underworld in the sixties - Ronnie and Reggie Kray; and it wasn't until 1969 that the twins went down at Brixton Prison for murder. I was only seventeen, on remand up in Risley, Warrington, for nicking a furniture lorry. Most of the lads in there had newspaper photos of the Krays stuck up on their cell walls. They were the cream of the criminal crop, and that's why I took such an interest in 'em. Once I was put away, it wasn't long before I got to meet them, and over the next 29 years I got closer to the Krays than any self-proclaimed henchman, any autograph hunter. As their trusted friend they let me in on it all - no holds barred behind bars! Since Ronnie and Reggie died, all I've heard is a load of bollocks! 'Reggie shot my cat; Ronnie stabbed my uncle Bert 75 times; Reggie ran over my hamster; I'm Ronnie's son, I'm Reggie's daughter.' Gutless maggots spreading rumours with their sham stories for sale. The shameless rats. Well now the twins are gone and I can talk. And let me tell you, I've got a lot to say and all the time in the world to say it. No bollocks. No silly stories. Just the facts about the time I spent doing porridge with the Krays.




The Krays' London


Book Description

A true crime travel guide to the haunts and hangouts of the most notorious gangsters of London’s East End. There are many conflicting stories about who Ronnie and Reggie Kray were. Films depicting their lives have made the public vilify them, adore them and even admire them. This guidebook will dig a little deeper into the places they spent their time. Many of the places are renowned as the stomping grounds of the devious duo, but there are one or two exclusives that are not yet covered anywhere else, including the untold story of their lifelong hairdresser. Chapter by chapter, a map of their lives will reveal itself, making this the perfect read for anybody around the world interested in London’s gangster scene. “I remember going home from a cinema visit to London in the early 1960s with police sirens all over the place as we went through the East End. I remember the newspaper reports of the time, and wondering how the police could allow such people to control the East End to such an extent, and to apparently countenance the horrors this evil gang inflicted on their own and their enemies. It was a horrendous time to be alive in the East End of London, and Caroline’s superb book brings it all back to life.” —Books Monthly




Bringing Down the Krays (A/I/E)


Book Description

'It was a list of people he wanted to kill; he was going to kill. In that moment, I knew something had to be done. The Krays were out of control. The had the East End buttoned up too tight and someone had to undo it. I swallowed hard, realising that someone had to be me...' Bobby Teale and his brothers, David and Alfie, were the three men the Kray twins trusted most. They weren't in the Firm, they were closer than that. They were old family friends, confidants, companions... But then things changed. Witnessing Ronnie and Reggie become increasingly psychotic - taking murder, torture and rape to sickening new levels - Bobby knew he had to take action. Unknown to his brothers, he became a police informer; risking not just his own life but those of the people dearest to him too. Using the codename 'Phillips', he spent the next three years living on his wits, feeding back information to Scotland Yard. With bent cops on their side the Krays knew they had a grass in their midst, but before they could flush him out, Bobby's evidence saw the gangsters get locked up for life. Bobby fled the country, but now 40 years on he's back. And he wants to set the record straight. With the help of his brothers, the man brave enough to stand up to the Krays has rewritten history as we know it; dispelling the myths and tearing apart the gangsters' glamorous veneer to reveal the true, sadistic nature of Ronnie and Reggie. Crammed full of explosive, new revelations,Bringing Down The Kraysis the last great untold story of Britain's most infamous crime family.




Krayzy Days


Book Description

Krayzy Days is the true story of the East End underworld between the late 1950s and 1980s, Including the infamous Kray twins and the man who was part of their intimate circle. Micky Fawcett paints a vivid picture of life with and beyond the krays as well as the murderous war of the 70s which saw the East End gangs vying for position in the vacuum left by the twins' imprisonment, with countless knifings and shootings, not to mention frequent bombings and murders. With unprecedented insight into the private life of a man whom even the Krays respected - the notorious Billy Hill - Micky not only details Hill's criminal dealings with men such as Marcel Francisci, the Boss of the Union Corse, but also divulges facts regarding Hill's unconventional sex life that only his closest confidantes knew. This is Fawcett's fascinating account of an almost surreal world of sex, violence and paranoia, where one of the key rules was 'kill first or be killed'




The Krays: A Violent Business


Book Description

Twins Ron and Reg Kray were without doubt the most powerful, violent and deadly gangsters that London has ever known. They ran protection rackets, clubs and casinos, as well as fraudulent 'long firms'. They blackmailed, intimidated and killed - for many years with impunity thanks to their powerful cronies in the Establishment. Working with all five main Mafia families in New York, they were expanding their business worldwide when they were imprisoned for murder in 1968. Featuring revealing new material, The Krays: A Violent Business is the story of their lives - and of the secrets and scandals the British government still doesn't want you to know about.