Read Online Frances: The Tragic Bride by Jacky Hyams - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jacky Hyams
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‘aways’ (men serving prison sentences) and a helping hand for these people when they came out of jail. Word soon got round the criminal fraternity: the twins, ran the legend, looked after their own. There was some truth in this. But it was a devious ploy. The more you owed them in loyalty, the more they could ask in return. This way, they didn’t even have to dirty their hands by thieving or conning people themselves, because they got others to do it for them. In the end, such requests would extend to murder.
Reggie was by far the more businesslike of the pair. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t just about creating a reputation of fear of their violence: he saw it as a chance to make real money from the gambling clubs, pubs and businesses that paid them for protection.
As a clearing house, the billiard hall was a cover for many things: locked cubicles for thieves’ tools, stolen goods stashed around the back, transport arranged for robberies, percentages taken on other crims’ activities. All highly lucrative. And Reggie was well organised. Ronnie schemed over the battles and gun warfare, weaponry being his major obsession, becoming a powerful criminal leader in the style of Al Capone his sole desire. He even dressed like his hero, wearing a floor-length belted cashmere overcoat and adopting slicked-back hair.
His twin, however, could see bigger and better times ahead with the lifestyle that only money can buy. Ronnie was increasingly violent, just for the fun of it. Initially, he’d been viewed as the dominant force, with Reggie spending much time trying to restrain his twin’s excesses – or clearing up after him. But then, one night, Ronnie went too far. There was a row with a rival gang at a local pub where Ronnie and two others set about a man and nearly killed him in a psychotic attack; as a consequence, Ronnie was given a three-year jail sentence in November 1956.
This was a turning point. For the first time since they were three years old, when a bout of diphtheria separated them in hospital, the twins were apart. (Diphtheria is reputed to have changed Ronnie for good, making him much slower and more awkward than his twin.)
Reggie, troubled by concern for his twin, did everything he could to ensure Ronnie got whatever he needed while he was in prison. But he also started to focus more clearly on his idea of himself as an individual – and what he wanted. It was Reggie Kray’s first taste of adult life as a separate identity: real freedom.
It was a turbulent time. After a year in prison, Ronnie was moved to Camp Hill Prison on the Isle of Wight – and went completely crazy. Paranoid and psychotic, he wound up in a straightjacket and was certified insane. Then, at the beginning of 1958, he was transferred to a mental hospital, Long Grove, in Epsom, Surrey. At one point he insisted his twin was not Reggie at all, but a Russian spy impersonating his brother.
This, sadly, was just one of Ronnie Kray’s many fantasies. Yet there was a tiny kernel of truth in the madness. Because Reggie, no longer in daily contact with his twin, had started to become much more confident, less worried or suspicious of everyone around him. More his own man.
In 1957, the business-minded Reggie had spotted a golden opportunity to make more money by creating something quite different from the billiard hall. His idea was a drinking club in the East End in the Bow Road, Bow, named after the twins, ‘The Double R’. Yet again, a semi-derelict building was transformed. Only this time, the clientele weren’t all East End villains and crims; the majority of the regulars were smart couples, local celebrities, journalists, people in the know, who were all looking for a good night out, without any trouble. That was the point: Reggie could see that in order to attract the ‘right’ people, you had to remove the element of violence and menace.
Reggie, as the slickly dressed genial host, clad in immaculately tailored
Reggie was by far the more businesslike of the pair. As far as he was concerned, it wasn’t just about creating a reputation of fear of their violence: he saw it as a chance to make real money from the gambling clubs, pubs and businesses that paid them for protection.
As a clearing house, the billiard hall was a cover for many things: locked cubicles for thieves’ tools, stolen goods stashed around the back, transport arranged for robberies, percentages taken on other crims’ activities. All highly lucrative. And Reggie was well organised. Ronnie schemed over the battles and gun warfare, weaponry being his major obsession, becoming a powerful criminal leader in the style of Al Capone his sole desire. He even dressed like his hero, wearing a floor-length belted cashmere overcoat and adopting slicked-back hair.
His twin, however, could see bigger and better times ahead with the lifestyle that only money can buy. Ronnie was increasingly violent, just for the fun of it. Initially, he’d been viewed as the dominant force, with Reggie spending much time trying to restrain his twin’s excesses – or clearing up after him. But then, one night, Ronnie went too far. There was a row with a rival gang at a local pub where Ronnie and two others set about a man and nearly killed him in a psychotic attack; as a consequence, Ronnie was given a three-year jail sentence in November 1956.
This was a turning point. For the first time since they were three years old, when a bout of diphtheria separated them in hospital, the twins were apart. (Diphtheria is reputed to have changed Ronnie for good, making him much slower and more awkward than his twin.)
Reggie, troubled by concern for his twin, did everything he could to ensure Ronnie got whatever he needed while he was in prison. But he also started to focus more clearly on his idea of himself as an individual – and what he wanted. It was Reggie Kray’s first taste of adult life as a separate identity: real freedom.
It was a turbulent time. After a year in prison, Ronnie was moved to Camp Hill Prison on the Isle of Wight – and went completely crazy. Paranoid and psychotic, he wound up in a straightjacket and was certified insane. Then, at the beginning of 1958, he was transferred to a mental hospital, Long Grove, in Epsom, Surrey. At one point he insisted his twin was not Reggie at all, but a Russian spy impersonating his brother.
This, sadly, was just one of Ronnie Kray’s many fantasies. Yet there was a tiny kernel of truth in the madness. Because Reggie, no longer in daily contact with his twin, had started to become much more confident, less worried or suspicious of everyone around him. More his own man.
In 1957, the business-minded Reggie had spotted a golden opportunity to make more money by creating something quite different from the billiard hall. His idea was a drinking club in the East End in the Bow Road, Bow, named after the twins, ‘The Double R’. Yet again, a semi-derelict building was transformed. Only this time, the clientele weren’t all East End villains and crims; the majority of the regulars were smart couples, local celebrities, journalists, people in the know, who were all looking for a good night out, without any trouble. That was the point: Reggie could see that in order to attract the ‘right’ people, you had to remove the element of violence and menace.
Reggie, as the slickly dressed genial host, clad in immaculately tailored
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