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From Al Capone, to the real Peaky Blinders, from The Krays twins to the Queen of Harlem, each hour-long episode of Original Gangsters will see the legendary actor Sean Bean take a deep dive through a rogues gallery of some of the most notorious criminals in history to separate the fact from the fiction, as we find out what they mean to us today and just why they were the original gangsters.
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00:00During the 1960s, two brothers dominated London's underworld.
00:12Wakey-wakey, my long way.
00:16The Krays.
00:18But who was the criminal mastermind, even Ronnie and Regifield?
00:24The man they called the godfather of Britain.
00:28I'll take the grass. I swear.
00:30We all know that's not true, don't we?
00:34Billy!
00:34Oh, no!
00:35Oh, no!
00:57Charismatic, glamorous, violent and unhinged.
01:06The Kraytwin's exploits are the stuff of legend.
01:11They're the archetype of the London gangster,
01:14and it seems like almost everybody has a story about them.
01:18But while Reggie and Ronnie might be the most famous,
01:21they weren't the first.
01:23There was a criminal far more successful
01:25that showed them how it was done.
01:28And that man's name was Billy Hill.
01:31Nice to meet you, hope you guessed my name
01:35Oh yeah, but what's confusing you
01:40is just the nature of my game
01:55We've been creating myths around villains for centuries.
02:00Because those of us who live in a non-criminal environment
02:04often secretly fantasize about what it would be like to be a gangster.
02:08What would it be like to rob a bank?
02:10It gives us a buzz.
02:12But it also gives us a buzz when they get caught.
02:16But in reality, they don't actually all get caught.
02:27Successful criminals, nobody knows who they are.
02:31The afters have come out about how big the money was he earned.
02:35He was the ultimate governor out of all of them.
02:38And even the craze said it themselves.
02:41I always wanted to be like Billy Hill.
02:43I wanted to emulate Billy Hill.
02:45Billy Hill basically was a functioning psychopath.
02:50He was able to extort, bribe, coerce people to do his bidding,
02:58and hurt and killed a lot of people along the way.
03:03A psychopath who carved up London with violence and fear
03:08who would become the capital's criminal kingpin.
03:15Born William Charles Hill on the 13th of December, 1911.
03:22His story starts in the Seven Dials area of London's West End.
03:27Then a slum with incredibly poor living conditions.
03:32Seven Dials was known as Thieves' Kitchen for very good reason.
03:36You couldn't turn a corner without someone either threatening you
03:39or trying to rob you.
03:41His father was a thief and his mother was a fence.
03:45He had a sister who was a member of the Elephant Gang,
03:48who were the top shoplifters at the time.
03:50I guess you'd call them a criminal family.
03:53They had to be to survive.
03:55There were always visitors to the house who were involved in crime,
03:58so criminal activity was normal to him.
04:02You have a choice as to whether you get stuck in and engage with it
04:06or you try and be something really, really different.
04:09And that's a bigger challenge in many ways,
04:11to pull yourself out and be different to the norm that's been created.
04:17Very early on, Billy found he had a certain penchant for burglary.
04:22He became a very competent thief.
04:25I think he found his craft.
04:28I think, like you or I might enjoy our jobs,
04:31he found something that he knew he was good at.
04:34And for him, it was a very rational choice to do what he did.
04:38He was bold to be a criminal and he very quickly got good at it.
04:43There's rumours Billy committed his first stabbing at age 14.
04:52Official records show that at 60, he was convicted of burglary
04:56and sent to Boastel on a three-year sentence.
05:03Those same records describe an escape Billy made with another inmate,
05:09during which they assaulted a housemaid.
05:14They were caught and he was brutally punished for it
05:18by being given 12 strokes of the birch.
05:31In later life, they describe the impact of that incident,
05:35saying the birch tears you to pieces.
05:40But once you've had it, you feel you've really overcome something.
05:46You're tougher.
05:48And from then on, I knew that nothing on God's earth could stop me.
06:00He started to make connections in Boastel
06:02with other up-and-coming young criminals.
06:04And he applied this networking ability to his career as a criminal
06:09when he came out of Boastel as well.
06:11And Billy quite quickly, by the time he was in his late teens,
06:14became the leader of this network, the main player in this network.
06:18Really, more than anything to me, he's a storyteller.
06:21He was able to create stories in the areas that he lived
06:24that created a rumour, that created myth, that created fear.
06:28He was aware of image.
06:31He would use a knife and he would carve a V on people's faces.
06:35That was his trademark.
06:37The word went out that this was what this young man was willing to do.
06:42He becomes known for smashing grabs.
06:45His gang committed so many that the newspapers started calling it a crime wave.
06:51But a far bigger event would soon steal the headlines.
07:06By the time World War II comes around,
07:08Billy Hill has established himself as being a competent thief.
07:12There were shortages of everything.
07:14Clothing, building materials, food, cloth.
07:19And anything that you could steal, there was a market for.
07:23For criminals like Billy Hill, this was an opportunity.
07:28Huge fortunes could be made by providing people with what they couldn't get
07:33from the Russian books.
07:36In a place like Seven Dials, and most of London for that matter,
07:40there'd always been a black market.
07:42But when the Second World War came, it exploded.
07:45A criminal like Billy Hill could go and buy 700 boxes of cigarettes,
07:50or often they'd be stolen,
07:52and then he could sell them immediately on a street corner.
07:55Everything had a price.
07:57And most things were worth much more than they were during peacetime.
08:02Billy's rights to prominence would put him on the radar
08:05of every major player in the game.
08:07And there was one London gangster in particular
08:10who had him in his sights.
08:14Jack Comer, a.k.a. Jack Spot.
08:19He was running scams at rice courses.
08:22He had gambling clubs. He was into protection.
08:26By the end of the Second World War, Spot had a bit of a foothold,
08:30but not as much as he wanted.
08:32And at that point, he gets together with Billy Hill.
08:35The one place that it all came together?
08:39Soho.
08:41Well, it's down at the night, and I just got paid.
08:43Pull it by my money, don't try to save...
08:45The West End of London was the great honeypot.
08:49There were young men from all over the free world
08:57coming into London in preparation for D-Day,
09:00and they had money to spend.
09:02They were spending money on drink.
09:04They were spending their money on food.
09:06They were spending their money on sex.
09:08So it was a boom time for Soho.
09:10The relationship between Billy Hill and Jack Spot
09:14was very important to both of them.
09:17They even went on holidays with their wives to the south of France.
09:21They came together as quite a formidable group.
09:28Billy's looking for an opportunity to actually be involved in crime
09:32without actually doing it himself
09:34and putting himself at risk of imprisonment.
09:37By 1948, Hill had spent almost half of his 37 years in prison.
09:43The Criminal Justice Act threatened repeat offenders
09:47with preventative detention.
09:49So his next arrest would have meant a 14-year stretch.
09:53He'd been in and out of prison quite a number of times
09:57since his early teens,
09:59and he wasn't gonna do it anymore.
10:02As Billy would say himself,
10:04I made my mind up
10:06that I had seen the last of the inside of the nick.
10:09And I meant it.
10:11But at the same time,
10:13he was quietly putting the finishing touches
10:16to one of the biggest heists
10:18in British criminal history.
10:27In the early hours of May the 21st, 1952,
10:33one of the biggest unsolved crimes in Europe
10:36would take place near Oxford Street.
10:39The East Castle Street Robbery.
10:44Billy Hill was quite creative
10:46and he invented genres of crimes,
10:49like the post office van robbery.
10:52Someone would get away with over £236,000,
11:04worth over £7.3 million today.
11:09No-one was ever arrested, no-one was convicted,
11:12and none of the money was returned.
11:1473 years later,
11:16after numerous investigations,
11:19the crime remains unsolved.
11:24His girlfriend at the time,
11:25Jip,
11:26was one of the getaway drivers
11:28who had a very straightforward
11:30down-to-earth monitor
11:32and she understood Billy Hill
11:34and I think she kept him intact.
11:40I'm Justin Hill,
11:41the biological son of Billy Hill.
11:44I first met Billy and Jip
11:47in a children's home.
11:49They used to come and visit me.
11:50They opened the door
11:52and Jip was there
11:54and Billy behind
11:56and she knelt and opened up her arms
11:58and I run into them.
12:02Around about three and a half,
12:05Billy and Jip got full care and control.
12:08That's when I could fill a family unit.
12:12She was Billy's ace card.
12:17There's a story of Billy and Jip
12:21at New Scotland Yard
12:23being interrogated for three days, three nights.
12:27And by the end, the police said,
12:29let them go, especially her.
12:31Even if she had Big Ben in her pocket,
12:33she wouldn't tell you the time.
12:34But while Billy and Jip were busy
12:36being the West End's power couple,
12:38two sharply dressed twin brothers
12:40were stepping onto the scene
12:42who would change the city forever.
12:49This lovely little lady came and opened the door.
12:52You know, like your mum.
12:53She said, well, you must be Maureen.
12:55Come in.
12:56Would you like a cup of tea?
12:58Yes, please.
12:59I've made a lovely cake.
13:01Anyway, I sat down
13:02and while she was making the tea,
13:04I've looked up
13:05and all around this kitchen
13:07was hangers
13:08with pure white starched iron shirts.
13:14She did it for my sons.
13:19I drank my tea
13:20and I ate my lovely cake
13:21when I heard a door go
13:23and I heard,
13:24Mum!
13:26And she went,
13:27oh, that's Reggie.
13:33In came this guy,
13:34quite serious,
13:36startled to see me.
13:39I was a stranger.
13:40And he went,
13:41oh, who are you?
13:43I said, well,
13:44I'm the hairdresser.
13:45And she said,
13:46where's Ronnie?
13:47The door goes, click.
13:48Mum!
13:51I looked at him,
13:52I thought,
13:53if I wasn't here
13:54with their mother
13:55and I met him out,
13:58I'd be frightened.
14:00I'd be frightened
14:01of the look
14:03he gave me
14:04to find me there.
14:07Those eyes were terrifying
14:08and I've never met anybody
14:10that could intimidate you
14:12with just that one look.
14:14Look.
14:17We're still talking
14:18about the Crays today
14:19because they were,
14:21in the eyes of the public,
14:24an interesting, exciting gang
14:27to look at.
14:29If you was in their presence,
14:30you didn't know
14:31you was in the presence of killers.
14:33You know, I have to tell you,
14:34the word on the street
14:35amongst other people is,
14:36they killed many more people
14:38than, you know,
14:39than what is out there.
14:40The Cray Twins would have heard
14:43of the East Castle street robbery
14:45and how it made fortunes
14:46for those involved.
14:48And nobody took them
14:49very seriously back then.
14:50They started to get a reputation
14:52for being hard nuts.
14:54Not a lot of people know
14:55that they were both professional boxers
14:57from a young age.
14:59And they were at a boxing ring
15:01called Repton.
15:02Reggie showed real promise.
15:07He never lost a fight
15:08as a professional boxer.
15:10The problem, though,
15:11was that Ronnie was often
15:13getting into fights
15:14outside of the boxing ring.
15:20The first thing I say to him is,
15:21you respect me
15:23and respect my trainers.
15:24If you feel you can't do that,
15:26don't come to my club.
15:28Reggie could have gone on
15:29and won titles.
15:30I think the destruction
15:31from his brother
15:32really took that away from him.
15:33Once they put guns
15:34in their hands,
15:35that was it.
15:37They were away then,
15:38lads, you know?
15:39That's how they were.
15:41Identical twins
15:42are not always close,
15:44but with Ronnie and Reggie
15:45we do see a very intense
15:46and close relationship.
15:48It appears that
15:49they don't really
15:50see themselves as separate,
15:51that they see themselves
15:52as one entity.
15:53They're kind of functioning
15:54together,
15:55doing the same thing.
15:56And if one veers off,
15:57the other one tends to follow.
15:59As East Londoners,
16:01they would have known
16:02the name Billy Hill.
16:04Everyone did.
16:06To the critics,
16:07Billy Hill was someone
16:08to look up to.
16:10Well dressed,
16:11very smart,
16:13lived a rather glossy lifestyle.
16:16They wanted to be like Billy Hill,
16:18but everybody wanted
16:19to be like Billy Hill.
16:20You have to look at the East End,
16:22where there's so much poverty,
16:23where people are not
16:24getting a lot of opportunities
16:26to see other role models.
16:29This is what I aspire to.
16:30This is the way out.
16:36Following the success
16:37of the East Castle Street robbery,
16:39Billy Hill thought it was
16:40really too easy.
16:41Two years later,
16:431954,
16:44he organises a robbery
16:46of a KLM van
16:48with gold bullion in it,
16:49which was over £40,000
16:51in those days.
16:52So it was a lot of money.
16:54No one was ever convicted.
16:56None of the gold was ever returned.
16:58So again,
16:59this is an example of someone
17:01who clearly has got criminal intelligence.
17:04Bobby McHugh was important to Billy Hill.
17:08He was a friend
17:09and Billy Hill's driver as well.
17:11Hundred years old now, Bobby.
17:13A friend of mine
17:14was owed some money
17:16by a woman who had a club
17:18just off Piccadilly,
17:19a drinking club.
17:20He asked me to say,
17:21would I go and tell her to pay him?
17:23And he said,
17:24I'll come with you.
17:26There was a hush.
17:28Obviously,
17:29they knew who Billy was.
17:30And suddenly,
17:31her dog came over
17:32and Billy went,
17:33get out of the way.
17:34Get the dog.
17:36He said,
17:37make sure you pay that money.
17:38You know who I am.
17:39And when he went out,
17:40he picked the dog up and said,
17:41I didn't mean it.
17:42I didn't mean it.
17:43That was Billy.
17:47One day,
17:48we were sitting playing snap
17:51and I declared that I won.
17:54So Billy turned around and said,
17:56no, I've won.
17:58So me being a snotty-nosed kid,
18:01got up and kicked him in the shins.
18:04Well,
18:05I have never seen a face turn so quick.
18:09I turned,
18:10I run.
18:11I got halfway up the stairs
18:13and all of a sudden,
18:14I felt his hand on top of my head
18:17and he shook my head from side to side.
18:20Next I knew was Jip.
18:23Get him in the middle
18:25and he switched like that back to normal.
18:29So we see someone who lies,
18:33they are manipulative,
18:34they are cunning.
18:35That's the Machiavellianism.
18:37He's glib,
18:38he's charming,
18:39he's superficial,
18:40he's grandiose.
18:41He's able to lure people to him.
18:43To get them to do his bidding,
18:45that's the psychopathy.
18:47The narcissism,
18:48he's controlling the story.
18:50Everything he says is a story.
18:53It's what he wants you to see of him
18:56so that he can control the narrative.
18:59Billy Hill by this time
19:01had become very friendly
19:02with a journalist called Duncan Webb.
19:04And Duncan Webb was a top journalist
19:06for the Sunday people.
19:08Sunday newspapers in those papers
19:11had a huge circulation.
19:13Over four million people
19:14bought the Sunday people.
19:16Not only did Duncan Webb
19:17become his public relations man,
19:20but he also provided alibis
19:23for Billy Hill
19:24so he could avoid being arrested
19:26and used him unashamedly
19:29as a public relations machine almost
19:31for him as a criminal.
19:33There was a series of articles
19:35written by Duncan Webb
19:37in collaboration with Billy Hill
19:39about Billy,
19:40about what criminal mastermind he was.
19:43And that was then turned into a book,
19:45Boss of Britain's Underworld,
19:47Ghost Written by Duncan Webb.
19:49This was the first ever professional criminal
19:53doing an autobiography.
19:55So it's a pretty important moment
19:57when you look at all the true crime books
19:58that have been produced since,
20:00many of them written by criminals
20:01or through ghostwriters.
20:03And this book not only got published,
20:05but Billy Hill had a massive launch party
20:09for his autobiography.
20:10He had lords there.
20:11He had celebrities like Diana Dawes.
20:14This was like almost society approving of Billy Hill.
20:18And they were all quite fascinated
20:20because he didn't come marching in with a gun
20:23or punch someone in the face.
20:24He was good at having a chat.
20:26He could relate to anybody.
20:28Well, a lot of the people thought
20:30he looked like Humphrey Bogart.
20:32He was good at PR.
20:34He was carefully photographed
20:35wearing a trench coat and a trilby hat.
20:37He was everybody's idea
20:38of what a gangster should look like.
20:40All of it is a play into his world.
20:44He's someone that has been very, very clever
20:49at constructing a narrative
20:51that he wants other people to believe of him.
20:58But in the criminal world, notoriety came at the cost.
21:02Fame made Billy a marked man
21:04and it would nearly prove fatal.
21:08Jack Spot was very jealous of Billy Hill.
21:10He broke Duncan Webb's arm in a fit of temper
21:14and he got his own ghostwriter.
21:17A book came out full of hype.
21:19Jack Spot, a man of a thousand cuts.
21:22The festering grievance between Hill and Spot,
21:27who had one time been very close,
21:29was now quite out in the open
21:31and something was going to give.
21:37Spot hired a group of young men,
21:39provided them with guns
21:41and they were going to shoot Billy Hill.
21:43The word got out that this is what was going to happen.
21:46These young men were captured.
21:49The guns were taken from them.
21:51Billy Hill decided Spot would be attacked,
21:54but not killed.
21:56Billy Hill was very keen on not killing him.
22:00You've got to remember this time
22:01that capital punishment was still there.
22:03If you killed someone, you were going to get harmed.
22:07One night, Jack Spot and his wife Rita were attacked.
22:11It was Frank Fraser that did it.
22:14Fraser used the shillelagh, a traditional Irish implement.
22:19And this particular shillelagh had been given to Billy Hill by Jack Spot
22:25when they were on much friendlier terms.
22:27So it was a highly symbolic weapon for Fraser to use.
22:31And when Spot was on the ground,
22:33Fraser then took out his razor and slashed his face many times.
22:38My name is Jack Spot.
22:41They cut my ear, you see, on the floor,
22:45which I picked up late and put in my pocket.
22:48They cut me from here down here.
22:51Stared me.
22:53Billy Hill.
22:55He destroyed me.
22:57What a bastard.
22:59A psychopath will feel nothing about removing you out of the equation.
23:05You were standing in their way of having their needs met.
23:08It's about domination.
23:09It's about control.
23:10It's about taking over, you know.
23:11And when you're on that kind of train,
23:13of course, there's no way back anyway.
23:15So you really have to push forward.
23:17And anyone who stands in your way,
23:18they are surplus to requirements.
23:21Jack Spot was out and the Krays were moving in.
23:25Except this time, Billy didn't see an enemy.
23:28He saw an opportunity.
23:30As he embarked on one of the greatest cons ever pulled in British history.
23:35The Kray twins were called up, as all the other 18-year-olds were,
23:45to serve national service.
23:47And they didn't last long.
23:49But it was an important time for the Krays.
23:51Because it's then that they established their anti-authoritarian lifestyle.
23:56And they came into contact with deserters.
23:58They came into contact with black marketeers.
24:00They came into contact with some heavy-duty gangsters.
24:03And Billy Hill was part of that world.
24:06When the Kray twins met him, they immediately idolised him.
24:11Billy Hill's initial response was really,
24:13can I use these guys?
24:14Because that's what gangsters do.
24:16He tested them out by phoning them late one night and saying,
24:20I need you to come to my home now.
24:24The Krays got some guns together.
24:26They went to his home and said, where's the trouble?
24:28Nothing, lads. I was just testing you.
24:31And he gave them £500.
24:34What Billy Hill did that day set the Krays off in motion.
24:38And was probably the moment where they decided they wanted to go up the ladder.
24:44Billy Hill saw a lot of potential in them.
24:47And knew that they were the next follow-on thing.
24:51The Krays started their own clubs.
24:53They had the billiard hall, first of all.
24:55But it was from the billiard hall that they were able to start getting involved in bits and pieces of protection.
25:00During the 50s, protection rackets became a very big source of income for criminals.
25:06Were worried your shop might get burnt to the ground by a thug.
25:09But if you pay us, we'll make sure those thugs don't.
25:12Well, of course, the thug was the one who would do the burning.
25:15They managed to acquire the Double R Club.
25:18That was really the beginning of when they started to infiltrate into the club life.
25:22Reg always wanted to be a club owner.
25:24They'd be a slightly criminal club owner, but nonetheless, a club owner.
25:30It was their first chance to create a club atmosphere that brought the West End to the East End.
25:37And that is something that made them idols in a lot of East Enders' lives.
25:44It was a step away from their East End lifestyle.
25:47They got to dress up as if they were rich, and they loved that.
25:52Most clubs are very respectable, you know, and I don't think there's any trouble at all in them.
25:57Except occasionally, you know, and sometimes they have to be slung out.
26:01Jack Spot's demise paved way for the Krays.
26:05That's when Billy tried to guide and advise.
26:12By the mid-1950s, Billy was looking around for the next stage in his life.
26:16He had plenty of money. He could have retired easily at this point.
26:20But there's always room for more money.
26:23Billy Hill was a gambler. He understood gambling.
26:25But he didn't like the racetrack gangs. He wasn't interested in them.
26:29He was interested in making money.
26:31Billy Hill's ability to mix with aristocrats
26:34worked out very well for him at one stage in London
26:37because he was frequenting casinos and gambling clubs,
26:41particularly the Claremont, which was a very famous one,
26:44run by John Aspinall, a notoriously rich, artful character,
26:50who was known as Britain's number one gambler.
26:53Billy Hill not only went to these clubs, but in the Claremont,
26:57he decided he could see a classic opportunity.
27:00One of the most outrageous scams ever perpetrated on London's high society
27:07has to be what happened at the Claremont Club,
27:10what would come to be known as the Big Edge.
27:14Now, he was a traveller. He liked to travel in Monte Carlo, Nice, North Africa.
27:23Wherever he went, he would talk to people.
27:26And he picked up on one of his trips
27:29from some Corsican organised crime figures,
27:32a scam which he would turn into probably the biggest card scam that we've seen.
27:38See, the French were using it for years but nobody knew about it.
27:42They came in and showed us how to do it.
27:45The Big Edge.
27:50But how did they do it?
27:52The Big Edge involved putting cards through a kind of mangle
27:56which would give them a certain wrinkle
27:59and people who were properly trained could see the wrinkle
28:03and decide what kind of card it was
28:05and decide how to play their particular hand.
28:08The way that we were doing it was just by bending the cards.
28:13And Billy was in the middle of it. He was organising it.
28:16And they were fleecing gamblers left, right and centre.
28:20They made millions.
28:24It was reported at the time that the 18th Earl of Derby
28:27lost over 1.7 million in today's money in one night.
28:34It was like robbing Fort Knox and the Bank of England at the same time.
28:39Just a lot easier, said Bobby McHugh.
28:45While Billy was flying under the radar in the West End,
28:48over in the East, things were getting out of hand.
28:51Running into one another
28:56Outside a cafe in Paris
29:00The Crea twins were becoming known for their willingness
29:03to fight anyone who challenged them.
29:05They were violent guys.
29:07I could tell you many, few stories.
29:09Ronnie stood up, cocked a gun,
29:11stuck it in one of the Dixon's mouth,
29:13knocked his teeth out, stabbed him about four times in the neck.
29:16One little story I will tell you,
29:18there was a fella who would sell stolen goods, jewellery, clothing, shoes or whatever.
29:22But obviously that interfered with Ronnie and Reg's business.
29:25They shot him three times.
29:27They didn't kill him.
29:28They dragged him down the road,
29:29slowed him down the boiler,
29:30into the boiler on this big shovel.
29:32He went in there, that's the end of him.
29:34They burned him alive.
29:39Ronnie was the maniac.
29:41He had a bit of trouble amongst his family in Brick Lane.
29:43He pulled out his sword.
29:45His sword was enormous.
29:46About seven foot long.
29:48They were smashing the door down with his sword.
29:50Ronnie really went in to him.
29:52He put boiling water over him.
29:54Got a saw out of the car.
29:56Got this guy on the corner of the road on the curb
29:59and started sawing his leg off.
30:01That's been he said they were nice boys.
30:04They weren't nice.
30:05They were, they were quiet.
30:07They were all right.
30:08Since the death of you in.
30:18In 1956, Ronnie and his brother in fact,
30:20beat up a lad called Terry Martin.
30:22And it was a substantial beating, including bayonet stabbing.
30:25And Ronnie would go on to be convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.
30:29It's whilst he's in prison serving this three year sentence that he was examined by the doctors and he is diagnosed as schizophrenic.
30:39Ronnie was diagnosed with schizophrenia and in particular paranoid schizophrenia, which is, you know, a really serious diagnosis.
30:47And he would have been really struggling with a lot of really serious symptoms, particularly obviously being paranoid.
30:53Can he believe what people are saying?
30:55He would have arguably been experiencing some kind of hallucinations as well, potentially voices.
31:01Today, people who get the right help can function perfectly normally within society.
31:06Unfortunately, Ronnie at the time didn't get the help that he needed.
31:10Like some of the other criminals we've looked at, the Crays were very good at exploiting their media image.
31:21They didn't look typical of an East End gangster.
31:26Suit, tie, pocket square, hair gel black, the whole bit.
31:31The Cray twins had celebrities in their pockets, so it's no surprise that the media were also there.
31:38The British media were putting these people on the front pages as people to be reckoned with and almost people to be admired.
31:46They have wide interests in the theatre and in entertainment and they're well known for their fundraising work for charity.
31:54For some years they've been concerned in the running of a number of West End and East End clubs.
31:59They had a finger in every part. They could pick up a phone and phone Lord Boothby.
32:05Now Boothby, of course, was a Conservative peer, senior member of the Tory party.
32:13Ronnie was homosexual.
32:15Homosexuality was illegal at that time, but there were homosexual orgies going on.
32:22And it was just an open secret that these two were engaged in these activities.
32:30Lord Boothby denied it. He said there's no inappropriate relationship.
32:34But actually reality was they were in bed together literally and metaphorically.
32:38I must tell you this little story. When they became friends, Boothby, he said, would you like to have dinner at the House of Lords?
32:48That wouldn't impress Ronnie Cray. It'd just be the food.
32:52He said, yeah, if you want to take me. He said, OK.
32:56And he went to the House of Lords for dinner and Boothby.
33:00He said, they do wonderful cocktails here, Ronnie.
33:04He said, hmm, I might like to try one of those cocktails. I've heard about them.
33:10What sort of cocktail do you want? He said, a prawn cocktail.
33:18Ronnie Cray's association with Lord Boothby provided a safety net, if you like, for the Crays.
33:23The following year, when the Crays were again arrested, the prosecution collapsed
33:27because Boothby was in the House of Lords making big noises in support of the Crays
33:32to say these guys are being picked on, the police are acting inappropriately
33:35and these people should be out of custody and out on the streets.
33:39From the point of view of the country, they ought to be released tomorrow
33:44because there is no question of the rights and wrongs of this matter.
33:48From 1964 onwards, it effectively gave the Crays a free hand to operate in the East End
33:54and, of course, this is the beginning of their most violent period.
33:58The brothers had considerable clout, not only in the underworld,
34:01but also in the media and in Parliament. They must have felt invincible.
34:05But maybe that would be their downfall.
34:191966 is when everything started going downhill for the Cray twins.
34:24A few years earlier, Ronnie Cray was described by George Connell supposedly as a big fat puff.
34:32Now, this, of course, had not gone down too well with Ronnie Cray.
34:35He hadn't dealt with that at the time and he thought it's now time for him to go and settle the matter.
34:41One night, he was just drinking in the Lion Pub, a pub that they often went to,
34:47and decided mid-pint that he was going to walk across to the blind beggar
34:52where he knew George Connell was.
34:54He comes in the side door from the side street and he turns left at the bar.
35:00Cornell said in a rather sarcastic way,
35:03Well, look who's just walked in.
35:05He didn't say one word.
35:08He walked in and he shot him straight through the head there.
35:12And he fell on the floor.
35:13And they all told me the song that was being played on the time,
35:17but the sun ain't gonna shine anymore.
35:20They're being hit.
35:25It was a prime example, not only of their brutality,
35:30but also of their recklessness.
35:32And they hot-footed it to where else but Morocco, where Billy Hill was.
35:37Billy Hill first went to Morocco in the late 40s, early 50s,
35:42and got involved in smuggling.
35:44He'd spotted something, an opportunity,
35:46and it was cheap cigarettes.
35:48And he'd started to import cigarettes illegally, of course,
35:52from Morocco to the UK.
35:54And it was a very lucrative business for Billy Hill.
35:57And it kept him away from London and away from the police.
36:01He took the brothers to Morocco.
36:04He gave them a good holiday.
36:06And it was a lesson. It was educational.
36:10But the lesson wasn't taken to heart.
36:12And soon the Crays were back unleashing terror on the street.
36:15Of London once more.
36:17Their next victim.
36:19Jack the Hat McVitter.
36:21Jack the Hat was a harmless person.
36:24He wasn't a violent man.
36:26He was a thief.
36:27He was a pest.
36:28But what they did was completely over the top.
36:31The Crays and the bulk of the firm were drinking in the pub called The Carpenters Arms.
36:38I believe Mum was there.
36:39I believe Dad may have even been there.
36:41Ronnie, he was quite erratic.
36:43His mental health was mostly out of control throughout that time period.
36:48And he decided that was the night that Jack the Hat was going to get his comeuppance.
36:53Now they had a flat just around the corner.
36:56And they decided what they were going to do was to try and set up what looked like a bit of a party.
37:01And a couple of the other members of the firm were told to go out and get Jack the Hat.
37:05Tell him that there's a party around the corner.
37:08Jack the Hat was found.
37:09He was drunk.
37:10He willingly went to the flat.
37:12As anyone had got to the bottom of the stairs, he realised it's a trick.
37:17He's approached by Reggie being, of course, urged on by his brother,
37:21go on, go and kill him, go and kill him.
37:23And Reggie is really in a poor state, apparently.
37:26Produced his gun, pulled the trigger, but it didn't go off.
37:30So Jack McVitie had his opportunity to escape.
37:33He ran and smashed the window and tried to get out.
37:37As he tried, he was pulled back in.
37:40When he walks out the kitchen with a big knife, gives it to Reggie and says,
37:43go to work, get rid of him.
37:47He stabbed McVitie first in the head and the neck and then the torso.
37:54It was just a blood barb.
37:56One person would even say it even looked like his head had decapitated from his body.
38:03To this day, the body has never been found.
38:06By very publicly committing the killings of Jack the Hat and George Cornell,
38:18the Cree twins were almost telling the police, come and get me.
38:23Their volatility was too much.
38:25They basically self-combusted with the two murders that they committed.
38:29It became impossible for the police to ignore them.
38:33And eventually they decided enough's enough.
38:35And they appointed a man called Lennon Reed, Nipper Reed, famously in 1967,
38:39who had one job only.
38:40Clear your entry.
38:41The only job you've got to do is get the Cree's.
38:43And effectively, one by one, there was this domino effect of people starting to talk.
38:50And eventually, Nipper had sufficient evidence to prosecute for the murder of McVitie and the shooting, of course, of George Cornell.
38:58The 34-year-old ex-boxer brothers, Reginald and Ronald, came here with flying squad officers at 6 o'clock this morning.
39:07They were in bed when the officers called to their home in shortage.
39:12The Cree twins later years were spent in prison, while the empire they'd built unravelled.
39:25A successful criminal is someone who's made a good living, never come to the attention of the police, and people don't know they're criminals.
39:34If you go to prison, it doesn't sound very successful to me.
39:38By the time they'd gone to prison, Billy Hill was in retirement in Tangier, but also had a home in Marbella.
39:47He was one of the first of the British crims to go down there.
39:50So, he was successful.
39:52He got out with his money, he got out with his sanity, and he could live the life.
39:59Before he met Jip, Billy was in and out of prison.
40:04The day he met Jip, he'd never done a day's time.
40:09While battling ill health brought on by a lifetime of smoking, Billy Hill would die at his home in Bayswater on the 1st of January 1984, age 72.
40:24Billy took an overdose of sleeping tablets.
40:28So, basically, he was bossed till the end of his own destiny.
40:33Billy made it 100 times more than both and put together.
40:37Frankie Fraser used to say he died the richest man in the graveyard.
40:41His death certificate said he worked in demolition.
40:47In prison, meanwhile, Ronnie's mental health deteriorated rapidly.
40:53He clashed repeatedly with prison staff and other inmates and ended up getting even more isolated within the system.
41:00At the beginning, when he first went there, I went with Mrs. Cray a lot of times, and he behaved, and he was good.
41:06He said, when I come home, I'm going to Suffolk. He's buying a house with Reggie.
41:11The two of them are living together, and then I'm going to travel, which he does say in that interview, doesn't he?
41:17Well, I'd like to go abroad for a short while, and then I'd like to be left alone.
41:23Reggie, on the other hand, although the steadier and more stable of the two, remained imprisoned for over 30 years.
41:31Ronnie died in 1995. Reggie was allowed out to attend the funeral, where he was joined by hundreds of well-wishers and supporters.
41:41Reggie died from terminal cancer, aged 66, on the 1st of October, 2000.
41:47He was buried beside Ronnie.
41:51The Cray twins' legacy is a strange combination of myth and fact.
41:56They're remembered as both notorious criminals and also as enigmatic figures who captivated the public imagination
42:05and symbolised the rebellion of the working classes against the establishment.
42:11In the end, they made more money off their books and exploiting their name while they were behind bars than they ever did from any of the crimes that they committed.
42:19There's a lot of people who saw them as working-class heroes.
42:25When they eventually died in 1995 and 2000, the streets of London littered with people watching the cortege and the limousines that followed their coffins to their greys.
42:37Still people apparently saying on the street, they were good lads, really.
42:42But actually, the reality was they were dangerous, violent individuals.
42:46The Crays tried to give the impression they were robbing hoods.
42:51Yeah, taking from the rich, giving to the poor.
42:54It was absolute nonsense.
42:56They didn't care who they intimidated or robbed as long as they got what they wanted.
43:03Billy Hill's legacy was a bit more complex.
43:07He was a good man.
43:10I mean, you can't judge someone on their upbringing.
43:15It was inevitable he was going to do what he was going to do.
43:18Put that aside, he was a gentleman.
43:22Old school.
43:23In some ways, he was a kind of trailblazer in organised crime.
43:28He combined intelligence, charm and ruthlessness to dominate Britain's underworld.
43:34He was much smarter, more calculating than his pupils, which made him much more dangerous.
43:43And maybe that's why, when he is talked about, although it might not be as much as the Crays,
43:49he's just the godfather of the city.
43:51Come down off your throne and leave your body alone.
43:59Somebody must change.
44:05You are the reason I've been waiting so long.
44:11Somebody holds the key.
44:14Well, I'm a millionaire and I just ain't got the time.
44:21I'm a millionaire and I just ain't got the time.
44:22Goll.
44:23Goll.
44:24Goll.
44:25Go.
44:26Goll.
44:28Goll.
44:30Goll.
44:34Goll.
44:35Goll.
44:37Goll.
44:38That's all.
44:40Well, my detriment is still anaesthetic.
44:46It seems the same thing.
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