Astor Club a remark which led to a gangland war (Cornell himself being shot dead in March 1966 in front of witnesses at the bar of the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel) and so, ultimately, to the trials and sentences which destroyed both the Kray and Richardson gangs. Indeed, when the Krays were arrested for the Cornell murder (two years after the fact), they were drinking (at 6 a.m.) at The Lion pub, Bethnal Green, intending to move on later to the Astor. The Astor survived beyond the era of the Krays and Richardsons and continued to attract wealthy customers. An Astor
Lenny McLean feared figure, he often associated with such people as the Kray twins, Henry Simpson, Ronnie Biggs and Charles Bronson. He was also known in the London nightclub scene as a bouncer, where he often managed security. In his later life, McLean became an actor, playing Barry The Baptist in Guy Ritchie's 1998 British gangster comedy film "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". Lenny McLean was born into a large working-class family in Hoxton in the East End of London. His father, Leonard McLean senior, had been a Royal Marine during the Second World War, but after being debilitated by a