The children of Britain’s most notorious female gangster have spoken for the first time about having a killer as a mother.
Linda Calvey, 77, known as ‘The Black Widow’, was one of East London’s most terrifying and prolific gangsters, who earned an estimated £1million from armed robberies.
She had two children with her first husband, Mikey Calvey, who was shot dead by police in 1979 during a robbery that went wrong, prompting Calvey to begin her descent into London‘s underworld.
After first serving as lookout, she became a getaway driver, then finally wielded the shotgun. Her worst crime came in 1990 when she murdered her husband Ronnie Cook – after a hitman she had hired failed to finish the job.
Her son and daughter, Neil and Melanie – who are both now in their fifties – have never previously spoken in public about their life growing up as children of one of Britain’s most feared criminals.
Appearing on new BBC podcast, Gangster: The Story of the Black Widow, Neil recalled the moment his mother was locked up for murdering Cook – two years after his own father had been shot dead.
‘When my dad got killed and my mum went to prison, it was like falling into a black hole – you just don’t know which way to turn,’ he told investigative journalist Livvy Haydock.
Linda Calvey, 77, known as ‘The Black Widow’, is mother to Neil and Melanie
Calvey arriving at an inquest into the death of her husband, Micky, who died aged 36 after being shot by police in a robbery gone wrong
Calvey has now renounced crime and is an author and commentator
‘It was heartbreaking, when I used to go and see her as a kid I’d sob when I had to leave.
‘I would ask why you wouldn’t think about me and Mel. You were thinking about herself, your kudos, how you’re Linda Calvey and a big gangster girl.’
Sharing some of his memories of childhood, Neil recalled playing outside aged just three with what later turned out to be a sawn-off shotgun.
‘I thought it was just another toy gun, I’d found it behind the sofa. I was outside running around with it when one of the neighbours knocked on the door,’ he said.
‘My mum just said, ”Oh, he’s got loads of guns.” She thought it was a toy, but it wasn’t.’
Mel, meanwhile, remembered going on a spending spree to Hamleys with money she found under her mother’s bed.
Calvey murdered Ronnie Cook the day he was let out of prison following an 18-month sentence for armed robbery.
She had claimed his death was the result of a botched robbery, and described a masked man kicking down the door of her kitchen before shooting Cook in the elbow and head.
Calvey, who was dubbed the Black Widow because her men ‘ended up either dead or in jail’, pictured aged 22
The gangster with her late husband Mickey
But a jury convicted her for murder on the basis that she paid hit-man Daniel Reece £10,000 to kill Cook, before shooting him herself when he had second thoughts.
Calvey was sentenced to 18 years in prison which made her Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner for a time. She later married Reece in prison.
She claimed Cook threatened to hurt her son when she rejected his marriage proposal, but still denies murder.
Describing what it felt like to see her mother go to jail, Mel said: ‘I was angry. I’d already lost my dad, then I lost my mum.
‘I told her that. I was about 14, and I asked her, ”Why did you do that to us?” I was bitter for years. It was like drinking a poison that festered in me.’
Both siblings have experienced trauma due to their mother’s crimes, including struggles with addiction and poor mental health.
‘It’s like I walked into a party at 14 and didn’t leave until I was in my forties,’ Mel said. ‘I was reckless. For years I was just on another planet.’
But despite their harrowing experience, they still do not blame their mother.
Calvey rubbed shoulders in jail with Moors murderer Myra Hindley
Calvey was also locked up with Rose West, who she described as ‘thick’
Neil said: ‘I might have been angry with the situation, but I never blamed my mum. I’d still choose her. And my dad. It’s just a shame how it all went.’
Mel agreed, adding: ‘I’d still choose them too, but I’d want it to be different.
‘I used to be envious of my friends whose parents had jobs, mortgages, dinner on the table. That’s what I wanted. A normal life.’
Calvey has now renounced her life of crime and insists she regrets everything she did.
‘I was like this mad woman who was just on a mission. I just had tunnel vision – this is what I had to do and I just did it,’ she said.
‘All the blokes went to me ”you’re better than any of us, you’re fantastic”, but if you asked me now to go in that shop and pinch a packet of sweets, I couldn’t do it.
‘I look back and that person is totally alien, I can’t think how I did what I did as the person I am now. I felt like I was a totally different person.’
While locked up in HMP Durham’s infamous H Wing, Calvey rubbed shoulders with serial killers including Myra Hindley and Rose West.
Calvey also recalled receiving marriage proposals from Reggie Kray and Charles Bronson while locked up at HMP Holloway
Calvey received 18 years in Holloway (pictured) which made her Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner for a time
Describing Hindley, she said: ‘She had this aura about her that she was a sinister person.
‘She was highly intelligent, very very intelligent – the complete opposite of Rose, who is actually quite thick.
‘But at one time when they were together and we were in Durham, everyone said they had a fling together.
‘People were saying ”Look who’s having an affair – the two most notorious women in England”.’
Calvey also recalled receiving marriage proposals from Reggie Kray and Charles Bronson while locked up at HMP Holloway.
‘Reggie actually proposed to me twice. I said no. I probably would have stayed in there if I’d become Mrs Kray,’ she said.
‘I also got a letter from Charles Bronson saying ”I know they call you the Black Widow, but to me you’re the black rose, I so admire you”.
