A collection of more than 200 letters written by Reggie Kray in prison is expected to fetch up to £15,000 at auction.
Kray, who with his twin brother, Ronnie, carved out an infamous East End crime empire through their gang the Firm in the 1950s and 60s, wrote the letters at HMP Maidstone between 1988 and 1991 while serving a life sentence for murder.
They were all sent to Carol Clerk, the ghostwriter of his autobiography, as he discussed what auctioneers McTear’s described as “bizarre ideas and storylines” for the book, which charted the rise of the gang through violence and intimidation.
McTear’s managing director, Brian Clements, said: “When Reggie met his ghostwriter in prison they were not allowed to take notes so all Reggie’s thoughts and ideas had to be put in the form of letters after the meetings. The collection shows that he was a prolific letter writer, often penning three or four a day, with some even written on Christmas Day.”
The 215 letters are said to be almost illegible but have nevertheless been given a guide price of £10,000 to £15,000 for the auction at McTear’s Glasgow showroom on Tuesday. They relate to Kray’s bestselling autobiography Born Fighter, in which the once-feared gangster wrote that he had become a born-again Christian.
The twins’ enduring notoriety has helped to create a thriving market in Kray-related memorabilia. More than 160 previously unseen letters and photographs belonging to the pair were sold at auction for £20,780 in 2010. Two years later, two landscapes, one by each brother, sold for a combined £1,200, almost twice the estimate, despite being described as “very childlike”. Ronnie’s glasses and a decommissioned gun used by the twins have also been sold to collectors.
Clements said: “Ronnie and Reggie Kray’s names are synonymous with gangland life in the East End of London in the 60s and anything associated with the pair always attracts interest.”
The twins were jailed for life in 1969 with a recommended sentence of 30 years; Reggie Kray for the murder of Jack “The Hat” McVitie and Ronnie for that of George Cornell. Ronnie died aged 61 in 1995 from a heart attack, having never been freed from jail. Reggie spent time in several prisons before being released on compassionate grounds in August 2000. He died eight weeks later from cancer, aged 66.
