Ronald "Ronnie" Kray and Reginald "Reggie" Kray were English organised crime figures, and identical twin brothers from Haggerston, who were prominent from the late 1950s until their arrest in 1968. Their gang, known as the Firm, was based in Bethnal Green, where the Kray twins lived. They were involved in murder, armed robbery, arson, protection rackets, gambling and assaults. At their peak in the 1960s, they gained a certain measure of celebrity status by mixing with prominent members of London society, being photographed by David Bailey and interviewed on television.
The Hammersmith nude murders is the name of a series of six murders in West London, England, in 1964 and 1965. The victims, all prostitutes, were found undressed in or near the River Thames, leading the press to nickname the killer Jack the Stripper. Two earlier murders, committed in West London in 1959 and 1963, have also been linked by some investigators to the same perpetrator.
Leonard John McLean was an English unlicensed boxer, bouncer, bodyguard, businessman and actor. He was known as "The Guv'nor", "the King of the Cobbles" and "the hardest man in Britain".
Gangster No. 1 is a 2000 British crime drama film directed by Paul McGuigan. It is based on the stage play Gangster No.1 written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto. The film stars Paul Bettany in the title role and features Malcolm McDowell, David Thewlis and Saffron Burrows.
William Charles "Billy" Hill was an English criminal, linked to smuggling, protection rackets and extreme violence. He was one of the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London from the 1920s through to the 1960s. His gang managed cash robberies and, in a scam, defrauded London's high society of millions at the card tables of John Aspinall's Clermont Club.
Jamie Foreman is an English actor best known for his roles as Duke in Layer Cake (2004) and Bill Sikes in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist (2005), EastEnders (2011-2012), Rise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017), and Once Upon a Time in London (2019).
The Richardson Gang was an English crime gang based in South London, England in the 1960s. Also known as the "Torture Gang", they had a reputation as some of London's most sadistic gangsters. Their alleged specialities included pulling teeth out using pliers, cutting off toes using bolt cutters and nailing victims to floors using 6-inch nails.
Francis Davidson Fraser, better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was a diminutive English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences.
Jack McVitie, best known as Jack the Hat, was an English criminal from London during the 1950s and 1960s. He is posthumously famous for triggering the imprisonment and downfall of the Kray twins. He had acted as an enforcer and hitman with links to The Firm, and was murdered by Reggie Kray in 1967.
The Arifs are a south-east London-based Turkish criminal organization heavily involved in armed robbery, drug trafficking and other racketeering-related activities within London's underworld since the late 1960s. Following the downfall of the Kray brothers, the Arifs were one of several criminal organisations who took control of the London underworld including the Clerkenwell crime syndicate and the Brindle family. with whom they were engaged in a highly publicised gangland war during the 1990s.
Revelation Films is a British film and television production and distribution company delivering visual entertainment via cinema, television and digital platforms.
Linda Calvey is an English author. Before becoming an author she was principally known for committing armed robberies and serving a life sentence for the murder of her lover Ronnie Cook. She was known as the "Black Widow" because all of her lovers ended up either dead or in prison. Her novels are The Black Widow (2019), The Locksmith (2021) and The Game (2022).
British Gangsters: Faces of the Underworld is a documentary series about UK gangsters or 'Faces'. Series 1, Series2 it based on the book Faces by Brian Anderson
Frank Samuel Mitchell, also known as "The Mad Axeman", was an English criminal and friend of the Kray twins who was later murdered at their behest.
Legend is a 2015 biographical crime thriller film written and directed by American director Brian Helgeland. It is adapted from John Pearson's book The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins, which deals with their career and the relationship that bound them together, and follows their gruesome career to life imprisonment in 1969.
Once Upon a Time in London is a 2019 British crime drama film directed by Simon Rumley, written by Will Gilbey, Rumley and Terry Stone, and starring Leo Gregory, Terry Stone, Holly Earl, Dominic Keating, Geoff Bell and Jamie Foreman. The film is about the notorious London gangsters Billy Hill and Jack Comer.
Roberto Alberto Rossi was a British-Italian gangster and former associate of the Kray twins known as the "General of Clerkenwell". He stood trial for murder in 1975 but was acquitted. A journalist linked him to 11 murders, a figure which he did not dispute.
Ronald Knight was an English convicted criminal and nightclub owner. He became well-known through his marriage to the actress Barbara Windsor.
Alexander Anthony Eist BEM was a detective at Scotland Yard during the 1960s and 1970s. He is particularly notable for the many allegations of corruption made against him. These included complicity in jewel robberies and providing false alibis to criminals. He later provided testimony to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations regarding the assassination of Martin Luther King, whose killer—James Earl Ray—had been in his custody following Ray's escape to London in 1968.
