Ancestors . 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. 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. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Fraser was the. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. Many of the Forty Thieves were noted for their beauty as well as their shoplifting skills, such as Madeline Partridge and her sister Laura, whose mother was often used by Diamond to sell stolen goods. 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. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. 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. Fraser spent practically half his life behind bars. In 1945, when he was 21, he assaulted the governor at Shrewsbury prison with an ebony ruler snatched from the governors desk, for which he received 18 strokes of the cat.
From the time of Frankie Fraser's - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook Frank's mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his "best pal" and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. 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. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. 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. [13], It was in the early 1960s that Fraser first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang, rivals to the Kray twins. Frank Davidson Fraser[1] (13 December 1923 26 November 2014),[2] better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. 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. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. 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. Throughout his life he denied the justice of this conviction, but he was happy to trade off it. David had perfected the prison whisper talking very quietly, in case he was overheard by the guards. Daughter. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. 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. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, 'Mad' Frankie Fraser was a notorious English gangster, Funeral of South London enforcer, FRANKIE FRASER at Honour Oak Crematorium, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. Frank Davidson Fraser (13 December 1923 - 26 November 2014), better known as 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. His parents were honest and hard-working, but Frankie and his big sister Eva, to whom he was closest, soon turned to crime. 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. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. 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. Fraser was the youngest of five children who were growing up in poverty - he first turned to crime at the tender age of 10, alongside his sister Eva. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. '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. Each incident added more time to his sentence. A feature film production is currently[when?] The women were completely faithful to their leader, known as the queen, who doled out harsh punishments and carried strict rules including not helping police officers by informing. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. 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. Eva (Fraser) Brindle. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. pre order Queen of Thieves now for just 2.99. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. Many started as child lookouts. In 1966, Fraser was charged with the murder of Richard Hart - who was shot at Mr Smith's club inCatfordwhile other Richardson associates, includingJimmy Moody, were charged withaffray. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. "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. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. 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. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. ", A deserter during the war he pretended to be mad to avoid the call-up Fraser was certified insane three times and spent time in Broadmoor secure hospital. If you weren't actually stealing, you were outranked by The Forty Thieves. 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. 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. '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. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply.
'Mad Frank' the thug, hitman and enforcer If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to For other inquiries, Contact Us. '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. His last jail term ended in 1989, but in 2011 he was handed an Asbo after getting into an argument with a fellow pensioner at the sheltered accommodation where he lived in Bermondsey. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. 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. The reader is also introduced to the girls brother Jim, who became a sergeant in the army and fought in North Africa. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. '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.'. 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. contact the editor here. Fraser was placed into an induced coma, but just five days later, on November 26, 2014, Fraser passed away after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. 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. 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. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. In 1969, Fraser was one of the ringleaders of the major Parkhurst Prison riot, which resulted in him spending the six weeks in the prison hospital due to his injuries. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. 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. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. 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. 42 years a lag She had died in. There were car chases and bank raids which would not have looked out of place in The Sweeney. 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. Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. He built a reputation as an enforcer and strongman for various gang leaders, including Billy Hill, self-styled King of Britains Underworld in the 1940s and 1950s and, in the 1960s, the Richardson brothers. Eva got into shoplifting, but had a heart of gold. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. He really did live by a code of honour which he took with him to the grave. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. 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. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. While serving this sentence, Fraser received 10 years for his part in the so-called Richardson torture trial. After trying his hand at crime as a child, Fraser then continued into his later life. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. [5][6][7][8] His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. 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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. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Tony Lambrianou, a one-time henchman of the rival Kray brothers, was also a fan. [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. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. A bucket boy would offer to clean the bookies' blackboards with a sponge, for which they were obliged to pay the Sabinis. 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. 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.
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. 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. Pitts wore a school girl's outfit, complete with straw boater, to act as a decoy. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. 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. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . 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. He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. [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. 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. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. HP10 9TY. Frank stole because he loved to have money yet when he had it, he gave it all away. To evade discovery they posted the stolen items back to London or depositing a suitcase of loot at the railway station's left luggage office, to be collected later. Two people were left dead. Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. 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'. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. Alice herself was famous for clouting three furs in one go: one down each leg and one under her gusset. 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'. 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. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub.