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'It gave them a life they could never have afforded. 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. 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. 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. 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. Beezy reveals how the girls father would beat their mother a big influence on their outlook. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. In the summer of 2013 it emerged that, at the age of 89, Fraser had been served with an Antisocial Behaviour Order (Asbo) after another incident, this time at his care home in Peckham, south London. [14] According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for the Great Train Robbery by bribing a policeman. 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. Fraser was part of Britain's Underworld between the 1940s-1960's. He was a known associate of gangster Billy Hill throughout the 1950s. He spent more than 40 years in prison. 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. Tue 11 Jun 2013 11.55 EDT He may be in his 90th year but "Mad" Frankie Fraser is still causing mayhem. Nevertheless he was good at sports, captaining the football team at St Patricks school, Southwark, and boxing as an amateur. Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. 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. 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. '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. Fraser was seen kicking Richard Hart, a Kray associate, as he lay on the pavement outside. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Fraser, whose health has been deteriorating in recent years, turned to crime aged just nine when he and his sister, Eva, became petty thieves. He was still touring clubs and pubs in 2011. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. '", 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. I saved myself from Royal life, Harry says & insists 'sharing's an act of service', Love Island's Olivia Hawkins breaks silence as she returns to the UK, Loose Women star lined up to be Strictly's first contestant in wheelchair, Coronation Street fans horrified as Amy Barlow is raped in disturbing scenes, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. She was one of the top thieves during the war. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. On the night of March 7 1966 Fraser and Eddie Richardson were badly hurt in a brawl at Mr Smiths club in Catford, the incident that broke the Richardson familys grip on south London. What officers didn't know then was that his crime spree would continue over a career spanning seven decades, and his offences only worsened. He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. An early nickname Razor Fraser reflected his penchant for shivving his enemies faces with a cut-throat blade. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. Following a trial at theOld Baileyin 1967, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. 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. 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. Reporters claimed she was 6ft tall - despite police records from 1919 putting her at 5ft9in. 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. Pitts wore a school girl's outfit, complete with straw boater, to act as a decoy. They also spoke, as Frank did, using the prison slang of a bygone era, which they had to translate for me. 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. Their alleged specialities included pulling teeth out using pliers, cutting off toes using bolt cutters and nailing victims to floors using 6-inch nails. When police switched on to the gang's methods they branched out, with trips to Southend, Brighton, Liverpool and Manchester. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. 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. 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Born to criminal parents in Southwark, South London, in 1886, her first crimes were aiding and abetting men. In August 1963, invited to take part in the Great Train Robbery, Fraser pulled out because he was on the run from the police. Mad Frank. It has emerged that the former gangland enforcer, who has spent 42 years in prison for 26. He shot, slashed, stabbed and axed. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. Comments have been closed on this article. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence. 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. 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). Because of Frasers behaviour in jail over the years, he forfeited almost every day of his remission. The grim terraces of Waterloo and the tenements of Elephant and Castle provided plenty of girls desperate enough to join The Forty Thieves. Her brother was the notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser, who joined turf wars between London gangs in the sixties. Prisoners and ex-prisoners all over Britain speak about him with undisguised admiration. She was sentenced to five months. Hughes was famed for her red hair, a love of drink and a violent temper. Frankie Fraser's Last Stand: Directed by Matt Blyth. 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. They enjoyed buying nice things with the money and putting on the posh. 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 in 1997 with his then girlfriend Marilyn Wisbey, daughter Of Great Train Robber Tom Wisbey (REX FEATURES). Aged seven, Ms Pitts was stealing milk and bread to provide food for her five siblings. It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times. During the 1950s, Fraser's main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. Each incident added more time to his sentence. "If you play by the sword, you've got to expect the sword as well," says his son. He was also tried in court in the so-called 'Torture trial', in which members of the Richardson Gang were charged with burning, electrocuting and whipping those found guilty of disloyalty by a kangaroo court. On 21 November 2014, Fraser fell critically ill whilst undergoing leg surgery atKing's College Hospital,Denmark Hill. Join Facebook to connect with Frankie Fraser and others you may know. 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. contact the editor here. She helped him sell on his loot. 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. He was so attired when, in 1951, he attacked the governor of Wandsworth prison, William Lawton, as he walked his pet terrier on Wandsworth Common.