A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

When Reggie - back in the ‘Lion’ - was told that Ronald had just shot George Cornell, he
remarked: ‘Ronnie does some funny things.’
Questioned at the Commercial Road police station, Ronald Kray denied all knowledge of the
shooting; he repeated his denial soon afterwards to a crowd of reporters. Everyone in the East End
knew that the ‘colonel’ (as Ronald was known) had killed George Cornell; but there seemed to be
no witnesses to the shooting.
The murder of Cornell seems to epitomise what Van Vogt calls ‘the decision to be out of control’.
It served no purpose; Cornell was in no way a threat to the Kray gang. But Ronald Kray had
become accustomed to being allowed to lose his temper and commit violence. When he heard that
Cornell was on his territory, he felt that he ‘deserved’ to die - it was the Nero syndrome. Besides, a
killing would confirm his reputation as Britain’s leading gangster.
This is precisely what it did. As the months went by, and the police made no attempt to arrest him,
it began to look as though the twins were - as they boasted - above the law. When witnesses failed
to pick out Ronald Kray in an identification parade, the brothers threw a party and invited the press.
And, incredibly, Ronnie now convinced his brother that it was his turn to do a murder. ‘He was
very proud that he had murdered,’ Hart told Norman Lucas, ‘and was constantly getting at Reggie
and asking him when he was going to do his murder. He used to goad him. Whenever Reggie got
drunk he brooded on Ronnie’s remarks... He could not, he pointed out, just kill anyone without a
reason, but Ronnie didn’t seem to think of that.’
So in order that Reggie could also boast of being a murderer, a victim was selected. This was a
small-time crook called Jack McVitie, known as ‘the Hat’ because he was ashamed of his partially
bald head and wore a hat most of the time. McVitie had a cutting sense of humour, and when his
remarks were reported back to the Krays, they decided that something had to be done. In fact,
McVitie sent them an apology, assuring them that he had not intended any harm. Then more
satirical insults were reported. The twins decided that, since a victim was needed, McVitie was the
obvious choice.
On 28 October 1967, the Krays and several henchmen arrived at the Regency Jazz Club in Hackney
- one of the establishments they ‘protected’ - and informed the proprietor that they intended to kill
Jack ‘the Hat’ on his premises; he begged them to do nothing of the sort, and they finally agreed to
do it elsewhere. They moved on to a basement in nearby Stoke Newington, leaving two brothers
named Lambrianou at the club to escort McVitie to the ‘party’.
As soon as McVitie entered the room, Reggie Kray pushed him against the wall and pulled the
trigger of a revolver. It misfired. As McVitie struggled and fought, the others punched him. Reggie
pressed the gun to his head and fired again; nothing happened. He threw away the gun in disgust,
and another gang member handed him a carving knife. He jabbed it into McVitie’s face, then into
his stomach. As Ronald Kray shouted ‘Don’t stop, Reg. Kill him!’ he stood astride McVitie, held
the knife with both hands, and plunged it into his throat; the blade came out of the back and went
into the floorboards.
The body was wrapped in an eiderdown and driven away in a car. The twins’ elder brother Charles
was aroused from his bed, and deputed to get rid of it. He took it along to the house of a man called
Fred Foreman, who —, according to later evidence - had already disposed of one body for the
twins. Neither the body nor the car has ever been found.