The Krays and Lord Boothby

I've just watched this programme, shown originally in 2008.

Interesting how the Sunday Mirror was forced to pay him £40,000.00 (a vast sum then) in compensation for a story that was perfectly true.

Ronnie Kray was a bastard. Excuse me and apologies. But I knew his elder brother a long time ago .Obviously all dead now but not nice people.

John.

I don't think that anyone will possibly disagree with that opinion on Ronnie Kray! Could I ask how you knew Charlie?

As a child - and living not too far from the Krays in the East End - I only knew of them as sort of local celebrities (I think that they ran a gym) with some famous showbiz friends like Barbara Windsor.

Others were of course aware what they were really up to.

Their legend far outweighs their deeds. A lot of people must've been in the dark about most of their activities. It's very convenient to present one as a psycho and the other as a man struggling with his sexuality. It makes him a sympathetic character, making people less likely to believe what he was really up to.

They were also small fry in the London crime world - again their legend exceeds them.

@ Freedom. I was a landlord of a pub in London throughout the nineties. There was a period for about a year or maybe even longer than that when Charlie would come in. A friendly enough person if you were friendly towards him but everyone had to know he was a "Kray".