Read Online Bringing Down the Krays by Bobby Teale - Free Book Online
Authors: Bobby Teale
Ads: Link
ran out of the room like a madman, going over to the bath-house six times that day to wash himself. He said he could not forget the disgust of that moment and how dirty it made him feel. He claimed this completely changed him, and that after that day he absolutely hated women. He said he could not even speak to his own mother for days.
When this incident occurred Reggie was having one of his spells in prison. Ronnie told David that while Reggie was away, he had been mucking around with Teddy Smith one day. Teddy climbed on top of him and Ronnie said something changed in him and he felt different. From that point he knew he was gay. That was what he told David, anyway.
Reggie was also difficult to read sexually. There was one night when David pulled a bird (a grafter again) and suggested the three of them went back to Vallance Road. The girl was up for having both of them and David thought Reggie wanted it too. So the girl and my brother went into Reggie’s bedroom at the back of the house and got into bed. But after David had had sex with the girl, Reggie said he’d changed his mind, and let it go. Neither of my brothers ever saw Reggie sexually with a girl, ever, before he met Frances Shea – the teenager from Hackney he went on to marry.
Anyway, after the first night in Jersey the little group stayed at the hotel drinking for three days – though my brother insisted on getting his own hotel room on the second night. On the plane coming back there was another man and a woman, a supposed honeymoon couple, but they were clearly police. Everywhere Ronnie went, they were there watching. Ronnie insisted they all sit separately on the plane.
Three months later, David was sent out to Jersey again but this time there were two male officers from the Yard there. The Krays wouldn’t trust anyone. Once Ronnie met someone in a rowing boat in Victoria Park in Hackney to make sure he wasn’t wired up. All that paranoia about informers was because they depended on spies and informers themselves in other firms and in the police.
By now there were other things going on in my brother’s life than doing errands for the Krays. That summer, 1963, David had come to see me again on the Isle of Wight to help out with the boat business – and to tell me more about the endless Krayparties in London. Along the way he fell in love. He saw a young girl walking along the boardwalk in Shanklin and that was it. She was called Christine. Meanwhile Alfie had also met his future wife, Wendy. Our mother predicted it wouldn’t last for either of them, so David said to Alfie: ‘We’ll prove them all wrong and have a double wedding,’ and they did. They both married on 26 September 1963, in Russell Square Registry Office. One after the other: David to Christine and Alfie to Wendy.
After the ceremony my brothers put their new wives in a taxi to go shopping in Oxford Street and they went round the pub. That night we all went to Talk of the Town in Leicester Square for a big party. And for once it was without Ron and Reg who were now ever-present in my brothers’ lives.
CHAPTER 6
THE CEDRA COURT SCENE
THE KRAYS’ CRAZY world was the only one that mattered. I desperately wanted to be in on it myself but I was not there yet. It was like nothing could go wrong for the Krays at this time. The Barn in Knightsbridge shut down when too many cheques bounced but the twins had the other spielers and the long firms bringing in the cash. Their ambitions were bigger than ever. Ronnie was out of his own mum’s way now, living in the same block as flats as our mum and dad, Cedra Court in Upper Clapton. It could get pretty wild there at times. The parties would attract all sorts, celebrities and villains, with people coming and going into the small hours.
Ronnie loved blue films. David told me about a party one night at Ron’s flat. Everyone was watching them and getting very drunk. The film kept breaking and everyone started booing. It was funny
When this incident occurred Reggie was having one of his spells in prison. Ronnie told David that while Reggie was away, he had been mucking around with Teddy Smith one day. Teddy climbed on top of him and Ronnie said something changed in him and he felt different. From that point he knew he was gay. That was what he told David, anyway.
Reggie was also difficult to read sexually. There was one night when David pulled a bird (a grafter again) and suggested the three of them went back to Vallance Road. The girl was up for having both of them and David thought Reggie wanted it too. So the girl and my brother went into Reggie’s bedroom at the back of the house and got into bed. But after David had had sex with the girl, Reggie said he’d changed his mind, and let it go. Neither of my brothers ever saw Reggie sexually with a girl, ever, before he met Frances Shea – the teenager from Hackney he went on to marry.
Anyway, after the first night in Jersey the little group stayed at the hotel drinking for three days – though my brother insisted on getting his own hotel room on the second night. On the plane coming back there was another man and a woman, a supposed honeymoon couple, but they were clearly police. Everywhere Ronnie went, they were there watching. Ronnie insisted they all sit separately on the plane.
Three months later, David was sent out to Jersey again but this time there were two male officers from the Yard there. The Krays wouldn’t trust anyone. Once Ronnie met someone in a rowing boat in Victoria Park in Hackney to make sure he wasn’t wired up. All that paranoia about informers was because they depended on spies and informers themselves in other firms and in the police.
By now there were other things going on in my brother’s life than doing errands for the Krays. That summer, 1963, David had come to see me again on the Isle of Wight to help out with the boat business – and to tell me more about the endless Krayparties in London. Along the way he fell in love. He saw a young girl walking along the boardwalk in Shanklin and that was it. She was called Christine. Meanwhile Alfie had also met his future wife, Wendy. Our mother predicted it wouldn’t last for either of them, so David said to Alfie: ‘We’ll prove them all wrong and have a double wedding,’ and they did. They both married on 26 September 1963, in Russell Square Registry Office. One after the other: David to Christine and Alfie to Wendy.
After the ceremony my brothers put their new wives in a taxi to go shopping in Oxford Street and they went round the pub. That night we all went to Talk of the Town in Leicester Square for a big party. And for once it was without Ron and Reg who were now ever-present in my brothers’ lives.
CHAPTER 6
THE CEDRA COURT SCENE
THE KRAYS’ CRAZY world was the only one that mattered. I desperately wanted to be in on it myself but I was not there yet. It was like nothing could go wrong for the Krays at this time. The Barn in Knightsbridge shut down when too many cheques bounced but the twins had the other spielers and the long firms bringing in the cash. Their ambitions were bigger than ever. Ronnie was out of his own mum’s way now, living in the same block as flats as our mum and dad, Cedra Court in Upper Clapton. It could get pretty wild there at times. The parties would attract all sorts, celebrities and villains, with people coming and going into the small hours.
Ronnie loved blue films. David told me about a party one night at Ron’s flat. Everyone was watching them and getting very drunk. The film kept breaking and everyone started booing. It was funny
Similar Books
