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The Kray twins ran a lucrative bodyguard and 'protection' business for Hollywood stars from behind bars which prison officials were powerless to stop, secret documents reveal today. The gangland crime lords controlled the business from their cells while Reggie was in jail and paranoid schizophrenic Ronnie was in Broadmoor high-security hospital.
The brothers boasted on their business card that their clients included 'Hollywood stars and Arab Noblemen', such as singer Frank Sinatra, adding: 'We have never lost a client.' The Krays, who had been jailed for life for murder, said their services included bodyguards, security and 'house protection' – a chilling echo of the protection racket they ran in the East End.
Sinatra was said to have recruited an 18-strong team of bodyguards from the firm, Krayleigh Enterprises, before his June 1985 visit to the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Before they were arrested in 1968, the Krays mixed with many stars of the era, including Sinatra, Judy Garland, Diana Dors, and Barbara Windsor.
Some even visited them in prison. Officials at Broadmoor raised the alarm to the Home Office in July 1985, after finding one of Ronnie Kray's business cards. But amazingly they claimed they were powerless to ban the fledgling company, which the twins ran with their brother, Charlie, and another man who was not in prison.
The memo to the Home Office questioned whether the Krays should be allowed to run the business, but warned there were no provisions to stop Ronnie as he was held under the Mental Health Act.
The memo, written by an unnamed Broadmoor official, said: 'As far as I know there is nothing in the Mental Health Act to prevent people setting up companies but I know less about the regulations relating to prisons and the law relating to companies.
'Clearly, however, I do not want the Krays to be seen to be using Broadmoor and it may well be that if he is well enough to be the director of a company he is too well to be in Broadmoor.'
The memo, on headed Broadmoor paper, was contained in a prison dossier on the Kray twins released under Freedom of Information legislation.
The dossier did not include the Home Office's response to the memo, although an unnamed civil servant has scribbled 'Advice please!' on the top of the letter.
The file contained a photocopy of a Krayleigh Enterprises business card, which listed all three brothers as directors and added: 'Personal aides to the Hollywood stars and Arab Noblemen.'
The Kray twins were both held at Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight after they were convicted of the murder of Jack 'The Hat' McVitie and sentenced to life in 1969.
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