Britain’s most notorious female gangster has revealed how she led armed robberies in east London, rejected a proposal from Reggie Kray and cut Myra Hindley’s hair in prison.
Linda Calvey, now 71, from Ilford, was dubbed the ‘Black Widow’ because all of her lovers ended up either dead or in prison.
She has now shared the story of her astonishing life in a tell-all book.
In it, she discusses how her first husband’s death in an armed robbery gone wrong led to her own life of crime, which ended in her being convicted for murder of a lover.
The Black Widow became Britain’s most notorious female gangster and earned her name because all of her lovers ended up either dead or in prison. Pictured aged 22
Linda Calvey and her groom George Ceasar pictured at a church in Dymchurch, Kent on their wedding day in 2009. He died in 2015
She served 18 years for the killing and was Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner for a time but insists that she never actually killed the man.
She served alongside Myra Hindley three times and said the Moors Murderer remained bitter and twisted until she died.
Hindley blamed her actions on Brady and would also insult the mother of one of her victims Lesley Anne Downey, 10, describing her as ‘that bloody woman’.
Speaking about how she cut Hindley’s hair, Calvey said: ‘She was fussy about her hair as that was the only control she had left. She’d send me Christmas cards and phoned her mother to say she had a lovely friend.
‘I would think ‘I’m not your friend’ but I would talk to her mum as I felt sorry for her having a daughter like that.’
Calvey is believed to have earned £1 million from her armed robberies but claims that she actually stole £100,000 a raid, suggesting the actual earnings are considerably higher.
She said she got into a life of crime after her husband was killed. Mickey Calvey and Linda pictured at a night club shortly before Calvey, 37, was shot dead by police after a robbery
She started her life of crime as a menacing getaway driver before becoming a gun-toting robber.
Later, she became a leading figure in the underworld, claiming that she was addressed as ‘Lady Boss’.
Calvey, who also served time with Rose West said: ‘Planning would take months and the robbery would take minutes.
‘The police would say it’s ‘Black Widow’s gang’ and they were my gang. They called me ‘lady boss’.’
Speaking about her Black Widow name, she said: ‘I was a seductress. I lured men in with my web. And I always knew when I got one.’
She was in jail three times with Myra Hindley (pictured) and even cut the Moors Murderers’ hair
She also said that notorious gangster Reggie Kray (pictured) once proposed to her but she turned him down
She met Reggie Kray at club before he was arrested in 1968 and, when she was also in jail, he got in touch with her through her brother.
Calvey says that they became pen pals and he told her to be strong.
She added: ‘And then he asked me to marry him over the phone. I said it wasn’t good for either of us – really thinking it wouldn’t be good for me as I’d still be sitting there now if I was Mrs Kray.
‘I even made him a house in pottery class as his dream was to get home before he died. He was a romantic soul, and very quietly spoken.’
Calvey insists that she only got involved in hard crime because of the death of first husband Mickey, the father of her children Melanie, 49, and Neil, 45.
Calvey insists that she only got involved in hard crime because of the death of husband Mickey
He was killed in an armed robbery gone wrong and she swore to him, as he lay in his coffin, that she would provide for their family.
She said: ‘My love for him made me go crazy. On the outside I was me but on the inside I was a demon.’
Calvey urged her children away from a life of crime, which saw her commit 30 armed robberies and have a wardrobe full of fur coats.
After becoming the queen of London’s underworld she then met Ronnie Cook, who she says took her life over.
Cook was jailed in 1981 for 16 years and Calvey promised to stay loyal, getting a tattoo of her devotion.
Linda Calvey pictured here with Ronnie Cook on their first romantic trip to Las Vegas in 1980. She was later jailed for his murder
Linda Calvey on her wedding day to Danny Reece, in Durham’s prison chapel. Reece was the hitman she hired to kill Ronnie Cook and they were both convicted for his murder
But she soon started an affair with a member of her crew, Brian Thorogood, which led to her being locked up.
Thorogood’s suspicious wife hired a private detective who followed him and discovered the two committing an armed robbery.
Calvey was jailed for three years but, after getting out, was worried Cook would discover she had cheated on him.
He was due for release at the end of the 1980s and so Calvey offered £10,000 to a hitman to kill him.
She picked Cook up from jail and took him home where they were greeted by the gunman.
However, Cook was only shot in the elbow and so Calvey took the shotgun herself, made her lover kneel, and shot him in the head.
She has always denied Cook’s murder but was convicted in 1991. She later married the hitman, Danny Reece in prison.
Calvey says that one of her greatest regrets is not being at the 1994 wedding of daughter Melanie.
She was freed in 2009 and found love with retired businessman George Ceaser, 76.
However, in 2015 he was diagnosed with 12 tumours and died within a month.