The gang passed on their secrets from mother to daughter, aunt to niece, so whole generations of families saw crime as a way of life. 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. [28], "Gangland enforcer sets the record straight about 'the bad old days': Rhys Williams meets "Mad" Frankie Fraser, once known as Britain's most violent man", "Find & contact The White Hart in Waterloo", "Local and community news, opinion, video & pictures - Southport Visiter", "Tories condemn prisoners' freedom to read criminal memoirs", "Gangland enforcer 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dies at 90", "Mad Frankie Fraser given Asbo at age of 89 after bust-up at care home", "Gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dies at 90", "Mad Frankie Fraser dead: Notorious gangster dies in hospital aged 90 following leg surgery", Personal website with biography and details of gangland tours, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frankie_Fraser&oldid=1107726220, This page was last edited on 31 August 2022, at 15:09. Frankie Fraser | The Kray Twins Wiki | Fandom Mad Frank and Sons: Tougher than the Krays, Frank and his boys on 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 imprisonment. 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. 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. 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. End-right girl on the back row is Eva.. VIEWS Every old-school south Londoner knows the folklore of cockney criminal Frankie Fraser, whose violent tendencies were infamous on the streets of Walworth. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. 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. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. Pictured, Marble Arch and Oxford Circus in the 1920s, Petite shoplifter Bertha Tappenden (right) 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 (left). Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. 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. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Ancestors . 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. 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. Please report any comments that break our rules. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. Fraser was the. He was a rock.. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). 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. 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.. The Kray twins (pictured) held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard. pre order Queen of Thieves now for just 2.99. Comments have been closed on this article. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. As her reign came to an end, Forty Thieves queen Diamondpassed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! Keeping My Sisters Secrets was published on July 27 by Pan Macmillan. When caught by police she replied: 'I don't know anything about it.'. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Joining the Forty Thieves was something of a right of passage for Eva Fraser. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Many started as child lookouts. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. 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. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. Fraser owed his success in the fruit machine business to Billy Hill, whose patronage Fraser courted when he attacked and almost killed Hills gangland rival Jack "Spot" Comer. 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! 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 mobsterJack Spotand wife Rita were attacked on Billy Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. 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. New biography of notorious Frankie Fraser promises to reveal the late A mugshot of Forty Thieves' Hughes, who was uncontrollable and dissipated by drink. [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. [14] According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for the Great Train Robbery by bribing a policeman. [9] 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'. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. The judge, Mr Justice Griffith-Jones, complained of attempts to nobble one of the jurors, but in the case of Fraser, who was tried separately, he directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. '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. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. 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. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. 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. She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. 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. Frankie Fraser: Died On This Day in 2014, Aged 90 - The NCS 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. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. Mad' Frankie Fraser and London's Most Notorious Gangsters 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. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. 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. Although he was conscripted, Fraser later boasted that he had never once worn the uniform, preferring to ignore call-up papers, desert and resume his criminal activities. 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. 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. Their view on Hatton Garden was that the world had moved on and robbing banks now was akin to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid trying to get away on horseback, while the police gave chase in cars. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. They bought fur coats, jewellery and went dancing in West End nightclubs. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. His enduring nickname Mad Frank derived from his violent temperament which caused him to attempt to hang the governor of Wandsworth prison (and the governors dog) from a tree, and to be certified insane on three separate occasions. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. 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. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. Photo taken in the late 1940s on a pub Beano (day out) in Walworth, before the group travelled to Margate On the back row: the girls mum, Margaret, next to daughter Kathleen. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. His greatest moment of national notoriety came during what was known as the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, which became . 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 by the time of his death at the age of 90 from complications following leg surgery, Fraser had become something of a minor celebrity. It will only make me a worse villain! She was one of the top thieves during the war. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. He was frequently punished for breaking prison rules or fighting prison officers: "I've done more bread and water than any man alive. The comments below have not been moderated. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. 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. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. 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. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] 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. Old London Photographs | This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. They didnt go to jail, they did bird or got a lagging. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. 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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. 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. Despite this, or possibly because of it, newspapers of the day were tipping him as Spots natural successor. 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.