English Gangster Ronnie Kray 1964 in Enugu, Nigeria.

English Gangster Ronnie Kray, who with his identical twin brother Reggie were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in the East End of London during the 1950s and 1960s, standing with a local police officer in Enugu, Nigeria.

In 1963, instigated by their business partner Leslie Payne, the Krays heavily invested in a construction project to build a new town near Enugu. Ronnie went to visit the project several times in 1964. On his visits, he was given a welcome fitting to a Diplomat or Royalty, than a gangster from the East End. He was wined, dined and given VIP treatment. In the summer of 1964, due to Payne's arrogance and mishandling of a local contractor's backhander, the project went sour and they lost their money.

For their various crimes in England, the Krays were eventually arrested in 1968 and convicted in 1969, and were both sentenced to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 30 years for the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie, the longest sentences ever passed at the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court, London) for murder. Ronnie died in Broadmoor Hospital in 1995. Reggie died one month after being released on compassionate grounds due to having inoperable bladder cancer in 2000.
Location: Enugu
Date: 1964
Photographer: Unknown
Source: Bernard O'Mahoney