All language subtitles for Original Gangsters s01e04 Billy Hill.eng

SEAN BEAN: During the 1960s,

two brothers dominated
London's underworld.

- Wakey wakey!
- Hello, mate!

SEAN: The Krays.

But who was the criminal mastermind
even Ronnie and Reggie feared?

The man they called
"The Godfather of Britain".

MAN: I didn't grass, I swear!

- We all know that's
not true, don't we?

MAN: Billy...
(gunshot)

? Please allow me
to introduce myself...

SEAN: Charismatic, glamorous,

violent and unhinged.
- (screaming)

SEAN: The Kray twins'
exploits are the stuff of legend.

They're the archetype
of the London gangster.

And it seems like almost
everybody has a story about them.

But while Reggie and Ronnie
might be the most famous,

they weren't the first.

There was a criminal
far more successful

that showed them how it was done.

And that man's name was Billy Hill.

? ..pleased to meet you,
hope you guessed my name

? Oh, yeah!

? But what's confusing is
just the nature of my game... ?

(film reel whirring)

(shouting, shooting)

MAN: We've been creating myths
around villains for centuries.

Cos those of us who live in
a non-criminal environment

often secretly fantasise about what
it would be like to be a gangster.

What would it be like to rob a bank?

It gives us a buzz,
but it also gives us a buzz

when they get caught.

(siren wailing, radio chatter)

But in reality,
they don't actually all get caught.

- Successful criminals,
nobody knows who they are.

Only afterwards, it's come out about
how big the money was they earned.

MAN: He was the ultimate
governor out of all of them.

And even the Krays
said it themselves,

"I always wanted
to be like Billy Hill.

"I wanted to emulate Billy Hill."

- Billy Hill basically was
a functioning psychopath.

He was able to extort, bribe,

coerce people to do his bidding

and hurt and killed a lot of
people along the way.

SEAN: A psychopath who carved up
London with violence and fear,

who would become
the capital's criminal kingpin.

Born William Charles Hill
on the 13th of December, 1911.

His story starts in the Seven Dials
area of London's West End,

then a slum with incredibly
poor living conditions.

- Seven Dials was known as "Thieves
Kitchen" for very good reason.

You couldn't turn a corner without
someone either threatening you

or trying to rob you.

- His father was a thief
and his mother was a fence.

DICK: He had a sister who was
a member of the Elephant Gang

who were the top
shoplifters at the time.

I guess you'd call 'em
a criminal family.

They had to be to survive.

There were always visitors to the
house who were involved in crime,

so criminal activity
was normal to him.

SERENA: You have a choice as whether
you get stuck in and engage with it,

or you try and be something
really, really different.

And that's a bigger challenge in
many ways, to pull yourself out

and be different to the norm
that's been created.

DICK: Very early on, Billy found he
had a certain penchant for burglary.

He became a very competent thief.

SERENA: I think he found his craft.

I think like you or I
might enjoy our jobs,

he found something he knew
he was good at, and for him,

it was a very rational
choice to do what he did.

- He was born to be a criminal
and he very quickly got good at it.

- There's rumours Billy committed
his first stabbing at age 14.

Official records show that at 16,
he was convicted of burglary

and sent to Borstal on
a three-year sentence.

Those same records describe
an escape Billy made

with another inmate, during which
they assaulted a housemaid.

They were caught, and he
was brutally punished for it

by being given
12 strokes of the birch.

- (grunting)

- In later life, he described the
impact of that incident, saying...

"The birch tears you to pieces,
but once you've had it...

"..you feel you've really
overcome something.

"You're tougher.

"And from then on,

"I knew that nothing on
God's earth could stop me."

DICK: He started to make
connections in Borstal

with other up-and-coming
young criminals.

And he applied this
networking ability to his career

as a criminal when he
came out of Borstal as well.

And Billy quite quickly, by the time
he was in his late teens,

became the leader of this network,
the main player in this network.

SERENA: Really more than anything
to me, he was a story teller.

He was able to create stories
in the areas that he lived

that created a rumour, that
created a myth, that created fear.

DICK: He was aware of image.

He would use a knife, and he would
carve a V on people's faces.

That was his trademark.

The word went out that this was what
this young man was willing to do.

SEAN: He becomes known
for smash and grabs.

His gang committed so many

that the newspaper started
calling it a "crime wave".

But a far bigger event would
soon steal the headlines.

DICK: By the time World War II
comes around,

Billy Hill has established himself
as being a competent thief.

There were shortages of everything.

Clothing, building materials,
food, cloth.

And anything that you could steal,
there was a market for.

- For criminals like Billy Hill,
this was an opportunity.

Huge fortunes could be made
by providing people

with what they couldn't get
from their ration books.

WENSLEY: In a place like
Seven Dials, and most of London

for that matter, there'd
always been a black market.

But when the Second World War came,
it exploded.

A criminal like Billy Hill
could go and buy

700 boxes of cigarettes,
or often they'd be stolen,

and then he could sell them
immediately on a street corner.

Everything had a price,

and most things were worth much more
than they were during peace time.

SEAN: Billy's rise to prominence
would put him on the radar

of every major player in the game.

And there was one
London Gangster in particular

who had him in his sights.

Jack Comer, AKA "Jack Spot".

DICK: He was running
scams at racecourses.

He had gambling clubs,
he was into protection.

DICK: By the end of the Second World
War, Spot had a bit of a foothold

but not as much as he wanted.

And at that point,
he gets together with Billy Hill.

- The one place
they'd all came together...

Soho.

? Well, it's Saturday night
and I just got paid

? Fool about my money,
don't try to save...

DICK: The West End of London
was the great honeypot.

? ..and I'm feelin' fine
I'm gonna rock it up

? I'm gonna rip it up...

DICK: There were young men
from all over the free world

coming into London
in preparation for D-Day.

And they had money to spend.

They were spending money on drink,

they were spending their money on
food, spending their money on sex.

So, it was a boom time for Soho.

WENSLEY: The relationship
between Billy Hill and Jack Spot

was very important to both of them.

They even went on holidays with
their wives to the South of France.

DICK: They came together
as quite a formidable group.

? ..and ball tonight! ?

DICK: Billy's looking for
an opportunity to actually be

involved in crime without
actually doing it himself

and putting himself
at risk of imprisonment.

SEAN: By 1948 Hill had spent almost
half of his 37 years in prison.

The Criminal Justice Act
threatened repeat offenders

with preventative detention,
so his next arrest

would have meant a 14-year stretch.

WENSLEY: He'd been in and out of
prison quite a number of times

since his early teens and he
wasn't going to do it any more.

SEAN: As Billy would say himself,
"I made my mind up that I had seen

"the last of the inside
of the nick, and I meant it."

But at the same time, he was quietly
putting the finishing touches

to one of the biggest heists
in British criminal history.

(whirring)

SEAN: In the early hours of
May the 21st, 1952,

one of the biggest
unsolved crimes in Europe

would take place near Oxford Street.

The Eastcastle Street robbery.

- Billy Hill was quite creative and
he invented genres of crimes,

like the post office van robbery.

(thudding, shouting)

SEAN: Someone would
get away with over �236,000,

worth over �7.3 million today.

DICK: No-one was ever arrested,
no-one was convicted

and none of the money was returned.

- 73 years later, after
numerous investigations,

a crime remains unsolved.

DICK: His girlfriend at the time,
Gyp, was one of the getaway drivers.

- Who had a very straightforward,
down-to-earth manner to her.

She understood Billy Hill
and I think she kept him intact.

PRODUCER: 4, take 3...

- I'm Justin Hill,
the biological son of Billy Hill.

I first met Billy and Gyp
in a children's home.

They used to come and visit me.

They opened the door,
and Gyp was there

and Billy behind, and she
knelt and opened up her arms

and I run into 'em.

Around about three and a half, Billy
and Gyp got full care and control.

That's when I could
feel a family unit.

She was Billy's ace card.

There's a story of Billy & Gyp at
New Scotland Yard being interrogated

for three days, three nights.

And by the end, the police said,
"Let em go. Especially her."

Even if she had Big Ben
in her pocket,

she wouldn't tell you the time.
SEAN: But while Billy Hill and Gyp

were busy being the
West End's power couple,

two sharply dressed twin brothers
were stepping onto the scene,

who would change the city forever.

WOMAN: This lovely little lady
came and opened the door,

you know, like your mum. She said,
"Oh, you must be Maureen.

"Come in. Would
you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes, please."
"I've made a lovely cake"

Anyway, I've sat down
and while she was making the tea,

I've looked up and all around
this kitchen was hangers,

with pure white
starched ironed shirts.

"Yeah, they're for my sons."

I drank my tea and I ate my lovely
cake when I heard a door go,

and I heard. "Mum"...

And she went, "Oh, that's Reggie."

In came this guy, quite serious.
Startled to see me.

I was a stranger and he went,
"Oh, who are you?"

I said, "Well, I'm the hairdresser."

And she said, "Where's Ronnie?"
The door goes, click.

"Mum!"

I looked at him, I thought if
I wasn't here with their mother

and I met him out,
I'd be frightened.

I'd be frightened of the look
he gave me to find me there.

Those eyes were terrifying.

And I've never met anybody
that could intimidate you

with just that one look.

MAN: We're still talking about the
Krays today, because they were

in the eyes of the public,

an interesting,
exciting gang to look at.

MAN: If you was in their presence,
you didn't know you was

in the presence of killers.
You know I have to tell ya,

the word on the street
amongst other people

is they killed many more people than
you know what is out there.

- The Kray Twins would have heard
of the Eastcastle Street robbery

and how it made fortunes
for those involved.

- Nobody took them
very seriously back then.

They started to get a reputation
for being hard nuts.

- Not a lot of people know that
they were both professional boxers

from a young age. And they were
at a boxing ring called Repton.

Reggie showed real promise,

he never lost a fight
as a professional boxer.

The problem, though,
was that Ronnie was often

getting into fights
outside of the boxing ring.

- The first thing I say to him is,
"You respect me

"and respect my trainers.
If you feel you can't do that,

"don't come to my club."

Reggie could have
gone on and won titles.

I think the destruction
from his brother

really took that away from him.
Once you put guns in their hands,

that was it. They were away
them lads, that's how they were.

SERENA: Identical twins
are not always close,

but with Ronnie and Reggie,
we do see a very intense

and close relationship.

It appears they don't really
see themselves as separate,

they see themselves as one entity.

They're kind of functioning
together doing the same thing.

And if one veers off,
the other one tends to follow.

- As East Londoners, they would
have known the name Billy Hill.

Everyone did.

DICK: To the Krays, Billy Hill
was someone to look up to.

Well dressed, very smart.
Lived a rather glossy lifestyle.

They wanted to be like Billy Hill,

but everybody wanted
to be like Billy Hill.

STEPHEN: You have to look
at the East End where there's

so much poverty, where people are
not getting a lot of opportunities

to see other role models.

"This is what I aspire to.
This is the way out."

WENSLEY: Following the success
of the Eastcastle Street robbery,

Billy Hill thought it
was really too easy.

DICK: Two years later, 1954,
he organises a robbery of a KLM van

with gold bullion in it, which was
over �40,000 in those days.

So, it's a lot of money.
(siren wailing)

No-one was ever convicted,
none of the gold was ever returned.

So again, this is an
example of someone

who clearly has got
criminal intelligence.

Bobby McKew was
important to Billy Hill,

he was a friend and
Billy Hill's driver as well.

STEPHEN: 100 years old now, Bobby.

- Friend of mine was owed
some money by a woman

who had a club just off Piccadilly.
Drinking club.

He asked me to say,
"Would I go and tell her to pay?"

But he said "Oh,
I'll come with you."

There was a hush, obviously
they knew who Billy was,

and suddenly, her dog came over
and Billy went,

"Get out the way!" Kicked the dog.

He said, "Make sure you pay
that money, you know who I am!"

And when he went down,
he picked the dog up and said,

"I didn't mean it,
I didn't mean it."

That was Billy.

JUSTIN: One day, we
were sitting playing snap

and I declared that I won.

So Billy turned around
and said, "No, I've won."

So, me being a snotty-nosed kid,
got up and kicked him in the shins.

Well, I have never seen
a face turn so quick.

I turned, I run, I got
halfway up the stairs,

and all of sudden, I felt
his hand on the top of my head

and he shook my head
from side to side.

Next I knew was Gyp,
getting in the middle

and he switched like that,
back to normal.

- So we see someone who lies, they
are manipulative, they're cunning.

That's the Machiavellianism.

He's glib, he's charming,
he's superficial, he's grandiose.

He's able to lure people to him
to get them to do his bidding.

That's the psychopathy.

The narcissism,
he's controlling the story.

Everything he says is a story.

It's what he wants you
to see of him,

so that he can
control the narrative.

DICK: Billy Hill by this time
had become very friendly

with a journalist
called Duncan Webb.

And Duncan Webb was the top
journalist for The Sunday People.

Sunday newspapers in those days
had a huge circulation.

Over 4 million people
bought The Sunday People.

WENSLEY: Not only did Duncan Webb
become his public relations man,

but he also provided
alibis for Billy Hill

so he could avoid being arrested.

And used him, unashamedly,

as a public relations machine
almost, for him as a criminal.

There was a series of articles
written by Duncan Webb

in collaboration with Billy Hill
about Billy,

about what a criminal
mastermind he was.

And that was then
turned into a book,

Boss of Britain's Underworld,
ghost-written by Duncan Webb.

- This was the first ever
professional criminal

doing an autobiography.
So, it's a pretty important moment

when you look at all the true crime
books that have been produced since.

Many of them written by criminals,
or through ghostwriters,

and this book not
only got published,

but Billy Hill had a massive
launch party for his autobiography.

He had Lords there!
He had celebrities like Diana Dors.

This was like almost society
approving of Billy Hill.

And they were all quite fascinated
because he didn't come marching in

with a gun or punch
someone in the face.

He was good at having a chat.
He could relate to anybody.

- A lot of people thought
he looked like Humphrey Bogart.

- He was good at PR.
He was carefully photographed

wearing a trench coat and a
trilby hat. He was everybody's idea

of what a gangster should look like.

- All of it is a play
into his world.

He's someone that has been
very, very clever at constructing

a narrative that he wants
other people to believe of him.

DICK: But in the criminal world,
notoriety came at a cost.

Fame made Billy a marked man,
and it would nearly prove fatal.

Jack Spot was very
jealous of Billy Hill.

He broke Duncan Webb's arm in
a fit of temper

and he got his own ghost writer.

And a book came out, full of hype...

Jack Spot, A Man
of a Thousand Cuts.

The festering grievance
between Hill and Spot

who at one time been very close,
was now quite out in the open

and something was going to give.

Spot hired a group of young men,
provided them with guns

and they were
going to shoot Billy Hill.

Word got out that this is
what was going to happen.

These young men were captured,
the guns were taken from them.

Billy Hill decided that
Spot would be attacked.

But not killed. Billy Hill was
very keen on not killing him.

You've got to remember this time
that capital punishment

was still there. If you killed
someone, you were gonna get hung.

And one night, Jack Spot
and his wife Rita were attacked.

It was Frank Fraser that did it.

Fraser used the Shillelagh,
a traditional Irish implement.

And this particular Shillelagh
had been given to Billy Hill

by Jack Spot when they
were on much friendlier terms,

so it was a highly symbolic
weapon for Fraser to use.

And when Spot was on the ground,
Fraser then took out his razor

and slashed his face many times.

JACK: (on recording)
My name is Jack Spot.

They cut my ear,
you see, on the floor?

Which I picked up
and put in my pocket.

They cut me from here,
down here. Stabbed me.

Billy Hill, he destroyed me.
What a bastard!

- A psychopath will feel
nothing about removing you

out of the equation.
You were standing in their way

of having their needs met.

STEPHEN: It's about domination,
it's about control.

It's about taking over. When you're
on that kind of train, of course,

there's no way back anyway.
So, you really have to push forward

and anyone who stands in your way,
they are surplus to requirements.

SEAN: Jack Spot was out
and the Krays were moving in.

Except this time, Billy didn't see
an enemy, he saw an opportunity.

As he embarked on
one of the greatest cons

ever pulled in British history.
- (screaming)

DICK: The Kray twins were called up,
as all other 18-year-olds were,

to serve national service.

And they didn't last long. But it
was an important time for the Krays

because it's then
that they established

their anti-authoritarian lifestyle

and they came into
contact with deserters,

they came into contact with black
marketeers, they came into contact

with some heavy-duty gangsters, and
Billy Hill was part of that world.

- When the Kray twins met him,
they immediately idolised him.

DICK: Billy Hill's initial response
was really, "Can I use these guys?"

Cos that's what gangsters do.
He tested them out

by phoning 'em late
one night and saying,

"I need you to come to home, now."

The Krays got some guns together,
they went to his home and said,

"Where's the trouble?"

"Nothing, lads, I was just testing
you." And he gave them �500.

- What Billy Hill did that day
set the Krays off in motion.

And it was probably the
moment where they decided

they wanted to go up the ladder.

- Billy Hill saw a lot of
potential in them and knew

that they were the
next follow-on thing.

DICK: The Krays
started their own clubs.

They had the billiard hall
first of all, but it was from

the billiard hall that they
started getting involved in

bits and pieces of protection.

WENSLEY: During the 50s,
protection rackets became

a very big source of
income for criminals.

"We're worried your shop might
get burnt to the ground by a thug,

"but if you pay us, we'll
make sure those thugs don't."

Well, of course, the thug was
the one who would do the burning.

CAROLINE: They managed
to acquire the Double R club.

That was really the beginning
of when they started to

infiltrate into the club life.

DICK: Reg always
wanted to be a club owner.

He'd be a slightly criminal club
owner, but nonetheless a club owner.

- It was their first chance to
create a club atmosphere

that brought the West End
to the East End.

And that is something that made them
idols in a lot of Eastender's lives.

It was a step away from
their East End lifestyle.

They got to dress up as if they
were rich and they loved that.

- Most of the clubs
are very respectable,

and I don't think there's
any trouble at all in them.

Except occasionally.

- And sometimes,
they'd have to be slung out.

- Jack Spot's demise
paved way for the Krays.

That's when Billy tried
to guide and advise.

DICK: By the mid 1950s,
Billy was looking around

for the next stage in his life.
He had plenty of money,

he could have retired
easily at this point,

but there's always
room for more money.

Billy Hill was a gambler.
He understood gambling,

but he didn't like
the racetrack gangs.

He wasn't interested in them,
he was interested in making money.

WENSLEY: Billy Hill's
ability to mix with aristocrats

worked out very well for him
at one stage in London

because he was frequenting
casinos and gambling clubs,

particularly The Clermont,
which was a very famous one

run by John Aspinall,
a notoriously rich, artful character

who was known as
Britain's No.1 gambler.

Billy Hill not only went to these
clubs, but in The Clermont,

he decided he could see
a classic opportunity.

SEAN: One of the most
outrageous scams

ever perpetrated on
London's high society

has to be what happened
at The Clermont Club.

What would come to be
known as "The Big Edge".

DICK: Now, he was a traveller,
he liked to travel.

To Monte Carlo, Nice, North Africa.

Wherever he went
he would talk to people,

and he picked up on one of his trips
from some Corsican

organised crime figures, a scam
which he would turn into

probably the biggest
card scam that we've seen.

- See, the French were using it
for years but nobody knew about it.

They came in and
showed us how to do it.

The Big Edge.

But how did they do it?

The Big Edge involved putting
cards through a kind of mangle,

which would give 'em
a certain wrinkle,

and people who were properly
trained could see the wrinkle

and decide what kind of card it was

and decide how to play
their particular hand.

- The way that we were doing it
was just by bending the cards.

DICK: And Billy was in the
middle of it, he was organising it.

WENSLEY: And they were fleecing
gamblers left, right and centre.

- They made millions.

SEAN: It was reported at the time
that the 18th Earl of Derby

lost over �1.7 million in
today's money, in one night.

It was like robbing Fort Knox
and the Bank of England

at the same time.

"Just a lot easier,"
said Bobby McKew!

DICK: While Billy was flying under
the radar in the West End,

over in the east,
things were getting out of hand.

? Running into one another

? Outside a cafe in Paris...

- The Kray twins were becoming
known for their willingness

to fight anyone who challenged them.

- They was violent guys.
I could tell you a few stories.

Ronnie stood up, cocked a gun, stuck
it in one of the Dixons' mouth,

knocked his teeth out, stabbed him
about four times in the neck.

- One story I will tell ya,
there was a fella, he would sell

stolen goods, jewellery,
clothing, shoes or whatever.

But obviously, that interfered
with Ronnie and Reggie's business.

They shot him three times,
but they didn't kill him.

They dragged him down the road,
threw him down the boiler,

into the boiler on this big shovel.
He went in there

and that's the end of him.
They burnt him alive.

? ..you say you've been
with many others...

- Ronnie was the maniac. He had
a bit of trouble a Maltese family

in Brick Lane. He pulled out this
sword. His sword was enormous.

About seven foot long.
They were smashing

the door down with his sword.

STEPHEN: Ronnie
really went into him.

He put boiling water over him,
got a saw out the car.

Got this guy on the corner
of the road on the curb

and started sawing his leg off.
- (screaming)

- As Billy said,
they were nice boys.

DIRECTOR: They weren't nice!
They were quite frightening.

- They were all right.
? ..since the death of you and I! ?

- (screaming)

PAUL: In 1956, Ronnie
and his brother in fact,

beat up a lad called Terry Martin,
and it was a substantial beating,

including bayonets stabbing.

And Ronnie would go on
to be convicted of

grievous bodily harm with intent.

It's whilst he's in prison
serving this three-year sentence

that he was examined by the doctors

and he was diagnosed
as schizophrenic.

SERENA: Ronnie was
diagnosed with schizophrenia

and in particular, paranoid
schizophrenia, which is a really

serious diagnosis and he would
have been really struggling with

a lot of really serious symptoms,

particularly obviously
being paranoid.

Can he believe what
people are saying?

He would have arguably been
experiencing some hallucinations

as well, potentially voices.

Today, people who get the right help

can function perfectly
normally within society.

Unfortunately, Ronnie at the time
didn't get the help that he needed.

SEAN: Like some of the other
criminals we've looked at,

the Krays were very good
at exploiting their media image.

CAROLINE: They didn't look
typical of an East End gangster.

STEPHEN: Suit, tie, pocket square,
the hair gelled black.

The whole bit.

CAROLINE: The Kray twins
had celebrities in their pockets,

so it's no surprise that
the media were also there.

PAUL: The British media were putting
these people on the front pages

as people to be reckoned with
and almost people to be admired.

- They have wide interests in
the theatre and entertainment,

and they're well known for their
fundraising work for charity.

For some years, they've been
concerned in the running of

a number of West End
and East End clubs.

- They had a finger in every pie.
They could pick up a phone

and phone Lord Boothby.

PAUL: Now Boothby, of course,
was a Conservative peer,

a senior member of the Tory Party.

Ronnie was a homosexual.

Homosexuality was
illegal at that time.

But there were
homosexual orgies going on.

And it was just an open secret

that these two were
engaged in these activities.

Lord Boothby denied it.

He said there's no
inappropriate relationship

but actually the reality was,
they were in bed together,

literally and metaphorically.

- I must tell you this little story.
When they became friends,

Boothby said, "Would you like to
have dinner at the House of Lords?"

That wouldn't have
impressed Ronnie Kray,

it'd just be the food. He said,
"Yeah, if you wanna take me."

He said, "OK."
And he went to the House of Lords

for dinner, and Boothby, he said,

"They do wonderful
cocktails here, Ronnie."

He said, "Hm, I might like
to try one of those cocktails.

"I've heard about them."
"What sort of cocktail do you want?"

He said, "A prawn cocktail."

(laughs)

PAUL: Ronnie Kray's association with
Lord Boothby provided a safety net,

if you like, for the Krays.
The following year, when the Krays

were getting arrested,
the prosecution collapsed

because Boothby was in the
House of Lords making big noises

in support of the Krays, to say
these guys are being picked on,

the police are acting
inappropriately and these people

should be out of custody
and out on the streets.

- From the point of view
of the country,

they ought to be released tomorrow.

Because there is no question of the
rights and wrongs of this matter!

PAUL: From 1964 onwards,
it effectively gave the Krays

a free hand to operate in
the East End, and of course,

this is the beginning of
their most violent period.

DICK: The brothers had considerable
clout not only in the underworld,

but also in the media
and in Parliament.

They must have felt invincible.

- But maybe that
would be their downfall.

- 1966 is when everything started
going downhill for the Kray twins.

- A few years earlier, Ronnie Kray
was described by George Cornell

supposedly as "a big fat puff".

Now, this of course, had not gone
down too well with Ronnie Kray.

He hadn't dealt with it at the time.

And he thought it's now time
for him to go and settle the matter.

- One night, he was just
drinking in The Lion Pub,

a pub that they often went to,
and decided mid-pint

that he was going to walk
across to The Blind Beggar

where he knew George Cornell was.

MAUREEN: He comes in the
side door from the side street

and he turns left at the bar...

Cornell said in
a rather sarcastic way,

"Well, look who's just walked in."

MAUREEN: He didn't say one word.

He walked in and he shot him
straight through the head. There.

And he fell on the floor.
- (people screaming)

DAVID: And they all told me,
the song that was being

played on the time, was The Sun
Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore,

the big hit.
? ..rise in the sky

? The tears are always clouding... ?

- It was a prime example
not only of their brutality.

But also of their recklessness.

PAUL: And they hot-footed it
to where else but Morocco,

where Billy Hill was.

- Billy Hill first went to
Morocco in the late 40s,

early 50s, and got
involved in smuggling.

WENSLEY: He'd spotted
something, an opportunity,

and it was cheap cigarettes,
and he started to import cigarettes,

illegally of course,
from Morocco to the UK,

and it was a very lucrative
business for Billy Hill,

and it kept him away from
London and away from the police.

JUSTIN: He took the brothers to
Morocco, he gave 'em a good holiday

and it was a lesson,
it was educational.

SEAN: But the lesson wasn't taken to
heart, and soon the Krays were back

unleashing terror on the
streets of London once more.

Their next victim,
Jack "the Hat" McVitie.

- Jack the Hat,
he was a harmless person.

He wasn't a violent man,
he was a thief, he was a pest,

but what they did was
completely over the top.

PAUL: The Krays and the bulk of
The Firm were drinking in the pub

called The Carpenter's Arms
and I believe Mum was there,

I believe Dad may
have even been there.

CAROLINE: Ronnie,
he was quite erratic.

His mental health was mostly out of
control throughout that time period.

- And he decided that was
the night that Jack The Hat

was going to get his comeuppance.

Now they had a flat
just round the corner,

and they decided what they
were going to do was to try

and set up what looked like
a bit of a party

and a couple of the other members
of The Firm were told to go out

and get Jack The Hat, tell him that
there's a party round the corner.

Jack The Hat was found,
he was drunk,

he willingly went to the flat.

It was only when he got
to the bottom of the stairs,

he realised it's a trick.

He's approached by Reggie
being urged on by his brother,

"Go on! Kill him, go on kill him."

And Reggie is really in a poor state
apparently, produced his gun...

...pulled the trigger,
but it didn't go off.

- So, Jack McVitie had
his opportunity to escape.

He ran and smashed the
window and tried to get out.

But as he tried,
he was pulled back in.

- Ronnie walks out of
the kitchen with a big knife,

gives it to Reggie and says,
"Go to work. Get rid of him."

PAUL: He stabs McVitie first
in the head and the neck,

and then the torso.

It was just a bloodbath.

One person would even say
it even looked like his head

had decapitated from his body.

To this day, the body
has never been found.

- By very publicly committing
the killings of Jack The Hat

and George Cornell, the Kray twins
were almost telling the police,

"Come and get me!"

DICK: Their volatility was too much.
They basically self-combusted

with the two murders
that they committed,

and became impossible
for the police to ignore them.

PAUL: And eventually
decided enough's enough

and they appointed a man called
Leonard Read, "Nipper Read"

famously in 1967,
who had one job only,

"Clear your in-tray, the only job
you've got to do is get the Krays."

And effectively, one by one,
there was this domino effect

of people starting to talk,
and eventually Nipper

had sufficient evidence to
prosecute for the murder of McVitie

and the shooting, of course,
of George Cornell.

- The 34-year-old ex-boxer brothers,
Reginald and Ronald,

came here with flying squad officers
at six o'clock this morning.

They were in bed when the officers
called to their home in Shoreditch.

- The Kray twins' later years
were spent in prison,

while the Empire
they'd built unravelled.

PAUL: A successful criminal is
someone who's made a good living.

Never come to the
attention of the police

and people don't
know they're criminals.

If you go to prison, doesn't
sound very successful to me.

DICK: By the time
they had gone to prison,

Billy Hill was in
retirement in Tangier,

but also had a home in Marbella,

he was one of the first of the
British Crims to go down there.

So, he was successful,
he got out with his money.

He got out with his sanity
and he could live the life.

JUSTIN: Before he met Gyp,
Billy was in and out of prison.

The day he met Gyp,
he never done a day's time.

SEAN: While battling ill health
brought on by a lifetime of smoking,

Billy Hill would die at
his home in Bayswater

on the 1st of January 1984, aged 72.

- Billy took an overdose
of sleeping tablets.

So basically, he was boss
till the end, of his own destiny.

- Billy made 100 times more
than both of 'em put together.

Frankie Fraser used to say he died
the richest man in the graveyard.

- His death certificate said
he worked in "demolition".

In prison meanwhile, Ronnie's
mental health deteriorated rapidly.

He clashed repeatedly with
prison staff and other inmates

and ended up getting even
more isolated within the system.

- At the beginning, when he first
went there, I went with Mrs Kray

a lot of times, and he
behaved and he was good.

He said, "When I come
home, I'm going to Suffolk."

He's buying a house with Reggie,
the two of them are living together

and then, "I'm gonna travel,"
which he does say

in that interview, doesn't he?

- I'd like to go abroad
for a short while

and then I'd like to be left alone.

- Reggie, on the other hand,
although the steadier

and more stable of the two, remained
imprisoned for over 30 years.

Ronnie died in 1995. Reggie was
allowed out to attend the funeral

where he was joined by hundreds
of well wishers and supporters.

Reggie died from terminal cancer
aged 66 on the 1st of October, 2000.

He was buried beside Ronnie.

The Krays twins legacy is a strange
combination of myth and fact.

They're remembered as
both notorious criminals

and also as enigmatic figures who
captivated the public imagination

and symbolised the rebellion
of the working classes

against the establishment.

DICK: In the end, they made
more money off their books

and exploiting their name while they
were behind bars than they ever did

from any of the crimes
that they committed.

PAUL: There's a lot of people who
saw them as working class heroes.

When they eventually
died in 1995 and 2000,

the streets of London littered
with people watching the cortege

and the limousines that followed
their coffins to their graves.

Still people apparently
saying on the street,

"They were good lads, really."
But actually, the reality was

they were dangerous,
violent individuals.

WENSLEY: The Krays tried to give the
impression they were Robin Hoods.

You know, taking from the rich,
giving to the poor.

It was absolute nonsense.

They didn't care who
they intimidated or robbed,

as long as they got
what they wanted.

SEAN: Billy Hill's legacy
was a bit more complex.

- He was a good man.

I mean, you can't judge
someone on their upbringing.

It was inevitable he was
gonna do what he was gonna do.

Put that aside, he was a gentleman.

Old school.
- In some ways, he was a kind of

trail-blazer in organised crime.

He combined intelligence,
charm and ruthlessness

to dominate Britain's underworld.

He was much smarter,
more calculating than his pupils.

Which made him much more
dangerous, and maybe that's why

when he is talked about, although it
might not be as much as the Krays,

he's just the godfather of the city.

? Come down off your throne
and leave your body alone

? Somebody must change

? You are the reason
I've been waiting so long

? Somebody holds the key

? Well, I'm near the end
and I just ain't got the time... ?

Subtitles by Sky Access Services

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0