Running with the Krays

Born in wartime London's East End, Billy Webb grew up among the violence of air-raids and street warfare. His first weapon was a knuckleduster which he had made to measure when he was 11 years old, for the price of five cigarettes. When he first met the Kray twins they were scraping a living by door-knocking for old clothes to be sold in street markets. For three years Webb and the Krays were on the run together as army deserters, and over the course of time Webb was a friend, ally and foe of the Krays in their violent rise to fame. In this account of his life in London's underworld, Billy Webb tells of street gangs, racecourse con-games, protections rackets, beatings, maimings, intimidation and even murders. He offers evidence of police corruption and insights into the interdependence of both sides of the underworld scene. The book encompasses household names of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the Krays, Rachmann, the Richardsons and Jack Spot, and brings the story through to the modern day.