A former member of the gangster 'firm' run by the notorious Kray twins has described how he helped to dispose of the body of Jack 'The Hat' McVitie following his brutal murder by Reggie Kray.
Chris Lambrianou spent 15 years in prison for his role in the crime after he and his brother refused to give evidence against the twins.
While inside, Chris discovered religion and has dedicated his life since then to helping others avoid some of the pitfalls that he fell into.
Now, alongside others, he has told his story for a new BritBox documentary called Secrets of the Krays.
Jack McVitie was an East London gangster who had worked previously with the infamous twins, Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
However, his relationship with the pair had soured following a failed killing that he had been paid for, and he was murdered at a house party in Stoke Newington on 29 October 1967 by Reggie Kray.
Reggie had initially planned to shoot McVitie, but upon the failure of his gun took a knife and brutally butchered him.
The brothers then fled the scene, leaving McVitie's body behind them.
Unaware of what had happened at the house, Lambrianou showed up to collect his car and - alongside his brother Tony and fellow Firm members Keith Askem and Ronnie Bender - became embroiled in disposing of McVitie's corpse.
Speaking to LADbible, Chris explained: "I pulled up and knocked on the door and Ronnie Bender came.
"I said, 'Is Tony there?' and he said, 'No, he's gone.'
"So, I went to turn away and he said, 'Chris, don't leave me.'
"He said, 'They've killed Jack.'
"Come on, anybody with a reputation isn't going to kill someone with an audience, are they? But then, Ronnie Kray did that at the Blind Beggar [the murder of George Cornell at a Whitechapel pub].
"I couldn't let the guy down, he was on his own, the twins had run away. I asked him what his instructions were, and he told me he was supposed to take the body and throw it over the railway bridge so that the train could mash it up.
"So, I go downstairs and Jack's laying there. I thought he couldn't be dead, but he was so we got some socks [on our hands] and started cleaning up."
At this stage, the brutal nature of the killing became clear.
It has been reported that upon moving McVitie's body, his liver fell out, such was the ferocity with which Reggie Kray had stabbed him.
He continued: "We then got the body up the stairs onto the landing to get it into the car [McVitie's car].
"In the meantime, Tony [Lambrianou] came back looking for me, so now he's involved.
"We took the body outside thinking we'd put it in the boot, but you can't put a big man in the boot, so we got him onto the back seat.
"Then, there was an argument. Ronnie Bender said there was no way he was driving the car, and I said I had my car, so Tony said, 'I'll drive it.'
"I followed him up, but we got down onto Mare Street [in Hackney] and a police car fell in behind him.
"I thought, 'Please don't stop him, because if you stop him we'll have to take you out of the picture.'"
Mercifully, the police car didn't stop them, and the car eventually stopped outside a church in Rotherhithe, where they left the body hoping it would be discovered the following morning.
The body was left in the territory of another organised crime gang in the hope that it would appear they'd committed the killing.
However, it didn't happen quite like that.
Lambrianou went on: "Now, we've got a situation where you've got Tony, myself, Ronnie Bender, Freddie Foreman, Charlie Kray [the twins' brother] involved.
"You've got all these people involved that didn't use a knife, never killed anybody, didn't wish to kill anybody, and they're all putting their life on the line for one moment of madness because a guy had too much drink and had taken some speed, and he lost it.
"From that moment of madness, look at all the people involved.
"I wasn't even there at the time of the murder. I said I wanted no part of it - didn't handle the knife, and I did life and 15 years.
"Ronnie Bender didn't do anything, no active part in the killing, life and 20 years. Tony - my brother - life and 15 years.
"They involved everybody, they didn't clean up after what they'd done, they ran away.
"You want to tell me they are heroes?"
The recent glorification of the twins' lifestyle - including in the 2015 film Legend starring Tom Hardy - is clearly an annoyance to Lambrianou.
He and his brother refused to give evidence against the pair in court - when many others turned - and despite the Krays writing a book about their crimes after the fact, they kept silent and sent everyone involved down with them.
The idea that they might be seen as heroes is anathema to him.
"They wrote books about how they committed the crimes, but they could have done that when they were standing in the dock," he said.
"Instead of doing it to earn a few measly quid when they were inside.
"I'm sorry, but they're not heroes. They're losers.
"We really wanted people to look up to as gangsters, like in America.
"What did they do to protect the people of Bethnal Green? They didn't. The people of Bethnal Green were p*** poor.
"It beggars belief that people can hold them up as being these wonderful people. What did they do? Did they clean the flat up?
"No, they didn't want anything to do with it, they ran away.
"There was a body to be moved, did they do it? No.
"Whatever it was, it was a mess. Heroes have got a brain about them.
"It was shameless what they did, dragging people down with them. They could have stood up and took it and they would never have done the thirty years."
If nothing else, Lambrianou found God and himself in prison after a tough time punctuated by violence.
As he puts it, 'there was no easy time'.
Now, he's out and has dedicated his life to his religion and helping others out of similar situations to the one he found himself in.
In that respect, the actions he took on that night in October 1967 have had a positive impact.
All three episodes of Secrets of The Krays are available exclusively on BritBox from 13 May
Featured Image Credit: BritBoxTopics: Police, UK News, TV and Film, Interesting, crime, UK Entertainment