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. 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!' 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. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. His enduring nickname Mad Frank derived from his violent temperament which caused him to attempt to hang the governor of Wandsworth prison (and the governors dog) from a tree, and to be certified insane on three separate occasions. On 26 November, Fraser died after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. ", Of the war years, when he was heavily involved in theft from bombed-out stores, he says: "You wanted to win the war but you wanted it to go on for ever. Ancestors . 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. A feature film production is currently[when?] The judge, Mr Justice Griffith-Jones, complained of attempts to nobble one of the jurors, but in the case of Fraser, who was tried separately, he directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty. 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. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. What saved him I think was the branch; it was supple and it bent. Although Lawton survived, the dog died. I just waited, caught up with him, knocked him about and strung him up with his dog, Fraser remembered. And involvement in such activities often led to his sentences being extended. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. Joining the Forty Thieves was something of a right of passage for Eva Fraser. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Alice herself was famous for clouting three furs in one go: one down each leg and one under her gusset. Fraser died at the age of 91 on November 26, 2014. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. [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. Fraser was acquitted but received five years for affray. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. Nothing ever got to Frankie, wrote Charlie Richardson. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. 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. Swathed in luxurious fur coats, wearing diamond rings as a knuckledusters and hats to hide their stolen wares, Britain's most notorious all-female gang ruledthe tenements of Waterloo and Elephant and Castle and earned the respect of Soho's most feared underworld bosses. Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime appeared in 1994, with two further volumes following in 1998 and 2001. She also passed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. The police were cozzers and a burglary was a screwer, hitting someone was a clump, while jewellery was tom as in Tom Foolery, in rhyming slang. She was one of the top thieves during the war. 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. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. Young Frankie attended local schools, captained the football team, and acted as bookies runner to one of the teachers. Pictured: The female cast of the hit BBC show Peaky Blinders. Frank's mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his "best pal" and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 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. He was very skilled at manipulating people and he played a long game, letting people believe he was mad, with the intention of winning in the end. A Gannett Company. Please report any comments that break our rules. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Diamond's second-in-command Maggie Hughes was known as 'Babyface' for her sweet looks and made a habit of cheekily shouting back at the judge when she was sentenced to jail: 'It won't cure me! It will only make me a worse villain! Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. 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. 'It was not just a man's world, despite the countless column inches still spent poring over the phenomenon that was the Kray Twins,' she added. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a hoister because they could outearn us men two to one,' he said. 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. It was during the war that he first became involved in serious crime. She was taught by Alice Diamond in the 1930s and a very senior member throughout the. [9] He was a resident at a sheltered accommodation home in Peckham. 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. In 1945, when he was 21, he assaulted the governor at Shrewsbury prison with an ebony ruler snatched from the governors desk, for which he received 18 strokes of the cat. 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. 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. 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. Jack 'Spot' Comer showing the scar on his face left by Frankie Fraser and Alf Warren (GETTY), By 1956, Fraser had racked up 15 convictions and had twice been certified insane. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. 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. 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 certain cult status in later life as an author, after-dinner speaker, television pundit and tour guide. Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. 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. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. Frankie Fraser belonged to a bygone era of crime and was cut from a different cloth than so many other gangsters of his generation. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. Updated November 28, 2014 2.43pmfirst published at 2.41pm Save Share When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. His parents were honest and hard-working, but Frankie and his big sister Eva, to whom he was closest, soon turned to crime. Had it all gone to plan, she could have inhabited a very different side of the West End to her little sister Eva. During his time behind bars he was involved in violence and was a major instigator in the Parkhurst Prison riots in 1969. The most famous 'queen', Alice Diamond (left), was the daughter of a docker and renowned for her row of diamond rings that doubled as a knuckle duster. 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'. After trying his hand at crime as a child, Fraser then continued into his later life. If you weren't actually stealing, you were outranked by The Forty Thieves. [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. At 17 he was sent to Borstal for breaking and entering a hosiery shop in Waterloo and was then given a 15-month prison sentence for shopbreaking. Comments have been closed on this article. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. HP10 9TY. Bought stolen goods and sold them on in a role known as 'the fence'. Photo taken in the late 1940s on a pub Beano (day out) in Walworth, before the group travelled to Margate On the back row: the girls mum, Margaret, next to daughter Kathleen. 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. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. Notorious for high-speed getaways, she was eventually caught stealing lingerie and sentenced to hard labour in prison. Part of his mouth was shot away in the incident. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. Afraid of being heavily medicated for bad behaviour, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. 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 on Cornwall Road, Waterloo, Lambeth, South London, Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. Ronald 'Ronnie' Kray and Reginald 'Reggie' Kray, were identical twin brothers who led an organised crime ring in East London from the late 1950s to 1967. He stopped following a warning from the Kray Twins. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26 offences, has been issued with an asbo after an incident in his residential accommodation. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. Both Fraser and his sister, Eva, were also active juvenile thieves. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. Diamond's second-in-command Maggie Hughes (right) was known as 'Babyface' for her sweet looks and made a habit of cheekily shouting back at the judge when she was sentenced to jail: 'It won't cure me! View our online Press Pack. 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. She would send her girls out in teams of three or four at least three days a week, to stores all over London and as far afield as Birmingham and Brighton.