The Krays victims have been left furious as fawning photos show the brothers’ fans gathering at the gangster brothers’ graves, leaving flower tributes and even describing the visit as a ‘pilgrimage’.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray ruled the East End with a ruthless regime of murder, armed robbery, arson, protection rackets and beatings.
But alongside the violence they rubbed shoulders with celebrities and politicians, and films about their lives have faced criticism for glamorising their gangster lifestyles.
The man who handed the brutal pair over to the police – and was himself raped by Ronnie – has branded their fandom ‘sickening’ as he recalled the horror of being part of their gang.
Men’s mental health charities have compared the idolisation of the crime kingpins to the way troubled children now view Andrew Tate – a trend dramatised in the Netflix series Adolescence.
Photos taken at the twins’ graves show men and women grinning as they pose with the black marble headstone, etched with the gangsters’ faces.
The plot at Chingford Mount Cemetery, North London, is frequently decked out with flowers and booze – including, in one photo, 19 Crimes wine.
Bobby Teale, who was raped by Ronnie while part of their ‘firm’ and went on to inform on the twins, says the fans are ‘literally clueless’ and that the Krays were ‘terrible people’.
After they were locked up for the murders of George Cornell and Jack ‘the Hat’ McVitie Bobby was forced into self-imposed exile in America for 40 years, fearing backlash from their hardened followers.
And his brothers David and Alfie – both of whom stood up in court and bravely looked the Krays in the eyes as they recounted their sins – said they were ‘absolute psychopaths’.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray (pictured in 1966) ruled the East End with a ruthless regime of murder, armed robbery, arson, protection rackets and beatings
Photos taken at the twins’ graves show men and women grinning as they pose with the black marble headstone, etched with the gangsters’ faces
Bobby Teale, who informed on the twins, says the fans are ‘literally clueless’ and that the Krays were ‘terrible people’. His brothers Alfie and David called them ‘absolute psychopaths’. Pictured: Bobby, Alfie and David Teale, from left to right
A one-time flatmate of Reggie, Bobby’s evidence was critical in jailing the pair for two counts of murder.
Now 83, he told MailOnline: ‘They were domestic terrorists. They did harm to anyone they felt like.
‘They’re actually imbalanced – but as soon as you name yourself as being the one that said it, then the very people who idolise these lunatics attack you. They haven’t got a clue.
‘Seeing people idolising them, it’s the most sickening thing I could believe. When I was gone for 40 years from England I could not believe when I came back how these people were idolised.’
In a horrifying account of his time with the Krays, Bobby remembered children being beaten up and Ronnie threatening his 11-year-old brother with rape as they ruled London with fear.
He went to the police after the murder of Cornell, when Ronnie, Reggie and their henchmen took over his younger brother David’s flat, effectively holding his wife and young children as hostages.
Bobby made an excuse to leave and ran to inform, hoping police would raid the house. But instead they used him as a spy, sending him back to the flat to build a daring surveillance operation.
He built up a friendship with Reggie after – both recently divorced – they moved into a bachelor pad together, and he was forced to dodge his violent brother as Ronnie became suspicious of their close bond.
A one-time flatmate of Reggie, ‘supergrass’ Bobby’s evidence was critical in jailing the pair for two counts of murder. Pictured: Bobby, David and Alfie Teale
Twin brothers and organised crime bosses Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Cedra Court, off Cazenove Road in northeast London in 1964
One man travelled to the cemetery with his dog ‘Bronson’ to ‘pay their respects’, while a woman said she had travelled from Newcastle to see the twins’ resting place
One tagged their caption ‘rest in peace’, while a second said they had been to pay their respects before going back ‘up North’
He now believes playing stupid helped save his life – he persuaded Ronnie he wasn’t clever enough to be a mole.
Speaking about the terrifying life within the Krays gang, he continued: ‘I felt sorry for them. There wasn’t an ounce of hate for them but I knew they had to be stopped. What do they say – evil will prosper if good people do nothing.
‘They would only do stuff like a coward or bully would do. They made sure that they never did it when they knew they were outnumbered.
‘Ronnie kept screaming at him, “Reggie, you’ve got to kill someone. You wouldn’t believe how good it is.”
‘Of course, who was the highest on the list? Only because we were really good mates – me!
‘It was obvious what someone had to do and I realised everyone was terrified, but no one was gonna do it. I didn’t do it to be any hero – I did it because I knew I was going to be done in anyway.
‘I thought I’m gonna die, but at least I saved my family. I felt a little bit like a young guy going to the Second World War.
‘Would I do it again? Yeah, I’d like to say there’s nothing that would stop me from doing it again.’
A couple said they had travelled from Manchester to ‘pay my respects’ while another man grinned as he posed with their headstone
Two further men posed behind the graves after travelling to ‘pay their respects’ – with one saying: ‘Love them or hate them it was some life they lead back in the day’
One man said he had visited the graves for historical purposes despite admitting that they were ‘a bit dodgy’, while a second said they would visit Amy Winehouse’s next
People visiting the murderers’ graves in North London boast on social media about travelling nearly 200 miles to visit their heroes.
Some recount sneaking onto the grounds after it had closed as they desperately try and see the graves while others describe spending their own birthdays at the plot.
One said that they were ‘very humbled’ at the site while another said it was a ‘dream’ of theirs to visit.
David Teale, now 82, said: ‘It was fear – they were bullies. The greatest thing about us, our story, is that we stood up in the Old Bailey and faced them and called them murderers, bullies and violent, horrible people.
‘Everyone said it after the twins were dead, we said it before and to their faces. No one likes a bully and I’m proud we did it. Everyone was against us and now they’re all on our side.
‘But others have made them legends – how can you make serial killers legends?
‘If they had gone round to their mums and dads and took their mum’s and dad’s business off them I think they would be different.
‘That’s exactly what happened to us. They just took anything they wanted. They used us, abused us and confused us all the time. They were just out-and-out thugs.
Frances Shae toasting to future happiness with the Kray twins, after her marriage to Reggie Kray in 1965
‘It was a terrifying and a bullying time. They ruined my life and Alfie’s too.
‘At the trial I looked over at Ronnie, the Colonel, because I had something personal because he raped me years ago, and I said: “The truth hurts Ron, doesn’t it.”
‘Alfie was the bravest out of us all. Their defence slung everything on us, said we were three no-good people, but Alfie took the brunt of it. He was the head of the family and he got us out of it.
‘History has got to be put right. They’re not martyrs.’
Alfie Teale, now 85, met the Krays after being introduced by a friend when they had visited one of the brothers’ nightclubs for a drink.
But when he let slip that his parents ran a nightclub in Islington the Krays started to become regulars there – gradually forcing the family out and taking it over.
Street traders by day, Alfie and David went on to become errand boys for the twins, taking their beloved mother out shopping and picking up suits.
Alfie said: ‘When I first met them Ronnie was sitting there and you’d never believe what it was like – everyone was bowing to him, it was like soldiers.
East End gangsters the Kray twins, Ronnie (left) and Reggie training at Klein’s Gym
‘The reason they were frightened of him was because if he looked at you funny, or you looked at him funny, you was in trouble.
‘Reggie was an absolute psychopath, same as his brother.
‘In court I was four foot away from. I could have put my arm out and he could have shook my hand. They just couldn’t believe it.’
When Ronnie Kray died thousands lined the streets to pay their respects and police outriders lead the route.
The funeral of the murderer, who died 30 years ago this year, involved traffic controls, huge crowds of onlookers, ostentatious floral tributes and high-profile attendees – including Reggie, who was allowed out on day release.
East End girl Barbara Windsor, who had been a long-time supporter and friend of the Krays, sent flowers after saying her attendance would be a media circus.
But men’s mental health charities are now warning that the power the twins held over the East End is similar to the influence now held by the likes of Andrew Tate over young men – shockingly dramatised in Netflix hit series Adolescence.
Laurence Johns, from The Mankind Project UK, had himself grown up in the thrall of the Krays, after his dad worked as a lackey for the twins in his teens.
When Ronnie Kray died thousands lined the streets to pay their respects and police outriders lead the route
He said: ‘Where other people may have got the stories of Robin Hood I got the Krays. I think a lot of people gloss over reality – but they weren’t nice people.
‘Growing up in that world, it was very much about hierarchy and power and fear. I personally found it exhausting.
‘When we’re young, we have no choice but to build our psychology, our framework for life, around identity.
‘We have to choose something to identify with because we don’t have enough lived experience to have our own values, language, understand the cultural codes, all of those things.
‘If you’re somehow seeking for identity, you don’t feel powerful, you don’t feel respected and you look around and you find a couple of characters like the Krays, that’s very attractive for a young man.
‘It’s not a crisis in masculiuty – it’s a crisis in society where a lopt of people are feeling disempowered, men and women.
‘They’re feeling scared for their future and and they’re comparing themselves to impossible characters. So of course, that’s creating a sense of fear – and when anyone is fearful and desperate, they’re in a corner, and we know any animal in a corner is a dangerous animal.’
- Legacy Of Menace: Life In The Shadows Of The Krays by David, Bobby and Alfie Teale can be found here.
