Kate Kray, wife of one of the most notorious gangsters of London journals about her memories married to 1/2 of the Kray twins. Gold designer watches, Armani ties, bespoke suits, a clock that looks like a canary in a cage – and the bayonet he used on his victims. Continue reading “Kate Kray, Wife Of London Gangster Ronnie Kray Reminisces On Being Married To The Underworld”
Reggie Kray slept with armoury of weapons by his bedside, a diary written by his late wife, Frances Shea, reveals.
Shea was married to the East End gangster for two years, before dying of an overdose when she was just 24.
She first met Kray at the age of 16 and married him in 1965 when she was 22. Her five-page diary – which was auctioned off at Gorringes of Lewes, East Sussex – highlights the difficulties with living with her then husband.
“(He) came back night time. By the side of bed gun, sword, knife, chopper, flick-knife,” she wrote.
“He used to sleep with flick-knife under his pillow.”
Also being sold are 60 letters written by Kray to Shea before they were married and while he was still in prison. The letters start as light and chatty in tone, before fast becoming controlling and aggressive.
In one he describes his future wife as a “spiteful little tormentor” after she “humiliated” him by going dancing with her friends.
Her diary describes how isolated she felt living at their Marble Arch flat, repeatedly being subjected to his swearing and drunken, abusive behaviour.
“(Reggie) came in late every night drunk. Got up every morning two minutes to dress, left me all day came back late at night drunk.
“Went to his house – his brother walked in bedroom in underwear, swore at me.
“Went back to flat Marble Arch, came back night time.”
When she complained to her brother about the Krays gun collection, she was sworn at and the stash taken away by a local publican. Eventually, she was admitted to hospital “for some rest”.
“Him and his friend took me to the hospital, he was swearing and shouting at me in the car.”
“Couldn’t stand it anymore – left him. When I was packing my suitcases to leave he told me he would bring up fictitious characters against.”
Shea tried to get their marriage annulled on the grounds that it was never consummated. Eventually, she died following a fatal drug overdose in 1967.
She was buried in the Kray family plot in Chingford, Essex, although her family unsuccessfully tried to have her exhumed and buried elsewhere under her maiden name, Shea.
“They had an unhappy marriage and it seems someone told Frances to write down incidents while she was trying to divorce Reggie,” said Jane Anderson, of auctioneers Gorringes of Lewes.
“It seems life with him was impossible. She spent most of her time alone in their flat and when he was there he was often drunk and he slept in a bed with various weaponry.
“When he was in prison it was safe for her to have a relationship with him.
“But on the outside, she was way out of her depth and was very frightened of Reggie, as anyone would have been.”
Ella Alexander
Via Memphis Daily News– Demetrius Fields, a high ranking member of the Craig Petties drug organization, drew the longest jail term of those convicted in the largest drug case ever brought in Memphis federal court.
Memphis Federal Court Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays sentenced Fields to 37 years in prison on one count of racketeering conspiracy, one count of drug conspiracy and one count of money laundering.
Fields entered a guilty plea to the charges in October 2011 and testified at the trial last year of Clinton Lewis and Martin Lewis, the only two charged in the case who went to trial. They were convicted of racketeering and drug conspiracy charges as well as murder for hire and are awaiting sentencing.
Federal prosecutors did not recommend a reduced sentence for Fields despite his testimony because shortly after the trial he was suspected of trying to have a kilogram of cocaine delivered to the federal prison in Mason, Tenn. where he is a prisoner.
Fields has denied the allegation and faces no criminal charges in connection with the arrest and indictment of Tamara Strickland.
Strickland told police and federal investigators that Fields himself called her on a cell phone from the prison to arrange the delivery. Two other members of the Petties organization at Mason were also written up for disciplinary action after guards found they had cell phones.
Weighing against Fields was an extensive criminal history as well as his role in the organization.
“He was a leader in this organization … in charge of a number of the more violent activities,” Mays said of Fields. “He was deeply involved in this organization and some of its most violent activities.”
Added to the factors used to formulate a sentencing guideline were several points against Fields for obstruction of justice. Fields cooperated and testified for a day and a half during the 2012 trial. But he got points for obstruction of justice in the sentencing formula because he helped plan the murders of potential witnesses against the organization specifically to keep them from talking.
Also considered by Mays was the value of Fields’ testimony.
“Mr. Fields’ testimony was very valuable but was not essential,” Mays concluded as he weighed the seriousness of the offenses.
He drove codefendant Clarence Broady to the Memphis home of Mario Stewart so Broady could kill Stewart. Broady and Fields testified that as Broady waited in Stewart’s carport for him to come out of the house, Fields waited at a nearby park and fell asleep.
Mays sentenced Broady to 31 years in prison for specifically for carrying out three of the six murders that are part of the narrative of the case and participating in a fourth.
While Broady was a “contract killer” for the organization, Fields was involved in the planning of the murders and initiating them on orders from Petties who fled to Mexico in 2002 and ran the organization until his capture in 2008.
Petties pleaded guilty in 2009 in a closed hearing and is awaiting sentencing.
Fields participated from 2004 to 2008 in running the network of stash houses in the city where drug supplies were kept as well as shipments of millions of dollars each to Mexico where the drugs came from.
Fields said nothing as Mays sentenced him on the second day of a two-day hearing. During the Thursday hearing, Mays apologized for his actions and said he regretted them.
“You made some horrible choices in your life,” Mays told Fields at the end of the hearing. “But you’ve recently made some good choices,” he added referring to Fields’ decision to cooperate and testify as well as seek drug rehabilitation treatment while in prison.
Co-defendant Bobby Cole was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison by Mays in October for the role he played in the last two years of the organization, shipping millions of dollars to Mexico as tons of cocaine and marijuana where shipped from Mexico into Memphis via tractor-trailer rigs for distribution here and in several states.
The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli 
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