A MAN who was raped by Ronnie Kray said he feels “sick” when obsessed “fans” go on a “pilgrimage” to his grave.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were both notorious for their ruthless East End crime empire during the 1950s and 1960s.
GettyObsessed fans boast about their “pilgrimages” to see the Krays’ graves in North London[/caption]
GettyThe twins were both notorious for their ruthless East End crime empire during the 1950s and 1960s[/caption]
GettyBobby recalled the brothers attacking children and Ronnie threatening to rape his 11-year-old brother[/caption]
Bobby Teale, who reported the twins to the police, was raped by Ronnie when he worked for them.
He has now slammed the “literally clueless” people who continue to idolise the “terrible people”.
Ronnie and Reggie’s graves attract a lot of attention at Chingford Mount Cemetery, in North London.
Bizarre fans often leave tributes, flowers and alcohol for the pair while posing for cheery pictures with the black gravestones.
After carrying out his work as an informant, Bobby felt forced to flee to America for his own safety.
He had lived with Reggie at one point in time so his testimony helped see the killer brothers jailed for murdering George Cornell and Jack ‘the Hat’ McVitie.
Bobby told MailOnline Ronnie and Reggie were “domestic terrorists” and should be remembered that way.
“They’re actually imbalanced – but as soon as you name yourself as being the one that said it, then the very people who idolise these lunatics attack you. They haven’t got a clue,” he said.
“Seeing people idolising them, it’s the most sickening thing I could believe.”
The 83-year-old said when he returned to the UK after 40 years he was baffled by idolisation of the twins.
Bobby recalled the brothers attacking children and Ronnie threatening to rape his 11-year-old brother.
He remembered hearing Ronnie tell Reggie “you’ve got to kill someone. You wouldn’t believe how good it is”.
The breaking point came when the thugs held Bobby’s brother’s family hostage.
“I didn’t do it to be any hero – I did it because I knew I was going to be done in anyway,” added Bobby.
GettyThe gangsters were ultimately taken down with the help of the Teale brothers’ testimonies[/caption]
GettyRonnie’s funeral, on 29th March 1995, in Bethnal Green, East London, drew thousands[/caption]
(From left) Alfie Teale, David Teale, And Bobby TealeRex
AlamyRonnie and Reggie during their amateur boxing days[/caption]
David Teale, now 82, dubbed the Krays “murderers, bullies, and violent, horrible people”.
“But others have made them legends – how can you make serial killers legends?” He asked.
“At the trial I looked over at Ronnie, the Colonel, because I had something personal because he raped me years ago, and I said: ‘The truth hurts Ron, doesn’t it’.”
David begged for history to be “put right” and stop idolising the Krays as “martyrs”.
The third Teale brother, Alfie, has also become involved with the Krays.
The 85-year-old said: “Reggie was an absolute psychopath, same as his brother.”
It comes as men’s mental health charities have been issuing urgent warnings about the idolisation of figures such as the Krays and Andrew Tate.
Laurence Johns, from The Mankind Project UK, said: “Where other people may have got the stories of Robin Hood I got the Krays. I think a lot of people gloss over reality – but they weren’t nice people.”
He explained how the Krays could be “very attractive” to people “seeking for identity”.
“It’s not a crisis in masculiuty – it’s a crisis in society where a lopt of people are feeling disempowered, men and women,” said Laurence.
THE KRAY TWINS
The identical twins were born within ten minutes of each other on October 24, 1933, in in Haggerston, East London.
They were born to parents Charles David Kray and Violet Annie Lee and grew up in the East End with their brother Charles.
The brothers also had a sister, named Violet who was born in 1929, however she sadly died in infancy.
Their father, also Charles, was a second-hand clothes dealer and went on the run to avoid military service.
Their maternal grandfather Jimmy “Cannonball” Lee encouraged them to take up amateur boxing, a common pastime for working class boys in the area.
Ronnie was considered to be the more aggressive of the two twins, constantly getting into street fights as a teenager.
In 1952 they began their national service, but they were too wild for the military.
After assaulting the corporal in charge and several police officers, they managed to get a dishonourable discharge by throwing tantrums, dumping their latrine bucket over a sergeant and even handcuffing a guard to their prison bars.
With a criminal record their boxing careers were brought to an abrupt end, and they instead turned to a life of crime.
I watched Ronnie Kray launch a horrific attack on lag for pouring him ‘half a cup’ of tea – but he treated me like a VIP
By Grant Rollings and Ronnie Field
IN a long career Ronnie Field built up a fortune and once joked his “Barclays, Midlands and National Westminster” were behind his success.
But he wasn’t a banker or stock market trader, he was a highly successful armed robber who had wreaked havoc on the institutions.
Now Ronnie, 77, is lifting the lid on his life inside the criminal underworld, which saw him rub shoulders with Britain’s most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson and befriend the Kray twins.
Although a feared criminal in his own right, he says the senseless violence of Ronnie Kray, witnessed by him in Parkhurst Prison, shocked him to the core.
In an exclusive extract from is book, Nefarious: A Life In Crime, he reveals a horrific attack over a cup of tea.
He wrote: “Ron scared me, I do admit. One afternoon we were sitting in the lounge area of the hospital wing where Ron now lived, drinking tea and half-heartedly watching television.
A young red band – an inmate who the authorities trusted – was charged with the job of refilling our cups.
He’d walk around with his stainless-steel bucket, politely asking if we wanted refilling. It was his first day on this job.
The lad refilled us one by one and got to Ron. He nodded, the boy poured and walked off to the next group.
Ron glared into his mug and then jumped up, shouted something, and snatched the urn from the lad and poured the scalding water over his head.
The warders pulled Ron away and ushered the traumatised trusty out of the room.
‘What did you do that for, Ron?’ asked Reg, shocked and cross. ‘He was taking the p*** out of me.’
‘How was he taking the p*** out of you, Ron?’
‘He only poured me half a cup, Reg.’
‘But you only have a half a cup, Ron.’
‘Yeah, but he doesn’t know that, does he? He’s new, Reg. He was trying to mug me over.’
‘He wasn’t, Ron. Don’t you think they’d have told him you only have half a cup?’ “
The twins became household names in 1964 when they were hit with an expose in the Sunday Mirror.
It insinuated that Ronnie had a sexual relationship with Lord Boothby, a Conservative politician.
No names were printed in the piece, but the twins threatened to sue the newspaper with the help of Labour Party leader Harold Wilson’s solicitor Arnold Goodman.
The Mirror backed down, sacked its editor, issued an apology and paid Boothby £40,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
Because of this other newspapers were unwilling to expose the Krays’ connection and criminal activities.
In the early 50s the brothers started their gang, The Firm.
Under The Firm umbrella they were involved in armed robberies, arson, protection rackets, assaults and murder over close to two decades.
One of their first moves was to buy a run-down snooker club in Mile End, where they started several protection rackets.
In the 60s, they moved to the West End to run a gambling club, Esmerelda’s Barn, in Knightsbridge.
As owners of Esmerelda’s Barn, the twins quickly achieved celebrity status, and rubbing shoulders with the likes of lords, MPs, socialites and famous faces such as Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland.
But in March 1969, both Ronnie and Reggie were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 30 years for two counts of murder of Cornell – the longest sentences ever passed at the Old Bailey.
Their brother Charlie was imprisoned for ten years for his part in the murders.
Ronnie Kray was classed as a Category A prisoner and was denied almost all liberties.
Ronnie was eventually certified insane – his paranoid schizophrenia was treated with constant medication.
In 1979 he was committed and lived the remainder of his life in Broadmoor Hospital.
Reggie Kray was imprisoned in Maidstone Prison for eight years as a Category B prisoner.
In 1997, he was transferred to the Category C Wayland Prison in Norfolk.
Reggie Kray spent a total of 33 years behind bars, before being released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, at the age of 66.
He was released due to being diagnosed with inoperable bladder cancer.
Ronnie Kray spent the remainder of his life imprisoned in Broadmoor Hospital, up until his death in 1995.
How did the Kray twins get arrested?
The twins’ fortunes changed when Ronnie Kray shot and killed George Cornell, a member of rival gang the Richardsons, at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel.
No one was convicted for the 1966 killing at the time.
Then, in December of that year, the Krays helped Frank Mitchell escape from Dartmoor prison.
Once out, the Krays held him at a friend’s flat in East Ham, London, but the “Mad Axeman” disappeared without trace.
Despite these public affrays, the Krays’ criminal activities continued to be faintly hidden by their celebrity status and their more legitimate businesses.
But they would not be able to escape the consequences of their next actions.
Reggie was allegedly encouraged by his brother in October 1967 to kill Jack “the Hat” McVitie, a minor member of the Kray gang who had failed to fulfil a £1,000 contract to kill Leslie Payne.
They lured him to a flat in Stoke Newington on pretence of a party.
There Reggie stabbed McVitie in the face and stomach and killed him, driving the blade into his neck.
It was then that the tide turned against the Krays, with people concerned the same fate would meet them.
In the same year Detective Leonard “Nipper” Read reopened his case against them. He had met with a “wall of silence” when investigating the Krays before.
However, by the end of 1967 Read had built up enough evidence against the Krays, and on May 8, 1968, the Krays and 15 members of their gang were arrested.
Bobby Teale was so scared for his life he fled to America and stayed there for 40 yearsRex
Kevin Dunnett – The SunRonnie in prison on June 25 1975[/caption]
GettyThe pair were arrested for murder on May 8, 1968[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
