The Kray Twins

This extract is from my biog of Punk legend Garry Bushell.

Chapter Twelve:
The Kray Twins

I met Charlie Kray in a West End nightclub and shook hands with the great man...but unlike Garry I never got to meet the Twins.

Garry visited both Reg and Ron in prison. Ronnie Kray approached him first via Wilf Pine, an old music biz associate of Garry`s.

Mr 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 doesn`t hurt `civillians`,

His book tells just some of his story. He is one of the English villians to be a `made man` - a full member of the New York Gambino family, and a friend of Joe Pagano - (One Of The Family: The Englishman and The Mafia)

In his youth, at the height of the Krays / Richardson feud, Wilf led his own gang on audacious raids into both territories letting 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 personally.
Ronnie was furious that the paedophile gang who had abused and murdered 14-year-old Jason Swift had received recommended sentences of just 15 years when Reggie was serving 30 years for one gangland killing"

He wanted to use The Sun to attack the paedos and also to campaign for Reg`s release. By that time Reg had served 21 years for the murder of Jack `the hat` McVitie (the uncle of Vince Riordan, the bassist in The Cockney Rejects who I had managed ten years before),

I was happy to do so, and Kelvin MacKenzie published the piece uncut, with a `You The Jury` phone line,
THOUSANDS called to say REGGIE KRAY should be FREE.

Although criminally insane, Ronnie didn`t talk like a madman. He was soft spoken, lively and quick-witted.
Ronnie sounded exactly like my Uncle Harry. 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, pink 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.
His face much thinner than it was in the 60s, lit up when he spoke about his brother.

He said he enjoyed my BUSHELL On The Box Column, and asked me to bring Kylie Minogue with me next time I come - he was a fan of Neighbours, watching it twice a day, and said he `loved Charlene`.

Have you ever used your Underworld connections to help a friend?

Garry:
"On one occasion, the young children of one of my oldest friends were being threatened by an 6ft 4in 18-stone 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 errors of his ways in a manner that her Majesty`s police could never do"
He adds;
"When the scumbag opened his front door he almost wet himself and started squeeling like a pig"
Adding:
"I can`t 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 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. Seriously"

The full chapter reveals how Garry met Reggie Kray - who had a soft spot for Kylie Minogue.