The Black Widow

Kate Kray

From Shelf: Autobiography

The extraordinary story of Linda Calvey, Britain's most notorious female gangster, whose life is reputed to be the inspiration behind the TV series Widows, written by Lynda La Plante.

Known as 'The Black Widow' because every man she has ever been involved with is either dead or in prison, Linda Calvey is the stuff of East End legend. Her life of crime began when her first husband was shot dead by police when an armed robbery went badly wrong. Left alone with two young children, she began to take part in robberies - first as lookout, then as a getaway driver and finally donning a balaclava and wielding the shotgun herself. Then she met Ronnie Cook, a tough, violent gangster who was eventually jailed for his part in the Brinks Mat bullion robbery. On his release, Calvey hired hitman Danny Reece to dispose of her husband and in 1991 they were both jailed for life for his brutal murder. They later married in prison. For the first time, Calvey tells her extraordinary story from behind bars to Kate Kray, her friend and confidante.

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