Roy Shaw

Roy Shaw was celebrated in song in 2011 when a group called The Sharks released "The King Of London (aka The Ballad Of Pretty Boy Shaw)". The song was written by band member Alan Wilson who met and became friends with Roy Shaw via their mutual friend Ronnie Biggs.

(2009) and The End (2008).

Shaw formerly owned highly valued land in Chadwell Heath, northeast London, which he sold in a £2.6 million land sale in 2008. Shaw gave £643,000 of this to Linda Finnimore, 43, someone who Roy had met when he was battling early stages of Alzheimers and he believed she was helping him with his business affairs and that she was battling cancer, both of which turned out to be untrue.

Shaw was the subject of a 2006 documentary DVD entitled Roy Shaw: Brute Force. It was directed by Liam Galvin and contained original footage of Shaw's unlicensed boxing matches, and also interviews with Shaw himself and other former criminal underworld figures and boxers he was associated with. It was followed up with a second DVD Roy Shaw's Fight School. In 2010, he appeared in Galvin's movie Killer Bitch which featured a host of criminals.

Shaw co-wrote a book with Kate Kray, the widow of Ronnie Kray, entitled Roy Shaw: Unleashed (2003). The book is a collection of stories and anecdotes about the criminal underworld of London in the 1970s/1980s, as well as Shaw's boxing career. Shaw's autobiography, entitled Pretty Boy (2003), was also co-written by Kray. It goes into further detail Shaw's early life, personal and private life, time in prison, and also expanding on stories begun in his previous book. A book written by Jamie Boyle & Gary Shaw, Roy’s son, called ‘Mean Machine. Roy Shaw’ was published by Warcrypress in 2019. It features many stories of Roy that had never been published.

In 2000, Shaw was one of the best known mourners to attend the funeral of Reggie Kray, a lifelong friend. Shaw said of Kray: "Kray came from an era before drugs became common currency, when there was honour among thieves and few criminals double-crossed their friends. In those days there was loyalty. Nowadays they are all having each other over all the time."

Shaw, who claimed he "simply hates the system", and that the "system could never beat him", was consistently moved onto different prisons and spent time at Broadmoor Hospital for Criminally Insane. According to Shaw's autobiography, Pretty Boy (1999), "uncontrollable prisoners, were deliberately drugged up with the aim of turning them into permanent 'cabbages'". At Broadmoor, Shaw underwent experimental electroconvulsive therapy in an attempt to control his temper. His doctor claimed that Shaw had at first come across as a large and intimidating yet soft-spoken gentleman, but when faced with treatment he didn't want, Shaw became "the most powerful and dangerous man I have ever tried to treat". The doctor reported the treatments as having been a complete failure, and only served to make Shaw even more aggressive and unpredictable.

Shaw has been mentioned or discussed in numerous books, most notably in arch-rival Lenny McLean's 1998 autobiography The Guv'Nor. and Hard Bastards by Kate Kray.

On his release from prison, Shaw started fighting unlicensed (i.e. not sanctioned by the British Boxing Board of Control) boxing matches in 1978, aged 42, and gained many infamous victories, including one over Donnie "The Bull" Adams. Shaw also beat former world heavyweight contender Ron Stander, who had also previously fought Joe Frazier for the heavyweight title. Stander however broke a rib before the fight with Roy Shaw. Shaw would later say in his book that he kept hitting Stander with punches which had no effect on Stander – until he found his broken rib. In Shaw's words if Stander had not broken his rib he would have 'mullered me'.

During his time in Broadmoor, Shaw again encountered Ronnie Kray. Shaw also spent time with such people as Ronnie Biggs and Charles Bronson at other prisons. By 1974, Shaw had already spent around 18 years in more than 22 different prisons.

Shaw was something of a minor celebrity in the tabloids in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Shaw has also sometimes appeared in the press over the years, such as his attending of Ronnie Kray's funeral, or his 2009 court case (see 2009 court case section below).

Shaw was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment for an armed robbery in 1963, one of England's largest armoured truck robberies. Shaw reportedly fought his way out of two different holding cells at HM Prison Maidstone, assaulting several prison guards.

Shaw was born in Stepney, London, to a working-class family and from an early age was involved in illegal activities. He was acquainted with the Kray twins since at least the very early 1960s; Shaw attended the funeral of Reggie Kray in 2000, and was quoted as having said: "We grew up in the same era. They were into protection rackets and I was into blags. I never got in their way and they never got in mine. Ronnie was more of a friend than Reggie, but I've come along today because he was one of the 'chaps'. Today is like the end of an era. The Krays were legends." As an adult Shaw mainly lived in Bethnal Green.

Roy Shaw was born on March 11, 1936 in Stepney, London, England as Royston Henry Shaw. He was an actor and writer, known for Pretty Boy (2021), Thugs, Mugs and Violence. . . .