While still a teenager, in the spring of 1943, he took part in a daring raid to free an Army deserter from a squad sent to collect him from Wandsworth Prison. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. The gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. Beezy, from Ealing, explained that it was in prison that Eva met Diana Mosley, wife of Oswald leader of fascist Blackshirts who were a fearsome presence in London in the 1920s and 30s. On the night of March 7 1966 Fraser and Eddie Richardson were badly hurt in a brawl at Mr Smiths club in Catford, the incident that broke the Richardson familys grip on south London. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. Members of The Forty Thieves, whose mugshots were captured by the Police Gazette ahead of regular stays at Holloway Prison, often wore beautifully designed hats, coats and dresses in order to fit in - known as 'putting on the posh'. Frank's mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his "best pal" and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. He saw himself as an innovator, claiming to have invented the Friday gang, robbing wages clerks carrying money from banks; he would use a starting handle to beat his victims and to deter any watching have-a-go heroes in the street. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. He also ran a coach tour pointing out to a spectrum of customers the old criminal London. By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. So it was in January 1965, when a club owner called Benny Coulston was hauled before Richardson for swindling him out of 600 over a consignment of cigarettes. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. He has been part of the most infamous criminal gangs of the past 100 years, while maintaining his South London roots and deep devotion to his family. Nevertheless his campaigns and, on the outside, those of Eva, did bring the attention of the general public to the unpalatable conditions in which prisoners served then their sentences. When shoplifting she used a number of techniques including: wearing different wigs, putting stolen items under her skirt and the use of barrier bags lined with tin foil to prevent the detection of security tags. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. Mad Frank. She was sentenced to five months. His gangster boss Charles Richardson remembered him as one of the most polite, mild-mannered men Ive met but he has a bad temper on him sometimes. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them, Some of London's The Forty Thieves' antics made the Peaky Blinders look like choirboys. To evade discovery they posted the stolen items back to London or depositing a suitcase of loot at the railway station's left luggage office, to be collected later. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. He chose the latter because they had taken sides on behalf of his sisters husband, Tommy Brindle, who had received a heavy beating by the Rosa brothers from the Elephant and Castle. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. He was very skilled at manipulating people and he played a long game, letting people believe he was mad, with the intention of winning in the end. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. Having chronicled the life of old mad Frank, author Beezy Marsh has turned her pen to Peggy, Kathleen and Eva; in her new book Keeping My Sisters Secrets. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a. At 17 he was sent to Borstal for breaking and entering a hosiery shop in Waterloo and was then given a 15-month prison sentence for shopbreaking. But after shoving their stolen goods into waiting cars the women would head back to the grotty slums of Waterloo and Elephant and Castle - where their 'queen' exchanged the expensive items for a generous weekly wage. The thieves' earnings allowed them to live like upper-class debutantes. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". Fraser spent practically half his life behind bars. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. This resulted in Fraser returning to prison once again - this time to serve a seven-year sentence. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. Her story has been told in The Queen of Thieves, written by author Beezy Marsh, which sheds a light on the lives of the girl gang that gained the respect of male criminals because of their lucrative and violent methods. After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. Frasers partner in this endeavour was Bobby Warren, an uncle of the boxing promoter Frank Warren. Police reveal more details, as man remains at large after brutal attack outside school, Interview with MP Neil Coyle after Commons suspension: Why the drinking has stopped having started in childhood, but the swearing wont, plus deliberately avoiding Labour leader Keir Starmer, Read our print products (Digital Editions). The Old Bailey jury heard, in grisly detail that still resonates 50 years on, how Frankie Fraser tried to pull Coulstons teeth out one by one with a pair of pliers. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. After trying his hand at crime as a. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Frankie Fraser was a south London gangster who knew no language but violence and spent half his life behind bars. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Even decent folk were often only too happy to 'take a bit of crooked' to have something new. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was halfNative-American. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. When Frank Sinatra came to London in the early 1970s, he made a special visit in his limo to Eva in her little terrace house in South London to pay his respects. Shegot her first criminal record aged just 14 and, in 1923, she was jailed after running out of a jeweller's with a tray of 34 diamond rings straight into the arms of a policeman. 'In fact, she was one of the people who spotted his talent for stealing after he pinched a cigarette machine from a hotel as a small boy. But Hill was already an admirer: a picture taken at a party to launch Hills ghosted autobiography in 1955 shows Fraser draped artistically over a piano. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Fraser considered that Lawton had meted out cruel and vindictive punishment to him at Pentonville in 1948, and to avenge himself Fraser assumed the role of hangman. The big question everyone has about Frank is Was he really mad? He was certified insane three times once by the Army, twice in prison and he was diagnosed as a psychopath but his family argue, and I tend to agree, that he played the system to suit himself. He built a reputation as an enforcer and strongman for various gang leaders, including Billy Hill, self-styled King of Britains Underworld in the 1940s and 1950s and, in the 1960s, the Richardson brothers. While the award-winning TV show Peaky Blinders was inspired by the all-male Brummagem Boys gang from the same period, the Forty Thieves make some of even their escapades seem tame by comparison. Because of the type of person I am, he wrote, in the life I led, you learn to shrug off adversity better than people whove worked hard all their lives.. Eva was a chip off the old block and as well as being Franks first partner in crime, stealing sweets from the corner shop, she had a lucrative career in a daring gang of girl shoplifters, The Forty Thieves, which traced its roots back to Victorian London and cleared many a West End store for furs and luxury goods. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. On his release, Fraser joined Richardsons brother Eddie in a company called Atlantic Machines, installing fruit machines at some of Sohos most profitable sites, with Sir Noel Dryden recruited as the respectable frontman. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. These recollections, while often disordered and jumbled, nevertheless shed light on Frasers shameless and unrepentant defiance of the liberal consensus. AS is the case with so many crime families, the key to understanding the men came through getting to know the women who cared for them. Fraser served a total of 42 years in over 20 different prisons in the UK for numerous violent offences. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. Ronald 'Ronnie' Kray and Reginald 'Reggie' Kray, were identical twin brothers who led an organised crime ring in East London from the late 1950s to 1967. 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He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. He was frequently punished for breaking prison rules or fighting prison officers: "I've done more bread and water than any man alive. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. She had known their father, who was a fence (seller of stolen goods) or a 'thieves' ponce' - he would put up the money to finance criminal operations - which was a career on which she looked down. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. He was also tried in court in the so-called 'Torture trial', in which members of the Richardson Gang were charged with burning, electrocuting and whipping those found guilty of disloyalty by a kangaroo court. The police were cozzers and a burglary was a screwer, hitting someone was a clump, while jewellery was tom as in Tom Foolery, in rhyming slang. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Some became pals with young actresses as they partied in Soho nightclubs and stole dresses to order for them to wear on the red carpet. Even the gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, whose sister Eva was a leading light in the gang in the thirties and forties, spoke with great reverence about Alice Diamond. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. 'It was not just a man's world, despite the countless column inches still spent poring over the phenomenon that was the Kray Twins,' she added. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. He had 10 years added to a sentence he was serving in 1967 along with The Richardson Brothers in the Torture Trials which were the longest trials in British criminal history. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Such were the criminal opportunities during the war, Fraser joked in a television interview years later, that he had never forgiven the Germans for surrendering. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them. If you love GANGLAND and women in crime who rubbed shoulders with Frank and the Krays, you're going to QUEEN OF CLUBS my new book set in seedy 1950s Soho and inspired by the Forty Thieves hoisters gang including Frank's sister Eva Fraser and the notorious hoister Shirley Pitts from Walworth who grew up with his sons David and Patrick. There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. 42 years a lag She had died in. He was so attired when, in 1951, he attacked the governor of Wandsworth prison, William Lawton, as he walked his pet terrier on Wandsworth Common. "My father was the most honest man I've ever come across," says Fraser, who also refers to his Native American antecedents, saying that his grandmother was "a Red Indian", According to his sons, Fraser has no regrets: "He said, 'No, I wouldn't have done my life any other way. [5][6][7][8] His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. Moment brazen thieves jump behind counter at Chicago Drug baron, 58, who 'hid 198MILLION fortune from police' is Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' Last seen in public in October at the funeral of his former boss, Charlie Richardson, Fraser is one of the few remaining members of a generation of "celebrity criminals". Author Beezy Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. What Fraser invariably threatened was violence. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. Pictured, Marble Arch and Oxford Circus in the 1920s, Petite shoplifter Bertha Tappenden (right) stood just over 5ft 2in tall, but was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a man in Lambeth, after kicking down his front door and attacking him with razors and knives, to settle a score, aided by Diamond and another gang girl, Gertrude Scully (left). Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. Always well turned out and ineffably polite and punctual, he had a large and appreciative audience, and one woman was so impressed she named her son after him. He also attacked various governors. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. He had an ungovernable temper and an inability to think through the undoubted consequences of his proposed actions. The business came to an end in 1966 when a fight in a Catford night club, Mr Smiths, left a Kray associate, Dickie Hart, dead, and Richardson and Fraser, who was charged with Harts murder, in prison. The following year he was involved in a torture trial the Old Bailey, where members of the gang were charged with electrocuting, whipping and burning those disloyal to them. The comments below have not been moderated. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. If you weren't actually stealing, you were outranked by The Forty Thieves. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a hoister because they could outearn us men two to one,' he said. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. But when her brother Frankie was in prison, she helped to run his protection rackets in Soho and even sent her daughters to collect payments, as the police would not stop a child. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. But Beezy said: [Kathleen] experienced the slums of Waterloo as a place buzzing with excitement and the tight-knit community, with its Catholic Church parades, which gave her the chance to shine, though she instead works at the old Hartleys jam factory in Bermondsey. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. . In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. But who were the gang's most brazen members? Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. The youngest of five children, he grew up in poverty in the Elephant and Castle and Borough, areas teeming with moneylenders, prostitutes and backstreet abortionists. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. The family was hard-working and kept themselves clean [out of crime].. She also passed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. Prior to that he was a bodyguard to notorious gangland leader Billy Hill, where he took part in bank robberies and and carried out razor blade attacks - which earned him 50 a time. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. There was no evidence that Fraser had fired the fatal shots, and although he claimed to have been fitted up for the killing, he was convicted of affray and sentenced to five years imprisonment. His life of crime started aged nine when he worked for the notorious Sabini gang, which ran protection rackets at the racecourses at a time when off-course betting was illegal. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. The following year, the British mobster Jack Spot and wife Rita were attacked, on Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. He was a member of the Richardson gang or the 'torture gang', led by brothers Charlie and Eddie Richardson, and were widely feared in Londons underworld. Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. As he languished in jail, his sons David and Patrick and their older brother, Frank Jnr currently living quietly on the Costa del Sol carved their own careers as bank robbers and jewellery thieves in 1970s London. [10], In 1941, Fraser was sent to borstal for breaking into a Waterloo hosiery store, then given a 15-month prison sentence at HM Prison Wandsworth for shop-breaking. He regularly led conducted tours of East End crime scenes, invariably ending up in the Blind Beggar pub where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell dead. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. Eva Fraser - the sister of notorious gangster Mad Frankie Fraser - was reputedly one of the last members of the Queens of the Forty Thieves shoplifting gang, which sold stolen goods from. Eva was a leading light in the gang in the thirties and forties, having risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. Although he was never convicted of murder, police reportedly held him responsible for 40 killings, but the bluster and bravado of a media-savvy gangland relic almost certainly inflated this tally, the actual scale of which remains unfathomable. After trying his hand at crime as a. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. He was said to have pulled out the teeth of one of the victims with a pair of pliers. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. The Krays held Eva Fraser in high regard because of her role in the gang and during the 1940s and 1950s, and the Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Maggie Hughes - was careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference. At her kitchen table, Alice would teach her girls how to roll furs on the hanger and shove them down their drawers, which the gang called 'clouting'. Born inLambeth, south London, Frankie committed his first crime at the age of 13, when he stole a packet of cigarettes and was sent to an approved school. The most famous queen,Alice Diamond, was the daughter of a docker and renowned for her row of diamond rings that doubled as a knuckle duster. Jewellery was a favourite target, as it was easy to hide up a sleeve - rings could be switched for worthless fakes. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. Swathed in luxurious fur coats, wearing diamond rings as a knuckledusters and hats to hide their stolen wares, Britain's most notorious all-female gang ruledthe tenements of Waterloo and Elephant and Castle and earned the respect of Soho's most feared underworld bosses. Those who had incurred Richardsons displeasure were wired up to a sinister black box with a wind-up handle that administered severe electric shocks to the genitals. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26 offences, has been issued with an asbo after an incident in his residential accommodation. Before World War Two, if you got married you were expected to leave work and stay at home, Beezy said. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. It will only make me a worse villain!'. In 1945, when he was 21, he assaulted the governor at Shrewsbury prison with an ebony ruler snatched from the governors desk, for which he received 18 strokes of the cat. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. The women, who carried razors wrapped in lace handkerchiefs, were known for violent outbursts - including one furore that resulted in a woman blinding a police officer by stabbing him in the eye with her hatpin. ", A deserter during the war he pretended to be mad to avoid the call-up Fraser was certified insane three times and spent time in Broadmoor secure hospital. He was then then given a 15-month prison sentence atHMP Wandsworthfor shop-breaking - this was just the first of 20 prisons Fraser would be sent to. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held Eva Fraser in high regard because of her role in the gang and during the 1940s and 1950s and the Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Ms Hughes - was careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. He emerged from jail in 1989 and has not been back since. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. "Hill paid by the stitch if you put 50 stitches in a man's face, you could expect 50," says James Morton, Fraser's biographer. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. 'I felt it was time for their story to be told and it inspired my novel, which is the first in a planned trilogy for Orion about the gang, stretching from the 1920s to the 1950s.'. Although he was conscripted, Fraser later boasted that he had never once worn the uniform, preferring to ignore call-up papers, desert and resume his criminal activities. Former Northern Echo journalist Beezy Marsh has written a book about London gangster Mad Frankie Fraser. In the early half of the 20th century one queen, Diamond, regularly appeared in the press where she was once described as a 'tall and commanding figure with a cool demeanour'. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime, with the blackout and rationing, combined with the lack of professional policemen due to conscription, providing ample opportunities for criminal activities such as stealing from houses while the occupants were in air-raid shelters. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. They stole to put food on the table. After trying his hand at crime as a child, Fraser then continued into his later life. From then on until the end of the 1980s, Fraser was more often in jail than not. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. His enduring nickname Mad Frank derived from his violent temperament which caused him to attempt to hang the governor of Wandsworth prison (and the governors dog) from a tree, and to be certified insane on three separate occasions.
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