Mad Frank. Photos of Frankie "Mad" Fraser - Find a Grave Memorial This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. Frankie Fraser | The Kray Twins Wiki | Fandom 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. 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. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook "As I was growing up, I never had to buy a shirt Eva made sure she nicked them for me. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them. Jack 'Spot' Comer showing the scar on his face left by Frankie Fraser and Alf Warren (GETTY), By 1956, Fraser had racked up 15 convictions and had twice been certified insane. He spent more than 40 years in prison. 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. 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 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. 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. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please 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. 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. [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. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. They didnt go to jail, they did bird or got a lagging. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. 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. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. 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. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. 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.. A Gannett Company. 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. His greatest moment of national notoriety came during what was known as the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, which became . Eva got into shoplifting, but had a heart of gold. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. 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. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. When caught by police she replied: 'I don't know anything about it.'. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. Frankie Fraser Profiles | Facebook [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. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. 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. 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. Throughout his life he denied the justice of this conviction, but he was happy to trade off it. pre order Queen of Thieves now for just 2.99. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. 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. 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. She helped him sell on his loot. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. 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. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. Frank stole because he loved to have money yet when he had it, he gave it all away. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. 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. 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. Fraser was one of the ringleaders of the major Parkhurst Prison riot in 1969, spending the following six weeks in the prison hospital because of his injuries. 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. Fraser considered that Lawton had meted out cruel and vindictive punishment to him at Pentonville in 1948, and to avenge himself Fraser assumed the role of hangman. 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. The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). 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). Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. After another, the car ran out of petrol in the Rotherhithe tunnel. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. '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. 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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London on December 13, 1923. 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. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Frankie Fraser, born December 13 1923, died November 26 2014, Frankie Fraser at Repton Boxing Club in 2005, Rishi Sunak to host Coronation Big Lunch at Downing Street, Erik ten Hag: Man Utd were a mess with no rules Casemiro has helped sort them out, How Ollie Lawrence became England's missing piece, Harlequins set attendance record but rampant Exeter spoil Twickenham party, Marcus Smith sends England message to Steve Borthwick with man-of-the-match performance, Super-sub Reiss Nelson completes thrilling Arsenal fightback. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. Family ways of 'Mad' Frankie | The Northern Echo [3][4], Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. Fraser received seven years. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. 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. His parents never knew about his illegal activities, and if they ever suspected him apparently turned a blind eye, a habit . He also attacked various governors. Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. 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. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. From the time of Frankie Fraser's - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. 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. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. 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. The Kray twins (pictured) held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard. 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. 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. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Descendants . Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. 42 years a lag She had died in. 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. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand (2013) - IMDb Members of The Forty Thieves worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. 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. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. [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. Many started as child lookouts. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. 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. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. At the same time Fraser was concerned to protect his West End business interests, chiefly the installation and operation (on an exclusive basis) in the clubs of Soho of one-armed bandits, or fruit machines, then growing in popularity. 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. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser handed an asbo aged 90 - the Guardian Mad Frankie Fraser - Everything2.com Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. [14] According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for the Great Train Robbery by bribing a policeman. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was halfNative-American. 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. Please report any comments that break our rules. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. They also spoke, as Frank did, using the prison slang of a bygone era, which they had to translate for me. 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. 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. 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. By the 1950s, the gang were facing ever-present store detectives and had to rely more on disguises. 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. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. 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. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. During World War 2 he was a deserter - escaping from his barracks on several occasions. 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. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. 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'. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale. 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. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. 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. [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. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Sun In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. 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. 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. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. "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 also appeared as East End crime boss Pops Den in the feature film Hard Men, a forerunner of British gangster movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and had a documentary made of his life, Mad Frank. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. But Hill was already an admirer: a picture taken at a party to launch Hills ghosted autobiography in 1955 shows Fraser draped artistically over a piano. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. 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. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Irish Sun '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. She helped him sell on his loot. . 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. The thieves' earnings allowed them to live like upper-class debutantes. Richardson Gang - Wikipedia Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. 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. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. '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 notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. '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. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Facebook gives people the power. 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. 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. From then on until the end of the 1980s, Fraser was more often in jail than not. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. 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.