Obsessed

Love, control… and obsession.

In Episode 8 of The Krays Web, we explore the deeply personal and increasingly intense relationship between Reggie Kray and Frances Shea — a story that reveals a very different side of the Kray empire.

What begins as a teenage romance soon becomes something far more complicated, as power, jealousy, and control begin to take hold.

In this episode:
• Frances Shea’s early life in London’s East End
• How she met Reggie Kray as a teenager
• Lavish gifts, nights out, and a whirlwind romance
• Ronnie’s reaction and growing tension within the family
• Reggie’s imprisonment and Frances’ loyalty
• The shift from romance to control and isolation
• Their 1965 wedding — surrounded by celebrity and controversy

Why it matters:
This is one of the most personal chapters in the Kray story — exposing the emotional cost of power and the human impact behind the headlines.

Follow the show for more deep-dive episodes into the truth behind the Kray twins.

Next episode: The breaking point — the tragic end of Reggie and Frances’ relationship – Love & Tragedy.

Links to Resources

Check out my website for resources used and social media links : thekraysweb.com

Contact me : wendyceepods@gmail.com

Music by Captain Fat Hands captainfathands.com

Transcript

Wendy Cee 0:24

Welcome to the Krays Web, a podcast about the infamous Kray twins and those associated with them. I'm your host, Wendy Cee, and this is season one, The Krays, episode eight, Obsessed. Please note that there is some swearing in this podcast and descriptions of violence. I'll be adding specific trigger warnings where needed. The voices that you hear throughout the podcast are all my family and friends who have rallied around to help me to make this podcast more enjoyable for you to listen to. I've used lots of sources when writing these episodes, far too many to list here, but details of which you'll be able to find on my website, thecrazeweb.com. There was the hard nosed business side of Ronnie and Reggie, but there was also a softer side to them, which they allowed some people to see. The first love of both Ronnie and Reggie was of course their mother Violet, an angel who loved all of her boys unconditionally and always saw the best in them. They would do anything for their mother, and she would do anything for them. With the bond between Ronnie and Reggie being so strong and their relentless work patterns, it was difficult to penetrate their inner circle and to separate them. But there was one young lady who managed it, Frances Shay. Frances Elsie Shay was born on the twenty third of september nineteen forty three to parents Elsie and Frank, a veneer preparer which means he helped to make wooden propellers for aeroplanes. Frances was the second child with an older brother Frank, also known as Frankie, which we will call him to avoid confusion with his father. Like most families from this area, they were poor. They were in the middle of the war, and resources and money were tight, so Elsie made clothes from their kitchen table to help keep the family afloat. The house was cramped with no cellar, so the family had an Anderson shelter in their tiny back garden. Elsie was house proud and wanted her children to always look smart, even though they didn't have much money. But when the children went to school, they were always smart, clean and well dressed. By the age of sixteen, Frances had left school and was working at the Strand, London, in a clerical job. Frances was beautiful with dark hair and brown eyes, and she had caught someone's eye, someone who usually got exactly what they wanted. And it was when Frances was just sixteen that her life changed forever. Flan, friend of the family, told me this story about Frances. For reference, Sherbet Lemons are a hard-boiled lemon flavoured sweet with Sherbet in the centre.

Flan 3:00

Let me tell you a little story about the Sherbet Lemons that nobody else will tell you. Freddie Foreman don't know. Mrs. Kray knows, but she's dead. Charlie Kray knows, but he's dead. And Ronnie Kray knows, but he's dead. Chris Lambriano won't know what I'm talking about, so let me tell you. The first day that Reggie Kray went to have a terrible go at the brother, being late, he was giving him a little bit of driving. I think he half fancied him. He was lovely. As lovely as her, as Frances. The two of them was lovely. He's knocked at the door, instead of the old girl who hated him and didn't want him near, or the brother, who was obviously just woke up. This lovely pretty girl answered the door and said, Hello. And she's sucking on the sweet and said, Oh, I'm Reg. Um, where is your Frankie? He's late, it's supposed to be driving me. She went, Oh, so you're Reggie cry. He said, What are you eating? She said, A lemon sherba. He said, Oh, I like them. She went, Nobody does that, Wendy. Wendy, you wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do it. And now I've got a lot of front. If I met a man at my door who said, Oh, I like them, I say, Oh, just a minute, I'll go and get you one. If I didn't have any more, too bad, isn't it? Yeah. I would never take a sweet out of my mouth and put it in this guy's mouth. He went, What what what are you saying then? Um, there was that instant connection. I said, basically, I think he fell in love with her on that doorstep. On her behalf, she was quite shy, Frances, and very quite timid and vulnerable, and used to sit there and stroke her little white gloves when he left her at Mrs. Kray, and I used to say, He's coming, he's coming, he's coming. And then she'd be looking at the clock. But she was not up front, really. So for her to do it, it was a bit of bravado. She looked at this handsome man in his beautiful suit on this doorstep and thought, blam, you know, he's not like the fellas around here in their scruffs. It's East End, remember, a long time ago. Oh look at you. And you've give my brother a job to drive, and you like a lemon chair, but bum.

Wendy Cee 5:16

Frances started dating Reggie Kray, who she had met through her brother Frankie, who sometimes did some driving for the firm. Reggie was attractive with dark hair and brown eyes. He always dressed immaculately in sharp tailored suits, a white crisp shirt, a tie, and shoes you could eat your dinner off. He was in his mid-twenties. Frances was just sixteen. And Reggie was in love. Frances was swept off her feet.

Reggie Kray 5:42

Reggie says, Some of my fondest memories are of the nights I would take Frances to the cinemas in the West End of London. We'd go to the Odion 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've ever seen. And Frances would know I was looking at her, and she would smile, stoke please. Little things like this are what true love is really all about. And a secret type of incidents that makes one's heart sing. Frances and I used to sit in the car parked in the back street of the East End, talking until the early hours, and we would dream together. I would say, Yes, Frances, we'll travel the world together, and we'll bring back a souvenir from everywhere we go to keep in our mansion. Frances would smile and her eyes would light up in the darkness as we would go from one dream to another.

Wendy Cee 6:36

Reggie was smitten. They were love's young dream. The way Reggie writes about Frances in his books is tender, with real emotion behind the words. You can feel the love emanating from the pages. Violet and Charlie Senior loved Frances. Reggie said that they treated her like a daughter. Ronnie was polite but curt. But then Ronnie could be like that, and he didn't like anything or anybody that might come between himself and Reggie. The Kray's cousin Rita recalls meeting Violet for the first time.

Rita 7:07

The first time we met we seemed to take to one another. She had shorter, quite dark hair then. She was quite shy, quite an innocent really, as you are at that age, a bit intelligent. You could see that.

Wendy Cee 7:24

Reggie would meet Frances from work. He would take her for drives out into the country, and he would lavish her with jewellery and clothes. She was his girl, and he didn't want her to work. He wanted to take care of her and provide for her. Reggie would take Frances for nights out in the West End. De Star studied clubs and flash dinners where he could show her off and show her a good time. She didn't drink, but she would have the odd cigarette. At the end of the evening, well for Frances anyway, Reggie would drop her back to her parents' house. Reggie would then head out to work to check on his businesses and to drink a lot. Frances's parents found Reggie polite, gentle and quiet. He treated their Frances with respect, asked their permission to take her out, and always stuck to his word. So when, just a few months into their relationship, Reggie asked to take Frances to Jersey, her parents agreed, separate rooms, of course. And off they jetted, taking a night flight to Jersey, holding hands all the way. It's not like now where there are hundreds of cheap, fast flights a day. Back in nineteen sixty it was expensive and the planes were slower, many being propeller planes. It would have been a real event for Frances and something her friends could only dream of. Reggie remembered them returning to the hotel from the beach.

Reggie Kray 8:41

Just a swimsuit and jumper on, and all the old squares would look at you.

Wendy Cee 8:46

Here are a few clips from an informational video about Jersey at this time.

News Reader 8:53

Undoubtedly, the determination of the younger holidaymaker of today to go to season. But there are still plenty of people who like the inimitable feeling of embarking on a voyage, even if it is only for an hour or so. Jersey is a tiny island, really. Only 10 miles by five. Yet is ringed by more than 20 fascinating sandy beaches, some by towering cliffs, some by sand dunes, and some of them running straight up to the pine woods or meadows, with nothing but the marks of cotton spring tides. Unselfish pleasure of a drink in the sunback courtyard of a hotel converted from ancient port to the unselfish chore of putting ghoul on your girlfriend's back. How energetic everyone gets as soon as they're not really obliged to do anything at all. They will be fashing a ball about in one of the English visitors' idea of a rest of the afternoon. But there is another Jersey than the island of the sunlit beaches and hotels. For Jersey is a farmer's country, where the potato harvest and the dairy records matter almost as much as the visitors themselves. Jersey is in many ways a modern island, and it is mixed in its preservation of picturesque crafts, simply for the purpose of selling souvenirs to tourists. Nevertheless, when ancient techniques are better than modern ones, the practical assemblers can be relied upon to preserve them. For the young ones, maybe it's not the supreme moment of the day. So the floodless swimming last moment. Neither quite foreign nor too familiar. And where every meadow lies within sound of the sea.

Wendy Cee 11:14

Not long after they returned, however, there was a problem. Reggie had been on remand for his part in a protection racket and arrogantly assumed that the trial was just a formality and he would walk free. But he was wrong. He got sentenced to two years in prison. Francis spent the time working, going out with girlfriends at the weekend and would write to Reggie twice a week, visiting when possible. But Reggie, this time away from Francis, was ripping him apart. He couldn't think. His obsession with Frances grew. He was paranoid that she was with someone else while he was locked behind bars. He wrote telling her he wanted to marry her, and she agreed in principle. Though said they would have to wait two years as she was still very young. The letters became more about what married life would be like for the two of them. Reggie promised Frances they would have a comfortable, beautifully decorated home full of nice furniture. She would have a wardrobe full of clothes and the jewellery she wanted. She would have records of the music that she loved to play. And they would have staff. Reggie didn't expect his wife to cook or clean, he would employ people to do that for them. Most importantly, Reggie said, they would have the company of each other, and all he wanted to do was sit with her and cuddle her. She was so so precious to him. He promised to cut back on his drinking and to stop his nocturnal activities. She'd visited him a few times in prison, but as she opened the door, her hair now dyed a reddish colour. All those feelings that he had contained while he had been locked away flooded towards the surface. Reggie had never been more in love with his Frances.

Reggie Kray 13:00

Reggie says in his book East End Stories. The day I was released from Wandsworth was the beginning of the happiest years of my life. I took Frances to the Astor Club close to Berkeley Square, and I'll never forget how she looked that night as the soft candle light reflected on her face. I bought her a teddy bear wrapped in cellophone and presented it to Frances as a small token of my love. I would buy her expensive clothes, jewellery and cars, but none was treasured more than that first gift. We left the club at 3 a.m., parked outside her house in Ormsby Street and kissed and cuddled until the window steamed up, which amused her very much.

Wendy Cee 13:44

And it was not long after that that he proposed. Flan and I spoke about this as part of a wider conversation about a meeting she had with the producers of the film Legend.

Flan 13:53

Then the time when he proposed to her, when he went round there with the ring, when he'd come out of prison, he wouldn't dare knock at the door, because the mother wouldn't let him in. And the mother she'd probably look for a good curtain or something, and I'm not opening the door to him. Jailbird, I told you, didn't I? You're not da-da-da-da-da. Her dad was a little bit more softer on it being a man, knowing probably that his daughter would be well looked after and have everything she wants. Not thinking that it would affect her mentality the way it did. But the mother hated him, hated the family. So when that the scene, I said, Well, how did he give her the ring then? I said he climbed up a drain pipe. He went, Oh, don't he went, Don't be silly. This gangster climbs up a drain pipe. I went, Brian. You do anything when you're in love. So he went, he cla I said he climbed up the drain pipe. She was out of her bedroom window. He took her a ring and flowers. He went, and he suited climbed up. I said, yeah, he said, oh wow. He said, I have got to have that in the film. Because that really to a lot of people that said, Tanzie loved her and he never slept with her. How can that be? A lot of people have asked me that. Oh, that's a lot of toffee, in it, Flan. They they did have sex. No, they didn't have sex. Yeah, they did. They must. No, they uh didn't. Oh, okay. So he's climbed out that I think that was the show of love. He'd have swam the ocean.

Wendy Cee 15:26

Yeah.

Flan 15:27

He'd he'd have got in the Thames. Had she said, I'll be on the other side, and when when you get to the other side, you can ask me the question. The drain pipe wasn't gonna get in. No one in the street was gonna be laughing, but mummy he knew he m mustn't knock at that door. Especially as he'd just come out of prison. Yeah. And he said, uh, oh my god, he said, the sweet and the sweet. I said, and when she was up that window, she had a lemon sherbet in her mouth. He said, on the when the come with the ring and the thing. I said, he never bought the ring. Then what are you talking about? I said it was Mrs. Kray's ring. Oh right, I said, because when he opens it, it means a little old-fashioned box. You know, like we used to have little not not modern boxes, old old tacky thing with a bit of velvet velvet inside. With the name of the ring. And he and he took Mrs. Kray said she got engaged. It wasn't Mrs. Kray's engagement ring, because she never had an engagement ring from him, but what she had from her sons was certain rings and necklaces and uh earrings as presents. But um Ronnie had bought her a lovely diamond ring that she wore on her right hand. And he said, I'm gonna ask Frances to marry me. Well, how come how come you haven't got no ring? He said, Well, we get a ring later. He said, No, you mustn't go and propose without a ring. Because if you don't bring the ring, the girl won't say yes. He went, Oh, what am I gonna do, Mum? I'm going around there now. I've got flowers. She said, Take this. And she put it in the old-fashioned box and he put it in his suit pocket. Nobody knows that. Because Mrs. Kray told me that.

Wendy Cee 17:04

Yeah.

Flan 17:04

He wouldn't be telling the gangsters who sat upstairs drinking their tea. Reggie Kray probably didn't tell anybody.

Wendy Cee 17:18

Reggie and Frances needed to make up for lost time. Reggie had been in prison and he needed to make it up to her, so he took her on a trip to Devon and Cornwall. It's important to know that everywhere Reggie went, so did his minders. So the couple were never really alone. Reggie always had his protection with him. Francis wrote notes about the trip which are very factual, listing where they went and what they did, which included shark fishing, horse riding, and going out on speedboats. And let's be honest, who wouldn't be impressed? Frances was a young, impressionable girl from a poor background who had grown up having to make do, and here was this handsome older man who had swept her off her feet, lavished her with gifts and taken her away on trips that she could only have dreamed of. Reggie's cousin Rita said that when she first met Frances, she just looked ordinary, but then Reggie started to buy her beautiful clothes from expensive dress shops, including cocktail dresses with fur stoles. And Frances would spend hours getting ready, her makeup, hair and nails were always immaculate. She looked like a magazine cover when she dressed up for the evening. To give you an idea of what nights out with Ronnie and Reggie were like, I asked Flan. She was invited to a few nights out with the twins and their mother. On this particular night out with Krays, Flan is in a stunning blue dress with a white fox bolero that she borrowed from her friend. Her long blonde hair is piled high on her head, and her, Violet, and the twins are just about to get into the three cars that have pulled up outside Valance Road. During this interview, Flan mentions Dolly, who is Charlie Kray's wife. Anyway, we get there.

Flan 18:55

And I'm holding her arm and I and I said to her, We've got to go. So as she went to walk forward, he went, No, mum, you're not in that car. You're in this car. So I went like to walk with her, obviously, because I'm the only other woman. And um and he said, Um, I said, Why are we in this car? Of course, I I saw who was driving it, it was Albert Donahue. I said, Oh, hello, Albert. He went, Oh, look at you. Oh, laughing. We get in this car, and as he went to close the door, Reggie, he went, We never travel in the same car as our mother. And years and years and years later that came out in The Godfather. That they don't travel with certain people in case they're ambushed and killed, and and a lot of people probably wanted to kill them or do something to them. I said, All right, Red. Like that so Albert Donahue's driving. Me, Mrs. Kray are in this second car, and I noticed three men and Charlie, but he didn't have her with him, were in that car, and the twins was in that car, and Ronnie Bender was driving. Because Ronnie only trusted Ronnie Brender. And then you get to the Astor, and you would think it was the Queen and Princess Diana, because they couldn't have been better. They were practically bowing. You know, the man at the door with the top hat who does command somebody to move your car if you don't want it stuck outside. Sometimes if it was a rolls rice, they liked it stuck outside. Um Hello, hello Ronnie, hello Reg. Hello, Mrs. Kray. You look beautiful tonight. Oh, thank you. You go now through the doors with the two big gold handles and you go there. There's the Maitre D. Hello, Ron, hello Reg. Yes, Charlie told us you were coming. And then how many? Oh, there's more than we expect. You thought there were six, Ronnie. No, there's nine. In other words, dare say. Dare say we can't accommodate nine. Dare. You won't have no tables and chairs. You won't have no doors. I thought, oh my god, I see this man. He was terrified. A maitre D of the most famous club in the West End was treating royalty, had Princess Margaret in every fortnight, had film stars, you know, one day you've got Peter Sellers and Stanley Baker and all these people going in. And lost all that. Good evening. Well, I'll see what sort of a table I can find you. Follow me. Just give us a minute, Ron. Yeah. Why don't you have a drink at the bar with your company? Blah, blah, blah. And don't take his mother to the bar. Our table's got to be ready. But of course it was because they thought six would come in. But anyway, the other three. Life is like the firm, isn't it? They can sit wherever, but near. I remember the night I went with Mrs. Kray, there was a singer called Lita Rosa, and we saw Alma Cogan there. And David Whitfield Gray used to say to me, You have to have a glass of champagne. Mummy's having a glass of I thank you. I don't dream. Stupid and innocent speech. Don't she speak lovely mum? He used to say. Yeah, he used to say that. He he become very fond of me.

Wendy Cee 22:29

Francis was enjoying the lifestyle, but she wasn't quite ready to get married just yet. Reggie was getting a little impatient. The date she had mentioned in the prison letters had now passed, and he wanted her to be his. He didn't want to wait any longer. He tried to convince her by spending more money on her, even taking her on a trip to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. But Frances knew her own mind, and she just wasn't quite ready. Frances' home life had become tricky. Her brother Frankie had left home and her parents were rarely in. Frances was lonely and was spending more and more time at Valance Road. If Reggie was going out he would pop next door and ask his cousin Rita if Francis could spend the evening there, which Rita didn't mind as she really liked Frances. Frances didn't have anything left of her independence. Her life revolved around Reggie now. She didn't work, he'd convinced her to give it up. She didn't really see her friends because Reggie just wanted to be with her all the time. And her family was disjointed. But when she was with Reggie, she also had to deal with Ronnie, and there was definitely some resentment there from him. Now I've spoken to a few people about Ronnie and Francis' relationship, and there were very differing views. What we do know is that Ronnie was jealous of the relationship that Reggie and Francis had. Up until Reggie met Francis, Ronnie and Reggie had been inseparable, and Francis had definitely shaken things up a bit. But Ronnie was a difficult character, so it's really hard to know how he was actually feeling. To start with, Francis loved the love and attention that she received from Reggie. She loved the gifts, the nights out and being seen on his arm. But riffs began to appear and they started to argue. She had given up everything for him. He had promised a change, promised to stop drinking, promised to stop going out at night, but he hadn't changed. He thought he could have his cake and eat it, and it was really starting to annoy Francis. The arguments started. They would have a lovely evening out, and then on the way home they would start to row. Or she would be stuck at Valance Road all evening waiting for him to come back, and when he did, they would row. It was too much, it wasn't what Francis wanted. She'd tell him she'd had enough and it was over. She'd go home and cry into her pillow. She'd feel strong and determined that she was done. And then a couple of days later, Reggie would be on the doorstep showering her with huge bouquets of flowers and jewellery, pleading with her to give him another chance, promising he would change, and every time he would wear her down, and they would be back to square one. In 1962, Frances and Reggie continued to travel. In April, an eleven day cruise including Mallorca, Gibraltar, Algeziers, and Morocco. Then a trip to the south of France, where there was a memorable row, Reggie recalls.

Reggie Kray 25:27

Whether we were tired or irritable from the hot sun, I can't remember. But like lovers invariably do, at some time we had an argument while sitting outside a bistro. This became heated. Resulted in Francis saying, You're nothing outside the East End, you're not known here in France or anywhere else in the world. I was very hurt by her assumption that I was arrogant enough to believe I was some sort of international celebrity.

Wendy Cee 25:52

The travel continued and so did the arguments. Reggie was like a drug that Francis couldn't resist, and the couple eventually married in April 1965. The wedding was held at St. James, the Great Church in Bethnal Green, was headlined in the newspapers as the East End wedding of the year. Frances wore a stunning, simple ivory satin and lace gown that accentuated her petite figure, accompanied by a short veil and a bouquet of blood red roses. Her dark hair was quaffed into a beautiful beehive, and her large dark eyes were heavily made up to enhance them. Reggie stood tall and proud beside his beautiful wife in a black suit with a crisp white shirt and a black tie. The wedding photographer was the world renowned David Bailey. The guest list was full of celebrities from sports stars to film stars, arriving in Rolls Royce's and Daimlers. They received over a hundred telegrams of congratulations. This was a common way to send a message at the time if it was important, or you were unable to attend an event, but wanted to send your good wishes. Many say that it was a strange ceremony, that many didn't agree with the marriage, including Francis' own parents. There were rumours that this was the second church they had tried as the first one refused to marry them. Again, we will never now know. You can see the couple's wedding photos online, read the many books that are available and watch the films, and come to your own conclusions. Thank you for listening to The Krays Web. This was episode eight Obsessed. Next week in episode nine, Love and Tragedy, I will be discussing the end of Reggie and Francis' relationship and what happened next. Finally, I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped me to put this podcast together. Please check out the show notes on my website for more information on the books and reference material that I used for my research. Until next time, stay safe.