The Profession of Violence by John Pearson Read Free Book Online Page B

the twins showed skill as leaders with a certain prestige for those who went with them. They were accepted as the wildest ones around, who used coshes, chains and broken bottles for their fights, and by sixteen Ronnie had already perfected the technique of cutting an enemy in the face, preferring a large sheath knife to the old-style cut-throat razor. At sixteen the twins also bought their first revolver and hid it under the bedroom floor. In all their fights one thing distinguished them once they began; the way they would ‘go the limit’, carried away by an orgy of violence as if blood and brutality satisfied a need they shared in secret. Even their allies could be frightened by their fury and the pleasure they obviously derived from giving pain.
    At the preliminary hearing the North London Magistrate, Mr Herbert Malone, KC, examined the bicycle chains the police found near Harvey, ‘in pools of clotted blood’, and declared that the ‘beasts’ who used them evidently thought themselves above the Law, and would be taught a lesson. Both twins remained in custody and were brought for trial at the Old Bailey.
    Meanwhile things were happening behind the scenes. The girl witness had been discreetly told that she wouldhave a razor ‘put across her face’ if she gave evidence. The insurance salesman received a similar threat. Harvey, still in hospital, had various visitors pointing out the need to be sensible. He was an East End boy and ought to know it could be most unwise to talk. At the Old Bailey trial the twins’ case was speedily dismissed for lack of evidence, and Herbert Malone was right. Their trial did teach the twins a lesson.
    In the summer of 1951, the twins fought several bouts as professionals and won them all – Reggie with the precision of the natural boxer, Ronnie by slogging. In September they were at Wembley Town Hall on the same bill, and both were on form. Reggie had his man, Goodsell of Cambridge, down for a count of eight in the second round. He finished him off in the third after a display of fancy footwork and neatly placed hooks to the heart and the head.
    Ronnie Kray’s fight was with Bernie Long of Romford, and Ronnie steamrollered him. By the start of the third round, Long was badly cut around the eyes and bleeding from the mouth. The referee stopped the fight. People who saw the fights said they confirmed what everybody knew about the twins. Ronnie was game and vicious, but Reggie had a real future.
    Within a week the twins were once again in trouble. It was an odd case. In the past they had always avoided a confrontation with the police, and it seemed out of character for Ronnie to insult a young policeman who told him to move on in Bethnal Green Road on a Saturday afternoon. It was even more unlike him to punch him on the jaw before a dozen witnesses outside Pellici’s Cafe. Had he wanted to land in trouble, and ensure the twins a public name for violence, he could hardly have done it better. Within an hour he had been picked up and charged with assaulting a policeman.
    The incident could not end there. Reggie was with his brother when the trouble started, but it was over tooquickly for him to join in. His immediate reaction was that he had failed him, with Ronnie in the cells, and the policeman already back on duty. ‘If I’d not done something, then I’d never have been able to look Ron in the eye again.’ He spent the rest of that afternoon searching for the policeman. When he found him he attacked him just as Ronnie had. He made no attempt to escape, but went off, happy now, to join his brother in the cells. When they came for trial a few days later, the twins would certainly have gone to prison but for the efforts of the respectable world which they had courted. It was Father Hetherington who went into the witness box for them to say that ‘apart from their disgusting behaviour on this occasion’, he felt there were still