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Doing the Business
Expos of one of Britain's crime families.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Colin Fry
4 booksLibrarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 18, 2023
Interesting read about rhe Kray brothers
June 10, 2009
The inside story of the misdemeanours of the all-powerful Kray twins by their elder brother, who was usually on the periphery of their activities. East End London (where I was courting my wife at the time) must have been a nightmare particularly if one got on the wrong side of the twins and they also saw action, as it were, in America where they befriended the stars, so much so that they acted as bodyguards for many stars on their visits to England. An engaging, if perhaps at times horrifying, read.
April 25, 2023
"I'm smart - not dumb, like everybody says - but smart" - Fredo Corleone
Charlie Kray offers an insider look at the Kray Criminal Empire. But it is clear that either he was not being very forthright with co-author Colin Fry, or he was kept at arms' length by his brothers. For much of the book, Charlie Kray is tending bar, running errands, or babysitting. He was family, and his brothers appear to be loyal; but this book makes it clear that he was no criminal mastermind. What is worse, is that the book is nakedly seeking profits off the Kray name. Fry's epilogue makes that much clear. But nearly half, or a third of the book is fluff and filler.
Charlie Kray was the older brother of the notorious Kray Twins, Ron and Reg, who were prominent gang leaders in London ca. 1950s and 1960s. A mixture of over-the-top violence and carefully cultivated public relations made them a household name, bringing enormous attention and law enforcement to bear on them. The twins went to prison for murder. Charlie Kray lumbered along ca. 1968 - 1997 when he was sent to prison for narcotics trafficking. Charlie was not known for the violence that characterized the Krays. He was the seemingly unknown brother.
The Final Confessions, originally published in 1993, again in 2000, and then posthumously in 2011, start off strong. The opening is Charlie's 1997 conviction. Kray and Fry try to pass it off a small-time ridiculous sting operation; but even looking at the brief chapter in the book, it was a major operation. What was Charlie Kray doing between 1968 and 1997? There is a blurb that he went to prison ca. 1968 when the empire collapsed. But it is not clear how long he was a prisoner and what he was doing afterwards. Fry recounts in his epilogue that he was introduced to Charlie in the 1990s as a music promoter. Either he was still a criminal, or a charlatan living off his brother's brand. Maybe both. The result is self-serving.
Charlie Kray offers up some new insights into the gang as it developed in the 1950s. The early chapters on the Double R Club and the gang's expansion into other clubs is fascinating. However, it does lack detail. Even the violence, which is what readers want, is largely muted if not barely concealed. A drunk mouthing off to Ron Kray is suddenly on the ground knocked out cold - Ron Kray calmly continuing a discussion with another person as though never interrupted. Beefy dock workers making a play date for the twins, who show no signs of an impending fight, casually march off to war, and just as casually return victorious. Even when Ron Kray pulls a saber on someone, Charlie Kray backs away from the violence simply saying Ron always had a fascination with long blades.
The book carefully avoids Charlie's culpability in any serious crime. Instead, he is portrayed as a gopher or errand boy, usually babysitting a white collar criminal. After discussing the early clubs, and the famous people who visited them, the book begins a strange odyssey into white collar crime, first with long frauds - establishing companies and then engineering their bankruptcies. These are common scams in the United States where racketeers take over a business as part of a gambling or loan sharking debt and bust them by over-extending their credit lines and using fire sales to sell everything. Charlie says the Kray Brothers instead carefully created companies from scratch, building them up, building credit and reputation, and then collapsing them. For a gang that reveled in action and violence, this seems highly unlikely. A controlled collapse for a debtor, sure; but the sheer time and effort described in these pages tests the boundaries of credulity. Consider the uphill process of starting a company from scratch, either as a mom n' pop shop or a larger publicly traded concern. The logistics, while possible, seem improbable.
Then there was the strange Nigerian adventure. Whenever I read a first-person account of a gangster trying to run an international racket, I immediately call BS. The scam of a shopping center in rural Nigeria may have been the type of mythology the Krays try to embellish; but the entire deal looks like a fiasco with everyone trying to scam everyone. The Kray Twins knew they had no means of forcing a return on their investment in Nigeria. The whole story seems absurd. But Charlie says the scam was the brain child of Leslie Payne, Ron Kray's financial advisor. There is clear animosity between Charlie and Leslie, so Charlie is not a neutral observer here. In fact, he blames a lot the brothers' troubles at Payne (and less directly at Ron for listening to him). The book includes photographs of one of the twins in Africa, so maybe there is some truth. But if the twins and an accomplished scammer like Payne really believed they could make money from the shopping center, then the Krays do not deserve the reputation they enjoy. They were easy marks.
The African adventure aside, the book continues to spiral down a wormhole of nonsense with multiple chapters on the American Mafia. Did Angelo Bruno repeatedly travel to London to meet with the brothers and plan securities fraud? It seems unlikely, but possible. Did Meyer Lansky run George Raft's Colony Club in London? Maybe. Did they contract with the Krays to "protect" American gamblers on junket to the Colony Club? Maybe. Charlie's recollections are sensational, but super vague. He clearly does not know. Or he is pushing a myth to sell books. Somehow the securities fraud extended to Montreal with the Mafia boss there, Don Cerville, becomes a key figure in the book. But there never was a Don Cerville, Montreal Mafia boss. He may refer to Armand Courville, a prominent Montreal gangster; but he was not murdered.
The wasted pages on Sam Giancana, Don Cerville, and dramatic walks through customs smuggling stolen and forged securities erodes Charlie's credibility as a big gangster integral to his brothers' operations. The even crazier story of Reg Kray traveling to New York cemented this book as a cash cow. Relying upon the efforts of Ron Kray's second business manager (there it is again - subtly blaming Ron Kray) to connect with the New York Mafia, Reg Kray is frustrated not to meet with anyone. Finally, using his own connections he meets with the Gallos, whom the book describes as Joe Colombo's most loyal followers (Ha!!!). But they just sit around waiting for another Colombo lieutenant, Frank Illiano. Once Illiano confirms Kray with Angelo Bruno, the gangsters party. WTF. Illiano started as a soldier with the Gallos. He was not their boss. Crazy Joe and Reg Kray were both hyper-violent individuals. Either they were feuding scorpions or the best of friends. The story sounds entirely bogus with the point being to sell books and criticize Ron Kray.
Charlie Kray died in 2000. In 2011 Colin Fry decided that he needed to add an epilogue. OK. Maybe he will offer some unvarnished truth about Charlie Kray's criminal exploits. Nope. The lengthy epilogue maybe the largest chapter in the book. It is an emotional appeal on getting Reg Kray out of prison. The chapter suggests a herculean effort. Maybe it was. But it adds little to nothing about Charlie Kray's story, or the reputation of the twins. It was fluff to sell a new edition of the same book. If readers do not view the Krays through rose-tinted glasses, his release from prison is immaterial.
This was a long review. But I feel it is necessary to justify the low rating. The early chapters were good. Hell, if Charlie was upfront and said "I was just a bartender and gopher, like Fredo Corleone," I would have gotten more from the book. I appreciate that he was upfront at the start of the book declaring that Ron's open homosexuality created a permanent rift between him and Ron. Much of the book toes the line of the strained relations between Charlie and Ron, especially as Charlie clearly blames Ron for their downfall. Having read this book, I have a little more knowledge of the Krays rise to power in the 1950s. But I have very little knowledge about Charlie Kray himself. By excluding, hiding, or minimizing his own role, he is neither offering a confession nor is he telling readers what they want to see. It is just a ploy to sell, or as Charlie might define it: doing the business.
Charlie Kray offers an insider look at the Kray Criminal Empire. But it is clear that either he was not being very forthright with co-author Colin Fry, or he was kept at arms' length by his brothers. For much of the book, Charlie Kray is tending bar, running errands, or babysitting. He was family, and his brothers appear to be loyal; but this book makes it clear that he was no criminal mastermind. What is worse, is that the book is nakedly seeking profits off the Kray name. Fry's epilogue makes that much clear. But nearly half, or a third of the book is fluff and filler.
Charlie Kray was the older brother of the notorious Kray Twins, Ron and Reg, who were prominent gang leaders in London ca. 1950s and 1960s. A mixture of over-the-top violence and carefully cultivated public relations made them a household name, bringing enormous attention and law enforcement to bear on them. The twins went to prison for murder. Charlie Kray lumbered along ca. 1968 - 1997 when he was sent to prison for narcotics trafficking. Charlie was not known for the violence that characterized the Krays. He was the seemingly unknown brother.
The Final Confessions, originally published in 1993, again in 2000, and then posthumously in 2011, start off strong. The opening is Charlie's 1997 conviction. Kray and Fry try to pass it off a small-time ridiculous sting operation; but even looking at the brief chapter in the book, it was a major operation. What was Charlie Kray doing between 1968 and 1997? There is a blurb that he went to prison ca. 1968 when the empire collapsed. But it is not clear how long he was a prisoner and what he was doing afterwards. Fry recounts in his epilogue that he was introduced to Charlie in the 1990s as a music promoter. Either he was still a criminal, or a charlatan living off his brother's brand. Maybe both. The result is self-serving.
Charlie Kray offers up some new insights into the gang as it developed in the 1950s. The early chapters on the Double R Club and the gang's expansion into other clubs is fascinating. However, it does lack detail. Even the violence, which is what readers want, is largely muted if not barely concealed. A drunk mouthing off to Ron Kray is suddenly on the ground knocked out cold - Ron Kray calmly continuing a discussion with another person as though never interrupted. Beefy dock workers making a play date for the twins, who show no signs of an impending fight, casually march off to war, and just as casually return victorious. Even when Ron Kray pulls a saber on someone, Charlie Kray backs away from the violence simply saying Ron always had a fascination with long blades.
The book carefully avoids Charlie's culpability in any serious crime. Instead, he is portrayed as a gopher or errand boy, usually babysitting a white collar criminal. After discussing the early clubs, and the famous people who visited them, the book begins a strange odyssey into white collar crime, first with long frauds - establishing companies and then engineering their bankruptcies. These are common scams in the United States where racketeers take over a business as part of a gambling or loan sharking debt and bust them by over-extending their credit lines and using fire sales to sell everything. Charlie says the Kray Brothers instead carefully created companies from scratch, building them up, building credit and reputation, and then collapsing them. For a gang that reveled in action and violence, this seems highly unlikely. A controlled collapse for a debtor, sure; but the sheer time and effort described in these pages tests the boundaries of credulity. Consider the uphill process of starting a company from scratch, either as a mom n' pop shop or a larger publicly traded concern. The logistics, while possible, seem improbable.
Then there was the strange Nigerian adventure. Whenever I read a first-person account of a gangster trying to run an international racket, I immediately call BS. The scam of a shopping center in rural Nigeria may have been the type of mythology the Krays try to embellish; but the entire deal looks like a fiasco with everyone trying to scam everyone. The Kray Twins knew they had no means of forcing a return on their investment in Nigeria. The whole story seems absurd. But Charlie says the scam was the brain child of Leslie Payne, Ron Kray's financial advisor. There is clear animosity between Charlie and Leslie, so Charlie is not a neutral observer here. In fact, he blames a lot the brothers' troubles at Payne (and less directly at Ron for listening to him). The book includes photographs of one of the twins in Africa, so maybe there is some truth. But if the twins and an accomplished scammer like Payne really believed they could make money from the shopping center, then the Krays do not deserve the reputation they enjoy. They were easy marks.
The African adventure aside, the book continues to spiral down a wormhole of nonsense with multiple chapters on the American Mafia. Did Angelo Bruno repeatedly travel to London to meet with the brothers and plan securities fraud? It seems unlikely, but possible. Did Meyer Lansky run George Raft's Colony Club in London? Maybe. Did they contract with the Krays to "protect" American gamblers on junket to the Colony Club? Maybe. Charlie's recollections are sensational, but super vague. He clearly does not know. Or he is pushing a myth to sell books. Somehow the securities fraud extended to Montreal with the Mafia boss there, Don Cerville, becomes a key figure in the book. But there never was a Don Cerville, Montreal Mafia boss. He may refer to Armand Courville, a prominent Montreal gangster; but he was not murdered.
The wasted pages on Sam Giancana, Don Cerville, and dramatic walks through customs smuggling stolen and forged securities erodes Charlie's credibility as a big gangster integral to his brothers' operations. The even crazier story of Reg Kray traveling to New York cemented this book as a cash cow. Relying upon the efforts of Ron Kray's second business manager (there it is again - subtly blaming Ron Kray) to connect with the New York Mafia, Reg Kray is frustrated not to meet with anyone. Finally, using his own connections he meets with the Gallos, whom the book describes as Joe Colombo's most loyal followers (Ha!!!). But they just sit around waiting for another Colombo lieutenant, Frank Illiano. Once Illiano confirms Kray with Angelo Bruno, the gangsters party. WTF. Illiano started as a soldier with the Gallos. He was not their boss. Crazy Joe and Reg Kray were both hyper-violent individuals. Either they were feuding scorpions or the best of friends. The story sounds entirely bogus with the point being to sell books and criticize Ron Kray.
Charlie Kray died in 2000. In 2011 Colin Fry decided that he needed to add an epilogue. OK. Maybe he will offer some unvarnished truth about Charlie Kray's criminal exploits. Nope. The lengthy epilogue maybe the largest chapter in the book. It is an emotional appeal on getting Reg Kray out of prison. The chapter suggests a herculean effort. Maybe it was. But it adds little to nothing about Charlie Kray's story, or the reputation of the twins. It was fluff to sell a new edition of the same book. If readers do not view the Krays through rose-tinted glasses, his release from prison is immaterial.
This was a long review. But I feel it is necessary to justify the low rating. The early chapters were good. Hell, if Charlie was upfront and said "I was just a bartender and gopher, like Fredo Corleone," I would have gotten more from the book. I appreciate that he was upfront at the start of the book declaring that Ron's open homosexuality created a permanent rift between him and Ron. Much of the book toes the line of the strained relations between Charlie and Ron, especially as Charlie clearly blames Ron for their downfall. Having read this book, I have a little more knowledge of the Krays rise to power in the 1950s. But I have very little knowledge about Charlie Kray himself. By excluding, hiding, or minimizing his own role, he is neither offering a confession nor is he telling readers what they want to see. It is just a ploy to sell, or as Charlie might define it: doing the business.
April 2, 2024
This is the only book I have ever read about the Krays & I found it to be quite a captivating account of the brothers lives. There was an element of humour in some of the tales Charlie tells & it gave the reader a good insight into what their childhood was like, their parents, the boxing, the neighbourhood they grew up in etc. We then move on to their later life, the running of the clubs and the way they became more and more involved in criminal activity. I’m sure there was much more to tell but what was revealed was interesting.
I thought it was well written and certainly worth a read
I thought it was well written and certainly worth a read
September 16, 2019
The notoriety of the Kray twins, Ronnie and Reggie, is present in their legacy. These were the most infamous London gangsters to emerge during the 1960s. Their older brother, Charlie, used to try and keep his distance from Firm activities, yet he had a lot of insider knowledge of operations. In this confession, he reveals many of the truths behind the Kray twins and in this book, in a relaxed and casual manner, Charlie Kray exposes the realities of the true story. The biography takes us back to the childhood of the Krays and the start of the tale tells of the three brothers and their youthful vitality as boxers in East London's heart, Bethnal Green. Some of the more interesting tales cover breaking Ronnie out of mental hospitals, the setting up of various base of operations in nightclubs. Also, there is a lot of dealing with celebrities, and of course, how to invest profits, with trips abroad into the heart of Africa, looking for investment opportunities. Liaisons with the American Mafia, once their security strategy and business dominance as entertainment Kingpins in London's West End had been established. There isn't a massive amount of revelation with regard to the two major incidents that eventually took down Ronnie and Reggie: the murder of George Cornell in the Blind Beggar pub and the murder of Jack 'The Hat' McVie by Reggie in a frenzied knife attack. There's not su much revealing of criminal activity, but more a general overview of the main movements of the Kray operations. It's a great tale, full of mystery and it is clear that the Kray legend was born out of some pretty successful true events. I think the book is perhaps a little too brief and a bit scanty in parts and I will have to follow up with further research by covering other works. It was a sad state of affairs that the police continued to pursue Charlie after they had put the twins away until they finally managed to fit him up as a large cocaine trafficker and send him to the jail where he spent out most of his latter years. True adventure, true crime, true life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews