Vicious, Elegant Bastards

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They ruled the streets of London in the 1960s. Yet half a century later, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, unrepentant purveyors of violence and murder, hold more fascination than ever before. Portrayed as charismatic gangsters on the big screen, the saga of the twins, their firm and their 30-odd years behind bars is one which they determinedly and deliberately embellished with every passing year. Yet it is only recently that the stark, unvarnished truth about the twins has started to emerge, so cunningly concealed it was behind the façade of charitable deeds and East End loyalties. Bestselling author Jacky Hyams has carefully re-examined some of the stories, the lies and the myths to reveal a very different portrait of the twins and those closest to them. It reveals the complexity of their relationships with women, the close bonds of family that drove them, and confounds the police’s belief that Ronnie Kray senselessly murdered ‘one of their own’ when in fact the ‘victim’ survived into old age, dying after both twins had gone. Ronnie Kray once described them as ‘vicious, elegant bastards’. It is one of the few true statements ever uttered by either of them. The first book to examine the truth behind the legend of the Krays, written by bestselling Kray family biographer Jacky Hyams JACKY HYAMS is the bestselling author of Bombsites and Lollipops (John Blake, 2011). More recently, she has written Frances Kray: The Tragic Bride (John Blake, 2014) and co-wrote One of the Family with Maureen Flanagan (Century, 2015).

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