Fred Dinenage explores the lives of notorious gangsters, the Krays

Hastings White Rock is offering the chance to delve into the lives of Britain's most notorious gangsters with the Krays’ official biographer, Fred Dinenage.

The Krays: Ronnie, Reggie and Me will be at the venue on Tuesday, November 24, promised as the “definitive insight.”

For decades they were feared as the ultimate criminal gang lords of the London underworld, but their reign of terror came crashing to an end in 1969 when both Ronnie and Reggie Kray were given life sentences by a judge at the Old Bailey. Reggie went on to serve decades in some of the toughest prisons in the country while Ronnie became a patient at Broadmoor with an insanity that was kept under control only by massive doses of drugs.

Around 30 years ago, Fred became their official biographer, writing a book which is still hugely in demand – proof that their story lives on long after their deaths.

“I think it's a number of things,” Fred says. “It's the fact that they were twins but also the fact that they came from the East End of London. They were around in the Swinging 60s which was a period of time that many people remember fondly, and those were days when people in the East End could leave their doors open knowing that they were safe from burglary because

the Krays were running the place. Big stars from England and abroad would always want to see them. If they were alive today, they would be on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. They were extraordinarily well known.

“And they both died in relative poverty because they'd given their money away. They were both completely devoted to giving money to charity. They had killed two men for which they were both still incarcerated when I met them but I suppose they did have their good points.

“Ronnie was extraordinary. In the show there's a couple of tape recordings with him when I met him in Broadmoor. He was on medication to control his mental illness, and it was in later life that I met him but he was a very gentle character. They did have their redeeming virtues.”

For Fred the story all began “with a little girl called Julie Maguire in Gosport. We're going back 30 odd years. Reggie was in Parkhurst and Ronnie was in Broadmoor, and this little girl Julie was dying of liver failure. She needed a transplant. She went to Addenbrooke's Hospital and the transport took place and it was successful. Her dad Peter was so thrilled that he vowed to raise £1,000,000 for the hospital and the transplant department. We did a film on him for the 6pm TV show which I did at the time which was Coast To Coast, and it was a very moving report. I remember it vividly. And then a few days later a letter arrived from Reggie who had seen the report on TV and was very moved by it and wanted to help raise money for Peter by commissioning several artists in Parkhurst prison to come up with artworks to sell for auction.”

Which is exactly what happened: “And then I received another letter saying if ever I was on the Isle of Wight I should go and see him. That was an invitation I could not refuse as a journalist. I went to see him and he was saying that they were looking for somebody to write their biography.”

They chose Fred: “I think there was a mutual trust. He just trusted me and so I went ahead. Once I had met Ronnie in Broadmoor I wrote it. We're talking about 30 years ago but amazingly the book still sells to this day because of the extraordinary charisma or infamy of the Kray twins.”