- "Some of my fondest memories are of the nights I would take Frances to the cinemas in the West End of London. We would go to the Odeon in Marble Arch and in the darkness, once we were seated, I would glance round at Frances, who had the most beautiful brown eyes I have ever seen, and Frances would know I was looking at her, and she would smile as though pleased. Little things like this are what true love is really all about, and the secret type of incidents that make one’s heart sing."
- ―Reggie Kray, Born Fighter 1991
Frances Elsie Kray (neé Shea) (23 September 1943 - 7 June 1967) was the first wife to Reggie Kray, the pair married on the 19th April 1965 at St James Church, Bethnal Green. Her marriage to Reggie Kray lasted less than a year when she left, although the marriage was never formally dissolved.
Her father, Frank Shea Sr., had run the gambling at The Regency Club in Stoke Newington, which is how she came to the attention of the twins. Her brother Frank Shea occasionally worked as a driver for the Krays and The Firm. An inquest came to the conclusion that she took her own life in 1967, aged 23.
Early Life[]
Frances was born on the 23rd September 1943 in Shoreditch, London to Elsie Shea, a twenty-six-year-old seamstress and Frank Shea Sr., a woodworker (aged thirty-one at the time) from Hoxton but of Irish descent. She was born at 57 Ormsby Street and was baptised on the 17th October 1943, by Father Henry Wincott. Frances attended Randal Cremer, after primary school Frances attended grammar school: Dalston County and then left school at 15 years old. Frances first met Reggie Kray when she was fourteen through her brother, and was regularly writing to Reggie when she was fifteen but the pair did not date until late 1959 when she was sixteen. Her childhood friends and previous boyfriends described her as a popular, vivacious, bubbly girl.
1960s[]
Reggie and Frances were in a relationship after she had left school, Frances worked at the Strand in a clerical job. In May 1960 they visited Jersey for a holiday. In August 1961, Reggie took her on a motoring trip to Devon and Cornwall where they enjoyed fancy hotels, shark fishing, horse riding, beaches, speedboats and nightclubs. In the Autumn of 1961, Reggie took her on a short trip to the Netherlands, when they got back he proposed to her at Steeple Bay in Essex, when she was eighteen and he was twenty-seven. She refused, considering herself to be too young for marriage. Reggie bought Frances a pekingese dog, Mitzi but Elsie wouldn't have it in the house. In April 1962, Frances took an eleven day cruise which took in Majorca, Gibraltar, Algeciras and Morocco. In August, Frances and Reggie had a holiday in the south of France. In September, Frances went on holiday to Spain with friends, Reggie paid for it and trusted her but while she there she had started taking purple hearts (a street drug that was a combination of amphetamine and barbiturate). At the end of 1962 the couple had a big fight and broke up and then went on to have a very on and off relationship during 1963 and 1964. In 1963, Reggie took Frances to Italy visiting La Scala, the famous opera house to see Madame Butterfly.
In May 1964, Pete Whelan, a then 21-year-old printer's apprentice from Clerkenwell, met Frances, then 20, at a Hackney Wimpy bar. He fell for her beauty and asked her out, sparking a fun three-month relationship, which included romantic trips to the theatre or pubs. Pete said "To be honest I couldn't believe my luck taking her out, she was so gorgeous. Not nervous or shy but warm, very bright and bubbly. She was quite arty too; she loved things like Flamenco dancing and blues music. "He adds: "That first night though she did mention she had 'problems' but I laughed it off. One night Frances produced a photograph of herself with a dark-haired older man, "Do you know who this is?" she asked Pete. "No. Is he your boyfriend?" said Pete who didn't recognise Reggie Kray. "She didn't really answer," he said. Often when Pete would drop Frances off after a night out together, he'd notice an MG Midget patrolling the street, driving past the parked van. The first time it happened she sat up and tried to see the car. The next time she just slid down in the seat," says Pete. "She seemed a bit troubled but not enough for me to worry about." "One night I took her to a big family party in South London," recalls Pete. "I remember her wearing her hair in a plait, with a cute beret. She got on with everyone, including my mum and dad, laughing and joking. "My cousin said she looked just like Brigitte Bardot. It was true. Everyone who saw her was saying 'Who's that girl'?" "One July night we'd arranged to go to the theatre. I turned up at the house at 6.30pm. There was no response to my knock. Then I heard all this screaming and shouting going on. Definitely coming from the house," he says. Pete stood there baffled. Then the upstairs window flew open. It was Frances' mother. "She's not here!" she shouted. Stunned, a disappointed Pete walked away. For good. "I reasoned that if her mum was there, Frances was OK. But I never tried to ring her again. Something wasn't right. And I knew it spelt trouble. On the 5th April 1965, Pete was horrified to see newspaper photos of Frances greeting Reggie after he'd been released from custody. Two weeks later came the newspaper reports of their marriage.
Reggie and Frances had reconciled in the summer of 1964, in November he took her to Southern Spain. One night in December, a suspicious Reggie had been spying on Frances, watching her house. Frances wasn't home and he was worried, then a car drove to her front door late at night and a man dropped Frances off. Reggie took a note of the car registration, got a dealer friend to identify the owner and told Micky Fawcett to sort it out. Micky then went round to the man's house, later he found out that the suspected boyfriend was a car dealer in his mid-twenties. And married. "You were seen with Reggie Kray's bird,' Micky warned when the man answered his front door. 'He ran back into his house and said, "Tell me through here", through the letterbox.' 'He was crying, snivelling, all his nose was running. Micky got him to open the door again. "Behave yourself in future." He went back to Reggie and assured him that the man driving Frances was the father of a girlfriend, it was an innocent lift home.
In February 1965 Reggie proposed and this time she said yes.
Marriage to Reggie Kray[]
- "Not merely was there not the faintest hope of either of them finding happiness together, but I could see them causing serious harm to one another"
- ―Father Hetherington, 1970
Frances and Reggie married on the 19th April 1965, at St James The Great Church in Bethnal Green, Frances was 21 and he was 31. The first priest, Father Hetherington they asked to officiate refused to do so, but a second one accepted. Many attended the wedding and this has been well documented in the photographs. Members of The Firm appeared, such as Pat Connolly and Limehouse Willy, as well as many of the Kray and Lee family, including Charlie Kray and his son Gary. Described as “The East End wedding of the year”, the nuptials, despite the weather, drew large crowds, all eager to catch a glimpse of the capital’s toughest criminal and his Bardot-esque bride. Frances wore a demure ivory satin and guipure lace gown with a short veil and perfectly coiffed beehive.
David Bailey was the official photographer (the only wedding he has ever worked at) and celebrity guests, including actress Diana Dors, arrived at the church in Rolls Royces. Twin brother Ronnie was best man, natch, and to help with the media frenzy, the place was surrounded by steely looking men called ‘Big Pat’ and ‘The Dodger’. During the ceremony, some lacklustre hymn singing from guests was dealt with swiftly by minders venturing down the aisles and whispering firmly: “Reggie wants you to sing.” Frances’ mother Elsie, who was fiercely opposed to the match, wore black to the ceremony in protest.
A lavish reception followed at a Finsbury Park hotel.
For their honeymoon, the couple stayed in Greece 20th - 28th April. Reg went out drinking most night, often leaving her alone in their hotel. A series of diary entries shows how it wasn't a proper marriage. The diary notes 'In Ibiza from 4th June - 14th July'. Frances wrote she stayed in a hotel on her own. From 14th July - 2nd August she also stayed in a hotel alone. "2nd August to 15th August 1965, Torremolinos.' After Spain, on 19 August, she wrote that she had returned to London and booked into the Alexandra National hotel, Finsbury Park, alone. She stayed there until she went to the Marble Arch flat, after which time she stayed alone in a hotel in Stamford Hill. She then stayed in a private hospital from 22nd - 29th October and then returned to her husband at Cedra Court but soon after she packed her bags and returned home to her parents. Soon after this her parents had discovered she had been on drugs including heroin, according to her father by then she wasn't the same girl.
The diary also contained the abuse Frances had been through. Frances wrote that she had been staying in a dark room with hardly any furniture, she'd had to take household and kitchen utensils there herself. He kept all his clothes and food at his mother's. Every night at the flat Reggie came back drunk at 2, 3, 4 a.m. Then he'd leave her alone there all day, returning again at 3 a.m. He'd swear and fall all over the place. He'd keep a flick knife under his pillow and a loaded rifle by the side of their bed. Reggie, she wrote, talked to her 'like a pig' in front of people. At Vallance Road, he was always swearing or abusing her verbally, frequently saying 'shut your mouth' and his family were also horrible to her. One night Violet made a sandwich and Frances left the crusts. When she got in the car to go back to the flat with Reggie, Violet threw the crusts at the car. One day, Ronnie brandished a sword knife at her, saying, ‘I’ll put this through you', then started laughing. In front of Ronnie and Violet, Frances mentioned something about her looking for a new flat. Reggie's response was, 'Shut your mouth'. Reggie never properly spoke to Frances when Ronnie was in the room. Reggie also repeatedly threatened her family, especially Frank and his girlfriend Bubbles with the £1,000 Reggie owed him. Also Frances once said to Micky Fawcett, "How would you like to have a gun pulled on you to get your own way?". One night knowing she hated the sight of blood, Reggie cut his hand and let the blood drip on her. Frances wrote that she had told a doctor she would get a divorce for mental cruelty. She also noted 'honeymoon sex about 3',and before she went to Ibiza about 2'. Reggie was frequently saying things to upset her. When they were at the airport, before she flew to Ibiza, he told her he didn't care if she stayed there for six weeks. Reggie had told her 'there may have been hostesses' at the clubs he visited and she would have to put up with it. He said this was because when she'd broken up with him before the marriage, she had talked to him 'like a friend' telling him she'd been 'out with boys’. Now, he told her, she would have to suffer and listen to him talking about girls. He kept a photograph of a hostess from a certain club, which he showed to Frances when she came back from Torremolinos. They went to that club. Frances noted: 'Barely spoke to me - only to her.' He also kept telling her "the same thing will happen to you as will happen to Hannah". Hannah was a girl who had alleged that Reggie was the father of a baby girl born to her in June 1965. She took out a summons for an affiliatior order against Reggie but the case was dismissed. What happened to Hannah remains a mystery. When Frances went to the private hospital, Reggie and a friend had driven her there. Reggie was swearing and shouting at Frances in the car, repeating his threats to do the same to her as he'd done to Hannah. After Frances returned to her husband at the flat he still came in drunk every night. She "had to keep on" because she needed the money he'd give her for food - and what she described as "tablet money". Reggie would talk about the clubs he had been to while she was in hospital. While at Vallance Road, Ronnie started talking about girls writing the twins letters, and how they were going to take them out, a speech aimed at tormenting her. Reggie kept telling her she was ill, and that he had been with other women from the clubs. If she mentioned money, he'd talk about her brother Frankie in a malicious way. He'd also stand in front of her, shaking his hands, trying to provoke her. Frances couldn't stand it any more and decided to leave. As she was packing, Reggie told her he would win any divorce case and would bring in character witnesses and others to tell lies against her. The diary also contained a list for divorce: Mental cruelty - never speaking, shouting, swearing, aggravating, provoking. Threats. Habitual drunkenness. Knives and guns. Offence regarding sex (when he attempted anal sex with her which was very frowned upon).
On the 22nd March 1966 Frances visited a firm of solicitors, the purpose of the visit was to change her name back to Shea by deed poll, once she had sorted this out Frances had made it known to Reggie that she wanted a legal end to the marriage. In the Spring of 1966, Reggie convinced Frances to a short weekend trip in Devon, however she appeared nervous, depressed and dependent on pills.
From June to September 1966, Frances stayed in Hackney Hospital, while she was there she met Mick Taylor sparking a 3 month relationship. They were both given shock treatment (ECT, electro-convulsive therapy) as well as drug treatments four times a day (valium). "She was a good looking girl, small, cuddly, warm. I can still see her now, wearing a bright red jacket with a tartan skirt with black slingbacks, quite high. The shoes cost a lot of money. All her clothes were immaculate." Frances had confided that ''nothing had ever happened with Reggie, they never consummated the marriage and she was going to go in for a divorce, the marriage was over, there was never any love there". ''We'd go for a walk across Hackney Marshes for a couple of hours. We even went to the Spread Eagle pub next door but the guv'nor of the pub, once he found out who she was, told us to stop coming. I wanted to take her to meet my family, but they were also too scared to even meet her. " "Her mum would come to see her every other night for an hour or so. Her mum was very quiet, but she had a fierce look on her face. Her dad, Frank, was a quiet man too. Her brother and his girlfriend came to visit too; sometimes they'd come on their own, without each other. I got on well with them, they seemed like very nice people. But I could see her mother didn't like me, I guess because she saw how friendly we were." Mick recalled the twins visiting Frances on two occasions. "The first time they came, they talked to Frances downstairs, away from the ward. The second time, she spotted them walking into the ward from the other end and then she went a bit haywire. I remember her pushing Ronnie out of the way: "Go away!" Then she started crying." Frances also confided that suicide had been in her thoughts. "But she said she didn't have the guts to do it. Reg had taken her to a Harley Street specialist, but she said the drugs he was giving her were making her worse. When she told them this at the hospital, they didn't want to know. She told me the drugs the West End doctor gave her made her high, then low, then depressed." "'She was quiet, but she wasn't a stupid girl. When you talked about things, she knew what she was talking about. Part of her was quite religious, there was a church at the back of the hospital, we used to go and sit there sometimes." "There was a bond between us. She made me happy. 'I do remember the day I first kissed her, on the grass at Hackney Marshes." "I'm glad I met you," I said, then we kissed. She said, "I'm glad I met you too." It didn't go further than kissing and cuddling. I suppose it could have happened, but I thought if I had done anything it would have been dangerous, she wasn't divorced. 'She said that if anything happened to Reggie, she would have her freedom. She did have plans in her mind. We even talked about moving out of London, where no one knew us, things like that." "In September we were both discharged from hospital and I never saw her again".
Death[]
On the 17th October 1966 Frances attempted suicide by taking an overdose of barbiturates but was revived. On the 30th January 1967 she attempted again, Frances had barricaded herself in the front room, turned on the gas fire and had taken an overdose of barbiturates but was again revived. Frances and Reggie had reconciled around March 1967. From the 27th March to the 8th April, Frances went on a ten day cruise around the Canary Islands with her friends. On the 5th June, Frances went to an appointment with her psychiatrist, she told him she was going on holiday with her ex husband, he thought she seemed happier. On the 6th June Reggie and Frances booked a holiday to Ibiza. On the 7th June 1967, she took her own life by an overdose of barbiturates at Frank Shea's flat in Number 34 Wimbourne Court, Hackney where she had been living since February. That morning of 7th June 1967, he took his sister a cup of tea, as he usually did, carefully placing it on the bedside table. She seemed to be still sleeping peacefully, so he went out to work, he came back to check on his sister around lunchtime and she was just as he'd left her earlier and the tea was stone cold. According to her psychiatrist she had depression and a personality disorder verging on the psychotic.
Her parents told Reggie Kray that their daughter's last wish had been to revert to her maiden name, but he insisted that she be buried under her married name and wear her white satin wedding dress. However, Elsie Shea persuaded the undertaker to clothe the corpse in tights and a slip, so that as little of her body as possible would be in contact with the hated dress and to swap her wedding ring with a ring that Frances wore as a little girl.
Funeral[]
Her funeral took place at St James The Great Church on Bethnal Green Road, the same church she married Reggie Kray in not two years earlier. Frances's funeral was as ostentatious as Reggie wished. At the time, the story went round that the funeral cost ran to £2,000 - the equivalent of around £30,000 today. Reggie ordered huge floral wreaths, one in a heart shape with red roses and white carnations going through the middle, the biggest one being a six-foot-tall wreath spelling out her name. It has been argued that Frances' death acted as the catalyst for Reggie's deterioration and spiral into excessive drinking, thus leading to the murder of Jack McVitie four months after her death.
Aftermath[]
Before his arrest, Reg visited her grave, sometimes several times a day; and that, six months before his own death, when he was let out of prison to attend the funeral of his brother Charlie, he was photographed kissing her tombstone. It is rumoured that Reggie still held onto the tickets for their holiday until the day he died. After his arrest Elsie Shea contacted the home office attempting to get the remains of Frances Shea removed from the grave in Chingford Mount Cemetery and reburied in a grave of her own choice over which she can place a memorial bearing Frances' lawful name of Shea. However it was unsuccessful and later Reggie allowed Gary Kray to be buried on top of Frances to make sure Elsie can't have her reburied after he passes away.
More pictures of Frances Shea: https://pin.it/5zm96jhVC
| People associated with The Krays | |
|---|---|
| Kray Family | Ronnie • Reggie • Charlie • Violet • Charles |
| Shea Family | Frances • Frank • Elsie • Frank Sr. |
| Lee Family | Cannonball Lee • Grandma Lee • Aunt Rose • Aunt May • Uncle John |
| The Firm | Albert Donoghue • Ian Barrie • Leslie Payne • Big Pat • Ronnie Bender • Ronnie Hart • Teddy Smith • Jack Dickson • The Bear • Chris Lambrianou • Tony Lambrianou • Connie Whitehead |
| The Richardsons | Charlie Richardson • Eddie Richardson • George Cornell • Mad Frankie Fraser • Roy Hall • Jimmy Moody • Barry Harris • Albert Longman • Tommy Clark |
| Gangsters & Criminals | Freddie Foreman • Jack Spot • Billy Hill • Bert Rossi • Albert Dimes • Eric Mason • Johnny Squibb • Ginger Marks • Leslie Holt |
| Civilians | The Barmaid • Blonde Carol • Maureen Flanagan • Nipper Read • Lord Boothby • John Pearson • David Bailey |
| Victims | George Cornell • Frank Mitchell • Jack the Hat |