The Kray Twins
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What significant event occurred on April 19, 1965, involving the Kray Twins?
It is the 19th of April, 1965. In Bethnal Green, in the east end of London, a light rain is falling, marring what might have been a bright spring day. Staring out at the clouds, a man named Frank Shea sits in the back of a sleek black car as it pulls up outside a church. He steps out onto the pavement and takes in the scene before him. The church is like something from a storybook. Red brick walls contrasting with a grey slate roof and ornate white window frames. A large crowd of guests, dressed in their Sunday best, mill around outside. His eyes widen when a huge Rolls Royce pulls up next to him and blonde bombshell actress Diana Dawes emerges and makes her way into the church. He follows her inside, exchanging nods with the two burly men flanking the doors.
Making his way down the aisle, he smiles at the people he recognizes, before hurrying to join his mother in a pew near the front. But there is another shock when he reaches her. Why is she wearing a black mourning dress, today of all days? Before he can say anything, the vicar at the altar steps forward. Clearing his throat, he asks everyone to stand for the entrance of the bride. Tears of pride already filling his eyes, Frank turns to watch his baby sister, Frances, walk down the aisle. She is glowing in a simple white silk dress, her hair teased into an elaborate beehive. Her bright smile only falters for a moment when she sees her mother. Not just the pointed choice of color, but the fact that the older woman is also loudly sobbing.
Frank beams at his sister to make up for it, and can only hope that this obvious show of disapproval doesn't overshadow Frances' big day. As the music reaches its final bars, Frances goes to stand beside her bridegroom. Reggie Cray's dark hair is slicked back, and he wears a stylish black suit and white shirt. Next to him stands his identical twin brother, Ronnie. Only the flower in Reggie's buttonhole indicates which one is Frances' husband-to-be. The service begins with a hymn. They are only a few lines in when Frank catches movement out of the corner of his eye. The two men who had been guarding the door are walking up and down the aisle, gesturing and whispering. Frank realizes they're telling people to sing louder and look happier.
He gulps and swiftly complies.
All too soon, the ceremony is over and the congregation erupts into applause, some of them glancing nervously towards the big men at the back as they cheer as loudly as they can. Finally, the church bells begin to peal and the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Cray head down the aisle, arm in arm. Looking at his sister's radiant face as she gazes up at Reggie, Frank sends up a silent prayer that their mother is wrong about her new son-in-law. Surely, gangsters can sometimes make good husbands. On the surface, the wedding of Reginald Cray and Francis Shea in April 1965 looked like a classy society event. But the glamorous exterior hid the rot beneath. Because it was in fact the biggest gangland wedding that London had seen in years.
In the decade leading up to that spring morning, Reggie and his twin brother Ronnie had built a vast criminal empire based on extortion, blackmail, and violent intimidation. Many of the guests toasting the happy couple were hardened criminals. This conflict between image and reality will come to define the legend of the Cray Twins. They were a vicious pair of gangsters who somehow cultivated an air of charm and 60s cool. Criminals who attracted celebrities like Jackie Collins and Judy Garland to the clubs they ran. Murderers who became folk heroes in London's East End. But how did two boys from poverty-stricken post-war London come to rule the capital's underworld? Who were Reggie and Ronnie to the people who knew them, and to each other?
and what caused their carefully constructed criminal empire to come crashing down around them. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noisa Podcast Network, this is a short history of the Kray Twins.
The Kray twins' story starts with a forbidden romance. In 1926, a 17-year-old named Violet Lee meets Charles Kray, seven years her senior, in a dance hall.
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