Krays, Lucan, Ruth Ellis and Jack the Ripper on murder list linked to pubs
Blind Beggar pub where Krays (inset) murdered George Cornell in 1966 - Credit: Archant
The Krays have joined Lord Lucan and Jack the Ripper in a new guidebook about historic murder linked to pubs.
The guide reveals where to find more than 250 boozers involved in murder and mayhem down the centuries.
The Krays, of course, are well documented for rival gangster George Cornell’s murder in the Blind Beggar in Whitechapel in 1966.
Ronnie Kray’s brazen act pulling a shotgun on Cornell at point-blank range joins the infamous black list back to the 1888 Whitechapel Murders when Jack the Ripper stalked his victims who frequented the Ten Bells in Spitalfields.
“The history of our pubs has gone hand-in-hand with the history of crime,” author James Moore says. “We can link pubs that can still be found today with horrifying tales from their past.”
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James includes the Plumber’s Arms in Belgravia where Lady Lucan burst in screaming for help after her estranged husband Lord Lucan had battered their children’s nanny to death in 1974.
The Magdala in Hampstead is also on the list, where Ruth Ellis shot dead her lover David Blakely on Easter Sunday, 1955.
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Pubs and hotels were used for murder inquests and autopsies until the 1920s, which also had connections with executions, James reveals. Men condemned to death were once allowed a last drink in pubs.
Pubs are also implicated in high treason. Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot was hatched in a tavern in 1605, as any schoolkid will tell you.
James Moore’s Murder at The Inn—a History of Crime in Britain’s Pubs, is published by the History Press at £9.99.