These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. The middle sister was Kathleen, who constantly aspired to make it as an actress, and make use of her striking good looks. 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. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. 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. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. 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 raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. 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. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. A Hoisters' Code of loyalty dictated rules such as having an early night before 'going shopping', handing over all they pinched to the Queen in return for generous weekly wages, and never stealing each other's boyfriends (bad for morale). They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. 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. 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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London on December 13, 1923. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. When she married the father of five of her seven children, Chris Hawkins, he subjected her to cruel beatings - but quickly stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. Keeping My Sisters Secrets was published on July 27 by Pan Macmillan. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. 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. 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. 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. Indeed, his criminality was closely bound up with what one criminologist described as an overt almost Samurai vindication of violent action in pursuit of inverted honour. 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. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. He was full of contradictions: He hated authority but at the same time he understood the need for society to have rules and was against anarchy. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. Theres one account of one of Peggys colleagues pretending to still be single so she could carry on working as a Post Office manager. Whereas for Eva it was about her earning her own money on her own terms. 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. David had perfected the prison whisper talking very quietly, in case he was overheard by the guards. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. 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. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. 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. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. 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. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. 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. [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. Over the last decade or so he was on the cabaret circuit and ran gangland tours of the East End, taking in such sights as the Blind Beggar pub, where Ronnie Kray shot dead George Cornell, one of the Richardson gang, in 1966. 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). Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. 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. Fraser became a minor celebrity of sorts, appearing on television shows such as Operation Good Guys,[18] Shooting Stars,[19] and the satirical show Brass Eye,[20] where he said Noel Edmonds should be shot for killing Clive Anderson (an incident invented by the show's producers), and writing an autobiography. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 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 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. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. 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. Ms Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. 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. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. Jewellery was a favourite target, as it was easy to hide up a sleeve - rings could be switched for worthless fakes. 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. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. He also attacked various governors. Possessed of a ready wit and good repartee, he followed this up with stage performances both in the East and West End, where he appeared with his then companion of 10 years, Marilyn Wisbey, the daughter of a Great Train Robber, Tommy Wisbey. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . 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. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. 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. Born 1920s. She helped him sell on his loot. 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. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. 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'. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. 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). 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. Fraser was the. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. Fraser treated his various brushes with death as an occupational hazard: his thigh bone was shattered by a bullet fired during the melee in Catford, and part of his mouth was shot away in an incident in May 1991 when someone botched an attempt to assassinate him outside a nightclub in Farringdon. 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.. 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. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. '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.'. 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. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. 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. 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. [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. 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. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. 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. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. '", 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. There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. 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. 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. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. News reports were checked to see how much was owing. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King'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. 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. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. Many started as child lookouts. 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. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. 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. 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. [3][4], Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. With the help of Hill and mafia interests, Fraser and Eddie Richardson established Atlantic Machines, a successful business placing one-armed bandits in clubs throughout Britain. 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. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. They set up a fruit machine enterprise, which they would sell to pub landlords, to cover up their crimes. His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. 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. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. 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. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. End-right girl on the back row is Eva.. Every old-school south Londoner knows the folklore of cockney criminal Frankie Fraser, whose violent tendencies were infamous on the streets of Walworth. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". During the 1950s, Fraser's main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. 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. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. 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. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's She was one of the top thieves during the war. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. 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. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. 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. [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. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. 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. 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. 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. The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. 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. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Frasers partner in this endeavour was Bobby Warren, an uncle of the boxing promoter Frank Warren. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. He had been shot in the face. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. From then on until the end of the 1980s, Fraser was more often in jail than not. 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 gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. The Kray twins (pictured) held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard. I don't think they felt bad about it. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. 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. 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! 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. Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime appeared in 1994, with two further volumes following in 1998 and 2001. 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. contact the editor here. 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. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Various members were eventually caught, though and served their time in Holloway prison, where rations were meagre and they slept on boards. He was a rock.. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. On the morning of Derek Bentleys execution at Wandsworth in 1953, he spat at the executioner Albert Pierrepoint and tried to attack him. Then they were turned over to Fraser. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. 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. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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.
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