. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. His wife, Doreen, whom he married in 1965, and who with Eva loyally toured the prisons to visit him, died in 1999. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. '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.'. Two people were left dead. 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. After being sent to HM Prison Durham for taking part in bank robberies, he was again certified insane and this time was sent to Broadmoor Hospital. 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. Many of the Forty Thieves were noted for their beauty as well as their shoplifting skills, such as Madeline Partridge and her sister Laura (pictured left), whose mother was often used by Diamond to sell stolen goods. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). 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 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. 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. 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. She helped him sell on his loot. [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. Facebook gives people the power. The Krays 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 Maggie 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. Photograph: Alex Segre/Rex. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. The memoir KEEPING MY SISTER'S SECRETS, (Pan Macmillan 2017) tells the moving story of three sisters born into poverty in 1930s London and their fight for a survival through a decade of social upheaval. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can Eva was a chip off the old block and as well as being Franks first partner in crime, stealing sweets from the corner shop, she had a lucrative career in a daring gang of girl shoplifters, The Forty Thieves, which traced its roots back to Victorian London and cleared many a West End store for furs and luxury goods. A keen Arsenal supporter, Fraser had four sons, the first three of whom, Frank Jr, David and Patrick, followed to an extent in his footsteps. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. A Gannett Company. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. contact the editor here. 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. Descendants . She was sentenced to five months. End-right girl on the back row is Eva.. Every old-school south Londoner knows the folklore of cockney criminal Frankie Fraser, whose violent tendencies were infamous on the streets of Walworth. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. '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. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. 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. 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. in development with Fraser's endorsement. According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for theGreat Train Robberyby bribing a policeman. The criminal, who has spent almost half his life in prison, passed away earlier at King's. 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. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. 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. 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!' Before World War Two, if you got married you were expected to leave work and stay at home, Beezy said. For latest book news including updates on the forthcoming film Mad Frank and Sons please like my page Beezy Marsh. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. In 1966, Fraser was charged with the murder of Richard Hart - who was shot at Mr Smith's club inCatfordwhile other Richardson associates, includingJimmy Moody, were charged withaffray. 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. 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. And I felt the same way,' she said. 42 years a lag She had died in. 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. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. 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. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. Members of The Forty Thieves worked department stores including Selfridges in teams of three or four during hoisting trips up to three times a week. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. 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 is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Women carried tools needed for burglaries so the police had no evidence if they stopped the men following the crime. Comments have been closed on this article. When caught by police she replied: 'I don't know anything about it.'. 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. 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. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . [26] On 21 November 2014, he fell critically ill during leg surgery at King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill[27] and was placed into an induced coma. "From there he goes on to burgle, and she goes onto shop lifting with a famous female gang called The 40 Thieves. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. Once he said he would do something, he did it, and he despised others who backed down. 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. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. When the heat from the cops in London got too much, they headed off to the Costa del Crime to seek their fortunes there. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. He refused to discuss the shooting with the police. 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. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's 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. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. 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. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. The cells did not have a reforming effect on her character or on that of her gang leader Diamond, who was arrested on numerous occasions over the following decade. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. MAD FRANK & SONS, by David Fraser, Patrick Fraser and Beezy Marsh is published by Sidgwick and Jackson on June 2. [9], Fraser was an Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer. The Guardian, October 12 1980 Frank Fraser is a thorn in the Prison Department's side - a thorn so big that he is possibly the only British criminal who has become a legend simply by serving time. Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime appeared in 1994, with two further volumes following in 1998 and 2001. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. Fraser received seven years. Mad Frank (1994), which went on to sell around 100,000 copies, was the first in a successful series. 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'. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. Mason was found, barely alive, wearing only his underpants and wrapped in a blanket, on the steps of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. Then they were turned over to Fraser. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. Fraser was released in 1988 and almost immediately served a two-year sentence for receiving. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. [9] The comments below have not been moderated. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. 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. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. She helped him sell on his loot. A famous Monty Python sketch featuring the Piranha brothers, Doug and Dinsdale, has often been associated with Fraser and the Kray twins and some aspects of the new documentary may add to this impression. He has been part of the most infamous criminal gangs of the past 100 years, while maintaining his South London roots and deep devotion to his family. View our online Press Pack. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. Throughout his life he denied the justice of this conviction, but he was happy to trade off it. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. 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. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. Despite this, or possibly because of it, newspapers of the day were tipping him as Spots natural successor. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. "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 Forty Thieves, a London-based exclusively female gang whose exploits were worse than those depicted in BBC drama the Peaky Blinders, posed as wealthy housewives innocently browsing the rails of the UK's most luxurious clothing stores. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. 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.
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