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It has to be a five star from me - as I enjoy the subject and could re-read this kind of book day in and day out!

The Krays – 15 Fascinating Things I Learned Secrets Of The Krays – 15 Fascinating Things I Learned

The police, including Scotland Yard, were totally taken off guard by the rise of The Krays. Crime was always a presence in London, but it never really got out of hand. Sure, criminal elements were breaking the law, but people were not getting hurt at least not physically. As mentioned, not because Ronnie would have any inclination towards her- as was the case in say, East of Eden.

The Mafiosi have been- I guess they still are- not just conservative, but fundamentalists and racist, sexist in their attitude. Having seen Tom Hardy's film Legend I think the film although entertaining in its own right is too shiny in comparison to the book which shows just how real and dark living in London at that time was. I have seen comments from women who love the character of Reggie all because of Tom Hardy when in actual fact he was a mean nasty individual who bullied all including his own wife. There were aspects of the book that did shed light on the broader circle of players, for example, it was particularly interesting to read about how the lives of some of the Kray's associates panned out – or didn’t as the case may be! There was to be little rest from the twins, who continued to promote their image as England’s No 1 gangsters so diligently. And that remains the great enigma about the Krays: the fame they craved ensured that they would be a target for the police, and yet they staged their crimes where they would be guaranteed an audience; the men they believed were totally loyal were the ones who ensured their downfall. Once jailed, they devoted their considerable energies to their image as gangland stars, always open to visitors from outside. Their criminal empire may have been built on sand, but their name became a brand that retains its potency to this day for a nation both fascinated and repelled by the transgressive. Reggie’s first wife, Frances Shea, committed suicide in 1965. In Maidstone prison in 1997 he married 38-year-old Roberta Jones, from Southport. When I met her at her home in Norfolk at that time, she was conscious that, by marrying a Kray, she had entered the media spotlight: “It scares me. You are always aware that you might say something wrong.” As with Kate, the Kray name opened the publishing house doors for Roberta. Eleven crime novels, with titles such as Bad Girl, The Villain’s Daughter and No Mercy, have followed, with the word “Kray” featured prominently on the cover.

The Krays: The Prison Years: David, Blyth, Kate Beal Meikle The Krays: The Prison Years: David, Blyth, Kate Beal Meikle

Jamie Foreman is one of Britain’s most iconic actors. He is also the son of Britain’s most notorious gangster, Freddie Foreman. The Twins are identical, but their personalities are very different Reggie is more intelligent and blossoms as a club owner when Ronnie is sent away for a short stretch in the pen. He is also a hetersexual despite the constant badgering from Ronnie. ”What you thinking of, goin’ with a bloody woman? You’re gettin’ soft. Don’t you know that women smell and give you diseases?’However, while I sadly didn’t learn anything substantially new, I did like the unbiased writing, in that many of the previous books I’ve read on the Krays was either written/ghostwritten by themselves or by associates or members of their extended family/friends. That was a capital sin, outrageous and unacceptable- at least in the portraits we have of these wise guys Growing up, they both got diphtheria and measles. Naturally, being twins, they both got the infections. Ronnie almost died and when they both lived Ronnie became much slower then Reggie.

Books | thekrays.net Books | thekrays.net

So much rubbish gets written about our sort of people that me an' Ron both think it's time the truth was told for once.' A fascinating look into the organised crime world that was the East End in the 1960's. A History of Violence takes a look at Ronnie and Reggie Kray who terrorised and murdered their way to build their criminal empire and wage war against the Richardson's, their competitors. I normally enjoy books about the Krays, but I didn't enjoy this very much at all. I found it extremely hard to get into and heavy-going. I felt as though the author was bombarding me with information, facts, people, places, events, and trying to cram everything that he knew about the Krays into the book in the process. It actually gave me a headache several times, and in the end I had to give up on the book completely. Books don't usually make me feel ill, but this one did. This is one of many books about the infamous Kray Twins and their exploits in 1960's London. There is another book out there by the same author that updates this one after the twins demise and that may be the better read of the two. One of the flaws in this book is that it doesn't bring everything up to date despite the fact that this book was reprinted electronically in 2013. It ends with a postscript after the trial but that was a written in 1995 when the twins were still alive and eligible for parole. That never happened and they both died as prisoners though Reggie was released on compassionate grounds after it was clear that his race was over. This is a minor point but one that should be pointed out to anybody that might want to learn the full story of the Kray Twins and their gangland empire.

Reggie is attracted to Frances Shea, whose brother is also a criminal, but she is as nice, honest and against crime as anyone can be. I actually found myself feeling sorry for both twins multiple times. I know that everyone says they were villains, but being a twin myself I couldn't imagine being without my twin. Ronnie was the younger of the two; he always got his way because it was natural for Reggie to protect Ronnie. In 1965, David Bailey, already Britain’s most fashionable photographer, took a portrait of the gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who looked fiercely well-groomed in suits and narrow ties. At the time, they were not the notorious gangsters they were to become, but former boxers who ran nightclubs and collected protection money from people in awe of their reputation as a two-headed fighting machine. The portrait became gangland’s Mona Lisa: copied, pirated and imitated, it was central to their image and their brand. They aspired to be as famous as Al Capone and Legs Diamond, and were gratified when one of Bailey’s pictures of them, with their brother Charles, appeared later the same year in Bailey’s Box of Pin-ups, his document of 1960s celebrity culture, alongside the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Rudolph Nureyev, Lord Snowdon and Jean Shrimpton. “Their big mistake was posing for me,” Bailey told the BBC last year. “If you’re a real gangster nobody knows who you are.”