He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. Comments have been closed on this article. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. Following a trial at the Old Bailey in 1967, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Please report any comments that break our rules. 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. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. 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. Jack 'Spot' Comer showing the scar on his face left by Frankie Fraser and Alf Warren (GETTY), By 1956, Fraser had racked up 15 convictions and had twice been certified insane. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. Born 1920s. He was a rock.. Somehow Eva found herself in the opposite company of her eldest sister Peggy, whose boyfriend was heavily involved in the Communist Party, whom the Blackshirts fought in the famous Battle of Bermondsey, and the even more famous Battle of Cable Street. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. The following year, the British mobsterJack Spotand wife Rita were attacked on Billy Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. In 1941, Fraser was given his first taste of punishment when he was sent to borstal for breaking into a Waterloo hosiery store. ', As the photographs show, the women often wore beautifully designed hats , coats and dresses in order to fit in, known as 'putting on the posh'. Francis Davidson Fraser was born on December 13 1923 in Cornwall Road, a slum area of south London on the site of what is now the Royal Festival Hall. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. 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. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. 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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! Author Beezy Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. By the 1950s, the gang were facing ever-present store detectives and had to rely more on disguises. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. 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. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. Charles Richardson was a criminal businessman who reputedly specialised in various tortures administered at secret courts at which he presided, sometimes robed like a judge, a knife or a gun to hand. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Frankie Fraser was a south London gangster who knew no language but violence and spent half his life behind bars. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. As people facedblackouts, rationing and a lack of professional policing due toconscription, Fraser had ample opportunities for criminal activities, such as stealing from houses while the occupants were hiding for safety in air-raid shelters. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. ", Of the war years, when he was heavily involved in theft from bombed-out stores, he says: "You wanted to win the war but you wanted it to go on for ever. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. 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 ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused. . 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. 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. His major stretch in prison came at the end of the Swinging Sixties, shortly before his rivals, the Krays, were jailed, but he was so badly behaved behind bars that he lost every day of remission and even had five years added to his sentence for one of the worst riots in prison history at Parkhurst in the Isle of Wight. The women were completely faithful to their leader, known as the queen, who doled out harsh punishments and carried strict rules including not helping police officers by informing. "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. 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. 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. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. [12], 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 at HM Prison Pentonville. 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. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. Francis Davidson Fraser, criminal, born 13 December 1923; died 26 November 2014, Gangland criminal and in later life a minor media celebrity, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Frankie Fraser in 2002. 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 was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. '", Frankie Fraser's Last Stand will be broadcast on the Crime and Investigation network on 16 June at 9pm, New TV documentary shows ex-gangland enforcer is far from mellowing with age and has few regrets about his life of crime, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Frankie Fraser has no regrets over his life of crime, which involved him being jailed for a total of 42 years for 26 offences. Even decent folk were often only too happy to 'take a bit of crooked' to have something new. 42 years a lag She had died in. Fraser has complained in the past that "I had no help from my family; my mother and father were dead straight so I had to make my own way. 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Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. End-right girl on the back row is Eva.. VIEWS Every old-school south Londoner knows the folklore of cockney criminal Frankie Fraser, whose violent tendencies were infamous on the streets of Walworth. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. He appeared on pop records and in television documentaries, toured his one-man show of criminal reminiscences (flexing a pair of gilded pliers), and found himself invited into bookshops to sign copies of his memoirs. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. "From there he goes on to burgle, and she goes onto shop lifting with a famous female gang called The 40 Thieves. Fraser served a total of 42 years in over 20 different prisons in the UK for numerous violent offences. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. There were car chases and bank raids which would not have looked out of place in The Sweeney. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. He was still serving his sentence for the Catford affray when he was handed a further 10 years for his part in the Richardson torture case. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Each incident added more time to his sentence. His last jail term ended in 1989, but in 2011 he was handed an Asbo after getting into an argument with a fellow pensioner at the sheltered accommodation where he lived in Bermondsey. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 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Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Diamond's second-in-command Maggie Hughes (right) was known as 'Babyface' for her sweet looks and made a habit of cheekily shouting back at the judge when she was sentenced to jail: 'It won't cure me! Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. 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. The gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. Editors' Code of Practice. Many started as child lookouts. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. 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. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. HP10 9TY. He then worked for legendary Soho crime boss Billy Hill in the 1950s, earning the nickname razor Fraser for his attacks on those who crossed him, before becoming embroiled in protection rackets in the 1960s, rising to the position of the Boss of Soho. He was given an asbo, one of his sons told film-makers, after getting into an argument with a fellow-resident and is unrepentant about his life of crime. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. 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. 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. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. 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. '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. He spent more than 40 years in prison. She was one of the top thieves during the war. Petite shoplifter Bertha Tappenden 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. She was sentenced to five months. 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. 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. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. Diamond's second-in-command Maggie Hughes was known as 'Babyface' for her sweet looks and made a habit of cheekily shouting back at the judge when she was sentenced to jail: 'It won't cure me! 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 was during the Second World War that he was branded 'Mad' Frankie, after he feigned a mental illness to avoid being called up to the front line. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. The cells did not have a reforming effect on her character or on that of her gang leader Diamond, who was arrested on numerous occasions over the following decade. 'The other side of the story involves these feisty women and it is perhaps more fascinating given the limited powers such working class girls had to earn a decent wage.'. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. 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. This resulted in Fraser returning to prison once again - this time to serve a seven-year sentence. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] 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. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. [15] In 1966, Fraser was charged with the murder of Richard Hart, who was shot at Mr Smith's club in Catford while other Richardson associates, including Jimmy Moody, were charged with affray. The memoir KEEPING MY SISTER'S SECRETS, (Pan Macmillan 2017) tells the moving story of three sisters born into poverty in 1930s London and their fight for a survival through a decade of social upheaval. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. Alice herself was famous for clouting three furs in one go: one down each leg and one under her gusset. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. He also ran a coach tour pointing out to a spectrum of customers the old criminal London. Before then, Fraser had been involved in smash-and-grab raids and wages snatches. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). 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. Jewellery was a favourite target, as it was easy to hide up a sleeve - rings could be switched for worthless fakes. At his funeral, one of his old prison friends summed him up: Whether he has gone upstairs or downstairs, I cant say, but wherever he is, you can be sure of this: he will be protesting about the conditions.. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 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. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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'. At signing sessions of his books he was always willing to be photographed pretending to extract a tooth with pliers brought by the fan. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. '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. After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. There was Eva, the naughty girl of the three, who became a key figure in the all-girl gang, the Forty Thieves, who targeted the West Ends big department stores. 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. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's An unregenerate villain of the deepest dye, Fraser satisfied the public appetite for vicarious thrill-seeking with a series of self-exculpatory memoirs in the 1990s that launched him on a twilight career as a celebrity criminal. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. He also attacked various governors. During World War 2 he was a deserter - escaping from his barracks on several occasions. 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. However, it was in the early 1960s that Fraser began to take on even bigger crimes, when he first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang - rivals to the Kray twins. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. Mad Frank. '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. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. A Gannett Company. She had died in 2000 but her daughter Beverley, who shared Evas reticent nature, agreed to talk to me and that revealed that Eva had been leading criminal in her own right. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Photograph: Alex Segre/Rex. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted.
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