frankie fraser sister eva
[9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. '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. Editors' Code of Practice. 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. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. 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. With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. 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. 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. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. After another, the car ran out of petrol in the Rotherhithe tunnel. These recollections, while often disordered and jumbled, nevertheless shed light on Frasers shameless and unrepentant defiance of the liberal consensus. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. None of the gang were afraid to use razors on those who crossed them, Some of London's The Forty Thieves' antics made the Peaky Blinders look like choirboys. Fraser was defended by a young solicitor called James Morton, who later became an author and wrote a history of Londons gangland in 1992. Ancestors . He had an ungovernable temper and an inability to think through the undoubted consequences of his proposed actions. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. 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. She also passed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. He was said to have pulled out the teeth of one of the victims with a pair of pliers. '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. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. He also attacked various governors. 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. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. On this release, he determined to write his memoirs. 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'. 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. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. 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). 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.. 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. He had been shot in the face. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. 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. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. 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. 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. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. 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. 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. 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. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. 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 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. Notorious for high-speed getaways, she was eventually caught stealing lingerie and sentenced to hard labour in prison. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. Prior to that he was a bodyguard to notorious gangland leader Billy Hill, where he took part in bank robberies and and carried out razor blade attacks - which earned him 50 a time. 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. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. 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. His funeral took place on December 18, 2014. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. David had perfected the prison whisper talking very quietly, in case he was overheard by the guards. Underneath glamorous ensembles the women wore specially-adapted petticoats with hidden pockets or baggy bloomers with elastic at the knee. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. 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. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. During his time in prison, Fraser was involved in a number of riots and frequently fought with prison officers, fellow inmates and governors. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. In 1941, Fraser was given his first taste of punishment when he was sent to borstal for breaking into a Waterloo hosiery store. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to 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. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. 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. "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. Frasers partner in this endeavour was Bobby Warren, an uncle of the boxing promoter Frank Warren. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26. While the award-winning TV show Peaky Blinders was inspired by the all-male Brummagem Boys gang from the same period, the Forty Thieves make some of even their escapades seem tame by comparison. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held Eva Fraser in high regard because of her role in the gang and during the 1940s and 1950s and the Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Ms Hughes - was careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. contact the editor here. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. '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. AS is the case with so many crime families, the key to understanding the men came through getting to know the women who cared for them. He chose the latter because they had taken sides on behalf of his sisters husband, Tommy Brindle, who had received a heavy beating by the Rosa brothers from the Elephant and Castle. A feature film production is currently[when?] Mad Frank. 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. 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. 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. Fraser received seven years. There was American Indian blood in him; his grandfather had emigrated to Canada in the late 19th century and married a full-blooded American Indian woman. The publisher also decided to include a glossary for the reader. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. Always well turned out and ineffably polite and punctual, he had a large and appreciative audience, and one woman was so impressed she named her son after him. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. Photograph: Alex Segre/Rex. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. 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. At her kitchen table, Alice would teach her girls how to roll furs on the hanger and shove them down their drawers, which the gang called 'clouting'. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. 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. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. 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. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. 42 years a lag She had died in. 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. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. But who were the gang's most brazen members? In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. '", 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. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. 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! It will only make me a worse villain! "If you play by the sword, you've got to expect the sword as well," says his son. 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. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. As people facedblackouts, rationing and a lack of professional policing due toconscription, Fraser had ample opportunities for criminal activities, such as stealing from houses while the occupants were hiding for safety in air-raid shelters. [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. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. 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Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. '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. At the age of five, Fraser, running in the road to beg for cigarette cards, was knocked down, and from his injuries he developed meningitis. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. 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. The business came to an end in 1966 when a fight in a Catford night club, Mr Smiths, left a Kray associate, Dickie Hart, dead, and Richardson and Fraser, who was charged with Harts murder, in prison. And I felt the same way,' she said. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. Mother of [private daughter (1940s - unknown)] Died 2000s. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. Ronald 'Ronnie' Kray and Reginald 'Reggie' Kray, were identical twin brothers who led an organised crime ring in East London from the late 1950s to 1967. 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. Beezy said: "Frank's sister Eva was the one who led him into crime as a small boy. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. 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. 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. 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. Queen of Thieves, by author and journalist Beezy Marsh (published by Orion, November 4 2021, 8.99). The youngest of five children, he grew up in poverty in the Elephant and Castle and Borough, areas teeming with moneylenders, prostitutes and backstreet abortionists. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Eric wasnt a bad fellow, Fraser later explained, but that particular night he was bang out of order.. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. She helped him sell on his loot. 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. They didnt go to jail, they did bird or got a lagging. Whatever you nicked you could sell, they'd be queuing up to buy it off you.". The comments below have not been moderated.
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