She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. Family ways of 'Mad' Frankie | The Northern Echo 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. 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. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. 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. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. Updated November 28, 2014 2.43pmfirst published at 2.41pm Save Share Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. 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. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] 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 one snatch, he and his companion were arrested when their car would not start. '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. 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. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. 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. A mugshot of Forty Thieves' Hughes, who was uncontrollable and dissipated by drink. The business came to an end in 1966 when a fight in a Catford night club, Mr Smiths, left a Kray associate, Dickie Hart, dead, and Richardson and Fraser, who was charged with Harts murder, in prison. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. 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. [9] Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. Both Fraser and Warren received seven-year sentences. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. As an adult she was beaten by one of her boyfriends and the father of five of her seven children, Chris Hawkins, who was a fruit and vegetable seller in Hoxton. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. He had an ungovernable temper and an inability to think through the undoubted consequences of his proposed actions. 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. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. Last seen in public in October at the funeral of his former boss, Charlie Richardson, Fraser is one of the few remaining members of a generation of "celebrity criminals". 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. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. 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. He spent more than 40 years in prison. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. 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. 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. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. He has been part of the most infamous criminal gangs of the past 100 years, while maintaining his South London roots and deep devotion to his family. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. He also attacked various governors. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Harry Styles bares his impressively toned torso and body art at gig Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. 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. 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. They stole to put food on the table. Many started as child lookouts. 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. The following year, the British mobsterJack Spotand wife Rita were attacked on Billy Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. 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. 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. 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. 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. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. But who were the gang's most brazen members? Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. 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. But little by little, over weeks and months of interviews, cups of tea and chats, their life stories emerged and with that came a fascinating insight into the Fraser family history and what really made Frank tick. His parents were honest and hard-working, but Frankie and his big sister Eva, to whom he was closest, soon turned to crime. 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. Following a trial at theOld Baileyin 1967, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. 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. 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. Keeping My Sisters Secrets was published on July 27 by Pan Macmillan. 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. '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. Eric wasnt a bad fellow, Fraser later explained, but that particular night he was bang out of order.. She helped him sell on his loot. 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. 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. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. 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. The Frasers were both contemporaries of the Hatton Garden heist gang members many of whom also came from south London and who operated on the same bank robbing scene and shared jail cells with the Fraser boys at some point. Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. 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. A bucket boy would offer to clean the bookies' blackboards with a sponge, for which they were obliged to pay the Sabinis. 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. 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. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. His greatest moment of national notoriety came during what was known as the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, which became . She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. Fraser was the. 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. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. 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. Born 1920s. 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. He was a rock.. 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. The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . Furs were rolled on the hanger and tucked into the women's undergarments when the store assistant was distracted, while jewellery and watches were swapped for fake versions and hidden under hats or in their hair. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. 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. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Sun 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. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. Nevertheless his campaigns and, on the outside, those of Eva, did bring the attention of the general public to the unpalatable conditions in which prisoners served then their sentences. The 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 raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. 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. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Eva Fraser - the sister of notorious gangster Mad Frankie Fraser - was reputedly one of the last members of the Queens of the Forty Thieves shoplifting gang, which sold stolen goods from. Descendants . 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. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. The Guardian, October 12 1980 Frank Fraser is a thorn in the Prison Department's side - a thorn so big that he is possibly the only British criminal who has become a legend simply by serving time. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. 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. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. in development with Fraser's endorsement. 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. Notorious 1930s West End girl gang who hid stolen jewellery in The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history.
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