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. 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. 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. But after shoving their stolen goods into waiting cars the women would head back to the grotty slums of Waterloo and Elephant and Castle - where their 'queen' exchanged the expensive items for a generous weekly wage. Eva Brindle formerly Fraser. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription you will not receive any updates until your subscription is confirmed. But by the 1930s, the breeding ground for its recruits was South London. ', The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. In 1969 Fraser led the Parkhurst prison riot on the Isle of Wight and found himself back in court charged with incitement to murder. The thieves' earnings allowed them to live like upper-class debutantes. 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. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. 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. 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. She and her friends looked like film stars when they went out down the pub. Frankie Fraser was a notorious torturer and hitman for the Richardson gang of south London criminals in the 1960s. Petite shoplifter Bertha Tappenden 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. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Frankie Fraser was tried at the Old Bailey for Harts murder, while six others, including Eddie Richardson, faced lesser charges. The women were completely faithful to their leader, known as the queen, who doled out harsh punishments and carried strict rules including not helping police officers by informing. Sister of Frankie Davidson Fraser. The first came when he was in the army during the second world war, the second time when he was sent to Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey, and the third when he was transferred from Durham prison to Broadmoor. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to Here are some pictures of Eva Fraser of the Forty Thieves and her sister Kathleen. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. 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 imprisonment. His first conviction was for stealing cigarettes, and with the second he was sent to an approved school. 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. When Frankie was in prison, Eva helped to run his protection rackets in Soho and even sent her daughters to collect payments, as the police would not stop a child. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money. 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). The notorious English gangster turned to a life of a crime and before he knew it, he was behind bars. Fraser owed his success in the fruit machine business to Billy Hill, whose patronage Fraser courted when he attacked and almost killed Hills gangland rival Jack "Spot" Comer. She operated out of Walworth, South East London and her home was called an 'Aladdin's cave of loot'. Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services. As her reign came to an end, Forty Thieves queen Diamondpassed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts. When he was 10, the pair stole a cigarette machine from a local pub, hauled it to some waste ground and jemmied it open. On this release, he determined to write his memoirs. A bucket boy would offer to clean the bookies' blackboards with a sponge, for which they were obliged to pay the Sabinis. He was moved from prison to prison more than 100 times because he was virtually impossible to control. After three years in jail she tookpart in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. 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". Once again, he was sent toprison, this timefor taking part in bank robberies. 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. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, 'Mad' Frankie Fraser was a notorious English gangster, Funeral of South London enforcer, FRANKIE FRASER at Honour Oak Crematorium, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). Morton was relieved that, rather than remonstrating, Fraser wanted him to write his life story. Fraser, tried separately, was jailed for 10. Mason was found, barely alive, wearing only his underpants and wrapped in a blanket, on the steps of the London Hospital in Whitechapel. 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. 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. 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. Tallymen, who sold goods door-to-door, would shift them across London. I don't think they felt bad about it. [25] In June 2013, the 89-year-old Fraser was served with an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) by police after a row with another resident. '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. In the second part, she reveals how Frank wasnt the only member of his family with a chequered past. It was not that he thought he was Napoleon. 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. Members of The Forty Thieves, whose mugshots were captured by the Police Gazette ahead of regular stays at Holloway Prison, often wore beautifully designed hats, coats and dresses in order to fit in - known as 'putting on the posh'. 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. 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. 42 years a lag She had died in. "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. It was a thief's paradise, Gor blimey! There was also quite a comeuppance for both Patrick and David who both served their time. '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. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held The Forty Thieves member Eva Fraser in high regard during the 1940s and 1950s. Profile manager: Evelyn Wolff [send private message] Each incident added more time to his sentence. Keeping My Sisters Secrets was published on July 27 by Pan Macmillan. 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. 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. Fraser had no problem dealing with rival operators whose business was dented as a result. After trying his hand at crime as a. Eva got six months for stealing stockings from Bentalls in Kingston upon Thames. These recollections, while often disordered and jumbled, nevertheless shed light on Frasers shameless and unrepentant defiance of the liberal consensus. He built a reputation as an enforcer and strongman for various gang leaders, including Billy Hill, self-styled King of Britains Underworld in the 1940s and 1950s and, in the 1960s, the Richardson brothers. They stole to put food on the table. She was an alcoholic and onceran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. He was said to have pulled out the teeth of one of the victims with a pair of pliers. Frankie Fraser, born December 13 1923, died November 26 2014, Frankie Fraser at Repton Boxing Club in 2005, Rishi Sunak to host Coronation Big Lunch at Downing Street, Erik ten Hag: Man Utd were a mess with no rules Casemiro has helped sort them out, How Ollie Lawrence became England's missing piece, Harlequins set attendance record but rampant Exeter spoil Twickenham party, Marcus Smith sends England message to Steve Borthwick with man-of-the-match performance, Super-sub Reiss Nelson completes thrilling Arsenal fightback. 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. You understand the choices that lay ahead of you if you were a working-class girl. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can He was working all the hours he got sent, but he couldnt make ends meet. Despite this, or possibly because of it, newspapers of the day were tipping him as Spots natural successor. 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. It was almost as if the biggest thrill of all was the act of stealing itself. According to Eddie Richardson, Fraser had Alzheimer's disease for the last three years of his life. [8] Although his parents were not criminals, Fraser turned to crime aged 10 with his sister Eva, to whom he was close. 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. It will only make me a worse villain! Ancestors . [4] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates. The granddaughter of a member of the gang, who said she was taught how to steal in the 1970s, told Ms Marsh: 'My nan was always beautifully turned out. But few would perhaps know about the equally incredible lives led by his three sisters. 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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. She liked to earn her own money and paid her own way quite something for a young woman in the 1930s and 1940s. Franks mother, Margaret, was a huge influence on him but his best pal and early partner in crime was his sister, Eva. 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. We'll never send you spam or share your email address. 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.. His mother was of Irish and Norwegian descent, while his father was half Native-American. Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime appeared in 1994, with two further volumes following in 1998 and 2001. Another of Fraser's grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. Though like Eva, she struggled to come to terms with the choice facing women to work or marry. He was frequently punished for breaking prison rules or fighting prison officers: "I've done more bread and water than any man alive. 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! She was still hoisting well into her 70s.'. 'MAD' Frankie Fraser, was one of the most feared and respected West End crime lords of the 1960s.