Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. 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. A constant troublemaker in prison, attacking governors and warders over perceived injustices which inevitably resulted in floggings, bread and water and the loss of remission, Fraser had by this time been certified insane on three occasions. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. But his criminal activities didn't stop when he was locked up. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. 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. 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!' Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. Mother of [private daughter (1940s - unknown)] Died 2000s. 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. [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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. 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 was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. Frankie Fraser was tried at the Old Bailey for Harts murder, while six others, including Eddie Richardson, faced lesser charges. 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Author Beezy Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. 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. 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. 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. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. He appeared on pop records and in television documentaries, toured his one-man show of criminal reminiscences (flexing a pair of gilded pliers), and found himself invited into bookshops to sign copies of his memoirs. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. 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. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. After the war, he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill, for whom he carried out razor attacks. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. of James Fraser and Margaret Alice (Anderson) Fraser. 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. With Frankie Fraser, Chris Keenan, Steve Box, Michael Boyd. 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. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. [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. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. 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. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. 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. in development with Fraser's endorsement. 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. 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. 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. [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. His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. His parents were honest and hard-working, but Frankie and his big sister Eva, to whom he was closest, soon turned to crime. Frankie Frasers wife Doreen, with whom he had four sons, died in 1999. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. Furs were rolled on the hanger and tucked into the women's undergarments when the store assistant was distracted, while jewellery and watches were swapped for fake versions and hidden under hats or in their hair. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. The comments below have not been moderated. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. A witness later changed histestimony,and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. I dont think people realise how close we came to all-out battles in London between Communism and Fascism, before WW2 brought the country together, Beezy said. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. 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. Following a trial at the Old Bailey in 1967, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. According to one of his sons, David, Fraser was unharmed but he did not inform on his assailant. Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale. [9] One such member was Lilian Goldstein, who was known as the Bob-Haired Bandit. 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. 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. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. Fraser owed his success in the fruit machine business to Billy Hill, whose patronage Fraser courted when he attacked and almost killed Hills gangland rival Jack "Spot" Comer. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London on December 13, 1923. At least two home secretaries considered Fraser the most dangerous man in Britain, an image which, in old age, he only half-heartedly sought to dispel. However, it was in the early 1960s that Fraser began to take on even bigger crimes, when he first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson of the Richardson Gang - rivals to the Kray twins. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London.