Bert Rossi: Clerkenwell ‘gangland boss’ laid to rest following service at St Peter’s Italian Church
Bert Rossi with his autobiography, Bert Battles Rossi. Picture: Rossi family - Credit: Archant
The Clerkenwell funeral of self-proclaimed “gangland boss” Bert Rossi, once a key mentor of the Kray twins, took place on Monday.
Bert Rossi. Picture: Rossi family - Credit: Archant
Mr Rossi, 94, died on July 2 after a fall at home. He’d just released an autobiography and planned a book tour.
A service took place at St Peter’s Italian Church in what was once London’s Little Italy, followed by a ceremony at Islington Crematorium.
Grandson Frankie said: “He was a good man, an honest man, a very respected man and a family man, I was proud of him. If you needed any money he’d always help a friend out.”
Frankie has fond memories of being taken to boxing matches by his grandfather as a boy. He said of the book: “He wanted to tell his story and obviously he couldn’t have written it in the old days. People should read it because it’s interesting.”
Frankie said Mr Rossi went out the way he would have wanted – with Italian music, including some from The Godfather.
Most Read
- 1 'Graffiti vandal' linked with £500k worth of damage caught in Highbury
- 2 Travel Bulletin: Islington, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets
- 3 Five arrested for drugs offences after dawn raids
- 4 'Fear, isolation and distress': Pentonville Prison during Covid-19
- 5 Supermarkets issue urgent product recall after salmonella found in products
- 6 Knifeman was out on bail when he nearly killed father-of-three on school run
- 7 No More Red: Arsenal and Islington campaign against knife crime
- 8 Fire damage repairs begin on Ironmonger Row Baths centre
- 9 WATCH: Sauna fire rips through Old Street leisure centre
- 10 Three jailed after 'horrific' revenge attack on teenage boy near Finsbury Park
