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. 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. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. 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. 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. On the morning of Derek Bentleys execution at Wandsworth in 1953, he spat at the executioner Albert Pierrepoint and tried to attack him. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. A Gannett Company. Mad Frank. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Former Northern Echo journalist Beezy Marsh has written a book about London gangster Mad Frankie Fraser. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. 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. 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. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. She helped him sell on his loot. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. 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. 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. A witness later changed histestimony,and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. At her kitchen table, Alice would teach her girls how to roll furs on the hanger and shove them down their drawers, which the gang called 'clouting'. Various members were eventually caught, though and served their time in Holloway prison, where rations were meagre and they slept on boards. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. 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. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. On this release, he determined to write his memoirs. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. In 1966 he was charged with the murder of Richard Hart, who was shot at a club in Catford, but the charges were dropped when a witness changed their testimony. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. 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. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. '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. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. MAD FRANK and SONS - Home - Facebook 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. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Frankie Fraser Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org 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. After being sent to HM Prison Durham for taking part in bank robberies, he was again certified insane and this time was sent to Broadmoor Hospital. 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. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. 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. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. 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. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. Family ways of 'Mad' Frankie | The Northern Echo "My father was the most honest man I've ever come across," says Fraser, who also refers to his Native American antecedents, saying that his grandmother was "a Red Indian", According to his sons, Fraser has no regrets: "He said, 'No, I wouldn't have done my life any other way. '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. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to 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. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. It will only make me a worse villain!'. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. If you weren't actually stealing, you were outranked by The Forty Thieves. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. 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. Facebook gives people the power. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand (2013) - IMDb However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. At his funeral, one of his old prison friends summed him up: Whether he has gone upstairs or downstairs, I cant say, but wherever he is, you can be sure of this: he will be protesting about the conditions.. [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. Mad' Frankie Fraser and London's Most Notorious Gangsters Daughter. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. 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. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. 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. "At the races, I'd be bucket boy," says Fraser in the documentary, Frankie Fraser's Last Stand, which will be broadcast on the Crime and Investigation network on 16 June at 9pm. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. 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. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. 'They didn't see anything wrong in it because these things were too expensive for most people to afford and shops had insurance. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. 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. Comments have been closed on this article. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. Bought stolen goods and sold them on in a role known as 'the fence'. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. 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. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. 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. 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. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. She was sentenced to five months. 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. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. '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. At least two home secretaries considered Fraser the most dangerous man in Britain, an image which, in old age, he only half-heartedly sought to dispel. There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. 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. [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. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. 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. News reports were checked to see how much was owing. 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. Eva (Fraser) Brindle (1920s-2000s) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree 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. 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. Mother of [private daughter (1940s - unknown)] Died 2000s. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. Author Beezy Marsh investigates criminal matriarchs of 1950s London Frankie Fraser was a south London gangster who knew no language but violence and spent half his life behind bars. Following a trial at the Old Bailey in 1967, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. Harry Styles bares his impressively toned torso and body art at gig '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.'. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. He was a rock.. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. Frankie Fraser: Died On This Day in 2014, Aged 90 - The NCS The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. 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. 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'. 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. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them. Frankie Fraser obituary | Crime | The Guardian 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 grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. 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. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. 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. 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. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. The comments below have not been moderated. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. On the night of March 7 1966 Fraser and Eddie Richardson were badly hurt in a brawl at Mr Smiths club in Catford, the incident that broke the Richardson familys grip on south London. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser handed Asbo at the age of 89 | Metro News They set up a fruit machine enterprise, which they would sell to pub landlords, to cover up their crimes. 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. 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. '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. 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. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. Notorious 1930s West End girl gang who hid stolen jewellery in 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. 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. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. They also spoke, as Frank did, using the prison slang of a bygone era, which they had to translate for me. 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 Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. He had been shot in the face. 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. 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.. 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. HP10 9TY. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. Frankie Fraser - obituary - The Telegraph He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. Francis Davidson Fraser, known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was the scourge of prison governors and warders up and down Britain during the periods when he served a total of more than 40 years'. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. 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. 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. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. Many started as child lookouts. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. [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 the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. 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. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. 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. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. When caught by police she replied: 'I don't know anything about it.'. But by the time of his death at the age of 90 from complications following leg surgery, Fraser had become something of a minor celebrity. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. 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. . He spent more than 40 years in prison. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. Born 1920s. 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. Ms Marsh said it 'was time to reappraise London's gangland' when she wrote The Queen of Thieves. 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. [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. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation.