Ronnie Kray was one half of the most notorious gangster duo of all time. He and his brother Reggie ruled the East End of London in the 1950s, and their crimes and vendettas, showdowns and rivalries, have become the stuff of legend. Laurie O'Leary knew the Krays since childhood, and remained Ronnie's closest friend throughout his life. Just before his death in 1995, Ronnie asked Laurie to tell his true story, drawing on his personal collection of thousands of unpublished letters, poems and photographs amassed over the years. This book is the result.
Recollecting his wild times with the Kray gang, natural raconteur Laurie O'Leary describes the colourful characters who made up the Krays' ever-changing circle of friends and enemies and reveals the private side of this complex and troubled man: how he reacted to being certified insane after a nervous breakdown in 1958, and how he coped with being a homosexual in a hard man's world.
There have been plenty of books written about Ron Kray, but none by anyone who knew him as well as Laurie. This book is no hastily assembled cuttings job culled from third-hand accounts, but an authentic and personal insight into a unique man which is as revealing as it is disturbing.
