During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. 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. His gangster boss Charles Richardson remembered him as one of the most polite, mild-mannered men Ive met but he has a bad temper on him sometimes. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to Following a trial at theOld Baileyin 1967, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. '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. During World War 2 he was a deserter - escaping from his barracks on several occasions. He spent 42 years almost half his life in prison for 26 offences. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. The Krays, according to Frank, were little more than thieves ponces.. In the early half of the 20th century one queen, Diamond, regularly appeared in the press where she was once described as a 'tall and commanding figure with a cool demeanour'. 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 was still serving his sentence for the Catford affray when he was handed a further 10 years for his part in the Richardson torture case. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. 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. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. Mad Frank. 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. 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. [25] In June 2013, the 89-year-old Fraser was served with an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) by police after a row with another resident. He was a rock.. 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. 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. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. They set up a fruit machine enterprise, which they would sell to pub landlords, to cover up their crimes. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. 42 years a lag She had died in. Various members were eventually caught, though and served their time in Holloway prison, where rations were meagre and they slept on boards. 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His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. 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. I don't think they felt bad about it. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. He had been shot in the face. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. "As I was growing up, I never had to buy a shirt Eva made sure she nicked them for me. 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. Before then, Fraser had been involved in smash-and-grab raids and wages snatches. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. For other inquiries, Contact Us. 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. His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". 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. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. 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. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. Indeed, his criminality was closely bound up with what one criminologist described as an overt almost Samurai vindication of violent action in pursuit of inverted honour. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. 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. 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. 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. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. 'They didn't see anything wrong in it because these things were too expensive for most people to afford and shops had insurance. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. Updated November 28, 2014 2.43pmfirst published at 2.41pm Save Share [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. 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. 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. He claimed to have no regrets about his criminal life, apart from being caught. He then worked for legendary Soho crime boss Billy Hill in the 1950s, earning the nickname razor Fraser for his attacks on those who crossed him, before becoming embroiled in protection rackets in the 1960s, rising to the position of the Boss of Soho. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. 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.. 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. 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. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. Mason was found, barely alive, wearing only his underpants and wrapped in a blanket, on the steps of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. Photograph: Crime and Investigation network. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. [9] Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. His mother was of Norwegian-Irish stock and his father was half Native American. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. 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. They stole to put food on the table. She was sentenced to five months. 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. Comments have been closed on this article. "My father was the most honest man I've ever come across," says Fraser, who also refers to his Native American antecedents, saying that his grandmother was "a Red Indian", According to his sons, Fraser has no regrets: "He said, 'No, I wouldn't have done my life any other way. [13], It was in the early 1960s that Fraser first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang, rivals to the Kray twins. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. 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. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? 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. 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!' 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[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. Then they were turned over to Fraser. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). 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. Joining the Forty Thieves was something of a right of passage for Eva Fraser. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. After another, the car ran out of petrol in the Rotherhithe tunnel. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. She helped him sell on his loot. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. '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. But little by little, over weeks and months of interviews, cups of tea and chats, their life stories emerged and with that came a fascinating insight into the Fraser family history and what really made Frank tick. 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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London on December 13, 1923. 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. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. 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. As a young woman, Eva became an accomplished hoister (shoplifter). 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.
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