Page 192 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

weeks ahead of a pending General Election which Labour was hoping to
win).

The newspaper backed down, sacking its editor, printing an apology and
paying Boothby £40,000 in an out-of-court settlement. Because of this, other
newspapers were unwilling to expose the Krays' connections and criminal
activities.

The police investigated the Krays on several occasions, but the brothers'
reputation for violence made witnesses afraid to testify. There was also a
problem for both main political parties. The Conservative Party was unwilling
to press the police to end the Krays' power for fear that the Boothby
connection would again be publicised, and the Labour Party, in power from
October 1964, but with a wafer-thin majority in the House of Commons and
the prospect of another General Election needing to be called in the very
near future, did not want Driberg's connections to Ronnie Kray (and his sexual
predilections) to get into the public realm.

George Cornell

Ronnie Kray shot and killed George Cornell, a member of
the Richardson Gang (a rival South London gang), at the
Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel on 9 March 1966. The
day before, there had been a shoot-out at Mr. Smith's, a
nightclub in Catford, involving the Richardson gang and
Richard Hart, an associate of the Krays, who was shot
dead. This public shoot-out led to the arrest of nearly all
the Richardson gang. Cornell, by chance, was not
present at the club during the shoot-out and was not
arrested. Whilst visiting the hospital to check up on his
Figure 84 George Cornell
friends, he randomly chose to visit the Blind Beggar pub,
only a mile away from where the Krays lived.

Ronnie was drinking in another pub when he learned of
Cornell's whereabouts. He went there with his driver
"Scotch Jack" John Dickson and his assistant Ian Barrie.
Ronnie went into the pub with Barrie, walked straight to
Cornell and shot him in the head in public view. Barrie,
confused by what happened, fired five shots in the air
warning the public not to report what had happened to
the police. Just before he was shot, Cornell remarked,
Figure 85 Blind Beggar Pub "Well, look who's here." He died at 3:00am in hospital.

Page192
Ronnie Kray was already suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time of
the killing.