It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. I don't think they felt bad about it. The Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Maggie Hughes - was also careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser handed Asbo at the age of 89 | Metro News inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Photograph: Crime and Investigation network. Mink stoles and furs were the top prize, but some of the gang stole silverware and one even put on a maternity girdle to pinch an entire china tea set. 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. 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. At the age of five, Fraser, running in the road to beg for cigarette cards, was knocked down, and from his injuries he developed meningitis. 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. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. But by the time of his death at the age of 90 from complications following leg surgery, Fraser had become something of a minor celebrity. 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). Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. 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. There were further language difficulties. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. 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. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a. He had been shot in the face. 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. 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. 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. 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. At signing sessions of his books he was always willing to be photographed pretending to extract a tooth with pliers brought by the fan. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. Mad Frankie Fraser - Everything2.com Francis Davidson Fraser, known as Mad Frankie Fraser, was the scourge of prison governors and warders up and down Britain during the periods when he served a total of more than 40 years imprisonment. During the 1940s it was not unusual for 'hoisters', a historical term for shoplifters, to be paid a hundred pounds a week - out earning men's average wages ten-to-one. The granddaughter of a member of the gang, who said she was taught how to steal in the 1970s, told Ms Marsh: 'My nan was always beautifully turned out. 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. 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. 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. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. 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. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . He undoubtedly had a wicked temper and a lack of empathy as seen in his capability for violence but he described that to me in terms of a soldier doing his job. [21] In 1999, he appeared at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in a one-man show, An Evening with Mad Frankie Fraser (directed by Patrick Newley), which subsequently toured the UK. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. 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. Mad Frank. 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. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. 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. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser handed an asbo aged 90 - the Guardian His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. "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. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. 'It was incredibly subversive to go against the class system and steal furs and luxury items and swan about like they were rich - but that is exactly what they did. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". 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. The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. View our online Press Pack. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. 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. He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. '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. "From there he goes on to burgle, and she goes onto shop lifting with a famous female gang called The 40 Thieves. 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. pre order Queen of Thieves now for just 2.99. [9] After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. He was a rock.. 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. 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. In later life he would say that had there been an elder criminal member of the family to advise him, he would not have served his sentences in what was called the hard way. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. The Forty Thieves, a London-based exclusively female gang whose exploits were worse than those depicted in BBC drama the Peaky Blinders, posed as wealthy housewives innocently browsing the rails of the UK's most luxurious clothing stores. 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. 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. '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.'. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. 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. A machine costing 400 could quickly recoup its cost if well-sited, and Frasers company offered club owners 40 per cent of the take rather than the standard 35 per cent as an inducement to install their machines. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. Then they were turned over to Fraser. 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. Whilst in Strangeways, Manchester in 1980, Fraser was 'excused boots' as he claimed he had problems with his feet because another prisoner had dropped a bucket of boiling water on them after Fraser had hit him; he was allowed to wear slippers. 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! ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Irish Sun 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. Fraser received seven years. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. His parents never knew about his illegal activities, and if they ever suspected him apparently turned a blind eye, a habit . Harry Styles bares his impressively toned torso and body art at gig For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, 'Mad' Frankie Fraser was a notorious English gangster, Funeral of South London enforcer, FRANKIE FRASER at Honour Oak Crematorium, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). Editors' Code of Practice. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. Frank Davidson Fraser (13 December 1923 - 26 November 2014), better known as 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. 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. Frankie Fraser Biography | HowOld.co 'Mad Frank' the thug, hitman and enforcer 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. 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. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. 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. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. 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. 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. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Frankie Fraser - Wikipedia Mad' Frankie Fraser and London's Most Notorious Gangsters In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. He emerged from jail in 1989 and has not been back since. 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. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. Each incident added more time to his sentence. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. It will only make me a worse villain! 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. Francis Davidson Fraser, known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was the scourge of prison governors and warders up and down Britain during the periods when he served a total of more than 40 years'. 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. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. 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. 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. But who were the gang's most brazen members? She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. 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 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. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders, including Billy Hill in the 1950s and the Richardson gang in the 1960s. 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. Pitts wore a school girl's outfit, complete with straw boater, to act as a decoy. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. Fraser served a total of 42 years in over 20 different prisons in the UK for numerous violent offences. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The comments below have not been moderated. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. He was frequently punished for breaking prison rules or fighting prison officers: "I've done more bread and water than any man alive. 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. Please report any comments that break our rules. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. 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. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. 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. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. 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. When Frankie was in prison, Eva helped to run his protection rackets in Soho and even sent her daughters to collect payments, as the police would not stop a child. After trying his hand at crime as a child, Fraser then continued into his later life. Beezy a former Sunday Times journalist whose biography Mad Frank & Sons was published last year was given unprecedented access to interview the family and learn about the three bold women, who grew up in Howley Terrace, in Waterloo during the 1930s. Richardson Gang - Wikipedia A famous Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale, has often been associated with Fraser and the Kray twins and some aspects of the new documentary may add to this impression. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Frankie Fraser - obituary - The Telegraph 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. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. 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. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. 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. 'They didn't see anything wrong in it because these things were too expensive for most people to afford and shops had insurance. Updated November 28, 2014 2.43pmfirst published at 2.41pm Save Share Descendants . It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. For a time he was engaged to Marilyn Wisbey, daughter of the Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey, with whom he briefly ran a massage parlour in Islington, in which Fraser made the tea. 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. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. [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. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. 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. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. 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. 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. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. . 42 years a lag She had died in. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. 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. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. But his criminal activities didn't stop when he was locked up. 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. They also spoke, as Frank did, using the prison slang of a bygone era, which they had to translate for me. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. [28], "Gangland enforcer sets the record straight about 'the bad old days': Rhys Williams meets "Mad" Frankie Fraser, once known as Britain's most violent man", "Find & contact The White Hart in Waterloo", "Local and community news, opinion, video & pictures - Southport Visiter", "Tories condemn prisoners' freedom to read criminal memoirs", "Gangland enforcer 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dies at 90", "Mad Frankie Fraser given Asbo at age of 89 after bust-up at care home", "Gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dies at 90", "Mad Frankie Fraser dead: Notorious gangster dies in hospital aged 90 following leg surgery", Personal website with biography and details of gangland tours, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frankie_Fraser&oldid=1107726220, This page was last edited on 31 August 2022, at 15:09. Alabama Court Of Civil Appeals Decisions, Lynnbottom Tip Booking Form, Sandy Hagee Age, The Haunted Hathaways How Did The Prestons Die, Articles F
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