'I cut the Kray brothers' mum's hair - the whole family told me everything'

When a dapper-looking man complimented Maureen Flanagan’s hair she was delighted but not at all surprised.

“I said, ‘Well, I'm a hairdresser, ‘” she laughs, admitting she had no idea his remark would change her life. Maureen recalls. “We met in an afternoon club, which was very popular in those days - places you would go for drinks in the afternoon.”

Asked if she would cut his mother’s hair, she continues: “I said, ‘Why can't your mother go to a salon?’ ‘Well, she gets bothered too much,’ he told me.”

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Realising Maureen was slightly nonplussed, he added: “You don't know. My brothers. You'll know them soon enough. They do a lot of people favours, but they do a lot of people harm.”

The well-dressed man was Charlie Kray, brother of notorious East End twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray, who ran an organised crime empire from the two-up, two-down Bethnal Green home they shared with their mum, Violet.

Chatting over hairpins and rollers, Maureen obtained a privileged insight into the inner workings of the infamous mobsters - to whom protection rackets, armed robbery and even murder were all in a day’s work.

Born identical twins in 1933, Maureen says Ronnie and Reggie - whose celebrity ‘pals’ included Diana Dors, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Barbara Windsor - had a telepathic bond.

Based in nearby Hackney, she went to their Vallance Road home every week to give Violet Kray a shampoo and set.

“Ronnie was the dominant one, but Reggie - the eldest by 15 minutes - was always the strongest,” she recalls. “Mrs Kray told me it was like that from when they were born.

“Mrs Kray told me that at the age of two they caught diphtheria. They were admitted to London Hospital. Reggie thrived and got better, and the doctors said, ‘You can come and take Reggie home,’ which she did.

“Then she was told that Ronnie had got worse and that he might not survive, so she marched down to the hospital and she said to the doctor, ‘I'm taking him home.’ And they said, ‘You can't move him. You know, this is really dangerous. He might not make it through the night.”

But the formidable Violet insisted, wrapping him in a blanket and walking him back home.

“In two days, Ronnie was better," says Maureen. "Being with Reggie saved Ronnie.”

Later, when they were locked up in different institutions, Maureen visited the brothers regularly. “I had never seen anything like the telepathy between the two," she says. “Reggie would tell me Ronnie would be calling soon, and he would call an hour later. And vice versa. And Reggie knew Ronnie was dying before the doctors did."

While serving time in Broadmoor Hospital for the murders of Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie and George Cornell, Ronnie, who had been certified insane, died of a heart attack on March 17 1995.

Reggie, who was also convicted of the murders, was locked up in Maidstone and sent his brother a tape recording just before his death.

“Reggie was trying to save him just like he had when they were little, “ says Maureen, who says he was telling Ronnie he was always by his side.

Now, 30 years on, the contents of the tape and other tapes Reggie sent to his brother, will be revealed in a new Amazon Prime documentary Krays: London’s Gangsters, which is available from July 19.

In the tape, Reggie says: “This is a message to my brother Ron from myself Reg. Hello Ron, Reg speaking, I’ve been very concerned for you of late, but I want to help you. You are making yourself suffer by thinking bad thoughts. You must only think of good thoughts.

“Any time you get down just play this tape again. “

Now an 84-year-old great-grandmother, Maureen remembers Reggie telling her he was getting sympathetic chest pains a week before Ronnie’s death.

"Ronnie had given up on life and Reggie knew it” she says.

From his prison cell, his heartbroken twin meticulously planned every detail of the funeral, too.

He wouldn't let anybody else organise anything,” says Maureen.

The hairdresser was also given an insight into the doomed marriage between Reggie and Frances, which saw her take her own life in 1967, aged just 23.

“It was the most miserable wedding - worse than a wake,” she says.”The only person who was happy that day was Mrs Kray.”

Meanwhile, the gangster twins’ celebrity grew - with them even being photographed by lensman to the stars David Bailey in 1965 and appearing on TV, albeit as ‘respectable’ club owners.

Maureen also enjoyed a taste of celebrity, through her part time modelling work, which saw her appear in The Mirror and won her cameos on The Benny Hill Show, Monty Python and Dave Allan, and saw her mixing with stars like Liza Minelli, Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor at The Krays’ nightclub Esmerelda’s Barn in swanky Knightsbridge.

Of the Krays’ TV interview, Maureen says: "You can clearly see who was the dominant brother. There is a moment when Reggie leans to one side because he is deaf in one ear when he answers the question about violence in their clubs, and then Ronnie interjects quietly, ‘We deal with it.’

"I think Reggie always felt in his shadow.

She also remembers some extraordinary stories from Violet.

“Mrs Kray told me a story about when they were very little,” she says. “She'd cook them sausages, mash, and peas, and Reggie used to count the peas on his plate. She'd say, "Reggie, what are you doing? I'm counting the peas—Ronnie's got two more peas than me. "I couldn't believe it.

"Reggie was always jealous, thinking his mum loved Ronnie more.” She also heard Ronnie’s many outbursts, when dealing with fellow gangsters at Vallance Road.

"I would always hear Ronnie screaming, 'What do you mean you can't do it? You will do it!’” she says. “Good job me and Mrs Kray were in the house because otherwise those men would have got a beating.”

Ronnie was also openly homosexual - despite it being illegal until 1967.

“Ronnie was very open about his sexual preferences,” says Maureen. “He brought a young boyfriend once to the club. He dressed him in beautiful suit, silk shirt, suit, tie - gorgeous. Very expensive shoes,” recalls Maureen.

Conservative peer Robert Boothby was among the gay clientele of Esmerelda’s. Although he denied being gay, he was pictured drinking with Ronnie and Leslie Holt, a criminal associate of the The Krays and Boothby’s lover.

“Boothby the liar we call him - always took Ronnie to the House of Lords - sometimes Teddy Smith - a member of The Firm would go too,” says Maureen. “Ronnie and Boothby shared Teddy as a gay lover.”

There were rumours that Reggie also had had gay flings.

“Reggie had girlfriends before Frances who he slept with, but he was definitely bisexual,” says Maureen. “He adored Frances because she was so innocent. When she came back from their honeymoon. I was in the living room with Mrs Kray and she said ‘Reggie didn't touch me on the honeymoon.’ They never consummated their marriage.”

Unable to cope with Ronnie’s constant presence, Frances left Reggie two months into the marriage, struggling with depression, before taking her life.

After that, Reggie’s taste for violence knew no bounds. But Maureen insists he never intended to murder Jack The Hat McVitie.

McVitie failed to fulfill a contract killing for the Krays and instead kept the money, before being lured to a house party where Reggie - who had been drinking heavily - stabbed him to death.

A year before the McVitie murder, Ronnie had brazenly shot dead George Cornell a member of a rival gang - in front of customers at the Blind Beggar pub in the East End

In March 1969, the Kray twins, aged 35, were sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 30 years - the longest sentences ever passed at the Old Bailey for murder.

Charlie Kray was sentenced to ten years for being an accessory to the murder of George Cornell.

Reggie died five years after Ronnie in October 2000, aged 66, from bladder cancer.

Maureen has devoted her life to charity fundraising selling donated items from stars to help to raise thousands for a number of good causes. In 2024 she was awarded an MBE in the News Years Honours List.

Of the brothers personalities she says: " I liked Ronnie more than Reggie because he was very generous very honest and loyal. He stuck to his word. Charlie was the best brother for a night out.. ”

Charlie, who also died in 2000, the same year as Reggie, remained one of Maureen’s closest friends.

“After he was released from prison, We used to go George Best’s club Blondes in London every Friday,” says Maureen.“One time, someone said to Charlie 'you’re so totally different to your brothers'.

“He told them: “ We had everything. We had every club, every pub, casinos - all the celebrities wanted to be with us. We had a good life till my brothers started murdering people.’

“Our whole table went silent .That was a tragic end to the Krays story.”

Krays: London’s Gangsters is available to watch from Saturday July 19 on Amazon Prime.