Posted on 10/18/2001 2:40:31 PM PDT by CommiesOut
| Gangster Ronnie Kray tormented by being gay - files | |
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By Ed Cropley
LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Ronnie Kray, the brutal gangster
who ruled London's 1960s underworld with twin brother Reggie,
fought a lifelong battle against his inner homosexual demons,
secret files released on Thursday revealed.
The police dossiers also show the 'Kray Twins', sharp-suited
Cockney masters of the murky world of the capital's East End,
had established themselves as 'Untouchables' at the heart of a
criminal web at the tender age of 27.
Accomplished boxers in their youth, the twins, born in 1933,
turned violence into an art-form as they threatened, extorted
and murdered their way to the top of the pile.
But behind the dark glasses and carefully cultured menace --
a blueprint for dozens of gangster movies from Quentin Tarantino
to Guy Ritchie -- Ronnie was walking a sexual tightrope.
Talk of his ambivalent sexuality triggered his downfall
when, in 1966, he shot George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub
after Cornell called him a "fat poof (homosexual)".
The testimony of London bookmaker Charles Clark in the
run-up to Ronnie's murder trial three years later, reveals the
extent of the hardman's trouble psyche.
"He once told me the tragedy of his life was that he was the
twin who was born the wrong way round sexually, and he wanted to
turn in his life of crime and turn over a new leaf," Clark told
detectives in the newly-opened files.
Ronnie spent nine months living with Clark and his wife "as
part of the family" and he opened his heart to his host.
"He said he cried inside himself every day. Indeed he cried
in my presence a few times," Clark said in the documents which
have remained classified for more than three decades.
RONNIE DIED IN 1995
Ronnie died of a heart attack in 1995 in Broadmoor hospital
for the criminally insane.
The curtain finally came down on the Kray dynasty last year
when cancer claimed the smooth-talking Reggie, but the family's
dubious allure has endured so strongly only now was it
considered safe to open the files.
Contrary to modern belief, Ronnie had a heart of gold, not
steel -- at least according to his long-time friend.
"I know he had plenty of money and he put it about to help
old people and also the wives of men in prison," Clark said.
The files also reveal the mammoth task faced by police in
chasing the twins, who appeared in public with stars such as
Judy Garland and Diana Dors and whose portrait by celebrity
snapper David Bailey became an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
In a letter to his bosses dated May 1960, Detective
Superintendent Tommy Butler of Scotland Yard's fabled Flying
Squad said the Krays were already beyond the long arm of the law
three years before their 30th birthday.
"The Kray twins and their older brother Charles...have
welded themselves into a formidable criminal association.
"For this reason their arrest will probably be achieved only
by unorthodox policing, or by very good fortune," Butler said.
((Ed Cropley, London newsroom, Tel +44 207 542 7947, Fax 0207
542 7921 edward.cropley@reuters.com))
18 OCT 2001 18:08:40 Cruel, but fair.
I remember Ronnie was keen on boxing. But when he learned to walk, he took to puttin' a boot to the groin.
Oh for the days of the Other Other Operation
And what was the Unwritten Rule?
Sorry, squire...I scratched the record.
Sorry, squire...I scratched the record.
Sorry, squire...I scratched the record.
Sorry, squire...I scratched the record.
Sorry, squire...I scratched the record.
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