| The name Kray embodies a sense of dark power,
and the twins’ story in a unique East End era is chilling yet
somehow fascinating.
What makes it even more interesting is the knowledge that Stoke
Newington was very much part of the setting. Much of what happened
occurred on the streets I regularly walk down in the same Stoke
Newington, which was then a very different place, with the influx
of restaurants and Fresh & Wild still several eras away.
Of course, the more famous, or infamous, the story, the more scraps
of fiction that will be thrown in, as people strive to appear involved
or informed. Also, those who seek to glorify mainly ego and/or criminal-driven
violence and brutality need to ask themselves some questions. For
every person who has said ‘they never hurt their own’,
there are countless others who lived in the East End at the time
who will give a very different opinion.
The Krays’ story is long enough ago to depict a very different
world, but near enough to make it all the more intriguing and fact-driven.
What is certainly true is that the twins quickly built up a portfolio
of clubs, which played a major part in their dominance of the East
End, in addition to their numerous other protection, fraud and extortion
schemes. Then, with a never-ending thirst for further control, this
was extended into the West End and beyond as their power base grew
(including later links with the Mafia and several other overseas
gangs).
One of the clubs which played a major part in their East End stronghold
was The Regency on Amhurst Road. This was one of the numerous clubs
in which the Krays had ‘an interest’, i.e. part of their
protection income, though it also was the setting for several key
moments in their rise and fall. It was at one point run by the father
of France Shea, whom Reggie Kray had met there while on bail. He
went out with her a few times and, on returning to Wandsworth Prison,
began to send her letters and poetry every day. She was only sixteen
when they met and initially turned down his proposal of marriage,
citing her age. However, they did eventually marry, though it was
short and tragic rather than sweet.
Popular opinion has it that France Shea was unsettled by the constant
and unstable influence of Reggie Kray’s twin brother, Ronnie,
whose state of mind was becoming increasingly alarming. It is also
said Reggie Kray was over-possessive and that she felt more and
more alienated in their circles. Whatever the reasons, she soon
returned to her parents and, despite Reggie Kray’s efforts,
a happy reunion never occurred. After two failed attempts, France
Shea committed suicide in 1967.
Her death triggered Reggie Kray into a period of destruction that
would have been more commonly associated with his pathologically
violent brother. Among a number of brutal incidents, he reportedly
slashed the face of an ex-boxer in The Regency. There were numerous
other incidents in Stoke Newington, and the Krays moved their headquarters
for a period to a hotel on Seven Sisters Road. However, Stoke Newington
was also going to be the setting for their eventual downfall.
 Jack
‘The Hat’ McVitie was a small-time criminal who had
carried out work for the Krays, though, through a number of incidents,
he fell out of favour with the twins. Firstly, he allegedly failed
to kill Leslie Payne (the mastermind behind many of the early money-making
schemes) and he kept part of the money. Then, on one of many drug-induced
rampages, he threatened at gunpoint the owners of The Regency, John
and Tony Barry – associates of the Krays.
Inevitably, something was going to happen. One night, McVitie was
joined by several of Krays’ associates while drinking at The
Regency. After staying with him for a while, they persuaded McVitie
to go with them to a party. The ‘party’ was being held
at ‘Blonde’ Carol’s house on Evering Road. Little
did he know that prior to his arrival, all the party-goers had been
ushered out and McVitie was greeted by the Kray twins along with
several of their closest associates. Reggie Kray, long goaded by
his brother over the fact that he had never murdered anyone, pointed
a gun to McVitie’s head and pulled the trigger. However, it
misfired. This was only to be a short reprieve as, despite the victim’s
attempts to escape, Reggie Kray was handed a kitchen knife which
he repeatedly plunged into McVitie, eventually putting him out of
his misery by stabbing him in the neck.
This, along with Ronnie Kray’s killing of George Cornell
in The Blind Beggar, were to be the crimes that finally led to the
end of the twins’ control. A co-ordinated police raid, led
by Detective Superintendent Leonard‘Nipper’ Read, picked
up the twins and a number of their associates. After a lengthy trial,
both Krays were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.
The other day, I passed the house on Evering Road where the attack
happened. It was strange to think that in this quiet street one
of the most infamous murders of the last century took place. It
also gave a sense of a different Stoke Newington only a few decades
ago – when the Krays and other gangs at the time were a part
of a period that will be permanently recorded in local history.
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