Former Krays’ gangland henchmen are planning a ‘meet’ in London’s East End today to sort out some ‘dosh’ for former Page 3 model Maureen Flanagan’s cancer care charity fundraiser.
Among them are ageing Freddie Foreman and Chris Lambrianou who join Maureen at the Marquis of Cornwallis pub in Bethnal Green Road.
The retired tabloid pin-up, who runs Hackney’s Paragon Trust charity shop in Well Street, is including Krays memorabilia along with prizes donated by East End traders to go on sale, be raffled or go into a tombola.
The 78-year-old one-time star pin-up of the 1960s’ Fleet Street press has chosen the pub on the corner of Vallance Road where the infamous Kray family lived to raise funds for Macmillan Nurses, with 150 supporters expected.
But it’s not a ‘Kray twins theme’ event, which Maureen usually runs every autumn at the Blind Beggar in Whitechapel where Ronnie Kray shot dead rival gangster George Cornell in 1966.
Foreman and Lambrianou, both associates of ‘the firm’ the Krays operated from their mum Violet’s home in Vallance Road, are signing copies of their books at the Cornwallis fundraiser.
Freddie, now 85, disposed of small-time crook Jack ‘the hat’ McVittie’s body after Reggie Kray stabbed him to death in Stoke Newington in 1967, then served time as an accessory when the twins finally went down for life at the Old Bailey in 1969.
Lambrianou blew open safes for a living—usually other people’s—before getting banged up for a ‘10 stretch’ at the same trial. He has long retired as a cracksman and been working with the Ley Community in Oxford helping young offenders go straight.
Also turning up for today’s bash is John H Stracey, former welterweight world champ who grew up on the Collingwood estate in the 1960s just behind the Blind Beggar and remembers the night Cornell was shot.
Prizes include ‘dinner for two’ at Pellicci’s in Bethnal Green, the café where the Krays notoriously held a ‘turf war armistice meet’ with the rival Richardsons south London mob.
Maureen’s charity shop in Well Street raises money for Bethnal Green’s Repton boxing club where the Krays put on the gloves as teenagers, as well as funds for Victims Support and St Joseph’s Hospice. Her charity ‘do’ at the Marquis of Cornwallis, Bethnal Green Road, starts 1pm, going on till 10pm.
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