George Cornell George Cornell George Cornell (born George Myers; 13 November 1927 – 10 March 1966) was an English criminal and member of the Richardson Gang, who were scrap metal dealers and criminals. He was shot and killed by Ronnie Kray at the Blind Beggar public house in Whitechapel in the East End of London. Kray was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder three years later and remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death in 1995. Cornell was born George Myers in Stepney, East London, to Mary Ann Garrett and Joseph Cornell who were both unwed at the time. He took
Astor Club club in the—at the time—very disreputable area of West London known as Notting Hill. He was acquitted amid talk of "jury nobbling" and interference with witnesses, but the following year was accused of Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), convicted and sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. It was at the Astor in December 1965 that the infamous East End (East London) Kray twins had a confrontation with the South London criminals known as the Richardson Gang; during that face-off, the gangster George Cornell is said to have referred to Ronnie Kray as a "fat poofter" (in another version, "a big fat poof"),