Cornell said, 'Look who's here... let's get a drink.' Then Ronnie shot him
THINK you know everything about the Krays? Think again. The extent of the Kray twins’ activities has always been uncertain but now, it is time for the conclusive account of their story, from their East End beginnings, to becoming the kingpins of London’s underworld.
This objective account, compiled by best-selling crime author and criminal lawyer James Morton, cuts through the conflicting versions of their stories and answers burning questions still being asked, 50 years after their infamous conviction.
MURDER OF GEORGE CORNELL
There was no love lost between the Krays and George... One story, hotly denied by Kray and his supporters, was that in the early 1960s Ronnie had called Cornell out of the Brown Bear public house in Aldgate and Cornell had promptly knocked him out. The Twins later claimed they had looked after him on one of the occasions he had been released from prison, and had even given him new clothes and a pension. Despite the fact they had stepped in, they regarded him as something of a traitor in leaving his East End origins and defecting to the Richardsons when he married a south London girl. Worse, he had also refused to cut them in on the shortterm blue film racket he was running in Bloomsbury.
At the time of his death in March 1966, in theory Cornell was a partner with Benny Saher in the Sombrero club in Ann Place off Oxford Street. In reality Cornell was minding Saher... He was also believed to have been responsible for an arson attack in the area earlier in the month on 6 March.
Other stories about him included one that he had killed a man in South Africa. Had he lived, he certainly would have been charged in the Richardson Torture Case along with the fraudster Brian Mottram.
On the evening of Wednesday 9 March, George Cornell died from a bullet in the head while sitting in the saloon bar of the Blind Beggar public house.
It is certain that Ronnie was drinking in The Lion when he heard that Cornell was in the Blind Beggar about 90 seconds away by car. He ordered Scotch Jack Dickson to drive him and Ian Barrie to Vallance Road, where he collected a Mauser pistol, and then on to the Beggars.
Dickson was told to wait outside with the engine running.
There were about half a dozen people in the bar that evening, including two who knew both Ronnie Kray and George Cornell. At 8.30 pm the barmaid put on her favourite record, The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore by the Walker Brothers, and was talking to Cornell when Ronnie Kray and Ian Barrie walked in. They went over to Cornell, who said, ‘Look who’s here. Let’s get a drink.’
Kray then shot him at point blank range. The bullet exited the rear of Cornell’s head and then hit a wall in the bar. As a distraction Barrie fired shots into the ceiling. The bar was now empty except for Cornell and an old man still sitting at his table. The barmaid loosened
Cornell’s tie and was trying to stop the blood from his head with tea towels when ambulance staff arrived.
Dickson first drove Ronnie back to The Lion and then there was a general exodus first to the Stow Club, the spieler in Walthamstow High Street. From there it was on to the nearby Chequers where Reggie bought his brother a clean suit...
When the news of Cornell’s death came through, Ronnie gave a cheer and the team, fearing they would be regarded as traitors if they did not, sycophantically joined in. At least Sammy Lederman said, ‘Ronnie, you’re a cold-blooded murderer’.
Later Ronnie Kray wrote in Our Story: “I felt f*****g marvellous. I have never felt so good, so bloody alive, before or since. Twenty years on and I can recall every second of the killing of George Cornell. I have replayed it in my mind millions of times.”