All language subtitles for ORIGINAL GANGSTERS - 4 dio - Documentary (2025)

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