Most people meet Reggie Kray through a film or a grainy 1960s photograph: the tailored suit, the East End swagger, the twin brother at his side. Fewer know the stranger closing chapter — a dying man released on compassionate grounds in August 2000, spending his last weeks in a Norwich hotel room with his wife Roberta. This article follows that final stretch, then weighs what the records say about his marriages, his money, and his lasting legend.
Full name: Reginald Kray · Born: 24 October 1933 · Died: 1 October 2000 · Spouses: 2 · Children: None · Twin brother: Ronnie Kray
Quick snapshot
- Released on compassionate grounds on 26 August 2000 after a terminal bladder cancer diagnosis
- Died on 1 October 2000, aged 66
- Married twice — Frances Shea in 1965 (BBC News) and Roberta Jones in 1997 (Wikipedia)
- Reported net worth at death of about £50,000, with no audited record
- Peak combined wealth of £5–£10 million is speculation, not documentation
- The total number of murders attributed to the twins varies by source (£50,000)
- 26 August 2000 — compassionate release
- 1 October 2000 — death, 36 days later
- 17 March 1995 — Ronnie dies in Broadmoor; Reggie attends the funeral
- Estate distribution was never fully documented (Roberta Kray continues to speak and write about the twins)
- Roberta Kray continues to speak and write about the twins
- Films such as Legend (2015) keep the story in circulation (Roberta Kray continues to speak and write about the twins)
Eight rows, one pattern: the public biography is solid, while the money trail runs on estimates.
| Full name | Reginald Kray |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 October 1933, East London (Wikipedia’s Kray twins entry) |
| Died | 1 October 2000, Norwich, aged 66 |
| Occupation | Gangster, club owner, amateur boxer (TheKrayTwins.com) |
| Spouses | Frances Shea (m. 1965), Roberta Jones (m. 1997) |
| Children | None |
| Twin brother | Ronnie Kray |
| Prison sentence | Life imprisonment, 1969; served until 2000 |
The Krays’ story mixes crime myth and archive. Where a fact relies on a fan site, a low-confidence blog, or a contested account, this article flags it instead of repeating it as settled.
What happened to Reggie Kray?
Reggie’s final act began with a medical verdict. According to Crime+Investigation UK’s crime file on the twins, he was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer in the summer of 2000. BBC Norfolk reported that Home Secretary Jack Straw approved a compassionate release, and on 26 August 2000 — after a transfer to Wayland Prison, according to the London walking-tour site Walks.com — he left custody.
Reggie Kray was free for 36 days. That number defines his last chapter: a release built for dying, not for living, and a public story his widow was left to manage.
When did Reggie Kray die?
- Died on 1 October 2000 in Norwich, aged 66
- Terminal bladder cancer was the reason for his compassionate release
- One account dates the diagnosis to 3 August 2000
The diagnosis and the death are close enough to make the compassionate release a race against time: from the reported summer diagnosis to the October death was roughly eight weeks.
Did Reggie Kray go to Ronnie’s funeral?
- Ronnie died on 17 March 1995 in Broadmoor Hospital, aged 61
- Reggie, still a serving prisoner, attended the funeral in 1995 (A&E’s true-crime history)
The funeral photographs, with Reggie accompanied by prison officers, became some of the most reproduced images of the twins — a closing picture that turned them from crime story into legend.
What happened to Reggie Kray’s wife?
- Frances Shea married Reggie in 1965 and died in 1967, two years into the marriage
- Roberta Jones married Reggie in prison in 1997
- Roberta was at his side in Norwich during his final weeks (BBC Norfolk)
The parallel is almost too neat: one marriage lasted less than three years and ended in suicide; the second lasted until his death and placed Roberta at the centre of his exit from the stage.
Did Reggie Kray have a kid?
No — and that single fact shapes everything after his death. Reggie Kray had no children from either marriage, according to TheKrayTwins.com.
- No children from the first marriage to Frances Shea
- No children from the second marriage to Roberta Jones
With no direct heirs, the inheritance question moves to the wider Kray family and to whatever the estate actually contained — which is one reason the money story became so easy to mythologise.
What this means: the Kray surname had no natural heir, so the right to tell the story defaulted to biographers, filmmakers, and the surviving family.
How many times did Reggie Kray marry?
Twice. The first marriage, to Frances Shea in 1965, lasted until her death in 1967 (The Independent). The second, to Roberta Jones, took place in prison in 1997.
Who was Reggie Kray’s first wife?
- Frances Shea married Reggie in 1965 (BBC News)
- She died in 1967, two years after the marriage (The Independent’s profile of Reggie)
- Her death is widely attributed to suicide
Who was Reggie Kray’s second wife?
- Roberta Jones married Reggie in prison in 1997 (Wikipedia)
- She visited him regularly during his sentence, according to TheKrayTwins.com
- She stayed with him in Norwich in his final weeks (BBC Norfolk)
The pattern: five years of marriage against 32 years of prison is the arithmetic Reggie Kray actually lived.
Who was tougher, Ronnie or Reggie Kray?
The popular answer — Ronnie was the violent one — is only half right. Reggie killed Jack “the Hat” McVitie in 1967, and that killing produced his murder conviction, according to The Independent’s profile of Reggie.
Five rows, one pattern: the twin who looked more dangerous was not the only one who killed.
| Ronnie Kray | Reggie Kray | |
|---|---|---|
| Life | 24 October 1933 – 17 March 1995 (Cityreporter.co.uk) | 24 October 1933 – 1 October 2000 (Wikipedia) |
| Marriages | Elaine Mildener (div. 1989), Kate Howard (div. 1994) (BBC News) | Frances Shea (m. 1965), Roberta Jones (m. 1997) |
| Children | None | None |
| Prison time | 26 years, died in Broadmoor (A&E) | 31–32 years, released 2000 |
| Public image | The openly violent twin (Cityreporter.co.uk) | The controlled twin; killed Jack “the Hat” McVitie in 1967 |
The media built a distinction between mad Ronnie and controlled Reggie, and nearly every film repeats it. The record is simpler: both brothers were lethal, and Reggie’s lethal moment was the one that produced the murder conviction.
How many people did the Krays have killed?
- The two murders most commonly attributed to the twins are the 1966 shooting of George Cornell and the 1967 killing of Jack McVitie (The Independent)
- Reggie’s conviction rests on McVitie’s killing
- Some sources suggest higher totals, but no reliable record supports a definitive count
The honest answer: the twins are believed to have committed at least two murders, and the documented one that ended their run was McVitie’s.
How tall was Reggie Kray?
- No reliable figure appears in the sources reviewed here
- Online numbers vary and trace to unverified profiles
This answer separates the archive from the myth: the Krays’ height obsesses fan pages, but the record assembled for this article contains no sourced measurement. Treat any exact number as unverified.
Who inherited the Krays’ money?
The short answer is that nobody outside the family knows. The most specific figure in circulation — a reported net worth at death of about £50,000 for Reggie, from the UK news blog BritainDaily.uk — is not backed by a probate record. At their peak, the twins’ combined wealth was sometimes speculated at £5–10 million, but the biography site Cityreporter.co.uk concedes that no reliable audited figure exists.
What the record allows us to say is mostly negative: Reggie left no children, no published probate inventory, and no audited net worth. That gap is itself the finding.
What was Reggie Kray’s net worth?
- Reported at about £50,000 at death (BritainDaily.uk) — reported, not audited
- Twins’ peak combined wealth speculated at £5–10 million (Cityreporter.co.uk)
- No probate record or audited figure exists to settle either number
The gap between those numbers is the real story: if £50,000 is close, the Krays’ money had disappeared by 2000; if £5–10 million was real, the fortune was hidden or spent decades earlier.
A reported £50,000 estate and a speculated £5–10 million peak are not contradictions — they are both unverifiable. Anyone citing a “Kray fortune” is repeating a number the documents don’t support.
The takeaway for researchers: net worth discussions should be labelled as rumour, not accounting, because the only hard numbers in this story are the dates of birth, release, and death.
Key dates in Reggie Kray’s life
Ten dates, one pattern: the early decades are crime, the final decade is loss.
- — Born in East London (Wikipedia’s Kray twins entry)
- — Marries Frances Shea (BBC News)
- — Frances Shea dies; Reggie kills Jack McVitie (The Independent)
- — Arrested, tried and sentenced to life imprisonment (A&E’s true-crime history)
- — Ronnie dies in Broadmoor Hospital; Reggie attends the funeral
- — Reggie marries Roberta Jones in prison (Wikipedia)
- — One account dates his cancer diagnosis to this day (Crime+Investigation UK)
- — Released on compassionate grounds (Crime+Investigation UK)
- — Dies in Norwich, aged 66
The pattern: 32 years inside split one life into two very different halves — Ronnie’s ended in a hospital ward at 61, Reggie’s in a hotel suite at 66.
What’s confirmed and what isn’t
Confirmed facts
- Born 24 October 1933; died 1 October 2000 (Wikipedia)
- Married twice: Frances Shea (1965) and Roberta Jones (1997) (BBC News)
- No children (TheKrayTwins.com)
- Convicted of murder in 1969; served until 2000 (A&E)
- Released on compassionate grounds on 26 August 2000 (Crime+Investigation UK)
- Killed Jack McVitie in 1967 (The Independent)
What’s unclear
- Exact net worth at death (reported £50,000, unverified — BritainDaily.uk)
- Peak combined wealth (£5–£10 million is speculation, not audited — Cityreporter.co.uk)
- Total number of murders the twins committed (figures vary; no reliable record)
- How the estate was divided (details never made fully public)
- Reggie’s height (no sourced measurement)
- Whether Reggie’s expressions of regret amount to an apology (no formal apology is documented)
The balance of evidence is firm on dates and thin on money — exactly the opposite of the legend, where the money is huge and the dates barely matter.
Quotes and recollections
“I want to see the sky and feel the rain on my face.”
— Reggie Kray, on arriving in Norwich after his release, as reported at the time
“They were not ordinary criminals; they were celebrities who happened to be criminals.”
— John Pearson, author of The Profession of Violence
“She was the love of my life.”
— Reggie Kray, on his first wife Frances Shea
The unifying thread: every quote tightens the legend, even the private ones were made public — which is the Krays’ story in miniature.
The takeaway
Reggie Kray’s story keeps being retold because it compresses the glamour and horror of 1960s London into one man’s face. The record also shows a quieter ending: a reported £50,000 estate (BritainDaily.uk), a terminal diagnosis, and a 36-day release that was less a comeback than a death watch (Crime+Investigation UK). For anyone researching or writing about the twins today, the editorial choice is clear — build on the confirmed dates and treat every unverified pound as rumour, or hand readers a fortune that no document supports.
Related reading
Two more profiles from the same team:
- Roger Rogerson: Life, Crimes and Death of the Disgraced Detective
- Chad Morgan: Biography, Cause of Death, Net Worth & Biggest Hits
For a comprehensive overview of his criminal career and personal life, see Reggie Krays life and crimes.
Frequently asked questions
How old was Reggie Kray when he died?
66. Born on 24 October 1933, he died on 1 October 2000, according to Wikipedia’s Kray twins entry.
Where is Reggie Kray buried?
Chingford Mount Cemetery in north-east London.
Did Reggie Kray ever apologize for his crimes?
The sources reviewed here document no formal public apology to the families of the men he killed. In interviews and memoirs, Reggie expressed regret, but the record contains nothing that amounts to a full public acknowledgment.
What was Reggie Kray’s childhood like?
He and Ronnie were born in East London in 1933 and grew up in the East End. Both boys boxed as amateurs; Reggie’s ring discipline was part of his reputation before prison (Walks.com).
Did Reggie Kray box professionally?
He boxed as an amateur in the East End and was known as a disciplined fighter, but he never built a professional ring career — crime overtook boxing in his late teens (TheKrayTwins.com).
How long was Reggie Kray in prison?
Roughly 31 to 32 years, depending on the counting method. Convicted in 1969, he served until his compassionate release in August 2000 (A&E).
What movies are about Reggie Kray?
The best-known modern film is Legend (2015), with Tom Hardy playing both Kray twins. The Krays (1990), starring Gary and Martin Kemp, covers the same story for an earlier generation.
Did Reggie Kray write an autobiography?
Yes. Reggie wrote several books while imprisoned, most notably My Story (1988), and continued writing until his death in 2000.
Victoria Hayes is Editor-in-Chief at Aussie Wire Hub, overseeing editorial standards, publication decisions and corrections.