Cornell 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 three years later for the murder and remained in Broadmoor Hospital until his death from a heart attack on 17 March 1995.
[citation needed] From the age of 12, Cornell often worked as a Billingsgate fish porter, and then at the nearby docks where he ran credit rackets and became friends with Lennie Hamilton and Billy Frost.
In 1950 (as George Cornell), he received his first prison sentence, of fifteen months, after being convicted at the Central Criminal Court for unlawful wounding and malicious damage.
Cornell was originally a member of an East End gang called The Watney Streeters, and later became involved with the Kray twins.
[4] On 9 March 1966, Cornell and his friend Albie Woods entered The Blind Beggar pub, ordered some light ales and then sat upon stools next to the bar.
Although Ronnie Kray was identified by several eyewitnesses as he calmly left the public house, no one would agree to testify against him and the police were forced to release him from custody.