If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to "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. in development with Fraser's endorsement. Swathed in luxurious fur coats, wearing diamond rings as a knuckledusters and hats to hide their stolen wares, Britain's most notorious all-female gang ruledthe tenements of Waterloo and Elephant and Castle and earned the respect of Soho's most feared underworld bosses. Frankie Fraser Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. 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. The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. 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. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. 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. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. 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. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. 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. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. ", 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. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. Facebook gives people the power. The reader is also introduced to the girls brother Jim, who became a sergeant in the army and fought in North Africa. 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. 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. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. Ms Marsh said it 'was time to reappraise London's gangland' when she wrote The Queen of Thieves. They stole to put food on the table. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. Police reveal more details, as man remains at large after brutal attack outside school, Interview with MP Neil Coyle after Commons suspension: Why the drinking has stopped having started in childhood, but the swearing wont, plus deliberately avoiding Labour leader Keir Starmer, Read our print products (Digital Editions). Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. [11] In 1942, while serving a prison sentence in HM Prison Chelmsford, he came to the attention of the British Army. One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. Nevertheless he was good at sports, captaining the football team at St Patricks school, Southwark, and boxing as an amateur. [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. . Borstal was followed by prison, where in 1943 he met the influential London villain Billy Hill, for whom he worked on and off for more than a decade, culminating in his slashing of Hills rival Jack Spot in 1956 after the self-styled kings of the underworld had fallen out. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. 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. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. 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. '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. 'They didn't see anything wrong in it because these things were too expensive for most people to afford and shops had insurance. Tony Lambrianou, a one-time henchman of the rival Kray brothers, was also a fan. 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. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. View our online Press Pack. The middle sister was Kathleen, who constantly aspired to make it as an actress, and make use of her striking good looks. 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. 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. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. Please report any comments that break our rules. 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. It will only make me a worse villain!'. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please 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. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. 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. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. 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. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. Whilst in Strangeways, Manchester in 1980, Fraser was 'excused boots' as he claimed he had problems with his feet because another prisoner had dropped a bucket of boiling water on them after Fraser had hit him; he was allowed to wear slippers. 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. His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". A Gannett Company. After Frasers release from the Spot sentence, he was courted by the Kray Twins and the Richardson gang. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. 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. News reports were checked to see how much was owing. 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. He was a member of the Richardson gang or the 'torture gang', led by brothers Charlie and Eddie Richardson, and were widely feared in Londons underworld. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. 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). '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 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. 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. She was sentenced to five months. 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. 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. 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. 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. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. Author Beezy Marsh investigates criminal matriarchs of 1950s London A mugshot of Forty Thieves' Hughes, who was uncontrollable and dissipated by drink. Frankie Fraser Biography | HowOld.co Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. [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. 42 years a lag She had died in. 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! Eva was a leading light in the gang in the thirties and forties, having risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. 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. In 1941, Fraser was given his first taste of punishment when he was sent to borstal for breaking into a Waterloo hosiery store. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. But who were the gang's most brazen members? But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. 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. 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 grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. Frankie Fraser Profiles | Facebook Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Last seen in public in October at the funeral of his former boss, Charlie Richardson, Fraser is one of the few remaining members of a generation of "celebrity criminals".
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