Fraser, who has died aged 90, spent a total of 42 years in jail but had not been behind bars since 1989. Here we take a look back at his colourful life.
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Gangster Mad Frankie Fraser has died in hospital aged 90.
The notorious gangland enforcer, who spent 42 years in prison, fell critically ill after undergoing surgery on his left leg on Saturday in Kings Hospital, south London.
Here we take a look back at his colourful life with 12 things you never knew about Mad Frankie Fraser.
1) Fraser was born in Lambeth to an Irish mother and a Canadian father.
2) He first appeared in court at the age of 13.
He was hauled before magistrates after he was arrested for stealing a packet of cigarettes and was sent to an approved school as punishment.
3) He was given his nickname “Mad” Frankie because he feigned mental illness to avoid being called up during the war.
He then made a living looting bombed out stores in the capital and selling goods on the black market.
4) Fraser was just 5ft 5 inches tall.
5) After the war, Fraser worked for underworld boss Billy Hill and carried out razor attacks on his rivals.
He claimed Hill paid by the stitch, so if a victim got 50 stitches he would get £50.
6) He spent a total of 42 years in prison for a string of beatings, slashings and alleged pulling of teeth with pliers of rivals who crossed his gang bosses.
He was last behind bars in 1989.
7) In 1953, he thumped legendary hangman Albert Pierrepoint when he was on his way to execute Derek Bentley, who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a policeman.
8) Fraser was behind the 1969 prison riots at top security HM Prison Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight.
He organised a sit down demonstration against alleged beatings of prisoners in segregation which soon turned violent.
He was eventually overwhelmed by riot officers, receiving multiple injuries and spending six weeks in hospital.
9) He was certified insane three times and served some of his time at Broadmoor.
10) In 1991, he was shot in the head outside the Turnmills Club in Clerkenwell, London but survived.
He refused to press charges against his assailant, saying: “If you play by the sword you've got to expect the sword as well.”
11) In his later years he led £45 a head minibus tours of London's gangland hots spots including the scrap-metal yard from which his friends Charlie and Eddie Richardson ran their South London crime empire.
12) He was handed an Asbo last year aged 89 after getting involved in an argument with a fellow resident at his care home in Peckham, South London over a chair.
A man called Arthur had sat in the window seat and refused to move when Fraser asked him and an argument ensued.
Fraser told the Sunday Mirror at the time: “In the end I went for him and got hold of him.
"He leapt up out of the chair and scarpered off down the corridor.
"It’s a good job I didn’t catch up with him again."
