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. 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. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. 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. 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.. 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. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand (2013) - IMDb 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. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. Pitts wore a school girl's outfit, complete with straw boater, to act as a decoy. Two people were left dead. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. The gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. She helped him sell on his loot. 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. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. Frank stole because he loved to have money yet when he had it, he gave it all away. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. 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 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. 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. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Nevertheless he was good at sports, captaining the football team at St Patricks school, Southwark, and boxing as an amateur. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. [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. 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. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. He spent 42 years almost half his life in prison for 26 offences. The first came when he was in the army during the second world war, the second time when he was sent to Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey, and the third when he was transferred from Durham prison to Broadmoor. [26] On 21 November 2014, he fell critically ill during leg surgery at King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill[27] and was placed into an induced coma. They bought fur coats, jewellery and went dancing in West End nightclubs. They stole to put food on the table. 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. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. 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. 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. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Frankie Fraser Biography | HowOld.co He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. 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. MAD FRANK and SONS - Home - Facebook Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. David had perfected the prison whisper talking very quietly, in case he was overheard by the guards. 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). "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. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). A feature film production is currently[when?] Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Throughout his life he denied the justice of this conviction, but he was happy to trade off it. 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. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. 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. 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. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. 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. Notorious for high-speed getaways, she was eventually caught stealing lingerie and sentenced to hard labour in prison. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. 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. Then they were turned over to Fraser. 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. 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. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. I dont think people realise how close we came to all-out battles in London between Communism and Fascism, before WW2 brought the country together, Beezy said. Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. The book upset some of those mentioned in it, and Morton was dismayed to arrive home one evening to find a message from Fraser on his answering machine, demanding to speak to him urgently. [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. 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. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Comments have been closed on this article. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. He received a further five years when, in 1970, he was acquitted of incitement to murder but convicted of grievous bodily harm after he had led the Parkhurst prison riot the previous year. He really did live by a code of honour which he took with him to the grave. It will only make me a worse villain!'. 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. 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. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Irish Sun 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. The comments below have not been moderated. 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. 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. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. And I felt the same way,' she said. 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. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. 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. 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. '", 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. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. Queen of Thieves: The gangland women who made Peaky Blinders look like Fraser spent practically half his life behind bars. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] His mother was of Norwegian-Irish stock and his father was half Native American. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. 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. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. 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. 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. '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. Mad Frankie Fraser - Everything2.com [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. 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. Many started as child lookouts. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. 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. There were further language difficulties. [3][4], Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. [6] Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Facebook gives people the power. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. '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. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. 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. Various members were eventually caught, though and served their time in Holloway prison, where rations were meagre and they slept on boards. A Gannett Company. 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. 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. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! Photos of Frankie "Mad" Fraser - Find a Grave Memorial He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. 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. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. He also ran a coach tour pointing out to a spectrum of customers the old criminal London. Descendants . I saved myself from Royal life, Harry says & insists 'sharing's an act of service', Love Island's Olivia Hawkins breaks silence as she returns to the UK, Loose Women star lined up to be Strictly's first contestant in wheelchair, Coronation Street fans horrified as Amy Barlow is raped in disturbing scenes, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Frankie Fraser Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org 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! '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. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. 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. Dubbed 'The Most Dangerous Man in Britain' by two Home Secretaries, Francis Davidson Fraser was born on the 13th of December 1923, and grew up in Waterloo, London.He and his sister, Eva started their life of crime at a young age, stealing from handbags and pickpocketing. ", 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. Author returns with book about the fascinating lives of notorious
