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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. The following year, the British mobster Jack Spot and wife Rita were attacked, on Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. [23] In 1991, Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. 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. [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. 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. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. 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. For a time he was engaged to Marilyn Wisbey, daughter of the Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey, with whom he briefly ran a massage parlour in Islington, in which Fraser made the tea. Such were the criminal opportunities during the war, Fraser joked in a television interview years later, that he had never forgiven the Germans for surrendering. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. But she was once caught stealing stockings and was sent to prison.. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. When the police arrived, they found Hart lying under a lilac tree in a nearby garden. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. Born inLambeth, south London, Frankie committed his first crime at the age of 13, when he stole a packet of cigarettes and was sent to an approved school. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale. 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. 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. 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. 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. [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. His decision to join the Richardsons rather than their rivals, the Krays, has been described as "like China getting the atom bomb". After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. During the 1940s it was not unusual for 'hoisters', a historical term for shoplifters, to be paid a hundred pounds a week - out earning men's average wages ten-to-one. 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. On this release, he determined to write his memoirs. [11] In 1942, while serving a prison sentence in HM Prison Chelmsford, he came to the attention of the British Army. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. 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. 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 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. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. ", The new documentary returns to this theme, suggesting he had a hard time in prison because there were no criminals in his family. Fraser considered that Lawton had meted out cruel and vindictive punishment to him at Pentonville in 1948, and to avenge himself Fraser assumed the role of hangman. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. 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. 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). 'It was incredibly subversive to go against the class system and steal furs and luxury items and swan about like they were rich - but that is exactly what they did. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. Fraser was jailed along with other members of the Richardson gang for violently punishing people whom the Richardsons believed owed them money. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. His greatest moment of national notoriety came during what was known as the 'torture trial' of the Richardson gang in 1967, which became . 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. 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. Fraser also appeared as East End crime boss Pops Den in the feature film Hard Men, a forerunner of British gangster movies such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and had a documentary made of his life, Mad Frank. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. 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. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. Alice herself was famous for clouting three furs in one go: one down each leg and one under her gusset. News reports were checked to see how much was owing. The trial which became one of the longest in British criminal history. . Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. The comments below have not been moderated. 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. [24], Fraser's wife, by whom he had four sons, died in 1999. By 20 she was leader of The Forty Thieves and wore a row of diamond rings that acted as a knuckle duster. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. He was a rock.. 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. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Their alleged specialities included pulling teeth out using pliers, cutting off toes using bolt cutters and nailing victims to floors using 6-inch nails. HP10 9TY. But the victory was pyrrhic in many senses, because by the time he finally left prison the in mid 1980s, the world had changed and gangland had moved on. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. 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. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. 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. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. As a reward, he was shown his examination answers, and thats how I come top, he later boasted. 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. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. '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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. Born 1920s. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. "If you play by the sword, you've got to expect the sword as well," says his son. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Please report any comments that break our rules. A ponce was someone who thieves looked down on, because they lived by taking a cut from someone elses earnings. 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. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. Comments have been closed on this article. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. "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. The women, who carried razors wrapped in lace handkerchiefs, were known for violent outbursts - including one furore that resulted in a woman blinding a police officer by stabbing him in the eye with her hatpin. After trying his hand at crime as a. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. 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. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. While still a teenager, in the spring of 1943, he took part in a daring raid to free an Army deserter from a squad sent to collect him from Wandsworth Prison. As an adult she was beaten by one of her boyfriends and the father of five of her seven children, Chris Hawkins, who was a fruit and vegetable seller in Hoxton. 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. 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.. 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. But who were the gang's most brazen members? 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'. Following the Frankie Fraser story is akin to re-tracing the history of gangland London throughout the 20th Century. 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. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. 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. "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. 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. 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. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. He really did live by a code of honour which he took with him to the grave. [22], Fraser gave gangland tours around London, where he highlighted infamous criminal locations such as The Blind Beggar pub. At signing sessions of his books he was always willing to be photographed pretending to extract a tooth with pliers brought by the fan. 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. 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. 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.