Final years.
Reggie Kray was sent to Maidstone Prison as a Category B prisoner. In the UK Category B prisoners are considered to be escape risks, but are allowed some privileges. Reggie Kray remained in Maidstone for the first eight years of his sentence before being transferred to the Category C Wayland Prison. In 1990 a film was made about the brothers and a publicist for the film met Reggie in prison. They later married. Following the release of the film campaigns were started to have both brothers paroled, none were successful. In 2002 one of Reggie’s former cellmates told a reporter that Reggie’s first wife Frances had been murdered by Ronnie Kray.
Ronnie was classified as a Category A prisoner. Denied all privileges and interaction with other prisoners, he was classified as criminally insane and sent to Broadmoor Hospital in 1979. Officials at Broadmoor discovered that despite being incarcerated separately, Ronnie and Reggie Kray had been for some years operating a bodyguard service from their respective cells. Charlie Kray was likewise involved, with another partner outside of the criminal justice system. It was quite possibly their first legal business, and after investigating the authorities could find nothing about it which would lead them to close it down. Among its customers was Frank Sinatra, who had hired bodyguards from the firm, Krayleigh Security Enterprises, when he attended Wimbledon.
Ronnie Kray wrote a book he entitled My Story, in which he claimed to be bisexual and had once considered marriage to a woman who later married one of his boyfriends. Ronnie married twice while in Broadmoor, his first marriage lasted four years before ending in divorce, his subsequent marriage was about as long and also ended in divorce. The year following his second divorce he suffered a heart attack at Broadmoor and died at the age of 61.
Reggie became a writer too, producing a book which he entitled Born Fighter. He also became a born again Christian during his incarceration and granted numerous interviews to reporters, television programs, and authors. He was still in Wayland Prison when he was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder and was released on compassionate grounds when it was determined to be inoperable and he had just weeks to live. He died at the age of 66 in October 2000. Charlie Kray died earlier the same year. While the twins were incarcerated they were tried for the murder of Frank Mitchell. Both were acquitted.
Eddie Richardson described the Kray twins as “small time gangsters.” He claimed that the twins lacked the intelligence to come up with their own schemes and attempted to copy those of the Richardson gang and whenever they were confronted for it they backed down. He also said that the true leader of the Firm was Charlie Kray. Regardless, the Kray twins still retain a hold over a large portion of London and beyond, with many fascinated by their crimes and celebrity during the days of Swinging London.
Sources:
The Guardian – The Selling of The Krays: How Two Mediocre Criminals Created Their Own Legend
Killer Reads – The Krays and Me by John Pearson
Notorious: The Immortal Legend of the Kray Twins by John Pearson