Bringing Down the Krays Read Online Free Page A

club?’ Alfie had asked.
    ‘It’s the Double R, run by Ronnie and Reggie Kray,’ replied Teddy.
    Alfie had just about heard of the Krays. One day an old school-friend pulled up in a big car as Alfie was walking along the street and told him: ‘You’d better be careful. You’ve got the Firm after you for giving Flash Harry a slap. He’s one of theirs.’
    The way Alfie remembered it, Flash Harry used to hang around the West End, a Mod before there were any. He wasn’t a villain but he thought he was, and styled himself that way, bragging about who he was mates with.
    ‘What’s this Firm?’ Alfie had asked.
    ‘They’re called the Kray twins and everyone is frightened of them,’ the guy told Alfie. But back then Alfie couldn’t give a monkey’s.
    There’d been stories about the Krays, of course – rumours, bits of gossip. They were older than us Teales, and had some sort of club in the Mile End Road. My brothers had no reason to give them a second thought. Anyway, did anybody go to east London for fun? Even East End taxi-drivers didn’t go to the East End. At least it wasn’t south of the river, where it really was the Stone Age.
    But the way my brothers heard it, there was always action around the Krays, some kind of general hilarity, or punch-up or knife-fight – from which the twins would never once come out as the losers. So it was said. They’d been in and out of nick, apparently. And there was an older brother, too – Charlie Kray. He was married. The twins still lived with their old mum and dad in Bethnal Green.
    Alfie was intrigued by the thought of going to the twins’ club and having a chance to check it out for himself. So he and Teddy jumped in a black cab and went down the East End. They got to the Mile End Road and went into what looked to Alfie like an old tube station. When they got inside though, they could see it was absolutely beautiful, like the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, full of well-dressed men and women. It was so glitzy and glamorous – the decor, the velvet wallpaper, the chandeliers, the gay barmen with their smart bow ties… Everyone who was anyone in the East End was there. Wives sat there all done up to the nines, sipping cocktails with their families, everyone on best behaviour.
    As Alfie stood there staring, drinking it all in, Teddy said to him: ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you to Ronnie.’
    Alfie nodded. ‘Yeah, I don’t mind. Let’s go over.’ So they walked further into the club and there, at the centre of it all, sitting at the bar, was Ronnie Kray.
    Ronnie was a little bit older than Alfie. He was heavily built with a fleshy, quite sensual face, and he was dressed in a navy mohair suit. He was sitting half turned so he could see the people coming in and survey the whole place as if from athrone. Reggie wasn’t there. At the time he was away in prison, on a charge of demanding money with menaces from a north London shop-owner. Alfie later found out that in fact it was Reggie who had first opened the Double R Club when Ronnie himself had been away doing time for wounding with intent. The name of course was a tribute to his twin, to the two of them.
    Ted said, ‘Hello Ron! Here’s a friend of mine, Alfie Teale.’
    Alfie stepped forward and shook Ronnie’s hand. ‘Pleased to meet you, Ron,’ he said. ‘This is a lovely place you’ve got here.’ Alfie felt pretty pleased with himself. He had no reason to feel in awe of Ronnie Kray.
    ‘Thank you very much. Would you like a drink?’ Ron said.
    Alfie asked for a gin and tonic.
    Ron asked Alfie where he lived. He replied that he came from Holborn.
    ‘Oooh, Holborn. It’s nice round there isn’t it?’ he said. The voice was high coming out of such a big body, but not overly effeminate. My brothers and I would be getting very used to the sound of that voice over the next few years. Alfie told him our mother had recently opened a club called the 66 in Upper Street and he said: ‘Got a club, eh? I’d