Ronnie Kray letters go unsold

Ronnie Kray died in 1995 aged 61

A series of letters written by notorious gangster Ronnie Kray have gone unsold at auction in Shropshire.

The 23 signed letters were written between September and December 1993 and charted the London criminal's mental decline during a nervous breakdown.

Kray, who suffered from schizophrenia, wrote the letters to Robin McGibbon, a friend of the family and biographer of Ronnie's brother Charlie.

The letters were auctioned by Mullock Madeley in Church Stretton but failed to reach their reserve price of between £1,000 to £1,200.

Written in Kray's distinctive, barely legible scrawl, the letters ran to 40 pages of Kray's own personal headed A4 notepaper.

On one occasion, he wrote 14 letters in a day.

It is not the first time Mr McGibbon has tried to sell letters written by Kray.

A batch of letters he received from Kray and his brother Reggie failed to attract any buyers at an auction in April 2002.