Two brothers who ruled London's underworld — and made themselves famous for it.
Need an easier version? Read this lesson at A2/B1 level →
Before we read, let's unlock the words you'll need. Each one is hidden in a sentence. Read it aloud and say what you think the bold word means from the rest of the sentence — then reveal it and see how close you were.
Read each part. After it, there's a quick comprehension check (try the questions from memory first), then one thing to discuss.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were identical twins, born in 1933 in the East End of London — a poor, overcrowded, working-class quarter still scarred by the war. As young men they were genuinely gifted amateur boxers; Reggie, in particular, was a schoolboy champion, and for a brief spell both brothers turned professional. For a moment, a respectable future in the ring looked entirely possible.
But the violence they were so good at inside the ropes refused to stay there. In their late teens Ronnie attacked a policeman in the street; when a second officer arrived to make the arrest, Reggie attacked him too — and the brothers were jailed for it. Then, in 1952, they were called up for National Service. They rebelled against army life completely: deserting again and again, assaulting an officer, and finally being court-martialled and thrown out in disgrace, having spent most of their service behind bars. Whatever chance boxing had offered was now gone for good.
So they turned to the one thing their talent for violence genuinely suited. Through the 1950s they built a criminal gang they called "the Firm." They ran protection rackets across the East End, took over snooker halls, pubs and clubs, and dealt — by fear or by force — with anyone who stood in their way. In their world there was only one law, loyalty, and the twins both inspired it and demanded it, absolutely.
1. What genuine talent did the twins have — and what series of events ended any future in it?
2. What was "the Firm," and how did it make its money?
1. They were genuinely gifted boxers (Reggie a schoolboy champion), but assaulting two policemen, and then rebelling all the way through National Service until they were court-martialled, ended any career in the ring.
2. The criminal gang they built in the 1950s, making money mainly through protection rackets and by taking over clubs and pubs across the East End.
In 1960 the twins took over Esmeralda's Barn, a fashionable nightclub in Knightsbridge, and almost overnight the boys from the East End became hosts to the West End. This was the strange genius of the Krays: they cultivated fame as carefully as they ran their rackets. The celebrity photographer David Bailey shot their portrait, and the image — two sharp-suited, unsmiling young men — became iconic. They were photographed and feted alongside film stars and singers: George Raft, Judy Garland, Diana Dors, Barbara Windsor. To much of the public they looked less like gangsters than like glamorous men-about-town.
Their connections reached frighteningly high. In 1964 a newspaper hinted at a relationship between Ronnie and a Conservative peer, Lord Boothby. The story was so explosive that the establishment closed ranks and buried it — and for a while the twins seemed almost untouchable, protected by the very powers that should have brought them down.
They were clever, too — sometimes brilliantly so. Years earlier, when Ronnie had been declared mentally ill and confined to a hospital, the twins had simply swapped places during a visit. Dressed identically and impossible to tell apart, Ronnie strolled out as the visitor while Reggie sat tight; only later did Reggie calmly reveal who he really was. With two identical twins, the authorities could prove nothing. But behind the glamour the truth was darkening. Ronnie was volatile, increasingly paranoid and violent; Reggie, the cooler head, ran the business. They were feared and feted in the same breath — and the violence was becoming impossible to hide.
1. How did two East End criminals come to be treated as celebrities?
2. Why did the Lord Boothby scandal end up protecting them rather than exposing them?
1. They deliberately cultivated a glamorous image — a fashionable club, a David Bailey portrait, and socialising with film stars — so the public saw stars rather than criminals.
2. The hint of a relationship with a leading politician was so dangerous that the establishment buried the story to protect itself, which left the twins almost untouchable for a time.
In the end, the violence outran the glamour. On 9 March 1966 Ronnie walked into the Blind Beggar, a pub in Whitechapel, and shot a rival gangster, George Cornell, dead in front of drinkers — reportedly enraged by an insult Cornell had thrown at him. The following year Reggie killed an associate of the Firm, Jack McVitie. These were no longer rumours whispered in the East End; they were murders, and people had watched them happen.
The man who finally broke the twins was a patient, incorruptible detective, Leonard "Nipper" Read. For months he worked to dismantle the wall of silence and fear around them, slowly persuading terrified witnesses that they would be safe enough to speak. In 1968 the twins were arrested; in 1969, when those witnesses at last agreed to testify, they were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that they serve at least thirty years each. The empire collapsed almost overnight.
Ronnie, certified insane, spent the rest of his life in a secure hospital and died in 1995. Reggie, after more than three decades inside, was released only weeks before his own death in 2000. They had always wanted to be remembered — and in that, at least, they succeeded. Decades on, the Kray legend still fills films and books; the men are long dead, but the myth has proved far harder to bury.
1. What finally turned the rumours into a case that could convict them?
2. What became of each twin after 1969?
1. Two murders that people had actually witnessed, and the detective "Nipper" Read patiently persuading frightened witnesses to break their silence and testify — leading to arrest in 1968 and conviction in 1969.
2. Ronnie was certified insane and died in a secure hospital in 1995; Reggie was released just weeks before his death in 2000.
A life story like this needs three past tenses working together. Get them right and your storytelling sounds effortless; get them wrong and the timeline collapses.
Use the past continuous for the longer action already in progress, and the past simple for the shorter event that interrupts or sits inside it.
1. While the twins (run) Esmeralda's Barn, their violence quietly (grow) worse.
2. They (still / box) professionally when the army (call) them up in 1952.
3. As the photographer (take) their portrait, the twins (not smile) once.
1. were running / grew (background in progress / the event)
2. were still boxing / called (longer action interrupted by a sudden event)
3. was taking / did not smile
When you are already telling the past, and you reach back to something earlier still, use had + past participle.
1. By the time they were arrested, the twins (already / kill) two men.
2. The empire they (spend) a decade building collapsed within months.
3. Years before their fame, Ronnie (be) certified insane and confined to a hospital.
4. The witnesses finally spoke, although for years fear (keep) them silent.
1. had already killed
2. had spent
3. had been
4. had kept
Fill each gap with the tense the meaning needs. Read it aloud once you've finished.
On the night of the murder, Cornell (drink) quietly in the pub when Ronnie (walk) in. The two men (be) rivals for years, and Cornell (insult) him only days before. Within seconds it (be) over, and Ronnie (disappear) into the East End.
was drinking (background) · walked (event) · had been (earlier state) · had insulted (earlier event) · was (event) · had disappeared / disappeared (the result / next event)
Notice how the three tenses layer the time: the long background, the sudden events, and the things that had already happened before.
This is the first stop on the narrative-tenses strand — the same backbone you'll use to tell any rise-and-fall story in the Speak tab.
You've read the story and you have the words — so now the real thing is within reach. There's a full podcast episode that tells this story in much greater depth, in natural, real-speed English.
From the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by historians, roughly 50 minutes.
Listen on Spotify →This is the heart of the lesson — do all four out loud. The timer is there to keep you going: fill the time with detail rather than escaping it.
Tell the rise and fall of the Kray twins in your own words, as if to someone who has never heard of them. Move through the arc: the East End boys → the Firm → the celebrity gangsters (the swap, the photos, the Boothby scandal) → the murders → the fall.
Use narrative tenses deliberately, and at least five key words from the lesson (underworld, notorious, volatile, ruthless, cultivate, feted, the establishment, incriminate, downfall).
Why do societies turn criminals into celebrities? The Krays were murderers, yet they were photographed like film stars and are still admired by some today. Build an argument, using other examples you know — from cinema, music or the news — of dangerous people being glamorised.
Tell the rise-and-fall story of any well-known figure you choose — a sports star, a company, a band, a politician — using the same shape: how they rose, the height of their power, and what brought them down. Keep the narrative tenses doing the work.
Stuck for an idea? Pick one of these and run with it: