I met and shook hands with Charlie Kray but Bushell got to meet The Twins. He visited both Reg and Ron in prison.
Ronnie approached him first via Wilf Pine, an old music biz associate of Garry`s.
Bushell says:
"I got involved with Ronnie Kray first, via Wilf Pine who I`d known from my days in rock. Wilf was a real villian, who had got involved with the music business through Don Arden - Wilf was Don`s enforcer.
Like many real villians, Wilf is also funny, a gent and he doesnt hurt civillians.
His book tells just some of his story. He is one of few English villians to be a `made man` - a full member of the New York Gambino Family, and a friend of Joe Pagano.
In his youth at the height of the Krays / Richardson feud, Wilf had led his own gang on audacious raids into both territories letting both the twins and the Richardsons think their rivals were responsible.
That takes balls. Years later he became good friends with both. He contacted me in 1989 on behalf of Ronnie Kray, who wanted me to visit him in Broadmoor.
Wilf took me in personally. Ronnie was furious that the peadophile gang who had abused and murdered 14-year-old Jason Swift had recieved recommended sentances of just 15 years when Reggie was serving 30 years for one gangland killing.
Although criminally insane, Ronnie didnmt talk like a madman. He was soft-spoken, lively and quick-witted. He smoked constantly and on one visit drank non-alcoholic lager non-stop.
When we met he was dressed as immaculately as he did at the height of The Krays criminal empire.
He was wearing a £500 hand-made Italian suit, silk tie, solid gold Gucci watch, gold and diamond pinkie ring and solid gold cufflinks with the initial `R` engraved on one and `K` on the other".
For the full version buy Bushell Off The Box in which Garry reveals that Ronnie hated paedophiles, child killers and rapists.
Bushell says "once I went in with Wilf, who tapped me on the shoulder and said `take a look at whose just come in` - It was the Yorkshire Ripper looking fat and evil.
Ronnie just stared - and `If looks could kill` the mass murderer would of been dead"
Oddly, I found Ronnie a lot easier to get on with than Reg who I visited in Lewes Prison and Gartree.
Ron was chatty, Reg was more intense.
And like Ron he hated child killers, rapists and paedophiles. I got angry about the length of time he was kept behind bars"
For the full version buy Bushell Off The Box.
The reason for including these extracts is to show how real gangsters, journalists like Garry Bushell and `devoted dads` like myself all hate pathetic perverts like Ian Huntley and Richard Grimson.
Bushell says in the book:
"Its not fashionable to say this in today`s liberal climate but The Krays were political prisoners. When I visited Reg and Ron they were very warm and articulate. I can only speak as I find.
Through the twins I went on to meet characters such as Tony Lambriano, Joey Pyle, Lenny McLean and Roy `pretty boy` Shaw."
I asked `have you ever used your underworld connections to help a friend?`
He said; "On one occassion, the young children of one of my oldest friends were being threatened by a pervert, in gross sexual terms.
Obviously that kind of thing cant be tolerated . I had a few words and a hit squad of heavies were dispatched from South London. The resulting discussion helped this odious creep realise the error of his ways in a manor that her Majesty`s police could never do"
Garry added:
"I cant stand any form of child abuse and a grown man threatening to beat up 13 and 10 year old boys and involving a six-year-old little girl in his sick sexual fantasies is out of order.
I believe in capital punishment for paedophiles I would hang them myself if need be. I aint joking"
Being an `investigative journalist` and a bit of a Sherlock Holmes - I tracked down and spoke to the gangster who had a `word` with former pimp and perverted child abuser richard grimson.
The Underworld legend said:
"We drove to Wickford, knocked on his door and when grimson saw it was me - he squeeled like a pig, cried like a baby and called the police"
The full version is in Bushell Off The Box.
"We drove to Wickford, knocked on his door and when grimson saw it was me - he squeeled like a pig, cried like a baby and called the police"
The full version is in Bushell Off The Box.
An Englishman cannot be a "Made Man" and although John Gotti was a friend of Wilfs, it was the Genovese crime family he was associated with not the Gambino's.
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