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LINDA CALVEY, KNOWN AS THE BLACK WIDOW, SPENT MORE THAN 20 YEARS BEHIND BARS FOR A SERIES OF CRIMES INCLUDING THE MURDER OF HER LOVER RONNIE COOK - SHE WAS AT ONE POINT THE UK'S

LONGEST-SERVING FEMALE PRISONER PETER HART Weekend Editor – OK! and SCARLET HOWES 12:13, 30 May 2025 Ever pondered what it's like to be locked up with some of Britain's most

infamous criminals? Few can fathom the eerie experience of sharing a prison wing with brutal child killers. However, one woman who knows this all too well is Linda Calvey, also known as the

Black Widow. The notorious East End gangster, now 76, earned her reputation as a bank robber but ended up in prison for shooting her lover Ronnie Cook. Her crimes resulted in more than 20

years behind bars, and at one point she was Britain's longest-serving living female prisoner. In a book published in 2019 following her release, she revealed the reality of being

incarcerated with two of Britain's most evil women – Myra Hindley and Rose West. West, now 71, received a life sentence in 1995 for assisting her husband Fred in raping and murdering at

least 12 women and girls at their Cromwell Street home in Gloucester. She's currently detained in HMP New Hall where 'she can barely walk and has no friends', reports the

Mirror. Hindley was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the torture and murder of five children alongside her partner Ian Brady during the 1960s. Fred and Rose West are presently the

focus of a Netflix documentary, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story. It features previously unseen footage from the horrific dungeon where the wicked pair committed some of their vile

murders. Reflecting on her prison experience, Calvey recounted, "I was in Durham prison. Myra and Rose were both there too. They used to sit ­together and became very pally but then

suddenly they stopped talking. I think Rose's solicitor told her it doesn't look good." Article continues below Calvey also spoke about West's volatile nature, which

could be set off by seemingly trivial matters. "I saw her go into a rant once and it looked like toothpaste coming out of her mouth," she remarked. "She was foaming like a mad

person. She was upset about a drink driver who ran over a cyclist. "We were in a debating class where they look through the papers and get us to discuss something. She kept screaming,

'It's disgusting, his poor family.'" Additionally, Calvey mentioned, "She also got upset when her cell was set on fire and it nearly killed her budgie. She went to

pieces. She was sobbing over this little bird, begging them not to let it die." Calvey disclosed further: "She was so angry at Fred for hanging himself. We all heard the boys

chanting next door 'Fred is dead' and she was the only one who didn't know what it meant at the time." While incarcerated, Calvey began collecting macabre souvenirs made

or given to her by notorious inmates. She acquired a cushion made by West. Hindley gave her a nightie, a cardigan, some Christmas cards, and an empty heart-shaped box. Despite her heinous

crimes, Calvey describes Moors murderer Hindley – whom she once slapped in prison – as appearing more like a "suburban ­housewife" than a monster, equipped with pink nail varnish

and a flowing kaftan. Hindley displayed a fear of spiders, once begging Calvey to dispatch one in her cell. "She screamed and hid behind me and told me to kill it, saying,

'You're the Black Widow,'" Calvey remembers. "I was astounded that the woman who had murdered children could be frightened of ending a spider's life." She

added: "That's when I noticed she had a locked briefcase under her bed. She told me it was her personal ­papers. But we weren't allowed private documents on the wing.

I've always been curious about what was in that case. "Calvey got to know Hindley while she served as her hairdresser in Highpoint prison in Suffolk. "She was particular about

her hair as that was the only control she had over anything," Calvey revealed. "She liked it dyed a dark shade of red once a month. And twice a week I had to wash it. She would

sit there chain smoking roll-ups." Hindley introduced Calvey as her friend to her mother, even asking her fellow inmate to converse with the elderly woman over the phone. Calvey

recalled: "She phoned her mum to say she had a lovely friend. "I'd think to myself, 'I'm not your mate', she said. My role was purely down to being made to do

her hair. She nagged me to talk to her each Sunday. I pitied her mum for having a ­daughter like that. " Calvey revealed that Hindley harboured resentment towards her victims'

mothers in her final days. "She was very bitter about ­being in prison and believed she shouldn't be. She was especially bitter towards Lesley Anne Downey's mum and called her

'that b****y woman'. "She didn't speak about her crimes except once, when she said Brady forced her to do it. Calvey first encountered the child murderer at Cookham Wood

prison in Kent when she was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for armed robbery. She said: "I worked in the library and she would take out violent and gory books that were banned to

her under other people's names." Hindley died in prison in November 2002, aged 60. Article continues below "Calvey also disclosed that she received marriage proposals from

gang boss Reggie Kray and notorious armed robber Charles Bronson, who recently made a fresh bid to be released from prison, aged 81. She shared: "Reggie asked me to marry him over the

phone. He phoned me twice a week and I used to get bouquets of flowers from him. He sent me trainers once. I said it wasn't good for either of us, really thinking it wouldn't be

good for me as I'd still be sitting there now if I was Mrs Kray. "Regarding Bronson, Calvey commented: "He proposed to me so many times but he's a serial proposer.

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