Tag Archives: EDDIE RICHARDSON

FLANAGAN, FORMER MODEL, “GODMOTHER” AND PEACE-MAKER TO MANY OF BRITAIN’S MOST HARDENED AND FEARED GANGLAND FIGURES.

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BELOW: HERE IS A BRIEF PICTORIAL GALLERY AT THE LAUNCH PARTY FOR FLANAGAN’S NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BOOK ….. “ONE OF THE FAMILY  … 10 YEARS WITH THE KRAYS ” AT THE BLIND BEGGAR PUB , WHITECHAPEL RD , LONDON

FOR MORE INFORMATION CLICK HERE

FOR VIDEO CLICK HERE

FLANAGAN’s life started in 1941 as Hitler was bombing London. She had to be evacuated & she had to be evacuated to Hemel Hempsted but later returned to her home town of Islington.

Convent educated in Holloway Rd, North London, she grew up with a younger brother & sister, along with a little English mother & a devastatingly handsome Irish father.

Her christian name was Maureen & she started work in a hairdressers at 15 years old when her father died. She was spotted by a photographer aged 18 at a hairdressers convention where she’d been asked to model. He took some photos & showed them to an agent who suggested she model on the catwalk. Maureen worked for all the top fashion houses & stores, everything she tried on sold out in hours.

At 20 years old she married a local lad, Patrick Flanagan & for 3 years they lived in Camden, North London. Her agent sent her up to the BBC where she appeared on shows including Benny Hill, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Dave Allen Show, The Likely Lads & Only Fools & Horses. She also filmed ‘Dracula 72’ alongside Christopher Lee.

At 26 years old she was known as the most photographed model in Britain & her legs were insured for £25,000 which was unheard of in the 60’s! She went to Germany to advertise cars & was then flown to Amsterdam, where she was photographed covered in diamonds, then New York to model ‘Hot Pants’.

She became great friends with George Best, Malcolm Allison & Barbara Windsor & filmed with Tony Curtis, Roger Moore & Charlton Heston, while taking up using the one name – Flanagan. It worked wonders!

She had become Violet Kray’s hairdresser & on meeting The Twins & ….elder brother Charlie, became a regular visitor to Vallance Rd & is now considered an expert on all Kray memorabilia, being called upon to examine items belonging to all 3 brothers at auctions. She visited The Twins regularly until they died & arranged all 3 funerals, seating everyone in the church at them all.

Flanagan was called up to The Sun newspaper’s head office by the Editor & it worked. As she was leaving she was asked her age & replied with a smile “21”, which they duly printed. In fact she was 30 & just getting divorced!

She married again in 1976, having found the East London years before through the Kray brothers & had a son, JJ, who is a DJ. Sadly her 2nd husband, Terry Cox, died after a heart transplant & Flanagan never left the East End. Flanagan now has 3 grandaughters.

She’s currently organising the ‘Biggest Kray Memorabilia Night’ & experts to enthusiasts from all over the country will attend the event, being held at The Blind Beggar Pub in Whitechapel (Please see the ‘Events’ page).

Flanagan has a thousand stories to tell.

MURFLAN

flanFLANAGAN THE MODEL IN HER PRIME

Maureen Flanagan, best known by her stage name Flanagan, was an early tabloid model. She later became known as a most trusted inner-circle “Godmother” and peace-maker  to many of the most hardened and feared British  gangland figures of the 1960’s era to the present day, including The Kray Twins (she was also the family’s personal hairdresser and friend ) and a great many others . She has been one of the key organisers behind many of the gangland funerals and to this day remains one of the inner circles most trusted  confidents

flaANOTHER IMAGE OF FLANAGAN AS A MODEL BACK IN THE LATE 1960’S

She had an acting career in the late sixties/early seventies, mainly in bit parts on The Benny Hill Show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and several British sex comedies. She also played the lead role in the Danish film The Loves of Cynthia (a.k.a. Cynthia’s Sister) in 1971.

After her acting career ended, Flanagan continued to remain in the public eye, owing to her association with the Kray Twins and her efforts to secure their release She also wrote the book “Intimate Secrets of an Escort Girl” (Everest books, 1974). The book was serialized in the magazine Tit-Bits, accompanied by a blurb which said “Britain’s most photographed model lays bare the facts of her working life in the sauciest story of the year

In 1997, Flanagan made a one-off return to nude modeling as a mature woman, posing fully nude in the magazine Men’s World. In the accompanying interview she said her second husband had recently died after a heart transplant operation, and that she was busy raising a then-16 year old son

BELOW ARE SOME PHOTO’S AND FEATURE’S OF FLANAGAN IN HER PRIME IMG_1425 IMG_1426 IMG_1427 IMG_1428 IMG_1429 IMG_1430

flanaFLANAGAN AND ANDY JONES AT THE FUNERAL OF GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY MASTERMIND – BRUCE REYNOLDS …

below is a link to Flanagan’s new website which is presently under construction , with more to be added

http://www.flanagan-model.com/

NOTORIOUS LONDON GANGLAND FIGUREHEAD – “MAD” FRANKIE FRASER

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 TRUE CRIME, GANGLAND,MAFIA, MURDERABILIA AND BEYOND…. IT’S ALL HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION , LITTLEDEAN JAIL 

HERE’S AN INTERACTIVE INSIGHT INTO THE MAD AND VIOLENT WORLD OF MAD FRANKIE FRASER

HERE AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION WE FEATURE AND INCLUDE A GREAT MANY GANGLAND FIGURES INCLUDING “MAD” FRANKIE FRASER AS PART OF OUR TRUE CRIME AND GANGLAND  COLLECTIONS.

ALSO BELOW ARE SOME MORE INTERACTIVE BACKGROUND VIDEO FOOTAGE RELATING TO THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THIS NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL AND FORMER MEMBER OF THE RICHARDSON GANG WHO RULED THE LONDON GANGLAND SCENE IN THE 1960’S ALONG WITH THEIR RIVALS – THE KRAY TWINS .

 ABOVE IS ONE OF THE MANY PERSONALLY SIGNED GANGLAND MEMORABILIA ITEMS ON DISPLAY AT THE CRIME THROUGH TIME COLLECTION HERE AT LITTLEDEAN JAIL .

Early life

Born in Lambeth, south London, Fraser was a deserter during World War II, on several occasions escaping from his barracks. It was during the war that Fraser 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. In 1941, he was sent to Borstal for breaking into a Waterloo hosiery store and was then given a 15-month prison sentence at Wandsworth Prison for shopbreaking. Such were the criminal opportunities during the war, Fraser later joked in a television interview that he had never forgiven the Germans for surrendering.

Fraser confirms in his book ‘Mad Frank & Friends’ that his grandmother was a Canadian Red Indian.[4]

[edit]Post-war

After the war, Fraser was involved in a smash-and-grab raid on a jeweller’s for which he received a two-year prison sentence, served largely at Pentonville Prison. It was during this sentence that he was first certified insane and was sent to the Cane Hill Hospital, London, before being released in 1949. During the 1950s his main occupation was as bodyguard to well-known gangster Billy Hill. He took part in more bank robberies and spent more time in prison. He was again certified insane while at Durham Prison and this time sent to Broadmoor. Aware of the punishments for bad behaviour in that institution, Fraser stayed out of trouble and was released in 1955. In 1956, 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. Both Fraser and Warren were given seven years for their acts of violence.[5]

[edit]The Richardson Gang

It was in the early 1960s that he first met Charlie and Eddie Richardson, members of the notorious Richardson Gang and rivals to the Kray twins.[6] One member of the criminal fraternity was quoted as saying that “Mad Frank joining the Richardson’s Gang was like China getting the atom bomb”.[citation needed] According to Fraser, it was they who helped him avoid arrest for the Great Train Robbery by bribing a policeman. Together they set up the Atlantic Machines fruit machines enterprise, which acted as a front for the criminal activities of the gang.[7] In 1966 Fraser was charged with the murder of Richard Hart who was shot at Mr Smiths’s club in Catford while other members including Jimmy Moody were charged with affray. The witness changed his testimonyand the charges were eventually dropped, though he still received a five year sentence for affray. Fraser has always maintained that, while he fought with Hart, he did not shoot him. He was also implicated in the so-called ‘Torture trial’, in which members of the gang were charged with burning, electrocuting and whipping those found guilty of disloyalty by a kangaroo court. Fraser himself was accused of pulling out the teeth of victims with a pair of pliers. In the trial at the Old Bailey in 1967 he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.[8]

[edit]Violence

Fraser’s 42 years served in over 20 different prisons in the UK were often coloured by violence.[9] He was involved in riots and frequently fought with prison officers and fellow inmates as well as attacking various governors. He was one of the ringleaders of the major Parkhurst Prison riot in 1969, spending the following six weeks in the prison hospital, owing to his injuries. 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 so he was allowed to wear slippers. He was released from prison in 1985, where he was met by his son in a Rolls Royce.[10]

In 1991 Fraser was shot in the head from close range in an apparent murder attempt outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London. He has always maintained that a policeman was responsible.

[edit]Later life

Fraser has become something of a celebrity, appearing on television shows such as Operation Good Guys,[11] Shooting Stars,[12] and the satirical show Brass Eye,[13] where he said Noel Edmonds should be shot for killing Clive Anderson (an incident invented by the show’s producers), and writing an autobiography. In 1999 he appeared at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London in a one man show, ‘An Evening with Mad Frankie Fraser’ (directed by Patrick Newley), which subsequently toured the UK.

He 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 which was released as part of the DVD The Ultimate Gangster DVD (2003 Gangster Videos), which featured crime figures Charles Bronson, John McVicar, Paddy Joe Hill, Albert Reading, Dave Courtney, Roy Shaw, Norman Parker, Marilyn Wisbey and axe victim Eric Mason. This programme was also shown on The Crime & Investigation Channel & Biography Channel in the UK and was directed by Liam Galvin.

He now gives gangland tours around London, where he highlights infamous criminal locations such as the Blind Beggar pub. He lives in the Walworth area of London.

Fraser is also a big Arsenal fan, and his grandson Tommy Fraser is a professional footballer,[14] and formerly captain of League Two side Port Vale. According to legend, when he was at Brighton, Tommy was asked by a local reporter if his grandfather ever came to watch him play. “No,” came the reply. “But he reads your reports and he was unhappy you only gave me six out of 10 last week.” Tommy never got less than seven again.[citation needed] Another of Fraser’s grandsons, James Fraser, also spent a short time with Bristol Rovers. Another grandson, Anthony Fraser, was being sought by police in February 2011 for his alleged involvement in alleged £5million cannabis smuggling ring.[15]

[edit]Books

  • Fraser, Frank & Morton, James (2000). Mad Frank’s Diary: A Chronicle of the Life of Britain’s Most Notorious Villain. Virgin Books. ISBN 1-85227-874-9.
  • Fraser, Frank & Morton, James (1995). Mad Frank: Memoirs of a Life of Crime. Time Warner Paperbacks. ISBN 0-7515-1137-4.

[edit]Film

London-based production company Classic Media Entertainment has secured the film rights to Mad Frankie’s life. A feature film production is currently in development and the production has Fraser’s endorsement[16].

[edit]External links

[edit]References