October 24, 1933 - Ronnie Kray
The Kray twins occupied a peculiar position in postwar British culture — simultaneously running a violent criminal enterprise across the East End and cultivating a public image that attracted photographers, politicians, and celebrities. Ronnie, the more openly brutal of the two, was the driving force behind much of the Firm's violence, and his later certification as criminally insane added a further dimension to a career already defined by paranoia and calculated intimidation. Their decade-long dominance of organized crime in London ended only through sustained police work, yet the mythology they accumulated in that time proved remarkably durable.
From Wikipedia
Ronald Kray (24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000) were English identical twin brothers from Haggerston who were heavily involved in organised crime 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 Krays were arrested on 8 May 1968 and convicted in 1969 as a result of the efforts of detectives led by Detective Superintendent Leonard "Nipper" Read. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment. Ronnie, upon being certified insane, was committed to Broadmoor Hospital in 1979 and remained there until his death on 17 March 1995 from a heart attack; Reggie was released from prison on compassionate grounds in August 2000, eight weeks before he died of cancer.
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