With Frankie Fraser, Chris Keenan, Steve Box, Michael Boyd. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. What Fraser invariably threatened was violence. "Hill paid by the stitch if you put 50 stitches in a man's face, you could expect 50," says James Morton, Fraser's biographer. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. News reports were checked to see how much was owing. 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. '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. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. 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. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. 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. 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. 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. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. 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. 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. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. 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 not that he thought he was Napoleon. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. 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. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. A feature film production is currently[when?] A keen Arsenal supporter, Fraser had four sons, the first three of whom, Frank Jr, David and Patrick, followed to an extent in his footsteps. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. Beezy said: "Frank's sister Eva was the one who led him into crime as a small boy. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. For other inquiries, Contact Us. There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. 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. 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. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 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. 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. 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. Throughout his life he denied the justice of this conviction, but he was happy to trade off it. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. 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. 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. They set up a fruit machine enterprise, which they would sell to pub landlords, to cover up their crimes. I dont think people realise how close we came to all-out battles in London between Communism and Fascism, before WW2 brought the country together, Beezy said. But Hill was already an admirer: a picture taken at a party to launch Hills ghosted autobiography in 1955 shows Fraser draped artistically over a piano. However, 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. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). But who were the gang's most brazen members? [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. 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It was during the Second World War that he was branded 'Mad' Frankie, after he feigned a mental illness to avoid being called up to the front line. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. 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. 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. It spent six weeks in the Sunday Times top ten and held the coveted #1 Globe and Mail chart slot in Canada for three months. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. 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Fraser also appeared as East End crime boss Pops Den in the feature film Hard Men, a forerunner of British gangster movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and had a documentary made of his life, Mad Frank. 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. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. '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. The middle sister was Kathleen, who constantly aspired to make it as an actress, and make use of her striking good looks. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. At the same time Fraser was concerned to protect his West End business interests, chiefly the installation and operation (on an exclusive basis) in the clubs of Soho of one-armed bandits, or fruit machines, then growing in popularity. The Richardson Gang was an English crime gang based in South London, England in the 1960s.Also known as the "Torture Gang", they had a reputation as some of London's most sadistic gangsters. He emerged from jail in 1989 and has not been back since. A mugshot of Forty Thieves' Hughes, who was uncontrollable and dissipated by drink. 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 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. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. A famous Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale, has often been associated with Fraser and the Kray twins and some aspects of the new documentary may add to this impression. 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.. Former Northern Echo journalist Beezy Marsh has written a book about London gangster Mad Frankie Fraser. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. [11] In 1942, while serving a prison sentence in HM Prison Chelmsford, he came to the attention of the British Army. 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. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. 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. 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. They also spoke, as Frank did, using the prison slang of a bygone era, which they had to translate for me. [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. He had an ungovernable temper and an inability to think through the undoubted consequences of his proposed actions. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's pre order Queen of Thieves now for just 2.99. 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. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. 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. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. His greatest moment of national notoriety came during what was known as the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, which became . I saved myself from Royal life, Harry says & insists 'sharing's an act of service', Love Island's Olivia Hawkins breaks silence as she returns to the UK, Loose Women star lined up to be Strictly's first contestant in wheelchair, Coronation Street fans horrified as Amy Barlow is raped in disturbing scenes, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. He also attacked various governors. "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. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. Mother of [private daughter (1940s - unknown)] Died 2000s. 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. 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 by a kangaroo court. 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. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. 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. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. 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. 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. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. 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. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? 'You name it, we nicked it,' he tells the . [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . 'And they were the best fun for a night out.'. Comments have been closed on this article. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. HP10 9TY. 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. This resulted in Fraser returning to prison once again - this time to serve a seven-year sentence. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please Born 1920s. 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. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. Somehow Eva found herself in the opposite company of her eldest sister Peggy, whose boyfriend was heavily involved in the Communist Party, whom the Blackshirts fought in the famous Battle of Bermondsey, and the even more famous Battle of Cable Street. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. During the 1950s, Fraser's main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. 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. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. The thieves' earnings allowed them to live like upper-class debutantes. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. By the 1950s, the gang were facing ever-present store detectives and had to rely more on disguises. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. It will only make me a worse villain!'. At signing sessions of his books he was always willing to be photographed pretending to extract a tooth with pliers brought by the fan. 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. Ms Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. Diamond's second-in-command Maggie Hughes (right) 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! Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. 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. The Guardian, October 12 1980 Frank Fraser is a thorn in the Prison Department's side - a thorn so big that he is possibly the only British criminal who has become a legend simply by serving time. [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.