Ronald (Ronnie) Kray and Reginald (Reggie) Kray were English organised crime figures, and identical twin brothers from Haggerston, who operated mostly in the East End of London from the late 1950s until their arrest in 1968. With their gang, known as the Firm which was based in Bethnal Green, the Kray twins 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.
John Dennis Arthur Bindon was an English actor and bodyguard who had close links with the London underworld. The son of a London cab driver, Bindon was frequently in trouble as a youth for getting into fights, and spent two periods in borstal. He was spotted in a London pub by Ken Loach, who asked him to appear in his film Poor Cow (1967).
Eilidh Martina Cole is a British crime writer. As of 2021 she has released twenty-six novels about crime, most of which examine London's gangster underworld. Four of her novels, Dangerous Lady, The Jump, The Take and The Runaway have been adapted into high-rating television dramas. She has achieved sales of over fourteen million in the UK alone and her tenth novel, The Know, spent seven weeks on The Sunday Times hardback best-sellers list.
The Squeeze is a 1977 British gangster thriller, directed by Michael Apted, based on a novel by Bill James. The screenplay was written by Minder creator Leon Griffiths.
David John Courtney was an English self-proclaimed gangster who became both an author and an actor.
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.
Bernard O'Mahoney is an English author, security detail, and former soldier. After taking control of security at a nightclub he became associated with Tony Tucker, a drug dealer who was shot along with two others in what is known as the Rettendon murders.
T. J. English is an American author and journalist known primarily for his non-fiction books about organized crime — both contemporary and historical — criminal justice, jazz, and the American underworld.
Nial William Fulton is an Australian film and television director, producer and writer. Focused on social justice issues, his works include investigative documentaries Revelation, Hitting Home, Borderland, The Queen & Zak Grieve and Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra.
Rise of the Footsoldier is a British gangster film franchise written and directed by Julian Gilbey, Will Gilbey, Ricci Harnett, Zackary Adler, Andrew Loveday and Nick Nevern, distributed by Optimum Releasing. The franchise and its first two films are based on true events featured in the autobiography of Inter City Firm hooligan turned gangster Carlton Leach before later films focus on the lives of drug dealers Pat Tate and Tony Tucker who were gunned down in the Rettendon murders in 1995.
Freddie Foreman is an English publican, gangster, former associate of the Kray twins and convicted criminal.
The Rettendon murders occurred on 6 December 1995 in the village of Rettendon in Essex, England, when three drug dealers were shot dead in a Range Rover on a small farm track. The murders were the subject of a major police investigation and various special operations, including Operation Century, which were undertaken to uncover the perpetrators and as many other details as possible. The murders have also been the subject of books and feature films.
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
Martin John Kemp is an English musician and actor, best known as the bassist in the new wave band Spandau Ballet and for his role as Steve Owen in EastEnders.
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.
In Films is an Australian independent television production company. It specialises in social justice documentaries and is known for Hitting Home and Revelation; the US series Borderland; and Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra.
A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The genre is differentiated from Westerns and the gangs of that genre.
