WHEN Ronnie Field arrived at Parkhurst Prison at 2am on a stormy night, he was greeted at reception by the Kray twins, bearing gifts.
The armed robber never met Britain’s most notorious gangsters, but they welcomed him at the request of their own gangster boss, Joey Pyle.
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Reformed robber Ronnie Field, who knew the Kray twins, is now returning to crime Credit: Paul Edwards
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Fearsome gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in London in 1964. Credit: Getty
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Ronnie with his brother on his wedding day in 1964. Credits: Submitted
While the crimes of twins Ronnie and Reggie have been chronicled in countless books and movies, underworld figures Pyle and Field have escaped the public glare.
And they liked it that way.
“We’re happy in the shadows with money,” as Joey, once dubbed London’s don of dons, told his friend.
Now, for the first time, 77-year-old Field has decided to reveal the secrets of his life as one of the country’s most feared bank robbers.
And how he ended up in the dock with the twins’ older brother, Charlie Kray, for conspiring to import millions of pounds worth of cocaine.
He met some of the country’s most notorious criminals, including Freddie Foreman and Charles Bronson, and his life was saved by notorious tough man turned actor Dave Courtney.
Ronnie, whose book Nefarious — about his life of crime — comes out this month, has survived two shootings, spent 23 years in prison and at one point made so much money from defrauding banks that he had an account at Harrods.
But he doesn’t want would-be gangsters to think there’s anything glamorous about the life he’s led.
Ronnie tells The Sun: “I think the obsession with the Kray family is over the top.
“I knew them, I knew what they were like.
Kray twins Ronnie and Reggie had one rule for prison visits they lived by, a former friend of the notorious gangsters reveals
“Young people idolize them.
“When young people say ‘I would like that’, I say ‘no, I wouldn’t.’
“Think about the time you were hit, look at me – 23 years behind bars.”
However, violence was part of Ronnie’s upbringing after his birth in a workhouse in Epsom, Surrey.
His safe-cracker dad Bill abandoned the family when his son was five and the boy faced a reign of terror from Grandma and Uncle Fred – until Ronnie almost killed them in revenge.
He recalls: “My grandmother had a big stick with protrusions — it was her favorite weapon, she often beat us with it.”
“I attacked her, I tried to strangle her.
“After that she left us alone.”
When his 6ft 2in uncle, a coal miner, raped one of his sisters, Ronnie admits: “I killed him with a brick.
“I fell out of the window on his head, ran down the stairs and threw grandma out of him.”
After leaving school, Ronnie found work in the construction trades and as a gardener, but gangster Pyle suggested a different job.
Initially, business owners were threatened to hand over money for protection.
Back then it was as part of a gang that robbed shops, banks and betting shops with sawed-off shotguns.
He says: “My job was to be the first in and the last to leave.
“I would always blow up the ceiling – as soon as you do that, people go to the floor.”
At one point, he was robbing buildings every day, sometimes doing two jobs a day.
Dad-of-two Ronnie says: “I had a good lifestyle – clubs, suits, handmade shirts, handmade shoes.”
He bought a house in Sutton, south London, with cash and a Flash Rover V8 car.
“Favorite Weapon”
When his daughter Sadie got married, he cheekily referred to the money he made robbing banks in his speech.
A smiling Ronnie recalls: “I said, ‘I’d like to thank Barclays, Midlands, National Westminster.
“Without them this wedding would not have been possible.”
His first wife, Carol, was not impressed with the underworld characters he was hanging out with, and the couple divorced in 1976.
That same year, Ronnie married his second wife, Jackie, was nearly killed by a hitman, and went to prison for the first time.
The attempt on his life took place while he was walking in Tooting, South London.
A man rushed at him, firing a revolver.
He was shot in the foot and managed to fight back, hitting the would-be assassin in the stomach.
They both escaped alive, and Ronnie says, “I never found out what it was about.”
But his luck ran out during the robbery of a clothing factory in Leeds, which was supposed to contain a salary of £100,000.
The inside information was that they had to go through a reinforced metal door, but it was only a wooden door.
The bullets fired by Ronnie hit the staff.
Although he felt no remorse at the time, he says now: “My biggest regret is that I shot those people — it was an accident, they didn’t deserve it.
“They were not like us.
“One of us gets shot, that’s the name of the game.
“Four were injured, but none of them died.”
The group managed to get out, take off their overalls, change cars twice and get home on the highway.
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Charlie Kray outside Maidstone Prison after visiting brother Reggie in 1995 Credit: PA: Press Association
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Crowds lined the streets for Ronnie Kray’s funeral in 1995. Credit: Getty
They had no idea that the boy, suspecting that they were robbers, took the license plates off another car.
As they drove down the eerily empty road, they saw a bus crossing their path and armed policemen on the embankment.
Ronnie had such a reputation as a bully that one of his accomplices asked him not to “lose his rags”.
He replied, “Do you think I’ll start with that up there?”
Ronnie was jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery, aggravated burglary, two counts of carrying a firearm with intent and four counts of assault with intent to rob.
But when he arrived at Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight from the Kray twins he was met with a warm welcome.
Ronnie recalls: “Shraf said at the reception: ‘You must be someone important’.
“I said, ‘Why?’ And he said, ‘Look over there’ – and there stood Ron and Reg.
“They had coffee, sugar and powdered milk in a bag for me.
“They were in charge.
“Who gets out of his cell at two o’clock in the morning and walks across the courtyard of a high-security prison to greet someone who has just entered?”
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were serving life sentences for two murders, but were believed to have killed many more.
The newcomer discovered that their reputation for extreme violence was no myth.
Ronnie recalls: “I saw Ronnie Kray pour a stainless steel bucket of boiling water on a weirdo’s head because he didn’t fill his cup.
Extreme violence
“A click of a finger and there were other people.
“They were dangerous until the day they died.”
Before his release, Ronnie was sent to Maidstone Prison, where he found himself working as a gardener with Charles Bronson, the man dubbed Britain’s toughest prisoner.
Ronnie says: “He’s as strong as anything.
“He is a very honest man, a very generous man.
“He should have come out years ago, but I don’t think he wants to come out.”
A week after he got out himself, Ronnie returned to the robberies, then accepted an offer to grab £10 million worth of diamonds at Gatwick Airport.
Ronnie sensed something was wrong with the operation and his fears were proven correct when his car was surrounded by armed police.
He claims that the police intended to shoot him, but could not because of the public nearby.
One policeman, he says, told him: “You were very lucky because you went today.”
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
This time he was sent to the high-security Belmarsh prison in south-east London, where gangster Dave Courtney saved his life during a riot.
Ronnie was having a heart attack, but prison officials wouldn’t let Dave or anyone else come to his aid.
He recalls: “Dave Courtney dragged me away.
“They started hitting Dave with sticks, but he just laid down on top of me.
“Then he pulled me behind him until he entered the cell, and then he closed the door with his foot.
“Dave saved my life.”
They remained friends on the outside and spoke for two days before Dave killed himself aged 64 last October.
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Former gangster friend Dave Courtney poses with a gun Credit: Alamy
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Britain’s toughest prisoner Charles Bronson arrives at the Old Bailey in 2004. Credit: Rex Features
Ronnie says: “I couldn’t believe he did it.
“He had just bought a car, bought a boat, spent £15,000 on his teeth and then he went and killed himself.
“He was riddled with cancer.
“He never showed it.
“I spoke to him two days ago and he had a drink with us a few weeks ago and he never mentioned it.”
Ronnie Field came last as a result of his friendship with Charlie Kray.
The twins’ older brother told Ronnie that some gangsters in Newcastle he had known for 20 years wanted him to supply them with cocaine.
Unbeknownst to Ronnie, Charlie had only met them two weeks earlier.
Neither of them realized that they were actually undercover police officers.
Ronnie insists that he was not a drug dealer and that Charlie was not a high-level criminal.
“Charlie was a duck and a diver,” he says.
“He would buy a bunch of equipment, put it in his garage and sell it.
“It was just a few kilos of cocaine that I borrowed from someone.
“None of us were drug dealers.
“I don’t snort cocaine.”
I would like to thank Barclays, Midlands and Nat West. Without them this wedding would not be possible
Ronnie Field
They handed over the cocaine to undercover officers and Charlie promised to deliver five kilos of the drug every fortnight in an operation which could be worth £39m.
Ronnie, then 49, was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.
It was the last time he strayed on the wrong side of the law – although he’s still getting offers for criminal jobs at the age of 77.
Now as a grandfather of six children, he says: “After that, I didn’t make up my mind anymore.”
“I’ve had loads of offers – I still do.”
But the constant fear of being caught convinced him to keep turning them down.
Ronnie concludes: “People think it’s easy. It’s not.
“You always seem to get up early in the morning in case someone knocks on the door.
“You always wait for a knock on the door.”
- Nefarious: A Life In Crime, by Ronnie Field, with Martin Knight, is available from 23 May (HarperNonFiction, £22).
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education