‘Black Widow’ killer says looking back at the crimes she committed in London’s East End is ‘surreal’

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The ‘Black Widow’ killer Linda Calvey has opened up about the crimes she committed in London’s East End – adding that they are very ‘surreal’ to her now.

Linda Calvey, from Ilford in east London, was jailed for 18 years in Holloway Prison, London, over her involvement in the death of her lover, Ronnie Cook – despite protesting her innocence.

It was there that she rubbed shoulders with some of the UK’s most notorious serial killers including Myra Hindley and Rose West.

Now a 72-year-old great-grandmother, Linda, who was given the moniker ‘Black Widow’ because every man she was involved with ended up dead, has taken a look back at her former life, which includes slapping Myra Hindley in prison. 

‘I look back and think, ‘Was that really me?’ she said, according to The Daily Star. ‘It’s surreal. It’s like looking back on the life of somebody else, because I can’t imagine how I did do the things I did.’ 

She continued: ‘These days, I wouldn’t even walk into a shop and pinch a sweet, but I used to rob banks and security vans. 

‘I was scared about going to prison, but I still did it. We saw getting caught as being part of the job.’

Calvey’s first novel The Locksmith, which tells the story of East End crime matriarch Ruby Murphy, is out this week, and has even won praise from crime writer Martina Cole. 

‘In some weird way I was looked up to, like a mother figure,’ she told the publication. ‘The women in jail wanted me to be their friend. ‘I never experienced bullying personally, and I would step in and stop people doing it to others.’

Calvey, who was in prison among the likes of Myra Hindley, recalled: ‘The very first time I came face to face with Myra I walked up to her and gave her a slap.

‘I got worried about what I’d done, but I was glad I did it. She was a really horrible person.’  

Linda Calvey previously revealed that she used to do Myra Hindley’s hair in prison despite calling the child murderer a ‘b****’ during their first meeting behind bars. 

‘The first time I saw Myra Hindley she was doing her laundry and singing to herself.

‘I marched straight over and slapped her in the face and said, “You b****! How can you sing like that when you’ve killed little children?” She was very bitter and believed she didn’t deserve prison.

‘There was nothing nice about her, she had a horrible, cold way,’ she said, according to the Mirror.

Hindley had been in partnership with Ian Brady in the rape and murder of five small children, which became known as the Moors Murders, before police received a tip off from her brother-in-law in 1965. 

But Calvey and Hindley ended up having number of run-ins after Calvey got a prison job doing the other inmates’ hair.

She said that Hindley was ‘very particular’ about getting her hair dyed dark red once a month and would often sit and smoke roll-up cigarettes.

Hindley would often ask Calvey to speak to her mother on the phone and clear spiders out of her cell but Calvey said that they were never friends.  

Calvey had grown up in Ilford, east London, alongside eight siblings. 

She had started dating convicted armed robber Mickey Calvey in 1968 following a chance meeting as a teenager.

She had been taken to a party by some of her friends that was to celebrate his release from prison after serving eight years for robbing an M&S security van.

The pair married and had two children – Melanie, now 49, and Neil, now 45.

Calvey insists that she only got involved in hard crime after Mickey’s death in 1978 when he was shot by police during an armed raid at a supermarket.  

Speaking to the publication, she went on to say that taking over his role in the gang was just a process of ‘natural progression’ – adding that she’d always got on better with men than women. 

She started her life of crime as a menacing getaway driver before becoming a gun-toting robber targeting post offices and banks.

Later, she became a leading figure in the underworld, claiming that she was addressed as ‘Lady Boss’ and was dubbed the Queen of the East End underworld.

Calvey is believed to have earned £1million from her armed robberies but claims that she actually stole £100,000 a raid, suggesting the actual earnings are considerably higher.

She was eventually caught and given a seven-year sentence for armed robbery and was forced to leave her two young children behind in the care of her mother.  

Linda began a relationship with Ronnie Cook when she was released but Cook was still behind bars.  

But he was murdered on the day of his release 18 months later in what was thought to be an attempted robbery gone wrong. 

Calvey had described a masked man kicking down the door of her kitchen before shooting Cook in the elbow and head.

Police investigated and accused Calvey of paying hit-man Daniel Reece £10,000 to shoot her lover. 

Reece was sentenced to life in prison with Linda receiving 18 years which made her Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner for a time. 

Calvey has since spoken of how she told her children the truth about her life of crime after her then teenage daughter Melanie, now 50, found piles of cash underneath her bed, and went on a shopping spree at the toy-shop Hamley’s. 

Linda told Bella magazine that her children ‘weren’t bothered’ by her revelation, saying: ‘[Melanie] asked if that was why I had loads of different wigs in my cupboards.’ 

Linda said that one Saturday, she couldn’t find daughter Melanie, then 13.

Her son Mikey, 9, told her that he had gone shopping after finding piles of stolen money hidden underneath her mother’s bed. 

Linda told how Melanie spent ‘a fortune’ on toys and games in Hamleys toy store.

She went on to tell her children where the money was from and explained that she was a bank robber.

The former gangster said her children were ‘unbothered’ by her revelation at the time, and ‘giggled’ as they learned the truth.

She said: ‘[Melanie] asked is that why I had loads of different wigs in my cupboards’.

She added: ‘In a special cupboard in my wardrobe, I had several wigs, glasses, and scarves for disguises.’