Then theres Frankie himself, who makes a brief appearance. 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. Born on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. 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. [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. 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). She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand (2013) - IMDb The singer, 29, bared his chest and showed off his . Both Fraser and Warren received seven-year sentences. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to In 1966 he was charged with the murder of Richard Hart, who was shot at a club in Catford, but the charges were dropped when a witness changed their testimony. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. 42 years a lag She had died in. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. Her wartime experience was spent on the switchboards during the Blitz. She was one of the top thieves during the war. 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. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. Even decent folk were often only too happy to 'take a bit of crooked' to have something new. He also claimed to have been the first bandit to wear a stocking mask. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. [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. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. "If you play by the sword, you've got to expect the sword as well," says his son. Frankie Fraser: Died On This Day in 2014, Aged 90 - The NCS Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. 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. After another, the car ran out of petrol in the Rotherhithe tunnel. The Forty Thieves posed as wealthy housewives innocently browsing the rails of the UK's most luxurious clothing stores before shoving stolen items down their undergarments. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. 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. From the time of Frankie Fraser's sister Eva and the gang of hoisters The Forty Thieves, comes a book which will have you gripped this summer. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. He then became involved in serious crime - and the war provided a perfect backdrop with the blackout, rationing and a shortage of police officers. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. His parents never knew about his illegal activities, and if they ever suspected him apparently turned a blind eye, a habit . 'Mad Frank' the thug, hitman and enforcer Police reveal more details, as man remains at large after brutal attack outside school, Interview with MP Neil Coyle after Commons suspension: Why the drinking has stopped having started in childhood, but the swearing wont, plus deliberately avoiding Labour leader Keir Starmer, Read our print products (Digital Editions). He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. She helped him sell on his loot. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. The Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Maggie Hughes - was also careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? But his criminal activities didn't stop when he was locked up. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. He also attacked various governors. 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. 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. 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. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. 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. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. 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. 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. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. His major stretch in prison came at the end of the Swinging Sixties, shortly before his rivals, the Krays, were jailed, but he was so badly behaved behind bars that he lost every day of remission and even had five years added to his sentence for one of the worst riots in prison history at Parkhurst in the Isle of Wight. 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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. Descendants . 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. She was sentenced to five months. "You name it, we nicked it," he says. Mad Frank. 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. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. In the 1950s he worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on victims for 50 each. Ms Marsh said it 'was time to reappraise London's gangland' when she wrote The Queen of Thieves. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. New biography of notorious Frankie Fraser promises to reveal the late And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. 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. Fraser was just 13 when he was sent to an approved school for stealing 40 cigarettes. 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. 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. A witness changed his testimony and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. Involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Fraser was the. In 1996 he was cast as the gangleader Pops Den in the film Hard Men, which premiered at the London film festival. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. Getting them to relive their exploits had its own difficulties at the start the only time they had ever been interviewed was by the police and they were used to keeping their own counsel. 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. She also passed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. 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. 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. in development with Fraser's endorsement. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). Queen of Thieves: The gangland women who made Peaky Blinders look like David had perfected the prison whisper talking very quietly, in case he was overheard by the guards. It sounds like the worst days of Prohibition in Chicago rather than London in 1956, complained Mr Justice Donovan, but words were wasted on Fraser. He spent 42 years almost half his life in prison for 26 offences. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He had been shot in the face. Frank Davidson Fraser[1] (13 December 1923 26 November 2014),[2] better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offences. Over the last decade or so he was on the cabaret circuit and ran gangland tours of the East End, taking in such sights as the Blind Beggar pub, where Ronnie Kray shot dead George Cornell, one of the Richardson gang, in 1966. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. A witness later changed histestimony,and the charges were eventually dropped, though Fraser still received a five-year sentence for affray. 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. He was a rock.. It will only make me a worse villain! He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. Following a trial at theOld Baileyin 1967, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
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