To ask if you’ve met an infamous criminal?

[Anon778833]

Did they seem ‘normal’? Or did you get a strange feeling about them?

I worked and went on a few nights out with Jamie Reynolds, who murdered and raped a poor teenager.
He seemed completely normal, he wore a floor length black coat which I always fine strange on a man, but apart from that he was quite funny. We spoke via Facebook on the day off the murder actually, he asked me to visit his house. Fortunately I didn’t go, but his victim did 😔

Dad grew up in same area and went to school with the krays. He said even as kids they had a presence and at parties or clubs, as adults, when they walked in, the mood totally changed.
When I was a tiny baby in my pram, my parents bumped into Ronnie and as was the east end tradition of putting a coin in a newborn's hand, he had to go one up and put 50 quid rolled up in my hand. A fortune in the 60s.
Btw, my Dads family saw through the 'oh, they only hurt other gangsters and live their mum's hype, not fans at all! Mum was from a different area and didn't like them at all!!

*love their mum

Parents lived right over the road to the Yorkshire ripper. My mum was once walking home from a night out before he was arrested. The neighbour from over the road looked like he was gonna pull up in the car near her but then drove off. She obviously thought nothing of it.
In hindsight she thinks he recognised her as a neighbour and as he had already been interviewed several times stayed well clear of someone so close to home.

My brothers school friend murdered and disposed of his partner in a suitcase,they had two kids together and staged a situation where she 'left'him he was having an affair . This lad used to come round my family home.

Not infamous.

Very well known murder case locally as it was horrific and half the details were kept out of the public eye.

I was a lifeguard with him

I was only very young but certainly didn't get any unusual vibes from him but adults said they thought something was "off".

My DP's dad was on Tiswas in the gunk tank and DP was a child in the audience. He asked Gary Glitter who was on the show for his autograph and GG wrestled him to the floor and tickled him.

I was the Kray's mother's welfare lady. Lovely boys. They gave me some black silk bedding for Christmas. Alleged that they had stolen it from Harrods specially for me, since I helped their dear old mum

I loathe how the Krays are glamorised. Lovely boys???? They were evil ruthless murderers enabled by their 'dear old mum'

Looks like lots of us met Jimmy Saville! I met him once briefly at Leeds General Infirmary about 20 years ago. He certainly seemed odd, mostly because he was wearing a silver string vest with a union jack sprayed on. He was kind of dessicated.

Definitely not infamous but.. dated a guy when I was around 19/20 he was around 26. He was a bit full on so I let it fizzle out.

Years later passed him in a busy shopping centre with my months old DD in arms, remember him touching her tiny hand and telling me she was beautiful.

He was caught very publicly on FB by one of those Pedo Hunter groups. Talk of the town for a bit after which was grim. He went to prison for grooming/meeting underage girls. Still makes my stomach turn < not envy

One of the mentoring team at my college murdered his ex-girlfriend before shooting himself, in front of their teenage kids.

This guy was popular and well liked. The other A level mentors were women in their 50s and pretty serious and he was in his 30s, dressed like an R&B star of the time (all black, big gold chain etc), was really chilled out and friendly, and talked to students as though he was on their level. Everyone wanted him to be their mentor. He helped a couple of my friends through personal problems during their A levels, and I remember him coming out for a drink with our group towards the end of the 2nd year.

Because he was known for being so understanding and chilled out, it was a real surprise when a few years after we’d left he’d shot his ex as he was jealous of her friendship with another man, and then killed himself too. Apparently he’d been violent towards her a few times since their breakup, and he was also collecting illegal firearms. I didn’t know him well, but it doesn’t match up with the man I met or the reputation he had from the friends he was mentor to. I guess people can hide their true selves very well if they want to.

Dr Harold Shipman
Really nice quiet man with lovely manners. I met him professionally quite a few times and he seemed to really care about his patients, unlike a lot of GPs I dealt with.
I am usually pretty good at reading people but he got right past me.

When I was about 12 I did a ballet day course thing in Colwyn Bay. My mum was meant to collect me afterwards but her car broke down and instead a policeman came to collect me and drove me home (about an hour's drive) . Turned out later it was the chief of north wales police and he was arrested a few months later for a child sex abuse ring around children's homes. He didn't do anything to me (I was probably too old for him) but my mum says I told her he was slimy.

Said this before on here but my beautiful mum was in a pub and was aware of being stared at.she looked up into the face of a man whose eyes were black and soulless,she was so uncomfortable she and her companion left immediately.
She later found out after his arrest it was sutcliffe.

Does Tony Blair count?

My DH's relative is a bank robber. He robbed several with a gang and went to prison for one of those jobs for over a decade. Not infamous in press but definitely in his area and in bank robbing circles!

Jimmy Saville as I lived in the same area. I would often see him in a couple of the nearby cafes with his weird bunch of male friends. He always held court and had to talk to every woman and child in the place. He would often make a big thing of kissing women’s hands in what I assume he thought to be a chivalrous and gentlemanlike manner! Lots of loud, OTT, embarrassing flattery. He was every bit as loud, brash, dirty-looking and slimy as he came across on tv. Once I was in one of the cafes with my DM and toddler DDs. One of my DDs was very shy and when he spoke to her she looked down and didn’t answer. I can’t remember his exact words but it was on the lines of when she was older she’d look at men then. Uurrrrghhh. Vile man.

Yes. One was very cocky but a broken person once in prison. Many prisoners seem like very normal people though who have taken a wrong turn.

A lady I worked with was murdered by her husband. Lived only a few streets away from me at the time. I met him at works parties. He had mental health issues and heard voices. I was told he’d heard voices to kill someone. So very sad.

I met Jeffrey Archer at a posh dinner once. He was funny and charming (I thought I would hate him). He hadn’t been charged with any offences at that time though, so possibly not strictly a criminal when I met him.

In the 70’s our babysitter was murdered by her bf. I remember being scared of him whenever he was around. He went to prison for it.

A guy who attempted to murder his wife and murdered his neighbour (allegedly self-defence but forensics proved the injuries were self-inflicted). He was handsome and charismatic but we were terrified of him as kids. He died in prison. Sadly his wife died less than a year later

Several ‘ex’ terrorists. They’re completely ordinary, normal people. Some are just aggressive, violent drug dealer ‘hard men’ types others are quiet, friendly people. Several politicians who come people would consider criminals - think Gerry Adam’s types. Again, perfectly nice friendly people.

Absolute coincidence as didn’t know until it came up randomly in convo with my MIL. But both of me and my OH have relatives who worked/knew the Krays

Once you get over what they’ve done InThe past that is… their freedom from prison early was the price the rest of us had to pay for peace.

I'm not nitpicking or anything because we too have a relative who used to be 'in with the Krays', but it seems they and other London gangs knew an awful lot of people!

In our case it was a cousin in law, so very vague.