It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. MAD FRANK and SONS - Home - Facebook His parents never knew about his illegal activities, and if they ever suspected him apparently turned a blind eye, a habit . They bought fur coats, jewellery and went dancing in West End nightclubs. Borstal was followed by prison, where in 1943 he met the influential London villain Billy Hill, for whom he worked on and off for more than a decade, culminating in his slashing of Hills rival Jack Spot in 1956 after the self-styled kings of the underworld had fallen out. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. Former Northern Echo journalist Beezy Marsh has written a book about London gangster Mad Frankie Fraser. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. Francis Davidson "Frankie" Fraser, better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser,was an English gang member and criminal who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. He spent 42 years behind bars before achieving a certain cult status in later life as an author, after-dinner speaker, television pundit and tour guide. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. Fraser owed his success in the fruit machine business to Billy Hill, whose patronage Fraser courted when he attacked and almost killed Hills gangland rival Jack "Spot" Comer. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. Getting them to relive their exploits had its own difficulties at the start the only time they had ever been interviewed was by the police and they were used to keeping their own counsel. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. 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. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. 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. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. The most famous 'queen', Alice Diamond (left), was the daughter of a docker and renowned for her row of diamond rings that doubled as a knuckle duster. Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. From the time of Frankie Fraser's sister Eva and the gang of hoisters The Forty Thieves, comes a book which will have you gripped this summer. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. Frankie Fraser - Wikipedia Members of The Forty Thieves worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. Comments have been closed on this article. 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 earned his mad nickname during the second world war, when he managed to get himself out of military service by pretending to be mentally ill. To prove his unsuitability to the force, he assaulted a doctor before jumping out of the window at the Bradford assessment centre where he had been sent. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Scottish Sun Frankie Fraser was tried at the Old Bailey for Harts murder, while six others, including Eddie Richardson, faced lesser charges. Photos of Frankie "Mad" Fraser - Find a Grave Memorial Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. [6] Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. His mother was of Norwegian-Irish stock and his father was half Native American. After trying his hand at crime as a. The Richardson Gang was an English crime gang based in South London, England in the 1960s.Also known as the "Torture Gang", they had a reputation as some of London's most sadistic gangsters. Eva got into shoplifting, but had a heart of gold. Notorious 1930s West End girl gang who hid stolen jewellery in At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Old London Photographs | This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. 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. '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. After the war, Fraser was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller, for which he received a two-year prison sentence, mostly served atHMP Pentonville. Fraser also appeared as East End crime boss Pops Den in the feature film Hard Men, a forerunner of British gangster movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and had a documentary made of his life, Mad Frank. Fraser spent practically half his life behind bars. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. 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. In 1966, Fraser was charged with the murder of Richard Hart - who was shot at Mr Smith's club inCatfordwhile other Richardson associates, includingJimmy Moody, were charged withaffray. 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. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. 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 gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. 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. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! After one snatch, he and his companion were arrested when their car would not start. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. 'My gran liked to go for tea at the Ritz, especially if she could pinch someone's fur coat from the cloakroom on the way out. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. But little by little, over weeks and months of interviews, cups of tea and chats, their life stories emerged and with that came a fascinating insight into the Fraser family history and what really made Frank tick. Both Fraser and Warren received seven-year sentences. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. But his greatest moment of national notoriety came a quarter of a century earlier, during what the media billed as the Torture Trial (in fact a series of trials) in 1967 that became one of the longest in British criminal history. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Frankie Fraser, who has died aged 90, was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s; he spent 42 years behind bars before achieving a certain cult status in later life as an author, after-dinner speaker, television pundit and tour guide. 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. 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. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. But who were the gang's most brazen members? Frank Davidson "Frankie" Fraser, better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London, he grew up in poverty and was the youngest of five children, Fraser and his sister Eva, whom he was close too, turned to crime at the age of 10, on several occasions during World War 2, Fraser would escape his barracks and deserting many a times. 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. There was American Indian blood in him; his grandfather had emigrated to Canada in the late 19th century and married a full-blooded American Indian woman. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook Physically slight at only 5ft 4in, and invariably wearing a smile and in retirement a sharp Savile Row suit, Frankie Fraser was nevertheless a ferocious and brutal hatchet man. Richardson Gang - Wikipedia What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. 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. It spent six weeks in the Sunday Times top ten and held the coveted #1 Globe and Mail chart slot in Canada for three months. Harts killing was avenged within 24 hours when Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell, the Richardsons chief lieutenant, at the Blind Beggar pub deep in Kray territory on the Mile End Road, using a 9mm Mauser semi-automatic pistol at point-blank range. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. Frankie Fraser obituary | Crime | The Guardian Mad Frank. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. Fraser was the youngest of five children who were growing up in poverty - he first turned to crime at the tender age of 10, alongside his sister Eva. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. New biography of notorious Frankie Fraser promises to reveal the late During World War 2 he was a deserter - escaping from his barracks on several occasions. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. 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During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. But the victory was pyrrhic in many senses, because by the time he finally left prison the in mid 1980s, the world had changed and gangland had moved on. 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'. Fraser received seven years. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. By the 1950s, the gang were facing ever-present store detectives and had to rely more on disguises. The Guardian, October 12 1980 Frank Fraser is a thorn in the Prison Department's side - a thorn so big that he is possibly the only British criminal who has become a legend simply by serving time. 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. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. 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. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] MAD FRANK and SONS - Home - Facebook His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. Queen of Thieves: The gangland women who made Peaky Blinders look like She was sentenced to five months. He had been shot in the face. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. She would send her girls out in teams of three or four at least three days a week, to stores all over London and as far afield as Birmingham and Brighton. Family ways of 'Mad' Frankie | The Northern Echo [13], It was in the early 1960s that Fraser first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang, rivals to the Kray twins. Many of the Forty Thieves were noted for their beauty as well as their shoplifting skills, such as Madeline Partridge and her sister Laura, whose mother was often used by Diamond to sell stolen goods. In 1969, Fraser was one of the ringleaders of the major Parkhurst Prison riot, which resulted in him spending the six weeks in the prison hospital due to his injuries. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.