37 Facts About Kray twins

The Kray twins were arrested on 8 May 1968 and convicted in 1969 as a result of the efforts of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read.

Ronald and Reginald Kray twins were born on 24 October 1933 in Haggerston, East London, to Charles David Kray twins, a wardrobe dealer, and Violet Annie Lee.

The brothers were identical Kray twins, with Reggie born 10 minutes before Ronnie.

The Kray twins household was dominated by their mother, who remained the most important influence on them during their childhood.

The Kray twins first attended Wood Close School in Brick Lane, and then Daniel Street School, Bethnal Green.

Violet Kray was regarded as a minor celebrity in Bethnal Green for giving birth to and raising a healthy pair of twins at a time when the infant and childhood mortality rate was high amongst the British working class.

The biographer of the Krays, John Pearson, argued that Violet Kray planted the seeds of the malignant narcissism that the twins would display as adults by encouraging her sons to think of themselves as being extraordinary while spoiling their every whim.

Ronnie was considered to be the more aggressive of the two Kray twins, constantly getting into street fights as a teenager.

The Kray twins adopted a norm according to which anyone who failed to show due respect would be severely punished.

Part of the Krays celebrity status in the 1960s was due to the widespread perception that the twins were men who had risen out of poverty into positions of great wealth and power due to their own efforts.

Furthermore, the 1960s were a time when many traditional British values were being questioned, and the Kray twins were widely seen as "rebels" against what were perceived as sanctimonious and hypocritical traditional British values.

Conversely, the Kray twins were seen in other quarters as symbols of moral decay and evil, with the famous photographs of the two brothers taken by David Bailey being viewed as "the phrenological archetypes of proletarian villainy".

Finally, Jenks and Lorentzen argued that the rareness of identical Kray twins made the brothers seem especially malevolent, giving them the "freak show" image as many found viewing two men who looked and sounded precisely the same to be disturbing and unnerving.

The Kray twins brothers formed an alliance with "the Commission" of New York that was the governing board of the American Mafia, being in contact with Meyer Lansky and Angelo Bruno, who were looking to invest in London's gambling clubs and nightclubs.

Kray twins went to the Blind Beggar with his driver, "Scotch Jack" John Dickson, and his assistant Ian Barrie.

Kray twins was a large man with a mental disorder, and he was difficult to control.

Kray twins disappeared, but the Krays were acquitted of his murder.

Freddie Foreman, a friend of the Krays, claimed in his autobiography Respect that he shot Mitchell dead as a favour to the twins and disposed of his body at sea.

Kray twins then stabbed McVitie in the face and stomach, driving the blade into his neck while twisting the knife, not stopping even as McVitie lay on the floor dying.

Bender then went on to phone Charlie Kray twins informing them that it had been dealt with.

Kray twins then informed Read via his mother that he was ready to cooperate.

Ronnie and Reggie Kray twins were allowed, under a large police guard, to attend the funeral service of their mother Violet on 11 August 1982, following her death from cancer a week earlier.

Ronnie Kray twins was a Category A prisoner, denied almost all liberties and not allowed to mix with other prisoners.

Kray twins was eventually certified insane, his paranoid schizophrenia being tempered with constant medication; in 1979 he was committed and lived the remainder of his life in Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire.

Reggie Kray twins was locked up in Maidstone Prison for eight years.

Also, extracts are mentioned in Ron's own book My Story and in Kate Kray twins's books Sorted; Murder, Madness and Marriage, and Free at Last.

Kray twins referred to her as "my little angel" and "my little doll".

Kray twins was helping to publicise a film she was making about Ronnie, who had died in hospital two years earlier.

An inquest came to the conclusion that she had committed suicide, but in 2002 an ex-lover of Reggie Kray twins's came forward to allege that Frances was murdered by a jealous Ronnie.

Kray twins would get really deep and open up to me.

Kray twins put his head on my shoulder and told me Ronnie killed Frances.

Kray twins told Reggie what he had done two days after.

Kray twins had suffered a heart attack at Broadmoor Hospital two days earlier.

Kray twins was freed from Wayland on 26 August 2000 on compassionate grounds, on the direction of Home Secretary Jack Straw.

Kray twins had been diagnosed with bladder cancer earlier that year, and the illness had been declared as terminal.

Kray twins died in prison of natural causes on 4 April 2000, aged 72, with Reggie allowed out of prison to attend his older brother's funeral.

The Kray twins have seeded an extensive bibliography leading to many autobiographical accounts, biographical reconstructions, commentaries, analysis, fiction and speculation.