Many started as child lookouts. 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. 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. Please report any comments that break our rules. 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. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. Harry Styles put on an animated display as he took to the stage for a second night at the Accor Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park on Saturday.. While serving this sentence, Fraser received 10 years for his part in the so-called Richardson torture trial. He emerged from jail in 1989 and has not been back since. She was sentenced to five months. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. Frankie Fraser - Wikipedia Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. 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. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. 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. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. 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. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. Nevertheless he was good at sports, captaining the football team at St Patricks school, Southwark, and boxing as an amateur. Frank had been active as a criminal from the 1930s and was given his first prison sentence at the outbreak of the Second World War. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. 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. He was a member of the Richardson gang or the 'torture gang', led by brothers Charlie and Eddie Richardson, and were widely feared in Londons underworld. 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. 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. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. He had been shot in the face. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. 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 was a rock.. With Frankie Fraser, Chris Keenan, Steve Box, Michael Boyd. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. 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. [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. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. 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. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. 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. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a. 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 may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Before World War Two, if you got married you were expected to leave work and stay at home, Beezy said. '", 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. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Before then, Fraser had been involved in smash-and-grab raids and wages snatches. 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. 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. '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. 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. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. Mason was found, barely alive, wearing only his underpants and wrapped in a blanket, on the steps of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. Notorious 1930s West End girl gang who hid stolen jewellery in Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. 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. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. 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. 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! She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. 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. [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. 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. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. 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. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. 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. 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. contact the editor here. During the 1950s, Fraser's main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. [25] In June 2013, the 89-year-old Fraser was served with an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) by police after a row with another resident. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand (2013) - IMDb After trying his hand at crime as a. Many of the Forty Thieves were noted for their beauty as well as their shoplifting skills, such as Madeline Partridge and her sister Laura (pictured left), whose mother was often used by Diamond to sell stolen goods. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. A constant troublemaker in prison, attacking governors and warders over perceived injustices which inevitably resulted in floggings, bread and water and the loss of remission, Fraser had by this time been certified insane on three occasions. [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. 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. It will only make me a worse villain!'. [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. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Fraser served a total of 42 years in over 20 different prisons in the UK for numerous violent offences. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. 'Speaking to relatives of some of the original gang members during my research for Queen of Thieves, I was struck by how secretive the gang had been about its methods, and how much of a career choice it was for working class girls. She was one of the top thieves during the war. His mother was of Norwegian-Irish stock and his father was half Native American. 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. View our online Press Pack. Eva got into shoplifting, but had a heart of gold. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. After one snatch, he and his companion were arrested when their car would not start. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. 'In 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. It sounds like the worst days of Prohibition in Chicago rather than London in 1956, complained Mr Justice Donovan, but words were wasted on Fraser. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. 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. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. 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. 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. 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. Joining the Forty Thieves was something of a right of passage for Eva Fraser. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. Frankie Fraser was a south London gangster who knew no language but violence and spent half his life behind bars. 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. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. 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. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. 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. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. Photos of Frankie "Mad" Fraser - Find a Grave Memorial
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