Beezy a former Sunday Times journalist whose biography Mad Frank & Sons was published last year was given unprecedented access to interview the family and learn about the three bold women, who grew up in Howley Terrace, in Waterloo during the 1930s. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser dead aged 90 | Daily Mail Online By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. He was said to have pulled out the teeth of one of the victims with a pair of pliers. Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. There were further language difficulties. Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. While serving this sentence, Fraser received 10 years for his part in the so-called Richardson torture trial. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. ", Of the war years, when he was heavily involved in theft from bombed-out stores, he says: "You wanted to win the war but you wanted it to go on for ever. Moment brazen thieves jump behind counter at Chicago Drug baron, 58, who 'hid 198MILLION fortune from police' is Isabel Oakeshott receives 'menacing' message from Matt Hancock, Dozens stuck in car park as staff refuses to open gate for woman, Incredible footage of Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russians in Bakhmut, Pro-Ukrainian drone lands on Russian spy planes exposing location, 'Buster is next!' When Frank Sinatra came to London in the early 1970s, he made a special visit in his limo to Eva in her little terrace house in South London to pay his respects. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. Although he was acquitted, a further five years were added to his sentence. 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. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. At 17 he was sent to Borstal for breaking and entering a hosiery shop in Waterloo and was then given a 15-month prison sentence for shopbreaking. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. Frankie Fraser was a south London gangster who knew no language but violence and spent half his life behind bars. 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. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. 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. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. 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. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. And I felt the same way,' she said. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. 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. 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. A Hoisters' Code of loyalty dictated rules such as having an early night before 'going shopping', handing over all they pinched to the Queen in return for generous weekly wages, and never stealing each other's boyfriends (bad for morale). There were car chases and bank raids which would not have looked out of place in The Sweeney. 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. Her story has been told in The Queen of Thieves, written by author Beezy Marsh, which sheds a light on the lives of the girl gang that gained the respect of male criminals because of their lucrative and violent methods. Beezy, from Ealing, explained that it was in prison that Eva met Diana Mosley, wife of Oswald leader of fascist Blackshirts who were a fearsome presence in London in the 1920s and 30s. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. In the summer of 2013 it emerged that, at the age of 89, Fraser had been served with an Antisocial Behaviour Order (Asbo) after another incident, this time at his care home in Peckham, south London. 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. 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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 notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. "From there he goes on to burgle, and she goes onto shop lifting with a famous female gang called The 40 Thieves. It will only make me a worse villain! Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". Mad Frank and Sons: Tougher than the Krays, Frank and his boys on News reports were checked to see how much was owing. 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. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. She helped him sell on his loot. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. Queen of Thieves: The gangland women who made Peaky Blinders look like [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. Facebook gives people the power. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. Both Fraser and Warren received seven-year sentences. 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. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. 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. 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. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. The granddaughter of a member of the gang, who said she was taught how to steal in the 1970s, told Ms Marsh: 'My nan was always beautifully turned out. She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. 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. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. 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. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. Harry Styles put on an animated display as he took to the stage for a second night at the Accor Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park on Saturday.. Family ways of 'Mad' Frankie | The Northern Echo 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. He spent 42 years almost half his life in prison for 26 offences. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. 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. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. 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. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. 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. ', As the photographs show, the women often wore beautifully designed hats , coats and dresses in order to fit in, known as 'putting on the posh'. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Despite this, or possibly because of it, newspapers of the day were tipping him as Spots natural successor. 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. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. Each incident added more time to his sentence. 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 was very skilled at manipulating people and he played a long game, letting people believe he was mad, with the intention of winning in the end. An unregenerate villain of the deepest dye, Fraser satisfied the public appetite for vicarious thrill-seeking with a series of self-exculpatory memoirs in the 1990s that launched him on a twilight career as a celebrity criminal. 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. Ancestors . He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. 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 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. If you weren't actually stealing, you were outranked by The Forty Thieves. 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. '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. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. Frankie Fraser: Died On This Day in 2014, Aged 90 - The NCS '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 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. Author Beezy Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. Born 1920s. 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. 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. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. He had an ungovernable temper and an inability to think through the undoubted consequences of his proposed actions. "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. Frankie Fraser, born December 13 1923, died November 26 2014, Frankie Fraser at Repton Boxing Club in 2005, Rishi Sunak to host Coronation Big Lunch at Downing Street, Erik ten Hag: Man Utd were a mess with no rules Casemiro has helped sort them out, How Ollie Lawrence became England's missing piece, Harlequins set attendance record but rampant Exeter spoil Twickenham party, Marcus Smith sends England message to Steve Borthwick with man-of-the-match performance, Super-sub Reiss Nelson completes thrilling Arsenal fightback. 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. 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. 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. Many started as child lookouts. He had 10 years added to a sentence he was serving in 1967 along with The Richardson Brothers in the Torture Trials which were the longest trials in British criminal history. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. Photograph: Crime and Investigation network. [5][6][7][8] His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. 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. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. Eva (Fraser) Brindle (1920s-2000s) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree He also ran a coach tour pointing out to a spectrum of customers the old criminal London. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. [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. HP10 9TY. 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. As a solicitor, I defended him in the trial following the Parkhurst riot and as a result wrote a number of books with him. Harry Styles bares his impressively toned torso and body art at gig After trying his hand at crime as a. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. 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. 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. '", Frankie Fraser's Last Stand will be broadcast on the Crime and Investigation network on 16 June at 9pm, New TV documentary shows ex-gangland enforcer is far from mellowing with age and has few regrets about his life of crime, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Frankie Fraser has no regrets over his life of crime, which involved him being jailed for a total of 42 years for 26 offences. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Frankie Fraser - Wikipedia With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. 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. 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. Ms Marsh said it 'was time to reappraise London's gangland' when she wrote The Queen of Thieves. 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. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser - MAD FRANK and SONS | Facebook It sounds like the worst days of Prohibition in Chicago rather than London in 1956, complained Mr Justice Donovan, but words were wasted on Fraser. 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. Notorious 1930s West End girl gang who hid stolen jewellery in We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. 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. 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. 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. 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. . She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. "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. Comments have been closed on this article. 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. She was one of the top thieves during the war. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. On the morning of Derek Bentleys execution at Wandsworth in 1953, he spat at the executioner Albert Pierrepoint and tried to attack him. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. 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. Their alleged specialities included pulling teeth out using pliers, cutting off toes using bolt cutters and nailing victims to floors using 6-inch nails. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. [11] In 1942, while serving a prison sentence in HM Prison Chelmsford, he came to the attention of the British Army. Frankie Fraser Profiles | Facebook [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. Alice herself was famous for clouting three furs in one go: one down each leg and one under her gusset. Before then, Fraser had been involved in smash-and-grab raids and wages snatches. 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.. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. Frank stole because he loved to have money yet when he had it, he gave it all away. Author returns with book about the fascinating lives of notorious She was sentenced to five months. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. His funeral took place on December 18, 2014. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. 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! Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). [3][4], Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. 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. 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. 'Mad Frankie' Fraser - a legend in his own gaol time It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. Frankie Fraser Wiki & Bio - everipedia.org Bought stolen goods and sold them on in a role known as 'the fence'. He emerged from jail in 1989 and has not been back since. Keeping My Sisters Secrets was published on July 27 by Pan Macmillan. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. 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. '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. 'You name it, we nicked it,' he tells the . in development with Fraser's endorsement. Frankie Fraser Biography | HowOld.co 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'.

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