The sky was grey with a strong indication of rain as I reluctantly prepared to walk into the town centre this morning with the temperature recording at Newcastle a balmy 9 degrees. Later 10 degrees was recorded, the highest for the month. There was no rain while I was out, just a feeling of dampness, and the weather brightened up a little with small patches of blue emerging, and thought to be the pattern for the rest of the day. I had no evidence to support and I for one have always distrusted feelings over facts. While I still find the climb back up the hill daunting, on leaving my home there is a different perspective in every direction with the mouth of the Tyne River to the East, North Tyneside to the North and in the West indications of the Port of Tyne and the river route to Newcastle. Going diagonally into the town centre there is the Town Hall clock on the hill which masks everything further southward.
It is half term and the lady from some central European country is trying to earn cash with three child mannequins playing musical instruments. I notice the number of retail units to rent signs in a block close to my bank. One has been converted to a charity shop of which there are already several in the street. One brand clothing store aimed at young folk has closed down. It is evident existing occupants have been unwilling or unable to face the increase in rents but I am guess again. Some establishments continue to do well or at least appear busy between 10 am and 3.30. Every make of mobile phone is available, there are three bakeries with take away sandwiches, with two of these offer eat at table snacks; there are two others in the short side passages to the parallel road which acts as the bus terminal. There is the large ever popular internally redesigned Big Mac and two popular first floor restaurant cafes as well as all the pubs, restaurants and cafes at one end in Market Square and along both sides of Ocean Road along the other, but the volume of people except on Saturday morning does not provide the level of trade turnover to justify the likely rents expected for the remaining imposing buildings on three floors which ere not flattened in the Blitz. There are six outlets selling electrical, DVD’s and Games and two chemists. There is also two of everything for £1 stores, two opticians a photograph shop, the chocolate shop. One men’s outfitter, Smiths and the closed Woolworths store. Tomorrow I will see what I have forgotten. South Shields remains a working class town with no hint of the student population located in the southern area of the town with nearby shop and pub facilities. Resident students and those continuing to live with their families only appear in the nightlife area after dark, and then at weekends. You can tell this is a working class town from the absence of suits and women in the clothing of big city professionals. You can see the effects of a hard life in the faces, the bent backs and the walking sticks. Today there are children because it is half term.
After paying in a cheque at the bank, buying the newspaper and collecting the DVD I experienced the anticipated disappointment of finding that the cherries have ended as suddenly as they appeared two weeks ago and have to make do with Bananas which are more expensive than those at the supermarket and grapes, which are much cheaper. However I have enjoyed the treat and regret having to wait months before they are likely to appear again at such a good price.
On return I had planned to work on my in tray and undertake some research after making first notes for Blog of the Day, but checked the film times for Doubt and Vicky Christina Barcelona and it is evident that with the cinema given over to Bolt 2D and 3D versions I have to go and see both this week, starting today if I wish to attend afternoon viewings. This meant coping with the usual half term attendance, so I organised myself to arrive a good 20 mins before the start of the programme. This was just as well because I cannot recall such a crowd, and such a long queue before, and I had to wait twenty minuets arriving in the theatre just before the film commenced. Others were not so lucky and unable to get to their seats for until five and then ten mins after the film had started.
Yesterday I reached 101 successive wins at level chess for the third time. In the first instance I unintentionally pressed the clear button and in the second the computer crashed. It has taken 657 games to achieve the result and 12 draws and four defeats. The previous highest run of wins was 87. This means that I have achieved three runs of 101 or more out of he four games being played at the lowest level or available level of skill. I am approaching 500 wins at free cell without one loss and a good run of over 150 at Spider after a shaky start. This took me to lunch with a pieces of smoked fish cooked in the microwave with the rest of the vegetables from yesterday, a banana and hot cross bun, This evening there was gammon with olive sald with chutney on crackers a starter and a hot cross bun and coffee. Breakfast was a soup and a roll. Before writing about Doubt I needed to work through my reactions to the disclosures of the previous evening.
I had not anticipated the level of revelation and information in the Channel Four programme, the Gangster and the Peer, although it should have called the Gangsters and the peers. Channel Four has taken over from the BBC in providing programmes which reveal and inform information which others want to have buried or restricted without good reason.
I have never regarded the pubic interest as justifying intrusion into the private lives and personal behaviour of anyone unless it directly affects on the performance of functions undertaken on behalf of the people, and even then there are circumstances where the national interest must take precedence over the public. Nor do I believe there is an unqualified public right to know because we live in representative democracy. There are state secrets and sometimes this involves misleading the public through the media, and some circumstance this may involve not telling the truth.
However the dilemma for individuals and the media is being able to make a judgement that the non disclosure is actually in the national interests or in the protection of the rights of others and is not just another squalid political and sometimes criminal cover up. My limited experience and involvement at what happens at National government level is that in general such action is only taken at after much thought and soul searching by senior politicians and their advisers, and that only rarely is there a combination of personalities and events which result in the future of the representative government and the rule of law itself being threatened. This happened in the 1960’s.
The story begins with two East End thugs, the twin brother Ronald and Reginald Kray. They were born to an ordinary East End Family and their school record was good in terms of their attendance and behaviour. The went into Boxing as young men with some success and then things appeared to change before and during the requirement to undertake National Service in 1952. They were known to be able to look after themselves and to be answerable to no one. They immediately rebelled against the army discipline, deserting several times held in an ordinary prison until court martial sentence to an army prison. It said during this time that Ronnie developed the first indications of Paranoid Schizophrenia. It is not said when it was found that he had an interest in other young men rather than girls. Even in the 1950 both were taboo subjects. One was punishable by a long prison sentence and the other was regarded as untreatable.
Discharged from the army, their Boxing careers at an end, they acquired a snooker club in Bethnal green. They were asked to pay protection money and one of the twins is reported to have impaled the hand of the racket leader into a snooker table. This not only ended attempt to extortionate money from them but is said to have led to them starting up on their own. They were also involved in armed robberies and arson and Reggie was sent to Prison for 19 months in1960. The same time as my own experience and British Society was undergoing major changes in terms of political and social awareness and behaviour after the horrors of the World War and the financial restraints that followed.
It was at this point that their fortunes changed as Peter Rachman gave the brothers Esmeralda’s Nightclub in Knightsbridge. (Rachman was a notorious violent landlord) The running of the night club changed things for the Twins. The club had a Peer, Lord Effingham as an effective doorman, adding class to establishment and twins set about cultivating film and TV starts and Politicians in the same way they understood that the Mafia held power in cities in the USA. They entertained stars such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, George Raft, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor but they knew that the power they needed would only come by involving senior politicians form the two main political parties in the UK.
The first Peer they were able to corrupt was Lord Bradwell the former Communist and Labour Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Labour Party and friend of Traitor Guy Burgess, Tom Driberg. He joined the Communist Party when he was only 15 years. And then went to Oxford and became a journalist and a politician. He went to the Express Newspapers owned by the Tory Party supporting Lord Beaverbrook where he created the William Hickey Diary Gossip Column of the type which Evelyn Waugh made famous in Vile Bodies and was made into the recent film Bright Young Things. In his posthumously published autobiography Lord Bardwell admitted that two conflicts affected his life. One was that between his leanings toward the High Church end of the Church of England and his Left wing politics, and the other his High Church leaning and his homosexuality. His problem was not being a homosexual, then still against the law, but needing to take risk, having sex in public places and with those who were criminal and violent. One of these was Mad Teddy Smith a henchman of the Krays and someone Ronnie admitted killing in his end of life confession. The Krays were able to supply Driberg with an unlimited number of rent boys and invited him to sex parties at which photographs are known to have been taken.
The highlight of their relationship was when Driberg attended the Royal Film Premier of the film Sparrers can’t sing in their newly acquired East End Premises. London high society had redeveloped a fascination with crime and the East of London. A cockney Play Sparrers Can’t sing had been turned into a film and premier held in the East End with much publicity as it was attended by a member of the Royal Family. The club and the Krays feature in the film and there is a photograph of Driberg with the Krays and other personalities at the after film party. Also in the photo is Leslie Holt. Driberg was protected from prosecution by Lord Beaverbrook and in part this may have been because of the belief that Driberg worked for MI5 and was regarded as a double agent. He was expelled from the Communist Party because they believed he was working for MI5. He is known to have been blackmailed by the KGB who had compromising photo of him. He visited Moscow to interview Burgess for a biography and it is known that because of their pressure the book was amended. Driberg was friends in his early life with the Satanist, Aleister Crowley and there is one document indicating that he had a deep interest in the cult at one time. Driberg is known to have repented aspects of his life leaving instructions that any Memorial service for him should concentrate on his sins and not his virtues.
However having a powerful Member of the Labour Party on their books was not enough for the Krays: they wanted someone high up in the Tory Party.
It has to be remembered that the Macmillan government had effectively fallen because over the wide ranging Profumo Keeler Scandal which came to the fore in 1963. John Profumo Minister of Defence was a high life loving married man who first encountered Christine Keeler wrapped in only a wet towel at the country home of Lord and Lady Astor during one of their weekend House Parties. Profumo although married to the celebrated British film actress Valerie Hobson, commenced an affair with Keeler who was also sleeping with a Russian diplomat and spy, among others. Profumo lied to the House of Commons and to government interrogators, denying his relationship, but then had to admit he had dome so. He and his wife spent the rest of their lives working for an East End based Charity.
Christine Keeler had been the mistress of the previously mentioned Peter Rachman and through her friend the osteopath Stephen Ward she had become friends with Mandy Rice Davis a sixteen year old beauty who had also become the mistress of Peter Rachman. While together at a flat another of Keeler’s former lovers entered and fired shots and this incident led to a trial and publicity about the two women and being part of the Ward set, (he committed suicide), the visits to Cliveden, the home of the Astor’s, the relationships with Profumo and the Russian spy)
The Krays could not have made a better choice in homing in on Lord Boothby.
Robert Boothby was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Oxford, joining a firm of stockbrokers, but with the ambition to become a conservative Member of Parliament, He won the East Aberdeen constituency in 1924 and continued until 1958. He had been Parliamentary Secretary to Winston Churchill and held a junior ministerial position in the Wartime Churchill Government but was sacked for not disclosing an interest when asking Parliamentary Questions. He then became a national personality through appearances on the radio programme Any Questions and then on TV becoming a very popular figure for his directness and love of life. He held various national offices from Chairman of the Royal Philharmonic, President of the Anglo Israeli Association and Rector of St Andrews University. He was awarded the Legion of Honour and made a knight and then a Life peer in 1958 when he was the same age.
He was also an established homosexual, with an interest in young men as he grew older, then an illegal activity which would have ended his political and public roles. Contrary to some reports that he only used heterosexual relationships to cover his homosexuality, the evidence suggests a love of young women as well as young men. He was married twice and he is known to have been the father of three children to three other married women, according to his cousin Sir Ludovic Kennedy.
His most notorious relationship was with the wife of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. This continued for some twenty years and was the cause of great distress to the Prime Minister. Boothby successfully petitioned MacMillan to be made a Lord.
The mother of the present British Queen, Queen Elizabeth told Woodrow Wyatt in 1991 that the press and London society knew about his affairs and she described him as a bounder but not a cad. An Express Journalist Michael Thornton then a young man discovered when visited the home of Boothby, that he had developed a passion for Leslie Holt a lover of Ronnie Kray and this led to Kray and Boothby having a relationship. In addition to making he available to rich old men for money Leslie was burglar and Boothby joked to Thornton that if he disliked someone he would send Holt around to burgle their homes when they were away on holiday.
It was then that sex shows were arranged at the home of Ronnie to which Teddy Smith and Leslie Holt invited Driberg and Boothby and photos were taken to blackmail them and others. Both were interested in kinky sex one in orgies and the other in very perverse activities. This was happening while the Profumo Keeler scandal raged thus confirmed the limited impact of deterrent sentencing on others. Boothby acted as if nothing could affect his behaviour inviting Kray to dine with him at the House of Lords.
Young Express Journalist Michael Thornton then found himself in a dangerous and compromising situation at the Krays Club. A beaten up young man referred to as a boy was told to be nice to Boothby and while they were the journalist learnt from another boy that Kray has raped a well known heterosexual boxer and an actor, the latter at gun point. This may have been a prearranged seduction plan as Ronnie then made known his intentions when the young journalist refused a gun was pulled and only the intervention of the twin brother enabled the journalist to escape. This was all said on by the journalist today on camera. He recognised that while Kay provided rough East End young men Boothby was trying to provide more sophisticated young men to Ronnie Kray. The point was made that his situation was not unique and he only escaped because he was a journalist.
Understandably he went immediately to his Editor, John Junior with what eh expected would be the scoop of the decade but he the facts of life and the story which could have damaged the Tory Party beyond repair was spiked. The Newspaper was owned by Tory Party Supporting Lord Beaverbrook.
1964 was General Election Year and organised crime in London was a political issue high profile in the media and under investigation by individual in the Metropolitan Police There were 500 clubs operating in the West End with protection rackets dominated by the Krays who had commenced to Franchise. The Michael Caine cult classic Get Carter was set in London and Tyneside so was the play and TV series Our Friends in the North.
The Labour Party supporting Mirror Newspapers were investigating the Krays and proposed articles when from a Scotland Yard tip off they were advised of the relationship between Ronnie Kray and Lord Boothby. Because of the lack of proof they ran a story in the Sunday Mirror which simply said that an unnamed homosexual gangster had an improper relationship with a well known Tory Peer. Obviously everyone in society and politics knew who was being referred to and Tory Party Whips went immediately to Boothby who denied the story. A picture at the Mirror according Derek Jameson then Picture Editor, showing Ronnie and Holt with Boothby at his flat. Although the picture was not published it was referred to in the next edition of the Sunday Paper. Although the Tory Party Whips thought Boothby had therefore lied, and with only weeks to go before the General Election, the Tory Leader Sir Alec Douglas Home closed ranks. However the more extraordinary development was the action of the Labour Leader and soon to be Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who ordered his members of Parliament not to raise the issue despite rumours about the involvement of Tom Driberg with Rent boys and gangsters. Amazingly Boothby was offered the services of Wilson’s senior legal adviser Arnold Goodman, subsequently Lord Goodman. Boothby sent a letter to the Times newspaper explaining that he had met Kray only three times to discuss a business matter and the Mirror was threatened with being sued. Then amazingly despite having the copper bottom evidence if the case came to civil court trial, the boss of Mirror Newspaper Cecil King apologised for the story and sacked the editor. In an out of court settlement Mirror Newspapers paid Boothby £40000 about half a million to- day. Harold Wilson won the General Election and the Boothby Kray affair was dropped with the consequences that media and police had their hands tied and the Krays believed they were untouchable and for some time it appeared that they were.
Several months later the owner of a club reported the Krays and Teddy Smith for demanding money with menaces and then wrecking the establishment when the money was refused. The police had to act, the three were arrested and held in custody but black mailed Boothby to request their release in the House of Lords. He was shouted down. However there is now strong suggestion that the jury was intimidated and bribed and the three men walked free and were treated with even greater celebrity status. Reggie announced on TV that he wished to go ahead with his marriage to which Tom Driberg attended. Ronnie said he wanted to go abroad and then be left alone. Celebrity Photographer David Bailey, who the Antonioni Film Blow Up is said to have been influenced by, took photos at the weeding and also of other celebrities such as Michael Caine and Mick Jagger and when these were published as boxed prints. It was then the husband of Princess Margaret, Lord Snowden, who is reported to have ensured that Photos of the Kray Twins were not included in a second edition of the box.
The consequence of the failed trial and the payment of damages meant that the police and the media were silenced and Krays expanded their criminal empire in an orgy of violence. Their terrorism had become officially sanctioned but this was not the last of the cover ups and Ronnie controlled London as Al Capone had controlled Chicago. They now resorted to murder anyone who offended them during 1966 and 1967. Finally the Police were able to act and they achieved a successful prosecution for Murder and sentenced for life with minimum of 30 years. Ronnie died in prison after a heart attack in 1995 and his funeral was a huge event with people lining the streets. Reggie was released on compassionate grounds for a few weeks before his death from inoperable cancer in August 2000 and elder brother Charlie released in 1975 after seven years returned to prison in 1997 for a drugs offence worth £69million and died from natural caused six months after Brother Reggie.
Another journalist at the Sunday Times and would be author John Pearson was researching a book on the Krays in 1969 when he received evidence that showed that Boothby had lied in his letter to the Times. This coincided with the decision of Boothby to marry a woman from Sardinia 33 years his junior. The evidence was provided by the Mother of the Krays and authorised by the Krays and comprised a photo of Boothby Ronnie and young boy at a nightclub and letters from Boothby to Kray dated 1963 when he had said he did not know Ronnie until 1964. Pearson continued with his research and writing for the next three years, interviewing many members of the former gang and eventually showed Lord Boothby what he was publishing. Lord Hood intervened and threatened Pearson with civil action if the work was published in its existing form. The publisher then announced they were not going to publish nor did the Observer who was to serialise. Pearson then discovered that Lord Goodman was Chairman of the Observer Trust. His home was then burgled and photos and files relating to Lord Boothby were removed and similar this happened to his literary agent. He had played that if you told the truth you shamed the devil and but he realised this was not so then in England. It was after this that Good make a Peer, so did Tom Driberg and Boothby continued to be an outspoken Member of the House of Lords until his death in 1986. It was only when all three were dead that John Pearson was able to publish his book The Profession of Violence.
The reason why the TV programme appears to have now been made is that Pearson has made available to him a police file which includes a report indicating that prominent people some in positions of power continued to lobby support for the twins and the police believed that they were doing so for reward (and I would presume because some may have been blackmailed). The list has been blacked out on instruction of the Attorney General and although the file is to be reviewed in 2014, the Attorney General has stated that the names will not be released until after their death.
John Pearson has also written another non fiction work called the Gamblers about the Clermont set of John Spinal, James Goldsmith and Lord Lucan. There is a programme about this next Monday.
It is half term and the lady from some central European country is trying to earn cash with three child mannequins playing musical instruments. I notice the number of retail units to rent signs in a block close to my bank. One has been converted to a charity shop of which there are already several in the street. One brand clothing store aimed at young folk has closed down. It is evident existing occupants have been unwilling or unable to face the increase in rents but I am guess again. Some establishments continue to do well or at least appear busy between 10 am and 3.30. Every make of mobile phone is available, there are three bakeries with take away sandwiches, with two of these offer eat at table snacks; there are two others in the short side passages to the parallel road which acts as the bus terminal. There is the large ever popular internally redesigned Big Mac and two popular first floor restaurant cafes as well as all the pubs, restaurants and cafes at one end in Market Square and along both sides of Ocean Road along the other, but the volume of people except on Saturday morning does not provide the level of trade turnover to justify the likely rents expected for the remaining imposing buildings on three floors which ere not flattened in the Blitz. There are six outlets selling electrical, DVD’s and Games and two chemists. There is also two of everything for £1 stores, two opticians a photograph shop, the chocolate shop. One men’s outfitter, Smiths and the closed Woolworths store. Tomorrow I will see what I have forgotten. South Shields remains a working class town with no hint of the student population located in the southern area of the town with nearby shop and pub facilities. Resident students and those continuing to live with their families only appear in the nightlife area after dark, and then at weekends. You can tell this is a working class town from the absence of suits and women in the clothing of big city professionals. You can see the effects of a hard life in the faces, the bent backs and the walking sticks. Today there are children because it is half term.
After paying in a cheque at the bank, buying the newspaper and collecting the DVD I experienced the anticipated disappointment of finding that the cherries have ended as suddenly as they appeared two weeks ago and have to make do with Bananas which are more expensive than those at the supermarket and grapes, which are much cheaper. However I have enjoyed the treat and regret having to wait months before they are likely to appear again at such a good price.
On return I had planned to work on my in tray and undertake some research after making first notes for Blog of the Day, but checked the film times for Doubt and Vicky Christina Barcelona and it is evident that with the cinema given over to Bolt 2D and 3D versions I have to go and see both this week, starting today if I wish to attend afternoon viewings. This meant coping with the usual half term attendance, so I organised myself to arrive a good 20 mins before the start of the programme. This was just as well because I cannot recall such a crowd, and such a long queue before, and I had to wait twenty minuets arriving in the theatre just before the film commenced. Others were not so lucky and unable to get to their seats for until five and then ten mins after the film had started.
Yesterday I reached 101 successive wins at level chess for the third time. In the first instance I unintentionally pressed the clear button and in the second the computer crashed. It has taken 657 games to achieve the result and 12 draws and four defeats. The previous highest run of wins was 87. This means that I have achieved three runs of 101 or more out of he four games being played at the lowest level or available level of skill. I am approaching 500 wins at free cell without one loss and a good run of over 150 at Spider after a shaky start. This took me to lunch with a pieces of smoked fish cooked in the microwave with the rest of the vegetables from yesterday, a banana and hot cross bun, This evening there was gammon with olive sald with chutney on crackers a starter and a hot cross bun and coffee. Breakfast was a soup and a roll. Before writing about Doubt I needed to work through my reactions to the disclosures of the previous evening.
I had not anticipated the level of revelation and information in the Channel Four programme, the Gangster and the Peer, although it should have called the Gangsters and the peers. Channel Four has taken over from the BBC in providing programmes which reveal and inform information which others want to have buried or restricted without good reason.
I have never regarded the pubic interest as justifying intrusion into the private lives and personal behaviour of anyone unless it directly affects on the performance of functions undertaken on behalf of the people, and even then there are circumstances where the national interest must take precedence over the public. Nor do I believe there is an unqualified public right to know because we live in representative democracy. There are state secrets and sometimes this involves misleading the public through the media, and some circumstance this may involve not telling the truth.
However the dilemma for individuals and the media is being able to make a judgement that the non disclosure is actually in the national interests or in the protection of the rights of others and is not just another squalid political and sometimes criminal cover up. My limited experience and involvement at what happens at National government level is that in general such action is only taken at after much thought and soul searching by senior politicians and their advisers, and that only rarely is there a combination of personalities and events which result in the future of the representative government and the rule of law itself being threatened. This happened in the 1960’s.
The story begins with two East End thugs, the twin brother Ronald and Reginald Kray. They were born to an ordinary East End Family and their school record was good in terms of their attendance and behaviour. The went into Boxing as young men with some success and then things appeared to change before and during the requirement to undertake National Service in 1952. They were known to be able to look after themselves and to be answerable to no one. They immediately rebelled against the army discipline, deserting several times held in an ordinary prison until court martial sentence to an army prison. It said during this time that Ronnie developed the first indications of Paranoid Schizophrenia. It is not said when it was found that he had an interest in other young men rather than girls. Even in the 1950 both were taboo subjects. One was punishable by a long prison sentence and the other was regarded as untreatable.
Discharged from the army, their Boxing careers at an end, they acquired a snooker club in Bethnal green. They were asked to pay protection money and one of the twins is reported to have impaled the hand of the racket leader into a snooker table. This not only ended attempt to extortionate money from them but is said to have led to them starting up on their own. They were also involved in armed robberies and arson and Reggie was sent to Prison for 19 months in1960. The same time as my own experience and British Society was undergoing major changes in terms of political and social awareness and behaviour after the horrors of the World War and the financial restraints that followed.
It was at this point that their fortunes changed as Peter Rachman gave the brothers Esmeralda’s Nightclub in Knightsbridge. (Rachman was a notorious violent landlord) The running of the night club changed things for the Twins. The club had a Peer, Lord Effingham as an effective doorman, adding class to establishment and twins set about cultivating film and TV starts and Politicians in the same way they understood that the Mafia held power in cities in the USA. They entertained stars such as Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, George Raft, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor but they knew that the power they needed would only come by involving senior politicians form the two main political parties in the UK.
The first Peer they were able to corrupt was Lord Bradwell the former Communist and Labour Member of Parliament, Chairman of the Labour Party and friend of Traitor Guy Burgess, Tom Driberg. He joined the Communist Party when he was only 15 years. And then went to Oxford and became a journalist and a politician. He went to the Express Newspapers owned by the Tory Party supporting Lord Beaverbrook where he created the William Hickey Diary Gossip Column of the type which Evelyn Waugh made famous in Vile Bodies and was made into the recent film Bright Young Things. In his posthumously published autobiography Lord Bardwell admitted that two conflicts affected his life. One was that between his leanings toward the High Church end of the Church of England and his Left wing politics, and the other his High Church leaning and his homosexuality. His problem was not being a homosexual, then still against the law, but needing to take risk, having sex in public places and with those who were criminal and violent. One of these was Mad Teddy Smith a henchman of the Krays and someone Ronnie admitted killing in his end of life confession. The Krays were able to supply Driberg with an unlimited number of rent boys and invited him to sex parties at which photographs are known to have been taken.
The highlight of their relationship was when Driberg attended the Royal Film Premier of the film Sparrers can’t sing in their newly acquired East End Premises. London high society had redeveloped a fascination with crime and the East of London. A cockney Play Sparrers Can’t sing had been turned into a film and premier held in the East End with much publicity as it was attended by a member of the Royal Family. The club and the Krays feature in the film and there is a photograph of Driberg with the Krays and other personalities at the after film party. Also in the photo is Leslie Holt. Driberg was protected from prosecution by Lord Beaverbrook and in part this may have been because of the belief that Driberg worked for MI5 and was regarded as a double agent. He was expelled from the Communist Party because they believed he was working for MI5. He is known to have been blackmailed by the KGB who had compromising photo of him. He visited Moscow to interview Burgess for a biography and it is known that because of their pressure the book was amended. Driberg was friends in his early life with the Satanist, Aleister Crowley and there is one document indicating that he had a deep interest in the cult at one time. Driberg is known to have repented aspects of his life leaving instructions that any Memorial service for him should concentrate on his sins and not his virtues.
However having a powerful Member of the Labour Party on their books was not enough for the Krays: they wanted someone high up in the Tory Party.
It has to be remembered that the Macmillan government had effectively fallen because over the wide ranging Profumo Keeler Scandal which came to the fore in 1963. John Profumo Minister of Defence was a high life loving married man who first encountered Christine Keeler wrapped in only a wet towel at the country home of Lord and Lady Astor during one of their weekend House Parties. Profumo although married to the celebrated British film actress Valerie Hobson, commenced an affair with Keeler who was also sleeping with a Russian diplomat and spy, among others. Profumo lied to the House of Commons and to government interrogators, denying his relationship, but then had to admit he had dome so. He and his wife spent the rest of their lives working for an East End based Charity.
Christine Keeler had been the mistress of the previously mentioned Peter Rachman and through her friend the osteopath Stephen Ward she had become friends with Mandy Rice Davis a sixteen year old beauty who had also become the mistress of Peter Rachman. While together at a flat another of Keeler’s former lovers entered and fired shots and this incident led to a trial and publicity about the two women and being part of the Ward set, (he committed suicide), the visits to Cliveden, the home of the Astor’s, the relationships with Profumo and the Russian spy)
The Krays could not have made a better choice in homing in on Lord Boothby.
Robert Boothby was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Oxford, joining a firm of stockbrokers, but with the ambition to become a conservative Member of Parliament, He won the East Aberdeen constituency in 1924 and continued until 1958. He had been Parliamentary Secretary to Winston Churchill and held a junior ministerial position in the Wartime Churchill Government but was sacked for not disclosing an interest when asking Parliamentary Questions. He then became a national personality through appearances on the radio programme Any Questions and then on TV becoming a very popular figure for his directness and love of life. He held various national offices from Chairman of the Royal Philharmonic, President of the Anglo Israeli Association and Rector of St Andrews University. He was awarded the Legion of Honour and made a knight and then a Life peer in 1958 when he was the same age.
He was also an established homosexual, with an interest in young men as he grew older, then an illegal activity which would have ended his political and public roles. Contrary to some reports that he only used heterosexual relationships to cover his homosexuality, the evidence suggests a love of young women as well as young men. He was married twice and he is known to have been the father of three children to three other married women, according to his cousin Sir Ludovic Kennedy.
His most notorious relationship was with the wife of British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. This continued for some twenty years and was the cause of great distress to the Prime Minister. Boothby successfully petitioned MacMillan to be made a Lord.
The mother of the present British Queen, Queen Elizabeth told Woodrow Wyatt in 1991 that the press and London society knew about his affairs and she described him as a bounder but not a cad. An Express Journalist Michael Thornton then a young man discovered when visited the home of Boothby, that he had developed a passion for Leslie Holt a lover of Ronnie Kray and this led to Kray and Boothby having a relationship. In addition to making he available to rich old men for money Leslie was burglar and Boothby joked to Thornton that if he disliked someone he would send Holt around to burgle their homes when they were away on holiday.
It was then that sex shows were arranged at the home of Ronnie to which Teddy Smith and Leslie Holt invited Driberg and Boothby and photos were taken to blackmail them and others. Both were interested in kinky sex one in orgies and the other in very perverse activities. This was happening while the Profumo Keeler scandal raged thus confirmed the limited impact of deterrent sentencing on others. Boothby acted as if nothing could affect his behaviour inviting Kray to dine with him at the House of Lords.
Young Express Journalist Michael Thornton then found himself in a dangerous and compromising situation at the Krays Club. A beaten up young man referred to as a boy was told to be nice to Boothby and while they were the journalist learnt from another boy that Kray has raped a well known heterosexual boxer and an actor, the latter at gun point. This may have been a prearranged seduction plan as Ronnie then made known his intentions when the young journalist refused a gun was pulled and only the intervention of the twin brother enabled the journalist to escape. This was all said on by the journalist today on camera. He recognised that while Kay provided rough East End young men Boothby was trying to provide more sophisticated young men to Ronnie Kray. The point was made that his situation was not unique and he only escaped because he was a journalist.
Understandably he went immediately to his Editor, John Junior with what eh expected would be the scoop of the decade but he the facts of life and the story which could have damaged the Tory Party beyond repair was spiked. The Newspaper was owned by Tory Party Supporting Lord Beaverbrook.
1964 was General Election Year and organised crime in London was a political issue high profile in the media and under investigation by individual in the Metropolitan Police There were 500 clubs operating in the West End with protection rackets dominated by the Krays who had commenced to Franchise. The Michael Caine cult classic Get Carter was set in London and Tyneside so was the play and TV series Our Friends in the North.
The Labour Party supporting Mirror Newspapers were investigating the Krays and proposed articles when from a Scotland Yard tip off they were advised of the relationship between Ronnie Kray and Lord Boothby. Because of the lack of proof they ran a story in the Sunday Mirror which simply said that an unnamed homosexual gangster had an improper relationship with a well known Tory Peer. Obviously everyone in society and politics knew who was being referred to and Tory Party Whips went immediately to Boothby who denied the story. A picture at the Mirror according Derek Jameson then Picture Editor, showing Ronnie and Holt with Boothby at his flat. Although the picture was not published it was referred to in the next edition of the Sunday Paper. Although the Tory Party Whips thought Boothby had therefore lied, and with only weeks to go before the General Election, the Tory Leader Sir Alec Douglas Home closed ranks. However the more extraordinary development was the action of the Labour Leader and soon to be Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who ordered his members of Parliament not to raise the issue despite rumours about the involvement of Tom Driberg with Rent boys and gangsters. Amazingly Boothby was offered the services of Wilson’s senior legal adviser Arnold Goodman, subsequently Lord Goodman. Boothby sent a letter to the Times newspaper explaining that he had met Kray only three times to discuss a business matter and the Mirror was threatened with being sued. Then amazingly despite having the copper bottom evidence if the case came to civil court trial, the boss of Mirror Newspaper Cecil King apologised for the story and sacked the editor. In an out of court settlement Mirror Newspapers paid Boothby £40000 about half a million to- day. Harold Wilson won the General Election and the Boothby Kray affair was dropped with the consequences that media and police had their hands tied and the Krays believed they were untouchable and for some time it appeared that they were.
Several months later the owner of a club reported the Krays and Teddy Smith for demanding money with menaces and then wrecking the establishment when the money was refused. The police had to act, the three were arrested and held in custody but black mailed Boothby to request their release in the House of Lords. He was shouted down. However there is now strong suggestion that the jury was intimidated and bribed and the three men walked free and were treated with even greater celebrity status. Reggie announced on TV that he wished to go ahead with his marriage to which Tom Driberg attended. Ronnie said he wanted to go abroad and then be left alone. Celebrity Photographer David Bailey, who the Antonioni Film Blow Up is said to have been influenced by, took photos at the weeding and also of other celebrities such as Michael Caine and Mick Jagger and when these were published as boxed prints. It was then the husband of Princess Margaret, Lord Snowden, who is reported to have ensured that Photos of the Kray Twins were not included in a second edition of the box.
The consequence of the failed trial and the payment of damages meant that the police and the media were silenced and Krays expanded their criminal empire in an orgy of violence. Their terrorism had become officially sanctioned but this was not the last of the cover ups and Ronnie controlled London as Al Capone had controlled Chicago. They now resorted to murder anyone who offended them during 1966 and 1967. Finally the Police were able to act and they achieved a successful prosecution for Murder and sentenced for life with minimum of 30 years. Ronnie died in prison after a heart attack in 1995 and his funeral was a huge event with people lining the streets. Reggie was released on compassionate grounds for a few weeks before his death from inoperable cancer in August 2000 and elder brother Charlie released in 1975 after seven years returned to prison in 1997 for a drugs offence worth £69million and died from natural caused six months after Brother Reggie.
Another journalist at the Sunday Times and would be author John Pearson was researching a book on the Krays in 1969 when he received evidence that showed that Boothby had lied in his letter to the Times. This coincided with the decision of Boothby to marry a woman from Sardinia 33 years his junior. The evidence was provided by the Mother of the Krays and authorised by the Krays and comprised a photo of Boothby Ronnie and young boy at a nightclub and letters from Boothby to Kray dated 1963 when he had said he did not know Ronnie until 1964. Pearson continued with his research and writing for the next three years, interviewing many members of the former gang and eventually showed Lord Boothby what he was publishing. Lord Hood intervened and threatened Pearson with civil action if the work was published in its existing form. The publisher then announced they were not going to publish nor did the Observer who was to serialise. Pearson then discovered that Lord Goodman was Chairman of the Observer Trust. His home was then burgled and photos and files relating to Lord Boothby were removed and similar this happened to his literary agent. He had played that if you told the truth you shamed the devil and but he realised this was not so then in England. It was after this that Good make a Peer, so did Tom Driberg and Boothby continued to be an outspoken Member of the House of Lords until his death in 1986. It was only when all three were dead that John Pearson was able to publish his book The Profession of Violence.
The reason why the TV programme appears to have now been made is that Pearson has made available to him a police file which includes a report indicating that prominent people some in positions of power continued to lobby support for the twins and the police believed that they were doing so for reward (and I would presume because some may have been blackmailed). The list has been blacked out on instruction of the Attorney General and although the file is to be reviewed in 2014, the Attorney General has stated that the names will not be released until after their death.
John Pearson has also written another non fiction work called the Gamblers about the Clermont set of John Spinal, James Goldsmith and Lord Lucan. There is a programme about this next Monday.
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