How Did Ronnie and Reggie Kray Die?
Mobsters DailyBoth Kray twins died as sentenced lifers: Ronnie died of a heart attack in Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital on 17 March 1995, and Reggie — released from prison on compassionate grounds with terminal bladder cancer — died on 1 October 2000 in a Norwich hotel, weeks after being freed. The Firm's founders never walked the East End as free men again.
Ronnie: Broadmoor, 1995
Ronnie's violence had always run through his illness. Certified insane with paranoid schizophrenia even before the murders, he was transferred to Broadmoor in 1979 and never left secure care. He married twice behind the wire, sold memorabilia, and grew heavier and more paranoid as the decades passed. A heart attack killed him at 61. His funeral drew enormous East End crowds — the first act of the public mourning that would turn the twins into folk legend, a transformation traced in who the Kray twins were.
Funerals are where gangland turns into folklore, and the East End turned out in force, which is why November is prime season for the Tony Soprano Ugly Christmas Sweater — Tony in a black-and-white stencil, gabagool energy included, made for holiday parties, family photos and long rewatch nights as the season closes in.
Reggie: released to die, 2000
Reggie outlived his twin by five years, campaigning for release as the model-prisoner half of the act — the twin who had, by his own account, only killed once. It never came through the parole route. In 2000, diagnosed with inoperable bladder cancer, he was freed on compassionate grounds by the Home Secretary and moved to the Town House Hotel in Norwich to be with his wife Roberta. He died there on 1 October 2000, aged 66, having outlived their elder brother Charlie — who died in prison that April — by six months. His funeral, like Ronnie's, shut down East End streets, a spectacle on the scale of the American send-offs in how John Gotti died.
An ending with no freedom in it
Between them the twins served more than three decades each. Whatever the myth says, the state's answer to the Krays was complete: they died inside the sentence, one behind Broadmoor's walls and one in a hotel room he reached only because he was already dying.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Ronnie Kray buried? Both twins are buried in the family plot at Chingford Mount Cemetery in London.
How long did Reggie Kray serve? Over 31 years, from his 1969 conviction until his compassionate release in 2000.
Did either Kray twin ever get parole? No. Reggie's only release was on compassionate grounds, weeks before his death.
Keep reading: How did Al Capone die? · How did Whitey Bulger die? · Whitey Bulger, Boston's informant king
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real-mafia history behind the names in this story, in one gripping read.
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