frankie fraser sister eva frankie fraser sister eva

She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. 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. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. [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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. 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. He was so attired when, in 1951, he attacked the governor of Wandsworth prison, William Lawton, as he walked his pet terrier on Wandsworth Common. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. They worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. After another, the car ran out of petrol in the Rotherhithe tunnel. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. [21] In 1999, he appeared at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in a one-man show, An Evening with Mad Frankie Fraser (directed by Patrick Newley), which subsequently toured the UK. Ms Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. 'I felt it was time for their story to be told and it inspired my novel, which is the first in a planned trilogy for Orion about the gang, stretching from the 1920s to the 1950s.'. She was sentenced to five months. The middle sister was Kathleen, who constantly aspired to make it as an actress, and make use of her striking good looks. 'The other side of the story involves these feisty women and it is perhaps more fascinating given the limited powers such working class girls had to earn a decent wage.'. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. His new career took off and he was in regular demand as a radio and television pundit. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. 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. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. While serving this sentence, Fraser received 10 years for his part in the so-called Richardson torture trial. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London on December 13, 1923. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. 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. 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. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. The women were completely faithful to their leader, known as the queen, who doled out harsh punishments and carried strict rules including not helping police officers by informing. 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. ', 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'. 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. The big question everyone has about Frank is Was he really mad? He was certified insane three times once by the Army, twice in prison and he was diagnosed as a psychopath but his family argue, and I tend to agree, that he played the system to suit himself. 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. When Frankie was in prison, Eva helped to run his protection rackets in Soho and even sent her daughters to collect payments, as the police would not stop a child. Two people were left dead. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. People shook his hand in the street, others kissed him or asked for his autograph and taxi drivers honked their horns. After the war he was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller's and was given a two year prison sentence. 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. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. 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. "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. He was a rock.. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Eva (Fraser) Brindle. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. However, it was the during the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, that Frankie Fraser become notorious nationally. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. 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!' A Gannett Company. Please report any comments that break our rules. [9] Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. 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. 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. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. Nevertheless he was good at sports, captaining the football team at St Patricks school, Southwark, and boxing as an amateur. 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'. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. Fraser earned his mad nickname during the second world war, when he managed to get himself out of military service by pretending to be mentally ill. To prove his unsuitability to the force, he assaulted a doctor before jumping out of the window at the Bradford assessment centre where he had been sent. 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. So it was in January 1965, when a club owner called Benny Coulston was hauled before Richardson for swindling him out of 600 over a consignment of cigarettes. '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. ", 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. 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. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. [6] Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. Ancestors . 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. 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. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. 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. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. 42 years a lag She had died in. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. 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. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. Eva got into shoplifting, but had a heart of gold. Each incident added more time to his sentence. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. She had died in 2000 but her daughter Beverley, who shared Evas reticent nature, agreed to talk to me and that revealed that Eva had been leading criminal in her own right. [13], It was in the early 1960s that Fraser first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang, rivals to the Kray twins. 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. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. It will only make me a worse villain! His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Nevertheless his campaigns and, on the outside, those of Eva, did bring the attention of the general public to the unpalatable conditions in which prisoners served then their sentences. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. Fraser spent a lot of time in solitary confinement, tormented by prison officers who would spit in his food. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. He had been shot in the face. 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. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999.