frankie fraser sister eva

She got six months in jail, for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. Fraser in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). There was Eva, the naughty girl of the three, who became a key figure in the all-girl gang, the Forty Thieves, who targeted the West Ends big department stores. However, according to a new documentary, he is clearly not going gentle into any good night. This is Eva Fraser, sister of gangster " Mad" Frankie who was one of the leading lights in The Forty Thieves. It wasnt that we chose to be thieves, said Patrick. [9] He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks on several occasions. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. He then worked for legendary Soho crime boss Billy Hill in the 1950s, earning the nickname razor Fraser for his attacks on those who crossed him, before becoming embroiled in protection rackets in the 1960s, rising to the position of the Boss of Soho. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. They stole to put food on the table. Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. Questioned by police, Fraser reportedly gave his name as Tutankhamen (gangland slang for shtum) and asked What incident?. When police visited she showed them ledgers to demonstrate her honest buying. Fraser was the youngest of five children and grew up in poverty. After trying his hand at crime as a. During the 1950s, Fraser's main criminal occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangsterBilly Hill. View our online Press Pack. 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. She lived an unashamedly lavish lifestyle and splashed her money around. He was a member of the Richardson gang or the 'torture gang', led by brothers Charlie and Eddie Richardson, and were widely feared in Londons underworld. 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. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. 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. He was released from prison in 1985.[17]. 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. '", Frankie Fraser's Last Stand will be broadcast on the Crime and Investigation network on 16 June at 9pm, New TV documentary shows ex-gangland enforcer is far from mellowing with age and has few regrets about his life of crime, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Frankie Fraser has no regrets over his life of crime, which involved him being jailed for a total of 42 years for 26 offences. [3][4], Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. Harry Styles put on an animated display as he took to the stage for a second night at the Accor Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park on Saturday.. Fraser, he recalled, was more than capable of doing what he threatened. There were car chases and bank raids which would not have looked out of place in The Sweeney. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. Both Frank and his sister, Eva, whom he adored, inherited their fathers features and his jet-black hair. By Emer Scully and Beezy Marsh for MailOnline, Published: 10:41 GMT, 4 November 2021 | Updated: 13:07 GMT, 4 November 2021. She once stabbed a policeman in the eye with a hatpin, blinding him. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road in Waterloo, London. 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. 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. 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. Frankie Fraser was tried at the Old Bailey for Harts murder, while six others, including Eddie Richardson, faced lesser charges. 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. With Frankie Fraser, Chris Keenan, Steve Box, Michael Boyd. 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. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. The raids seem often to have been left to chance, and he was particularly unfortunate with cars. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? [16], Fraser's 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence. 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. There was also kind of respect for them locally because people could get a nice dress or a pair of stockings cheaply. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. 'In fact, she was one of the people who spotted his talent for stealing after he pinched a cigarette machine from a hotel as a small boy. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a. Aged 17 she was convicted for stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. Notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser died in hospital today aged 90, relatives have revealed. [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. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. The pair were the only ones of the children to embrace a life of crime. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. "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 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. 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). He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. 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! He received a further five years when, in 1970, he was acquitted of incitement to murder but convicted of grievous bodily harm after he had led the Parkhurst prison riot the previous year. View the profiles of people named Frankie Fraser. 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. 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. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. At signing sessions of his books he was always willing to be photographed pretending to extract a tooth with pliers brought by the fan. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. Bought stolen goods and sold them on in a role known as 'the fence'. 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. At the age of five, he moved with his family to a flat on Walworth Road, Elephant and Castle. Fraser was placed into an induced coma, but just five days later, on November 26, 2014, Fraser passed away after his family made the decision to turn off his life-support machine. Last seen in public in October at the funeral of his former boss, Charlie Richardson, Fraser is one of the few remaining members of a generation of "celebrity criminals". Author Beezy Marsh said: 'These women fought harder than the men and were feared by men and women in their communities. Frankie Fraser was known anotorious torturer and hitman, who worked as an enforcer for some of London's most feared gang leaders. 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. I don't think they felt bad about it. Its clear she still had to feed her family by acting on the wrong side of the law Beezy said. He saw himself as an innovator, claiming to have invented the Friday gang, robbing wages clerks carrying money from banks; he would use a starting handle to beat his victims and to deter any watching have-a-go heroes in the street. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. inaccuracy or intrusion, then please With Warren at his heels, Fraser ambushed Spot in a Paddington street, knocking him to the ground with a shillelagh. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. In 1996, he played (his friend) William Donaldson's guide to Marbella in the infamous BBC Radio 4 series A Retiring Fellow. He later joined the notorious Richardson gang, formed by brothers Eddie and Charlie, and began carrying out more criminal activities. Frank stole because he loved to have money yet when he had it, he gave it all away. On his release, Fraser joined Richardsons brother Eddie in a company called Atlantic Machines, installing fruit machines at some of Sohos most profitable sites, with Sir Noel Dryden recruited as the respectable frontman. 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. He was a deserter during the Second World War, escaping from his barracks . "As I was growing up, I never had to buy a shirt Eva made sure she nicked them for me. He regularly led conducted tours of East End crime scenes, invariably ending up in the Blind Beggar pub where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell dead. '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.'. Born near Waterloo station, central London, he was the fifth child of a poor family. Borstal was followed by prison, where in 1943 he met the influential London villain Billy Hill, for whom he worked on and off for more than a decade, culminating in his slashing of Hills rival Jack Spot in 1956 after the self-styled kings of the underworld had fallen out. 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. By the time of the Swinging Sixties, she was drinking champagne with the Krays. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. When Mason demurred, Fraser buried a hatchet in his skull, pinning his hand to his head. Diamond took her under her wing and showed her how to shoplift in 1947, when Pitts was just 12. But his criminal activities didn't stop when he was locked up. ", 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. They would go through Selfridges department store in the West End and steal furs and expensive clothes. Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. During the 1950s, Fraser's main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. At the age of five, Fraser, running in the road to beg for cigarette cards, was knocked down, and from his injuries he developed meningitis. It was during the Second World War that he was branded 'Mad' Frankie, after he feigned a mental illness to avoid being called up to the front line. Even decent folk were often only too happy to 'take a bit of crooked' to have something new. Two people were left dead. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. 'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. Pitts wore a school girl's outfit, complete with straw boater, to act as a decoy. And I felt the same way,' she said. Comments have been closed on this article. Mothers would hide hoisted clothes in their prams and move them to pubs, where they were sold on. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s. Mad Frank. 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. 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 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. She was chauffeured in a Bentley and always wore a sable coat. Shortly afterwards, Fraser kidnapped Eric Mason, a Kray gang member, outside the Astor Club in Berkeley Square, with even direr consequences. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to Cane Hill Hospital before being released in 1949. He spent more than 40 years in prison. Before World War Two, if you got married you were expected to leave work and stay at home, Beezy said. Please enter your username or email address to reset your password. The two Richardson brothers were convicted, and the elder, Charles, sentenced to 25 years. 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. Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. Eric wasnt a bad fellow, Fraser later explained, but that particular night he was bang out of order.. "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. After trying his hand at crime as a. 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. Not long after being released, Hughes was involved in the Lambeth riot of Christmas 1925, when the home of Bill Britten was stormed. "Maybe he was bored with going to prison," Ronnie Richardson, Charlie's widow, tells the programme. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. Following a trial at theOld Baileyin 1967, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. 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. She had known their father, who was a fence (seller of stolen goods) or a 'thieves' ponce' - he would put up the money to finance criminal operations - which was a career on which she looked down. 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. '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. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any newsletters until your subscription is confirmed. He was full of contradictions: He hated authority but at the same time he understood the need for society to have rules and was against anarchy. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit-machine enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang. [5][6][7][8] His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. 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. Peggy stayed out of crime and worked for the Post Office. The reader is also introduced to the girls brother Jim, who became a sergeant in the army and fought in North Africa. Francis Davidson Fraser, known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was the scourge of prison governors and warders up and down Britain during the periods when he served a total of more than 40 years'. His fourth son, Francis, in Frasers joking words, let me down by having no criminal career at all. Frank's mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his "best pal" and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 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. In later life he would say that had there been an elder criminal member of the family to advise him, he would not have served his sentences in what was called the hard way. Updated November 28, 2014 2.43pmfirst published at 2.41pm Save Share [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. His mother was of Norwegian-Irish stock and his father was half Native American. Murdaugh is heckled as he leaves court, Missing hiker buried under snow forces arm out to wave to helicopter, Pavement where disabled woman gestured at cyclist before fatal crash, Fleet-footed cop chases an offender riding a scooter, Two Russian tanks annihilated with bombs by Ukrainian armed forces, Alex Murdaugh unanimously found GUILTY of murder of wife and son, Isabel Oakeshott clashes with Nick Robinson over Hancock texts, Insane moment river of rocks falls onto Malibu Canyon in CA, Do not sell or share my personal information. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. It was just what we knew and to be honest, we loved it.. Notorious for high-speed getaways, she was eventually caught stealing lingerie and sentenced to hard labour in prison. In 1991, while emerging from Turnmills nightclub in Clerkenwell, London, he was shot at by an unidentified gunman. He undoubtedly had a wicked temper and a lack of empathy as seen in his capability for violence but he described that to me in terms of a soldier doing his job. Frankie Fraser was born on Cornwall Road inWaterloo,London on December 13, 1923. 'Mad' Frankie Fraser: Sweet dapper. The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. [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. 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. 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. Fraser, who was jailed for 10 years in the so-called "torture trial" in 1967, is now frail and in poor health. The following year, the British mobsterJack Spotand wife Rita were attacked on Billy Hill's say-so, by Fraser, Bobby Warren and at least half a dozen other men. 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. Because of the type of person I am, he wrote, in the life I led, you learn to shrug off adversity better than people whove worked hard all their lives.. He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. 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. 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. "At the races, I'd be bucket boy," says Fraser in the documentary, Frankie Fraser's Last Stand, which will be broadcast on the Crime and Investigation network on 16 June at 9pm. '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. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in an alleged 5 million cannabis smuggling ring. She helped support her young siblings by taking milk and bread from neighbour's doorsteps. HP10 9TY. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. 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. But Beezy said: [Kathleen] experienced the slums of Waterloo as a place buzzing with excitement and the tight-knit community, with its Catholic Church parades, which gave her the chance to shine, though she instead works at the old Hartleys jam factory in Bermondsey. Born 1920s. [14] According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for the Great Train Robbery by bribing a policeman. So it was in January 1965, when a club owner called Benny Coulston was hauled before Richardson for swindling him out of 600 over a consignment of cigarettes. [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. 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