When 24 year-old PC Les Alton knocked at the front door of the Kray twins' home he had no idea how notorious they would become.

But the seeds had been sewn and Ronald and Reginald Kray were fast becoming immortalised in East End folklore with links to Kent.

It was midsummer 1952 when PC Alton was deployed to 178 Vallance Road in Bethnall Green.

It was to be the first of many arrests in the twins' long career of law breaking and violence.

Their crime was beating a bobby patrolling his beat 20 minutes earlier, for which Mr Alton recalls they were later convicted at East London Juveniles Court by a magistrate called Basil Henriques.

Mr Alton, now 91 and living in Walmer, Deal said: “They had beat the policeman with his own truncheon.

“The policeman was patrolling on the beat. There was a crowd outside a snooker and billiards club which was above a tailor’s shop.

“There was a crowd of local yobs and the twins were inciting the crowd to interrupt the policeman from carrying out his duties.”

He recalled: “The Krays at the time were big in the amateur boxing world and were getting publicity. And the publicity went to their heads.”

“The policeman drew the truncheon out, not having the correct strap on his wrist.

"They took the truncheon from him and beat him up with it.”

The grandfather and widow recalls news of the assault coming in to the police station, just around the corner from the Krays' two-up two-down home.

PC Alton, then in training as a CID officer, was asked to go round and bring them in. Joined by colleague PC Calley he obliged.

"The police man drew the truncheon out, not having the correct strap on his wrist... they took the truncheon from him and beat him up with it" - Les Alton retired CID

He said: “Their mother came to the door. We told her briefly what had happened. She called them.

"They were upstairs in their room. When they came down we arrested them at the front door of the house.

“We took them by the arm, and walked from their home to the police station. They weren’t handcuffed."

There was no fuss or need for restraint, he recalls. It was at a time when the police were feared.

PC Alton added: “They adored their mother. She just told them to go with us. They had no option really.

"Policing in those days was slightly different to what it was today. We didn’t need to go all kitted up. In those days we didn’t use handcuffs only if they were rough.

“They just came to the station. They would have been proud of it. They had never been arrested before.

“So I was the first person in their long career of crime to arrest them.”

He told KentOnline: “In those days juveniles were never convicted, the official term was ‘'inding of guilt', so the Krays were found guilty of GBH.

“It was spoken about locally. The injured police officer was taken to Bethnall Green Hospital and stayed there for about a week.

"It wasn’t a dramatic thing then. Their career became more dramatic later on.

Mr Alton left the East End for the West End as a fully trained CID officer in 1954.

"They adored their mother. She just told them to go with us... they had no option really" - Les Alton

The twins’ notoriety increased until it came to a natural peak: their final arrests, a trial at the Old Bailey and life imprisonment with the recommendation they must serve 30 years behind bars.

Ronnie was found guilty of killing George Cornell, a member of the rival Richardson gang, who were scrap metal dealers and criminals.

He was shot at close range at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in the East End of London in March 1966.

Reggie was convicted of killing Jack 'the Hat' McVitie, an enforcer, by repeatedly stabbing him at a party in October 1967.

Their arrests came in 1968 after a two-year undercover operation.

He said: “I was in Scotland Yard when they were brought in. It was a big investigation which finished in them both being convicted for murder after a trial in 1969.

“Ronnie was gay. He liked young men and when he was arrested he was found in a bed with a young man.

"Reggie was the harder man of the two but Ronnie was very vicious.

"The boys were glorified. Mainly because they were good in boxing but their crimes had become quite sensational and they were both in the public eye.

“They were criminals. They were gang people.They were committing murder, it had to come to an end.”

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