Kate And Ronnie Kray - Mandy Bruce

 A Kray wife tells all and I do mean all. In fact, this book is the reason why Ron Kray divorced the author. Kate Howard Kray describes her marriage to one of Britain's most famous gangsters. When Kate visited Ron at Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital, he was taken with her bubbly personality and wit.

They hit it off immediately, and Ron, who claimed to be bisexual rather than strictly gay, proposed to her. In the book, she tells of the challenges of marriage to an institutionalized paranoid schizophrenic former gangster; she basically acted as his errand girl, delivering messages and bringing him news during her twice-a-week visits. They never consummated their marriage, as inmates did not have conjugal rights. And while Ron had boyfriends in Broadmoor, he didn't mind if his young and reasonably attractive wife had her own; his only stipulation was that she be discreet.

Well, she wasn't. In this book, she describes in detail an affair she had with a man she calls Pa, and Ron was humiliated and incensed -- not at the affair itself, but at her writing about it. He promptly had divorce papers drawn up when she wouldn't withdraw the book from publication. Can't really blame him, it was a pretty cruddy thing to do. All told, this is quite an interesting read. I also recommend Charlie Kray's "My Brothers and Me", which is also enlightening (he made it clear that he was not a big fan of his former sister-in-law).