Inside the Firm - The Untold Story of The Krays' Reign of Terror by Tony Lambrianou

allow drunken behaviour around them. I remember that incident in particular because it was the night that Reggie came over to me and said, ‘Come and see us soon, Tony, you and Chris – but be careful of him,’ meaning Eric Mason.
    I hadn’t realised there was any bad feeling there. Apparently Eric had been running around sticking their name up – using it in front of a lot of people in the West End for his own advancement. The twins weren’t too pleased about it, and were even less impressed with Eric after a dramatic turn of events in another West End nightspot.
    Maurice King, in addition to his partnership with Eric and Kenny in the Brown Derby, owned a club called the Starlight in Oxford Street; he was also legitimately involved in the early careers of many of the sixties’ pop singers and groups, including P. J. Proby, the Walker Brothers, Shirley Bassey, the Rocking Berries and Jackie Trent. Jackie, who went on to make a fortune with her husband Tony Hatch as his songwriting partner (composing the Neighbours TV theme tune, among other credits), started her rise to fame as a barmaid in the Starlight. Her first husband, Drew Harvey, was very friendly with Maurice.
    At this time the Brown Derby was like a Kray club, but the Richardsons had started getting into the Starlight. Everyone was aware that trouble was brewing, particularly between the Krays and the Richardsons, over the balance of power in the West End, especially with regard to protection in the clubs and businesses. The area was divided up among three or four firms, with the twins taking the lion’s share, but the Richardsons were expanding fast and people were treading on each other’s toes.
    One particular night, Erie was in the Starlight with Davy Clare, a man named Boot and Maurice King, who was behind the bar. Frankie Fraser, a notorious villain from south London, turned up for a drink with some of the Richardson firm, and an argument broke out between the two groups.
    It all stemmed from an old Dartmoor sore: Eric had apparently taken the side of a Scottish firm against the Londoners in the prison, which caused a lot of bad feeling and was surprising, since Eric was a south Londoner himself. The argument in the Starlight suddenly went off, and Eric wound up getting the treatment. He was dragged out of the club and badly done with pitchforks and shovels, after which he was thrown out of a car outside a hospital in north London. The police called it a gangland warning.
    No one was quite sure whether the Richardsons were behind it or not. Assumptions cause trouble, but feelings were running high and Chris and I were ready to make one with him – to take his side – against Frank and the Richardsons. Eric, for some reason, didn’t want to know.
    At this time we were very active, the nucleus of our little lot being Davy Clare, another villain called Peter Metcalfe, Chris and myself. Peter, Chris and I went to visit Eric in hospital. He was all patched up on his hands, his legs and his feet, and his head had been slashed. He’d been cut up quite a bit, in fact. We told him we wanted to do something about it, but he seemed very reluctant.
    When he came out of hospital, the twins called him round to their house in Vallance Road, Bethnal Green, and asked him what he thought should be done. Again he said, ‘Nothing.’ I think Reggie and Ronnie were putting pressure on him because they were looking for a row with the other firm – ‘They’ve had a go at one of ours.’ Eric’s attitude left a bad taste, and the twins lost a lot of respect for him.
     
    Chris and I had already seen at first hand what certain members of the Richardsons were capable of doing, notably George Cornell, who was later shot dead by Ronnie Kray in the Blind Beggar pub. Earlier, during this period with Eric, we’d heard of a long firm which was being operated in a block of offices in Great PortlandStreet. A long firm is an outwardly respectable company which will build up