Covered up for 50 years: How Ronnie Kray and top Tory peer 'hunted young men'

The odd couple: Gangster Ronnie and Tory peer Boothby

In the sultry summer of 1964 the Tory government of Sir Alec Douglas-Home feared it was facing a sex scandal greater even than the Profumo Affair.

Just 12 months earlier, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo , had been forced to resign after lying about his relationship with a call girl he shared with a Soviet diplomat.

So when the Sunday Mirror hit the news stands with a front page exposé of a gay affair between a peer and an East End gangster, the Establishment’s foundations felt a seismic tremor.

The paper revealed a Scotland Yard investigation had been launched into the alleged homosexual relationship between top Tory Lord Boothby and villain Ronnie Kray , who ran rackets with his twin Reggie .

The newspaper report did not name the pair but they were later identified by a German magazine and the shockwaves spread even wider.

So the Government closed ranks and forced the newspaper to withdraw the story, which it knew to be true.

But now, more than half a century on, the scoop has been vindicated – thanks to the release of declassified MI5 files.

They confirm that Boothby and mobster twin Kray were “hunters” of young men who trawled “homosexual parties” together at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.  (more...)

Covered up for 50 years: How Ronnie Kray and top Tory peer 'hunted young men'