The infamous East End gangster Ronnie Kray and Conservative peer Robert Boothby struck up an unlikely friendship in the 1960s over their shared taste in young men, spy files have revealed.
Newly declassified intelligence documents have exposed how the mobster and the lord frequented West End night clubs and gambling dens owned by the Kray brothers to "hunt" for young men.
Kray and Boothy met after a cheque stolen from the peer was "passed" through one of the Kray's betting rooms. They soon forged a friendship revolving around London's underground gay scene.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The pair were being closely watched my MI5 agents after their liaisons prompted fears from the Home Secretary at the time that they could spark a new Profumo scandal, says The Independent.
Following a surveillance operation in 1964, one agent concluded that: "Boothby is a kinky fellow and likes to meet odd people, and Ronnie obviously wants to meet people of good social standing, he having the odd background he's got; and, of course, both are queers."
But there was no indication that the men were anything more than friends – despite media reports at the time. "Certainly the suggestion that Boothby has been having an affair with the gangster Kray is hardly true," said the report.
This didn't stop the Sunday Mirror from publishing a front page story in 1964 headlined: "Peer and Gangster: Yard Probe. The paper didn't name him, but ended up paying Booth £40,000 in damages.
"Thereafter the media were scared off pursuing the story by fear of further libel suits," Professor Christopher Andrew, who was MI5's official historian, told the Daily Telegraph.
MI5 believed that the Sunday Mirror story was fed to the newspaper by the Nash family, who were on the Kray brothers' biggest rivals.
"If this had come out in 1964 it would have been a huge scandal," Richard Dunley from the National Archives told the BBC. "As tabloid headlines go, you can imagine what would have happened."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
-
Reader favouritesSpeed Read A selection of short but sweet features from across The Week magazine
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drug
Speed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policy
Speed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?
Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UK
Speed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakers
Speed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’
Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?
Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
