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. 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. 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. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. She helped him sell on his loot. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. 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. Frankie Fraser Biography | HowOld.co '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. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Richardson Gang - Wikipedia 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. By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. Ronald 'Ronnie' Kray and Reginald 'Reggie' Kray, were identical twin brothers who led an organised crime ring in East London from the late 1950s to 1967. Before then, Fraser had been involved in smash-and-grab raids and wages snatches. With Frankie Fraser, Chris Keenan, Steve Box, Michael Boyd. After trying his hand at crime as a. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". 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. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. 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. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. A witness later changed histestimony,and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. contact the editor here. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Eva (Fraser) Brindle (1920s-2000s) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree [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. The Forty Thieves posed as wealthy housewives innocently browsing the rails of the UK's most luxurious clothing stores before shoving stolen items down their undergarments. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. 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. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. 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. During the 1940s it was not unusual for 'hoisters', a historical term for shoplifters, to be paid a hundred pounds a week - out earning men's average wages ten-to-one. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. [6] Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. When caught by police she replied: 'I don't know anything about it.'. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. 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. 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 gang probably had its roots in the Victorian slums around Seven Dials, near Covent Garden, infamous in Dickens's day. 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. 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. 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 still hoisting well into her 70s.'. 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, Fraser was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller, for which he received a two-year prison sentence, mostly served atHMP Pentonville. Frasers partner in this endeavour was Bobby Warren, an uncle of the boxing promoter Frank Warren. 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. Frank's mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his "best pal" and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. 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. '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. Despite this, or possibly because of it, newspapers of the day were tipping him as Spots natural successor. 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. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Are you sure you want to delete this comment? As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. The gang's ringleaders appeared in a secret register of criminals, that is now kept by the National Archives, which then existed to help police track down the most persistent offenders. 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. 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. Fraser spent practically half his life behind bars. Descendants . 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. 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 first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. 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. '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. They stole to put food on the table. 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. . Author Beezy Marsh investigates criminal matriarchs of 1950s London Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. A bucket boy would offer to clean the bookies' blackboards with a sponge, for which they were obliged to pay the Sabinis. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. "If you play by the sword, you've got to expect the sword as well," says his son. Daughter. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Ms Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. 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. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. 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. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Who was 'Mad' Frankie Fraser? | The Sun 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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. He also ran a coach tour pointing out to a spectrum of customers the old criminal London. 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. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). 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. From the time of Frankie Fraser's - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime appeared in 1994, with two further volumes following in 1998 and 2001. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. [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 Irish Sun 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. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. 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. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. Notorious for high-speed getaways, she was eventually caught stealing lingerie and sentenced to hard labour in prison. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. But who were the gang's most brazen members? He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . 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. Members of The Forty Thieves, whose mugshots were captured by the Police Gazette ahead of regular stays at Holloway Prison, often wore beautifully designed hats, coats and dresses in order to fit in - known as 'putting on the posh'. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. I don't think they felt bad about it. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. He was frequently punished for breaking prison rules or fighting prison officers: "I've done more bread and water than any man alive. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. Mason was found, barely alive, wearing only his underpants and wrapped in a blanket, on the steps of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. 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. Fraser served a total of 42 years in over 20 different prisons in the UK for numerous violent offences. [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 half Native-American. They bought fur coats, jewellery and went dancing in West End nightclubs. 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. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. 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. He spent 42 years almost half his life in prison for 26 offences. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. The thieves' earnings allowed them to live like upper-class debutantes. But his criminal activities didn't stop when he was locked up. The reader is also introduced to the girls brother Jim, who became a sergeant in the army and fought in North Africa. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. 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. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. 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 funeral took place on December 18, 2014. 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). Joining the Forty Thieves was something of a right of passage for Eva Fraser. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. [5][6][7][8] His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. 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. 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 was the. 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. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. 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 youngest of five children, he grew up in poverty in the Elephant and Castle and Borough, areas teeming with moneylenders, prostitutes and backstreet abortionists. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. 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. She had died in 2000 but her daughter Beverley, who shared Evas reticent nature, agreed to talk to me and that revealed that Eva had been leading criminal in her own right. 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. Frankie Fraser Profiles | Facebook 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dead aged 90 | Daily Mail Online Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. His life of crime started aged nine when he worked for the notorious Sabini gang, which ran protection rackets at the racecourses at a time when off-course betting was illegal. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. There were further language difficulties. 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. '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.'. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. 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. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . Physically slight at only 5ft 4in, and invariably wearing a smile and in retirement a sharp Savile Row suit, Frankie Fraser was nevertheless a ferocious and brutal hatchet man. Frankie Fraser | The Kray Twins Wiki | Fandom There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. 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. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please 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. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. Even decent folk were often only too happy to 'take a bit of crooked' to have something new. 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. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. Fraser has complained in the past that "I had no help from my family; my mother and father were dead straight so I had to make my own way. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. 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. 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. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. He spent more than 40 years in prison. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. After trying his hand at crime as a. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Do not sell or share my personal information. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. 'You name it, we nicked it,' he tells the . Old London Photographs | This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad 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. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. After trying his hand at crime as a child, Fraser then continued into his later life. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. 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! 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