- 11 hours ago
- #realityrealmus
Original Gangsters with Sean Bean Season 1 Episode 4
#RealityRealmUS
Reality Realm US
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: />👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
#RealityRealmUS
Reality Realm US
🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: />👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:01During the 1960s, two brothers dominated London's underworld.
00:08Wakey-wakey.
00:10Hello, mate.
00:12The Krays.
00:14But who was the criminal mastermind?
00:17Even Ronnie and Reggiefeard.
00:19The man they called the godfather of Britain.
00:23I took the grass. I swear.
00:25We all know that's not true, don't we?
00:28Billy!
00:53Charismatic.
00:55Glamorous.
00:57Violent.
00:59And unhinged.
01:01The Kray twins' exploits are the stuff of legend.
01:06They're the archetype of the London gangster.
01:09And it seems like almost everybody has a story about them.
01:13But while Reggie and Ronnie might be the most famous, they weren't the first.
01:18There was a criminal far more successful that showed them how it was done.
01:22And that man's name was Billy Hill.
01:26Nice to meet you.
01:27Hope you guessed my name.
01:28Oh, yeah.
01:29But what's confusing you is just the nature of my game.
01:38We've been creating myths around villains for centuries, because those of us who live in a non-criminal environment often secretly fantasize about what it would be like to be a gangster.
01:51What would it be like to rob a bank?
02:06It gives us a buzz.
02:07But it also gives us a buzz when they get caught.
02:09But in reality, they don't actually all get caught.
02:21Successful criminals, nobody knows who they are.
02:26The afters has come out about how big the money was to earn.
02:31He was the ultimate governor out of all of them.
02:34And even the Krays said it themselves.
02:37I always wanted to be like Billy Hill.
02:39I wanted to emulate Billy Hill.
02:41Billy Hill basically was a functioning psychopath who was able to extort, bribe,
02:50coerce people to do his bidding and hurt and killed a lot of people along the way.
02:59A psychopath who carved up London with violence and fear would become the capital's criminal kingpin.
03:11Born William Charles Hill on the 13th of December, 1911.
03:16His story starts in the Seven Dials area of London's West End.
03:23Then a slum with incredibly poor living conditions.
03:28Seven Dials was known as Thieves' Kitchen for very good reason.
03:32You couldn't turn a corner without someone either threatening you or trying to rob you.
03:37His father was a thief and his mother was a fence.
03:40He had a sister who was a member of the Elephant Gang who were the top shoplifters at the time.
03:46I guess you'd call them a criminal family.
03:48They had to be to survive.
03:51There were always visitors to the house who were involved in crime.
03:54So criminal activity was normal to him.
03:57You have a choice as to whether you get stuck in and engage with it or you try and be something really, really different.
04:05And that's a bigger challenge in many ways, to pull yourself out and be different to the norm that's been created.
04:12Very early on, Billy found he had a certain penchant for burglary.
04:18He became a very competent thief.
04:22I think he found his craft.
04:25I think, like you or I might enjoy our jobs, he found something that he knew he was good at.
04:30And for him, it was a very rational choice to do what he did.
04:34He was bound to be a criminal and he very quickly got good at it.
04:43There's rumours Billy committed his first stabbing at age 14.
04:47Official records show that at 60, he was convicted of burglary and sent to Boastel on a three-year sentence.
04:59Those same records describe an escape Billy made with another inmate,
05:05during which they assaulted a housemaid.
05:08They were caught, and he was brutally punished for it,
05:14by being given 12 strokes of the birch.
05:26In later life, he described the impact of that incident, saying,
05:31the birch tears you to pieces.
05:36But once you've had it,
05:38you feel you've really overcome something.
05:42You're tougher.
05:44And from then on,
05:46I knew that nothing on God's earth could stop me.
05:56He started to make connections in Boastel with other up-and-coming young criminals.
05:59And he applied this networking ability to his career as a criminal,
06:04when he came out of Boastel as well.
06:06And Billy quite quickly, by the time he was in his late teens,
06:10became the leader of this network, the main player in this network.
06:14Really, more than anything to me, he's a storyteller.
06:17He was able to create stories in the areas that he lived,
06:21that created a rumour, that created myth, that created fear.
06:25He was aware of image.
06:26He would use a knife, and he would carve a V on people's faces.
06:31That was his trademark.
06:33And the word went out that this was what this young man was willing to do.
06:38He becomes known for smashing grabs.
06:41His gang committed so many,
06:44that the newspapers started calling it a crime wave.
06:46But a far bigger event would soon steal the headlines.
06:51By the time World War II comes around, Billy Hill has established himself as being a competent thief.
07:08There were shortages of everything.
07:11Clothing, building materials, food, cloth.
07:15And anything that you could steal, there was a market for.
07:19For criminals like Billy Hill, this was an opportunity.
07:24Huge fortunes could be made by providing people with what they couldn't get from their ration books.
07:30In a place like Seven Dials, and most of London for that matter, there'd always been a black market.
07:38But when the Second World War came, it exploded.
07:41A criminal like Billy Hill could go and buy 700 boxes of cigarettes, or often they'd be stolen,
07:48and then he could sell them immediately on a street corner.
07:52Everything had a price.
07:54And most things were worth much more than they were during peace time.
07:58Billy's rights to prominence would put him on the radar of every major player in the game.
08:03And there was one London gangster in particular who had him in his sights.
08:09Jack Comer, a.k.a. Jack Spot.
08:13He was running scams at rice courses.
08:18He had gambling clubs.
08:20He was into protection.
08:22By the end of the Second World War, Spot had a bit of a foothold, but not as much as he wanted.
08:28And at that point, he gets together with Billy Hill.
08:31The one place that it all came together?
08:35Soho.
08:36Well, it's Saturday night and I just got paid.
08:40Pulled up on my money, don't try to save.
08:42The West End of London was the great honeypot.
08:45Now I'm feeling fine, I'm gonna rock it up.
08:48I'm gonna rip it up.
08:50There were young men from all over the free world coming into London in preparation for D-Day,
08:56and they had money to spend.
08:58They were spending money on drink.
09:01They were spending their money on food.
09:02They were spending their money on sex.
09:05So it was a boom time for Soho.
09:08The relationship between Billy Hill and Jack Spot was very important to both of them.
09:14They even went on holidays with their wives to the south of France.
09:18They came together as quite a formidable group.
09:21Billy's looking for an opportunity to actually be involved in crime without actually doing it himself and putting himself at risk of imprisonment.
09:33By 1948, Hill had spent almost half of his 37 years in prison.
09:40The Criminal Justice Act threatened repeat offenders with preventative detention.
09:44So his next arrest would have meant a 14-year stretch.
09:50He'd been in and out of prison quite a number of times since his early teens and he wasn't gonna do it anymore.
09:57As Billy would say himself, I made my mind up that I had seen the last of the inside of the Nick.
10:05And I meant it.
10:07But at the same time, he was quietly putting the finishing touches to one of the biggest heists in British criminal history.
10:15In the early hours of May the 21st 1952, one of the biggest unsolved crimes in Europe would take place near Oxford Street.
10:35The East Castle Street Robbery.
10:37Billy Hill was quite creative and he invented genres of crimes, like the post office van robbery.
10:48Someone would get away with over £236,000, worth over £7.3 million today.
11:03No-one was ever arrested, no-one was convicted and none of the money was returned.
11:1073 years later, after numerous investigations, the crime remains unsolved.
11:19His girlfriend at the time, Jim, was one of the getaway drivers.
11:24Who had a very straightforward, down-to-earth manager and she understood Billy Hill.
11:31And I think she kept him intact.
11:34Four, ten, three.
11:36I'm Justin Hill, the biological son of Billy Hill.
11:41I first met Billy and Jip in the children's home.
11:45They used to come and visit me.
11:46They opened the door and Jip was there and Billy behind.
11:52And she knelt and opened up her arms and I run into him.
11:58Around about three and a half, Billy and Jip got full care and control.
12:04That's when I could fill a family unit.
12:08She was Billy's ace card.
12:14There's a story of Billy and Jip at New Scotland Yard being interrogated for three days, three nights.
12:22And by the end, the police said, let them go, especially her.
12:27Even if she had Big Ben in her pocket, she wouldn't tell you the time.
12:29But while Billy and Jip were busy being the West End's power couple, two sharply dressed twin brothers were stepping onto the scene.
12:38Who would change the city forever.
12:45This lovely little lady came and opened the door.
12:48You know, like your mum.
12:49She said, well, you must be Maureen.
12:51Come in.
12:52Would you like a cup of tea?
12:54Yes, please.
12:55I've made a lovely cake.
12:56Anyway, I sat down and while she was making the tea, I've looked up and all around this kitchen was hangers with pure white starched iron shirts.
13:09She did it for my sons.
13:14I drank my tea and I ate my lovely cake when I heard a door go and I heard mum.
13:21And she went, oh, that's Reggie.
13:27In came this guy, quite serious, startled to see me.
13:34I was a stranger.
13:36And he went, oh, who are you?
13:38I said, well, I'm the hairdresser.
13:41And she said, where's Ronnie?
13:43The door goes, click.
13:45Mum.
13:46I looked at him, I thought, if I wasn't here with their mother and I met him out, I'd be frightened.
13:56I'd be frightened of the look he gave me to find me there.
14:02Those eyes were terrifying and I've never met anybody that could intimidate you with just that one look.
14:10We're still talking about the Krays today because they were, in the eyes of the public, an interesting, exciting gang to look at.
14:23If you was in their presence, you did know you was in the presence of killers.
14:28You know, I have to tell you, the word on the street amongst other people is, they killed many more people than, you know, than what is out there.
14:36The Kray Twins would have heard of the East Castle street robbery and how it made fortunes for those involved.
14:44And nobody took them very seriously back then. They started to get a reputation for being hard nuts.
14:50Not a lot of people know that they were both professional boxers from a young age.
14:54And they were at a boxing ring called Repton.
14:58Reggie showed real promise. He never lost a fight as a professional boxer.
15:06The problem, though, was that Ronnie was often getting into fights outside of the boxing ring.
15:15The first thing I say to him is, you respect me and respect my trainers.
15:21If you feel you can't do that, don't come to my club.
15:24Reggie could have gone on and won titles.
15:25I think the destruction from his brother really took that away from him.
15:29Once you put guns in their hands, that was it.
15:32They were away then, do you know? That's how they were.
15:37Identical twins are not always close, but with Ronnie and Reggie we do see a very intense and close relationship.
15:44It appears that they don't really see themselves as separate, that they see themselves as one entity.
15:49They're kind of functioning together, doing the same thing.
15:51And if one veers off, the other one tends to follow.
15:55As East Londoners, they would have known the name Billy Hill.
16:00Everyone did.
16:02To the crates, Billy Hill was someone to look up to.
16:05Well dressed, very smart.
16:09Lived a rather glossy lifestyle.
16:12They wanted to be like Billy Hill, but everybody wanted to be like Billy Hill.
16:16You have to look at the East End where there's so much poverty,
16:20where people are not getting a lot of opportunities to see other role models.
16:24This is what I aspire to. This is the way out.
16:32Following the success of the East Castle Street robbery, Billy Hill thought it was really too easy.
16:37Two years later, 1954, he organises a robbery of a KLM van with gold bullion in it, which was over £40,000 in those days.
16:49So it was a lot of money.
16:51No one was ever convicted. None of the gold was ever returned.
16:54So, again, this is an example of someone who clearly has got criminal intelligence.
17:01Bobby McHugh was important to Billy Hill. He was a friend and Billy Hill's driver as well.
17:07Hundred years old now, Bobby.
17:09A friend of mine was owed some money by a woman who had a club, just off Piccadilly, a drinking club.
17:17He asked me to say, would I go and tell her to pay him?
17:19Billy says, I'll come with you.
17:22We went and there was a hush.
17:24Obviously, they knew who Billy was.
17:26And suddenly, her dog came over and Billy said, get out of the way.
17:30Get the dog.
17:32He said, make sure you pay that money. You know who I am.
17:35And when he went out, he picked the dog up and said, I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it.
17:40That was Billy.
17:42One day, we were sitting playing Snap
17:46and I declared that I won.
17:50So, Billy turned around and said, no, I've won.
17:54So, me being a snotty-nosed kid, got up and kicked him in the shins.
18:00Well, I have never seen a face turn so quick.
18:03I turned, I run, I got halfway up the stairs and all of a sudden I felt his hand on top of my head and he shook my head from side to side.
18:16Next I knew was Jip.
18:19Get him in the middle and he switched like that back to normal.
18:26So, we see someone who lies, they are manipulative, they are cunning.
18:32That's the Machiavellianism.
18:34He's glib, he's charming, he's superficial, he's grandiose.
18:38He's able to lure people to him to get them to do his bidding.
18:42That's the psychopathy.
18:44The narcissism, he's controlling the story.
18:47Everything he says is a story.
18:49It's what he wants you to see of him so that he can control the narrative.
18:56Billy Hill by this time had become very friendly with a journalist called Duncan Webb.
19:01And Duncan Webb was a top journalist for the Sunday people.
19:05Sunday newspapers, he knows they had a huge circulation.
19:09Over four million people bought the Sunday people.
19:12Not only did Duncan Webb become his public relations man,
19:15but he also provided alibis for Billy Hill so he could avoid being arrested.
19:22And used him unashamedly as a public relations machine almost for him as a criminal.
19:29There was a series of articles written by Duncan Webb in collaboration with Billy Hill about Billy,
19:36about what a criminal mastermind he was.
19:39And that was then turned into a book,
19:40Boss of Britain's Underworld, ghostwritten by Duncan Webb.
19:45This was the first ever professional criminal doing an autobiography.
19:50So it's a pretty important moment when you look at all the true crime books that have been produced since,
19:56many of them written by criminals or through ghostwriters.
19:59And this book not only got published, but Billy Hill had a massive launch party for his autobiography.
20:05He had lords there. He had celebrities like Diana Dawes.
20:11This was like almost society approving of Billy Hill.
20:15And they were all quite fascinated because he didn't come marching in with a gun or punch someone in the face.
20:21He was good at having a chat. He could relate to anybody.
20:25A lot of the people thought he looked like Humphrey Bogart.
20:27He was good at PR. He was carefully photographed wearing a trench coat and a trilby hat.
20:33He was everybody's idea of what a gangster should look like.
20:36All of it is a play into his world.
20:40He's someone that has been very, very clever at constructing a narrative that he wants other people to believe of him.
20:50But in the criminal world, notoriety came at the cost. Fame made Billy a marked man and it would nearly prove fatal.
21:02Jack Spot was very jealous of Billy Hill. He broke Duncan Webb's arm in a fit of temper and he got his own ghostwriter.
21:11A book came out full of hype. Jack Spot, a man of a thousand cuts.
21:18The festering grievance between Hill and Spot, who had one time been very close, was now quite out in the open.
21:27And something was going to give.
21:32Spot hired a group of young men, provided them with guns and they were going to shoot Billy Hill.
21:38Word got out that this is what was going to happen.
21:42These young men were captured. The guns were taken from them.
21:47Billy Hill decided Spot would be attacked, but not killed.
21:53Billy Hill was very keen on not killing him.
21:56You've got to remember this time that capital punishment was still there.
22:00If you killed someone, you were going to get harmed.
22:02One night, Jack Spot and his wife Rita were attacked. It was Frank Fraser that did it.
22:10Fraser used the shillelagh, a traditional Irish implement.
22:15And this particular shillelagh had been given to Billy Hill by Jack Spot when they were on much friendlier terms.
22:22So it was a highly symbolic weapon for Fraser to use.
22:27And when Spot was on the ground, Fraser then took out his razor and slashed his face many times.
22:34My name is Jack Spot.
22:37They cut my ear, you see, on the floor, which I picked up late and put in my pocket.
22:44They cut me from ear down here.
22:47Stared me. Billy Hill.
22:51He destroyed me.
22:53What a bastard.
22:54A psychopath will feel nothing about removing you out of the equation.
23:01You were standing in their way of having their needs met.
23:04It's about domination. It's about control.
23:06It's about taking over, you know.
23:08And when you're on that kind of train, of course, there's no way back anyway.
23:11So you really have to push forward.
23:13And anyone who stands in your way, they are surplus to requirements.
23:18Jack Spot was out and the crews were moving in.
23:20Except this time, Billy didn't see an enemy. He saw an opportunity.
23:26As he embarked on one of the greatest cons ever pulled in British history.
23:37The Cray twins were called up, as all the other 18-year-olds were, to serve national service.
23:43And they didn't last long.
23:45But it was an important time for the Crays.
23:47Because it's then that they established their anti-authoritarian lifestyle.
23:52And they came into contact with deserters.
23:54They came into contact with black marketeers.
23:56They came into contact with some heavy-duty gangsters.
23:59And Billy Hill was part of that world.
24:02When the Cray twins met him, they immediately idolised him.
24:07Billy Hill's initial response was really, can I use these guys?
24:10Because that's what gangsters do.
24:11He tested them out by phoning them late one night and saying,
24:16I need you to come to my home now.
24:19The Crays got some guns together.
24:22They went to his home and said, where's the trouble?
24:24Nothing, lad. I was just testing you.
24:27And he gave them £500.
24:28What Billy Hill did that day set the Crays off in motion.
24:34And was probably the moment where they decided they wanted to go up the ladder.
24:39Billy Hill saw a lot of potential in them.
24:43And knew that they were the next follow-on thing.
24:47The Crays started their own clubs.
24:49They had the billiard hall, first of all.
24:51But it was from the billiard hall that they were able to start getting involved in bits and pieces of protection.
24:56During the 50s, protection rackets became a very big source of income for criminals.
25:02We're worried your shop might get burnt to the ground by a thug.
25:06But if you pay us, we'll make sure those thugs don't.
25:08Well, of course, the thug was the one who would do the burning.
25:11They managed to acquire the Double R Club.
25:13That was really the beginning of when they started to infiltrate into the club life.
25:18Reg always wanted to be a club owner.
25:20They'd be a slightly criminal club owner, but nonetheless, a club owner.
25:26It was their first chance to create a club atmosphere that brought the West End to the East End.
25:33And that is something that made them idols in a lot of East Enders' lives.
25:38It was a step away from their East End lifestyle.
25:43They got to dress up as if they were rich and they loved that.
25:48Most clubs are very respectable, you know, and I don't think there's any trouble at all in them.
25:53Except occasionally, you know, and sometimes they have to be slow out.
25:56Jack Spott's demise paved way for the craze.
26:01That's when Billy tried to guide and advise.
26:07By the mid-1950s, Billy was looking around for the next stage in his life.
26:12He had plenty of money. He could have retired easily at this point.
26:15But there's always room for more money.
26:19Billy Hill was a gambler. He understood gambling.
26:22But he didn't like the racetrack gangs. He wasn't interested in them.
26:25He was interested in making money.
26:27Billy Hill's ability to mix with aristocrats worked out very well for him at one stage in London
26:32because he was frequenting casinos and gambling clubs, particularly the Claremont, which was a very famous one run by John Aspinall,
26:42a notoriously rich, artful character who was known as Britain's number one gambler.
26:49Billy Hill not only went to these clubs, but in the Claremont, he decided he could see a classic opportunity.
26:56One of the most outrageous scams ever perpetrated on London's high society has to be what happened at the Claremont Club,
27:07what would come to be known as the Big Edge.
27:13Now, he was a traveller. He liked to travel from Monte Carlo, Nice, North Africa.
27:19Wherever he went, he would talk to people.
27:21And he picked up on one of his trips from some Coulson organised crime figures,
27:28a scam which he would turn into probably the biggest card scam that we've seen.
27:34See, the French were using it for years, but nobody knew about it.
27:38They came in and showed us how to do it.
27:41The Big Edge.
27:46But how did they do it?
27:47The Big Edge involved putting cards through a kind of mangle, which would give them a certain wrinkle.
27:55And people who were properly trained could see the wrinkle and decide what kind of card it was
28:01and decide how to play their particular hand.
28:04The way that we were doing it was just by bending the cards.
28:09And Billy was in the middle of it. He was organising it.
28:11And they were fleecing gamblers left, right and centre.
28:16They made millions.
28:19It was reported at the time that the 18th Earl of Derby
28:23lost over 1.7 million in today's money.
28:27In one night.
28:28It was like robbing Fort Knox and the Bank of England at the same time.
28:34Just a lot easier.
28:37Said Bobby McHugh.
28:41While Billy was flying under the radar in the West End,
28:44over in the East, things were getting out of hand.
28:46Running into one another.
28:49Outside a cafe in Paris.
28:53The Kray twins were becoming known for their willingness to fight anyone who challenged them.
29:00They were violent guys.
29:02I could tell you many.
29:04A few stories.
29:06Ronnie stood up, cocked a gun, stuck it in one of the Dixon's mouth,
29:09knocked his teeth out, stabbed him about four times in the neck.
29:12One little story I will tell you.
29:14There was a fella who would sell stolen goods, jewellery, clothing, shoes or whatever.
29:18But obviously that interfered with Ronnie and Reggie's business.
29:21They shot him three times.
29:23They didn't kill him.
29:24They dragged him down the road, slowed him down the boiler,
29:27into the boiler on this big shovel.
29:29He went in there, that's the end of him.
29:31They burned him alive.
29:36Ronnie was the maniac.
29:37He had a bit of trouble amongst his family in Brick Lane.
29:40He pulled out his sword.
29:41His sword was enormous, about seven foot long.
29:44They were smashing the door down with his sword.
29:47Ronnie really went into him.
29:49He put boiling water over him.
29:51Got a saw out of the car.
29:53Got this guy on the corner of the road on the curb
29:56and started sawing his leg off.
29:58That's when he said they were nice boys.
30:01They weren't nice. They were quiet.
30:03They were all right.
30:04Since the death of you were nice.
30:05In 1956, Ronnie and his brother, in fact, beat up a lad called Terry Martin.
30:18And it was a substantial beating, including bayonets stabbing.
30:22And Ronnie would go on to be convicted of grievous bodily harm with intent.
30:25It's whilst he's in prison serving this three year sentence that he was examined by the doctors and he is diagnosed as schizophrenic.
30:34Ronnie was diagnosed with schizophrenia and in particular paranoid schizophrenia, which is, you know, a really serious diagnosis.
30:43And he would have been really struggling with a lot of really serious symptoms, particularly obviously being paranoid.
30:48Can he believe what people are saying?
30:51He would have arguably been experiencing some kind of hallucinations as well, potentially voices.
30:57Today, people who get the right help can function perfectly normally within society.
31:02Unfortunately, Ronnie at the time didn't get the help that he needed.
31:05Like some of the other criminals we've looked at, the Crays were very good at exploiting their media image.
31:17They didn't look typical of an East End gangster.
31:22Suit, tie, pocket square, hair gel black, the whole bit.
31:27The Cray twins had celebrities in their pockets, so it's no surprise that the media were also there.
31:33The British media were putting these people on the front pages as people to be reckoned with and almost people to be admired.
31:42They have wide interests in the theatre and in entertainment, and they're well known for their fundraising work for charity.
31:50For some years they've been concerned in the running of a number of West End and East End clubs.
31:55They had a finger in every part. They could pick up a phone and phone Lord Boothby.
32:01Now Boothby, of course, was a Conservative peer, senior member of the Tory party.
32:08Ronnie was homosexual.
32:11Homosexuality was illegal at that time, but there were homosexual orgies going on.
32:17And it was just an open secret that these two were engaged in these activities.
32:26Lord Boothby denied it. He said there's no inappropriate relationship, but actually reality was they were in bed together literally and metaphorically.
32:33I must tell you this little story. When they became friends, Boothby, he said, would you like to have dinner at the House of Lords?
32:43That wouldn't impress Ronnie Crowe. It would just be the food.
32:48He said, yeah, if you want to take me. He said, OK.
32:52And he went to the House of Lords for dinner and Boothby.
32:56He said, they do wonderful cocktails here, Ronnie.
33:00He said, hmm, I might like to try one of those cocktails. I've heard about them.
33:05What sort of cocktail do you want? He said, um, a prawn cocktail.
33:13Ronnie Crowe's association with Lord Boothby provided a safety net, if you like, for the Crowe's.
33:19The following year, when the Crowe's were again arrested, the prosecution collapsed because Boothby was in the House of Lords making big noises in support of the Crowe's.
33:27To say these guys are being picked on, the police are acting inappropriately and these people should be out of custody and out on the streets.
33:35From the point of view of the country, they ought to be released tomorrow.
33:40Because there is no question of the rights and wrongs of this matter.
33:44From 1964 onwards, it effectively gave the Crowe's a free hand to operate in the East End.
33:50And, of course, this is the beginning of their most violent period.
33:54The brothers had considerable clout, not only in the underworld, but also in the media and in Parliament.
33:59They must have felt invincible.
34:01But maybe that would be their downfall.
34:03What are they looking for?
34:151966 is when everything started going downhill for the Cray twins.
34:21A few years earlier, Ronnie Cray was described by Jules Cannell supposedly as a big fat puff.
34:28Now this, of course, had not gone down too well with Ronnie Cray.
34:31He hadn't dealt with that at the time and he thought it's now time for him to go and settle the matter.
34:37One night he was just drinking in the Lion pub, a pub that they often went to,
34:43and decided mid-pint that he was going to walk across to the blind beggar where he knew George Cornell was.
34:50He comes in the side door from the side street and he turns left at the bar.
34:55Cornell said in a rather sarcastic way, well, look who's just walked in.
35:01He didn't say one word.
35:04He walked in and he shot him straight through the head there.
35:08And he fell on the floor.
35:09And they all told me the song that was being played on the time, well, the sun ain't gonna shine anymore.
35:16The big hit.
35:18It was a prime example, not only of their brutality, but also of their recklessness.
35:27And they hot-footed it to where else but Morocco, where Billy Hill was.
35:33Billy Hill first went to Morocco in the late 40s, early 50s and got involved in smuggling.
35:40He'd spotted something, an opportunity, and it was cheap cigarettes.
35:44And he'd started to import cigarettes illegally, of course, from Morocco to the UK.
35:49And it was a very lucrative business for Billy Hill.
35:53And it kept him away from London and away from the police.
35:58He took the brothers to Morocco.
36:01He gave them a good holiday.
36:03And it was a lesson.
36:05It was educational.
36:06But the lesson wasn't taken to heart.
36:08And soon the Krays were back unleashing terror on the streets of London once more.
36:13Their next victim, Jack the Hat McVitie.
36:18Jack the Hat was a harmless person.
36:20He wasn't a violent man.
36:22He was a thief.
36:23He was a pest.
36:24But what they did was completely over the top.
36:29The Krays and the bulk of the firm were drinking in the pub called The Carpenters Arms.
36:34I believe Mum was there.
36:35I believe Dad may have even been there.
36:38Ronnie, he was quite erratic.
36:40His mental health was mostly out of control throughout that time period.
36:44And he decided that was the night that Jack the Hat was going to get his comeuppance.
36:50Now, they had a flat just around the corner.
36:52And they decided what they were going to do was to try and set up what looked like a bit of a party.
36:57And a couple of the other members of the firm were told to go out and get Jack the Hat.
37:01Tell him that there's a party around the corner.
37:04Jack the Hat was found.
37:05He was drunk.
37:06He willingly went to the flat.
37:08As anyone had got to the bottom of the stairs, he realised it's a trick.
37:13He's approached by Reggie being, of course, urged on by his brother.
37:17Go on.
37:18Go and kill him.
37:19Go and kill him.
37:20And Reggie is really in a poor state, apparently.
37:22Produced his gun.
37:24Pulled the trigger.
37:25But it didn't go off.
37:26So Jack McVitie had his opportunity to escape.
37:29He ran and smashed the window and tried to get out.
37:33As he tried, he was pulled back in.
37:36When he walks out of the kitchen with a big knife, gives it to Reggie and says,
37:39go to work.
37:40Get rid of him.
37:41Get rid of him.
37:42Get rid of him.
37:43He stabbed McVitie first in the head and the neck and then the torso.
37:47Get rid of him.
37:50It was just a blood barb.
37:52One person would even say it even looked like his head had decapitated from his body.
37:57To this day, the body has never been found.
38:02By very publicly committing the killings of Jack the Hat and George Cornell,
38:14the Cree twins were almost telling the police, come and get me.
38:19Their volatility was too much.
38:21They basically self-combusted with the two murders that they committed.
38:25It became impossible for the police to ignore them.
38:28And eventually they decided enough's enough and they appointed a man called Leden Reed,
38:32Nipper Reed, famously in 1967, who had one job only.
38:36Clear your entry.
38:37The only job you've got to do is get the craze.
38:41And effectively, one by one, there was this domino effect of people starting to talk
38:45and eventually Nipper had sufficient evidence to prosecute for the murder of McVitie
38:51and the shooting, of course, of George Cornell.
38:54The 34-year-old ex-boxer brothers, Reginald and Ronald, came here with flying squad officers
39:01at 6 o'clock this morning.
39:03They were in bed when the officers called to their home in shortage.
39:09The Cree twins' later years were spent in prison, while the empire they'd built unraveled.
39:15A successful criminal is someone who's made a good living, never come to the attention of the police,
39:27and people don't know they're criminals.
39:29If you go to prison, it doesn't sound very successful to me.
39:33By the time they'd gone to prison, Billy Hill was in retirement in Tangier,
39:41but also had a home in Marbella.
39:43He was one of the first of the British crims to go down there.
39:45So he was successful.
39:47He got out with his money, he got out with his sanity, and he could live the life.
39:53Before he met Jip, Billy was in and out of prison.
39:59The day he met Jip, he'd never done a day's time.
40:04While battling ill health brought on by a lifetime of smoking,
40:08Billy Hill would die at his home in Bayswater on the 1st of January 1984, age 72.
40:16Billy took an overdose of sleeping tablets.
40:23So basically he was bossed till the end of his own destiny.
40:28Billy made it 100 times more than both of them put together.
40:32Frankie Fraser used to say he died the richest man in the graveyard.
40:37His death certificate said he worked in demolition.
40:41In prison, meanwhile, Ronnie's mental health deteriorated rapidly.
40:48He clashed repeatedly with prison staff and other inmates
40:52and ended up getting even more isolated within the system.
40:56At the beginning, when he first went there,
40:58I went with Mrs. Cray a lot of times and he behaved and he was good.
41:02He said, when I come home, I'm going to Suffolk.
41:05He's buying a house with Reggie.
41:07The two of them are living together.
41:09And then I'm going to travel, which he does say in that interview, doesn't he?
41:13Well, I'd like to go abroad for a short while
41:16and then I'd like to be left alone.
41:18Reggie, on the other hand,
41:20although the steadier and more stable of the two,
41:24remained imprisoned for over 30 years.
41:27Ronnie died in 1995.
41:30Reggie was allowed out to attend the funeral,
41:33where he was joined by hundreds of well-wishers and supporters.
41:36Reggie died from terminal cancer aged 66 on the 1st of October 2000.
41:43He was buried beside Ronnie.
41:45The Cray twins' legacy is a strange combination of myth and fact.
41:51They're remembered as both notorious criminals and also as enigmatic figures
41:58who captivated the public imagination and symbolised the rebellion of the working classes
42:04against the establishment.
42:06In the end, they made more money off their books and exploiting their name
42:11while they were behind bars than they ever did from any of the crimes that they committed.
42:15There's a lot of people who saw them as working-class heroes.
42:21When they eventually died in 1995 and 2000,
42:25the streets of London littered with people watching the cortege
42:30and the limousines that followed their coffins to their greys,
42:33still people apparently saying on the street,
42:36they were good lads really,
42:38but actually the reality was they were dangerous, violent individuals.
42:42The Crays tried to give the impression they were robbing hoods.
42:47Yeah, taking from the rich, giving to the poor.
42:50It was absolute nonsense.
42:52They didn't care who they intimidated or robbed
42:56as long as they got what they wanted.
43:00Billy Hill's legacy was a bit more complex.
43:03He was a good man.
43:06I mean, you can't judge someone on their upbringing.
43:10It was inevitable he was going to do what he was going to do.
43:13Put that aside, he was a gentleman.
43:17Old school.
43:19In some ways, he was a kind of trailblazer in organised crime.
43:24He combined intelligence, charm and ruthlessness
43:28to dominate Britain's underworld.
43:30He was much smarter, more calculating than his pupils,
43:35which made him much more dangerous.
43:38And maybe that's why, when he is talked about,
43:41although it might not be as much as the Crays,
43:45he's just the godfather of the city.
43:47Come down off your throne and leave your body alone.
43:54Somebody must change.
44:00You are the reason I've been waiting so long.
44:06Somebody holds the key.
44:10Well, I'm a millionaire.
44:13I just think I've got the time.
Be the first to comment