Arrest
Early in 1968 Inspector Read and agents of Scotland Yard met with prosecutors and others to finalize a strategy for taking down the Kray twins. Read wanted arrests and convictions for murder, and hoped to avoid the need to arrest the brothers for lesser offenses, for which he had sufficient evidence to obtain convictions, because the lighter sentences which would result would allow the brothers to continue to run their criminal enterprises from prison. With the knowledge of rifts in the Firm, it was agreed to move forward with the arrests in the hope that other members of the Firm would make a deal to testify in the hope of obtaining a lighter sentence.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were arrested by the Metropolitan Police on May 8, 1968 and held separately in London. Fifteen members of the firm were arrested at the same time, all kept separate from each other, in order for them to be unable to create alibis or corroborate what was being told to the police under questioning. The Kray’s attempted to circumvent this arrangement through the use of their attorney’s but with limited success. The Kray’s did manage to create a plan through which underlings in the firm would confess to the killing of George Cornell, Jack McVitie, and Frank Mitchell.
The Kray’s intended to have Albert Donoghue confess to the murder of Mitchell. He refused and after he told the police what he knew of the twin’s crimes, the floodgates opened. John Dickson, who had been Ronnie’s driver, gave information on the Cornell murder and after police tracked down another witness and arranged for a new identity for her, she agreed to testify in court. Ronnie Hart, cousin of the twins and a witness to Reggie’s murder of McVitie, provided police with testimony covering the events of that night. With solid evidence and testimony of murder charges against each of the twins the authorities went ahead with the case.
During the trial the jury was watched over day and night by a special detail of more than sixty uniformed officers for their protection. The defense worked to discredit each witness as members of the criminal underworld, lying to incriminate the twins for crimes which they themselves had committed. When the witness to the Cornell murder, a former barmaid with no links to criminals, this argument was of little use, and her testimony was critical in the case against Ronnie, who claimed temporary insanity.
In the end, both brothers were convicted and both were sentenced to thirty years in prison, without the possibility of parole. Several members of the Firm were likewise convicted and sentenced to prison and the gang was effectively brought to an end. The Frank Mitchell case was not tried at that time, the prosecutors decided to hold it in abeyance for later trial, and the Kray’s were essentially sentenced for the murders of Cornell and McVitie. Charlie Kray was also convicted at the same time and sentenced to ten years for his part in covering up the murder of McVitie.