Kray Twins: What Happened to Their Family, Wives, and Funerals

By the time Ronnie and Reggie Kray were buried, half of London had a Kray story to tell. The twins who terrorised the East End in the 1960s left behind more than a criminal record: a family plot, a disputed estate, and a forensic controversy that outlived them both. When Ronnie died at Broadmoor in 1995 (A&E, true-crime documentary site), the end of the Firm was only the beginning of the myth. Here is what actually happened — and what nobody can prove.

Born: 24 October 1933, Hoxton, East London ·
Convicted: 1969, for two murders ·
Reggie’s wives: 2 (Frances Shea, Roberta Jones) ·
Ronnie’s wife: 1 (Kate Howard) ·
Deaths: Ronnie 1995; Reggie 2000

Six facts anchor most Kray biographies, and they hold up better than the folklore around them.

The legal record is compact: one trial, two murder convictions, two life sentences. The family record, as the sections below show, never closed as cleanly.

What happened to the Krays twins?

Identical twins, born in Hoxton in 1933, Ronnie and Reggie Kray spent the early 1950s as amateur boxers before their ambitions outgrew the ring. By 1960 they were running a nightclub and, with it, the protection rackets that financed the expanding Firm: protection, arson, and murder sold under a smiling East End brand.

Were the Kray twins Romani Gypsies?

• The Romanichal (English Gypsy) background is among the most repeated details in Kray biographies.
• The documented record is thinner: the twins were born in Hoxton and raised in Bethnal Green (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia).

The heritage claim became part of the legend because the twins leaned into it — presenting themselves as outsiders, tougher and more loyal than the squares around them. Formal family records never settled the question the way the myth has.

How did the Krays make their money?

• Protection: club owners, bookmakers, and traders paid the twins for “security”.
• Nightclubs and gambling spots that pulled celebrities into the same rooms as the violence (Suffolk Live, regional news).
• Arson and intimidation as the enforcement wing.

The Firm’s money was part legitimate, part stolen, and entirely built on the fear the twins could deploy anywhere from a Bethnal Green street corner to a Mayfair club. When Scotland Yard moved in 1968, the twins were arrested at their Suffolk retreat with Charlie and associates; in 1969 both were convicted of murder and given life sentences with a 30-year minimum (Suffolk Live, regional news). Ronnie then spent the rest of his life behind walls, dying at Broadmoor on 17 March 1995; Reggie, released on compassionate grounds, died in Norwich on 1 October 2000 (East Anglian Daily Times, regional daily).

Are any of the Krays family still alive?

The direct line effectively ended with the twins. Neither brother left a publicly acknowledged child, and the older brother, Charlie Kray, sentenced in the same 1969 trial, died in 2000 (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive). The family survives in estates, houses, and unanswered questions.

Did the Kray twins have any kids?

• Neither Reggie’s two marriages nor Ronnie’s one produced a documented child.
• Ronnie’s paternity was the subject of claims that surfaced later, but none was ever resolved in a court.

Who inherited the Krays’ money?

• The most visible asset — the Bildeston manor in Suffolk — was listed at £2.25 million in July 2022, the first time it had been on the market in 30 years (Mirror, national newspaper).
• Time Out, covering the same listing, noted its grim history: the body of a man was once found on the grounds (Time Out, London culture magazine).

The final distribution of the estate is the part the record never closed. Some assets were seized, some were sold, and the gap between the Krays’ real wealth and their legendary wealth is now a permanent part of the story.

How many wives did Reggie Kray have?

Reggie married twice. The first marriage, to Frances Shea in 1965, ended in tragedy: Frances died by suicide in 1967 (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive). The second, to Roberta Jones, took place in 1997, while Reggie was a serving prisoner (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia).

Who was Ronnie Kray’s wife?

• Ronnie married once.
• His wife, Kate Howard, married him at Broadmoor Hospital in 1985 (A&E, true-crime documentary site).

Did Barbara Windsor have a relationship with the Krays?

• Barbara Windsor knew the twins socially and moved in the same 1960s celebrity circuit.
• The full nature of the relationship was never clearly documented, and Windsor gave different accounts over the years.

That makes the Windsor story the rare Kray anecdote that stays permanently in the “unclear” file — famous enough to repeat, too thin to verify.

The pattern: each Kray marriage happened at the exact point where the brothers’ public power was strangest — a doomed 1960s wedding, a hospital ceremony in 1985, and a prison wedding in 1997.

Did the Kray twins go to their mother’s funeral?

Violet Kray died on 4 August 1982, a day before her 73rd birthday. On 11 August, both twins were brought to St Matthew’s Church in Bethnal Green under heavy escort to bury her (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive). The image of the two most feared men in London, handcuffed and grieving, became one of the defining photographs of the family.

Did Reggie go to Ronnie’s funeral?

He did. Reggie attended Ronnie’s funeral under guard in 1995 (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive), and the brothers now lie together at Chingford Mount Cemetery in East London, in the family plot that holds their mother.

What this means: the Kray funeral pictures are the real family portrait — two killers, reduced to mourners, still inseparable.

Why was Ronnie Kray buried without a brain?

The afterlife detail that refuses to die concerns the body itself. When Ronnie died at Broadmoor in March 1995, his brain was retained during the post-mortem for medical research, and his body was buried without it (A&E Real Crime, true-crime documentary site).

The campaign ended in 2018, when the retained brain was cremated and buried — 23 years after Ronnie’s death. The episode turned a medical decision into a family grievance and, eventually, a public story that still defines the Kray afterlife.

Which Kray twin was the worst?

Kray biographers tend to split the twins by temperament: Ronnie was the openly violent one, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, while Reggie was the more controlled and calculating organiser (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia). The court record assigned them separate murders: Ronnie killed George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub in 1967, and Reggie killed Jack McVitie in 1968 (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia).

Who were the Krays scared of?

• According to family folklore, the one person both twins truly feared was their mother, Violet.
• Her temper was described in most accounts as the only force they never crossed.

Were the Kray twins violent from an early age?

• Both were fighting well before the Firm existed — school, boxing booths, and the streets around Bethnal Green.
• National Service in 1954 ended in courts-martial after both twins went absent without leave.
• The violence escalated from street fights to murder in the late 1960s.

The trade-off: one twin was filed under madness, the other under calculation — but the Firm needed both. Ronnie supplied the terror; Reggie supplied the plan.

Ronnie vs Reggie: the twins compared

One comparison, two reputations: the same twin script, opposite temperaments.

The pattern: different styles of violence, one shared legend. The court treated them as a single crime story, which is exactly how they treated themselves.

The Kray story in dates

The sequence is not in dispute; the interpretations are. Here is the spine of the Kray record, from Hoxton to the 2018 burial of Ronnie’s brain.

1. 1933 — Ronnie and Reggie Kray are born in Hoxton, East London.
2. 1954 — National Service ends in courts-martial after both go AWOL.
3. 1960 — The twins open a nightclub and begin running protection rackets across London.
4. 1965 — Reggie marries Frances Shea.
5. 1967 — Frances dies by suicide; Ronnie kills George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub.
6. 1968 — The twins are arrested alongside their brother Charlie and others.
7. 1969 — Convicted of murder; sentenced to life with a 30-year minimum (Suffolk Live, regional news).
8. 1982 — Violet dies; both twins attend her funeral under escort.
9. 1985 — Ronnie marries Kate Howard at Broadmoor Hospital.
10. 1995 — Ronnie dies at Broadmoor; his brain is retained after the post-mortem (A&E, true-crime documentary site).
11. 1997 — Reggie marries Roberta Jones.
12. 2000 — Reggie dies in Norwich (East Anglian Daily Times, regional daily).
13. 2018 — Ronnie Kray’s retained brain is cremated and buried.

The catch: every milestone after 1969 happened under institutional control — courts, hospitals, prisons, and finally the funeral escorts that turned the family’s private grief into public spectacle.

What’s confirmed — and what’s still unclear

Confirmed facts

• The twins were convicted in 1969 of the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia).
• Reggie married twice; Ronnie married once (A&E, true-crime documentary site).
• Both twins attended Violet Kray’s funeral in 1982 (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive).
• Reggie attended Ronnie’s funeral in 1995 (Enacademic, encyclopedia archive).
• Ronnie’s brain was retained after his 1995 post-mortem and not buried with his body (A&E Real Crime, true-crime documentary site).
• The Bildeston manor was listed at £2.25 million in July 2022 (Time Out, London culture magazine).

What’s unclear

• The exact size and final distribution of the Krays’ estate.
• Whether Ronnie fathered a child; paternity claims remain unresolved.
• The full nature of Barbara Windsor’s relationship with the Krays.
• Whether any significant Kray assets beyond the Bildeston manor remain unaccounted for.
• The precise family record behind the Romanichal heritage claim.

The division is the story: the confirmed record is compact and legalistic; the unclear record is where the legend keeps growing.

What was said about the Krays

Two verdicts frame the Kray story: one from the judge who sent them down, one from the network that turned their funerals into television history.

“In my view, society has earned a rest from your activities.”

— Mr Justice Melford Stevenson, sentencing the Krays in 1969 (Wikipedia, biographical encyclopedia)

“Prodigious affairs.”

— A&E Real Crime, on the Kray funerals (A&E Real Crime, true-crime documentary site)

Society got its rest, as the judge promised. The cameras did not — and that imbalance is why the Krays are still a tour stop in East London more than two decades after the last funeral.

The Kray afterlife

The twins built the Firm on fear, but their afterlife runs on ambiguity. The confirmed record — two murder convictions, two funerals, two graves in one East London plot — is small and solid. The rest is a machine of doubt: an estate never publicly finalised, a brain buried 23 years after the body, and a family name still valuable enough to list a country house for £2.25 million. For anyone trying to separate the Krays from the legend, the choice is clear: take the dates and the court record, or inherit the rumour mill.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Michael Franzese: From Mob Capo to Christian Speaker
• Ed Gein: Verified Facts, Trial Evidence, and Grave-Robbery Truth

Editor’s note: This article draws on court reporting, regional press coverage, and biographical archives cited inline. Paternity and estate questions remain unresolved in public records.