The Profession of Violence
- Jan 25
- 6 min read
The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins
by John Pearson
“In the 1960s, London’s gangland was ruled by two brothers: Reggie and Ronnie Kray. Building an empire of crime by intimidation, extortion, and terror on a scale never seen before or since, they feted stars of stage and screen, sportsmen, and even politicians to gain the respectability they craved.
On the March 17, 1995, Ronnie Kray died suddenly of a heart attack while serving a life sentence for murder. His funeral was watched by over 50,000 people. Five years later, Reggie Kray died of cancer, thus closing a particularly dark chapter in the history of London's underworld.
This is the true story of their rise and fall.”
The world of old-fashioned gangs and mafia has always fascinated me, even if I’d want none to do with it myself. I have always enjoyed books and films on the subject, and I did watch the film “Legend” with Tom Hardy as soon as it came out — in fact, I had my eye on it from the moment the trailer dropped. I remember getting goosebumps in the cinema.
I absolutely loved the movie and Hardy’s portrayal of the twins. When this book came up as a recommendation, I immediately put it on my TBR as I am trying to include more non-fiction (and generally doing a really bad job of it). Admittedly, being a bit basic, I was also drawn to this book above others on the same subject by the title. I bought it as an audiobook as I find that media a bit easier for said genre. I originally started it in 2022, but I made the mistake of limiting my audiobook-consummation to my walks or workouts, and after a bit, having listened to an hour here and a half-hour there, I got a bit disconnected from the story and had trouble remembering the details (partly from cross-reading with a couple of other books at the same time) — and I ended up not finishing it.
Until the other day, when I decided to pick it up again. After nearly two years, I remembered next to nothing (except for the basic story from “Legend”), so I started it from the beginning while spending the entire day deep-cleaning my apartment. In the end, I had only an hour or so left to finish off the next day.
I really enjoyed the introduction chapters to the twins, hearing about how they grew up in the 30’s and 40’s East End of London. Pearson really painted a picture of a cesspool of petty criminals and hustlers, the boxing underworld the twins were eventually introduced to, and how the local police did bare minimum even with murder committed before their eyes — unless “respectable folk” were impacted, or precious items stolen. Very prominent from the start and continued throughout the book, is the misogyny that the twins grew up around and also inevitably adopted themselves.
Their mother Violet was married and pregnant with her first child at just seventeen years old, and had the twins a few years after. Their father, a drunk, traveled all over for work (buying and re-selling trinkets) and was barely home other than weekends. During WW2, he deserted, and although he still visited occasionally, the twins really only had Violet and their older brother Charlie all throughout their childhood.
Violet enjoyed lot of attention from the neighbours because of the twins, and they were a great source of pride for her. Her children became her whole world, which I suppose is only natural for a mother — but perhaps augmented by her peers’ admiration for the twins as well as the absence of her husband. I am fascinated by her. She’s obviously not the main focus of this book, but she is mentioned occasionally throughout. The author mentions several times that the twins kept their shadier dealings from their mother from a young age — but how oblivious was she really? And later on she definitely knew of their activities with “the Firm”, as their gang was known. Did she just pretend ignorance? Did she tell herself all the stories were exaggerated and prefer to live the lie? Or could they simply do no wrong in her eyes?
The twins, despite their menacing and horrifying acts with budding gang activities and brutal beatings, are rather charmingly portrayed at the start, a bit as rebellious jokesters. They, like their father, were eventually called to the army — and seemingly just for the fun of it, fought with senior officers and went AWOL, escaping back home again and again only to get arrested and brought back shortly after — until the army sort of gave up on them. Their time in (and out of) the army very amusing to hear about, but also told a great deal of their characters.
Both of the twins went in and out of jail during their rise to power in the 50s and 60s, and the story really does play out as a movie.
Pearson describes Ronnie’s “descent into madness” and developing paranoid schizophrenia after a long period in prison, cut off from his brother and the daily operations of the gang. Ronnie is definitely portrayed as the most unhinged of the two, the most prone to violence — eventually even forcing his brother to commit murder — and it’s interesting to think how Reggie would have turned out had his brother remained in prison, out of the way. With Ronnie imprisoned, the Firm seem to have changed quite a bit, acquiring businesses and bars and legalizing at least part of their activities and income, eventually reverting under Ronnie’s influence upon his release. That being said, Reggie absolutely was no angel either. Just maybe would have lasted longer without the brother to egg him on?
The book is a bit jumpy timewise, skipping two years here, six months there, and I would have liked a bit more details also of the quiet periods between the prison sentences and bigger crimes (learn a bit more about the day-to-day), but I do realize this might not be feasible when trying to cover entire lives in a bit over 300 pages. Their story is just so fascinating (I keep using this word, but it’s true) both story wise and psychologically, with Ronnie’s mental health, as well as Reggie’s wife Frances’ depression and several suicide attempts, that are barely mentioned. Pearson did briefly go into Reggie’s thoughts/responses towards Ronnie’s issues and the dynamic there — but I would really have loved to dive deeper into especially this — more so than a shrug of the shoulder. Though this as well might be difficult and the details largely unknown, I would have ate that up… Is there a fictional “based on” work that explores this further? That could be really cool…
Eventually they were both locked up after being betrayed by several members of their own organization. They went to prison when they were still only 34 years old until they died respectively 61 and 66 years old, with Ronnie going first from Broadmoor Hospital where he was being held, certified insane. It’s weird to think of all that’s described about their lives, what they built, and they were still so young. 34 seems like nothing.
How Pearson then describes their impact on the country, their legendary status while still alive, and the public turnout to their funerals. I’ve now afterwards watched clips from Reggie’s funeral — even from their mother Violet’s. That’s actually crazy.
What a story.
I’m always in the mindset that I’ll have an easier time with non-fiction in audiobook form, and while I absolutely do think that’s true, a lot of pressure still lies on the narrator. With this one… it was difficult to decide whether the 3-star grade is actually because of the author or the narrator. Obviously, the story in itself is at least 7 star-worthy.
That being said, I have struggled my way through 2,5 Jack Reacher books because I really like the stories, but that narrator drains me of the will to live sometimes, using just cadence and rhythm. This narrator, Martin Shaw, is nowhere near that, so that might be a bit of a cruel comparison now that I think about it. I imagine it is more difficult to narrate non-fiction as well…
I’m actually gonna take back all complaints and raise the grade to 4 stars. Good job, Shaw!
Like I mentioned before, I did really enjoy how Pearson’s approach in starting with such a vivid description of the world into which the twins were born. A lot of it is easy to picture with all the media portraying this time period, but a lot of it is also very foreign to me, like a make-believe cinema fantasy, which fascinates and spell-binds, and even though I’ve read and seen and heard so much, it’s still so hard to fathom how people lived back then, especially in the rougher parts. What it was actually like, the sounds and smells of the city. A lot of people had it really hard, and still it’s easy to look at it from behind rose-tinted glasses.
It’s really not that long ago, but things were so different to how I’ve grown up.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Comments