Freddie Foreman: The Terrifying British Godfather (Mobster Documentary) | Real Stories

foreign [Music] I'm a former Essex boys gang member and a one-time Friend Of The Craze socially or professionally I have met most of the UK's most infamous villains like a life or death Game of Poker a gangster's world is one of bluff and Friends many Gangland icons are seen by the public as all powerful but a small number of them that are deemed to be reserved polite and so now nice are in fact cold-blooded killers the Undisputed Godfather of the British criminal underworld is undoubtedly reserved polite and terrifyingly nice this is the fascinating yet chilling account of the extraordinary life of London's most feared gangster welcome to the world of Frederick Gerald Foreman the come from a very rough courtroom at the sea where it was like I was there was like Stables across the road with donkinson and horses and chickens running around and then there's a gypsy Caravan site next to that and the railway backed onto that you know and it was a very rough quarter but very for a kid to live in it was it was lovely you know it was an excitement so it was happening all the time and all the pubs used to be full with people when they so had their straightener fights outside the pub of a night on a Saturday night and me and my brothers just go and watch them all who's going to fight out this weekend you know and they'll have a return match the following week and you know challenging one another they used to put me up with the crowd used to make a circle and I used to put me up on this window ledge so I could see because I was only little you know so I used to watch it and I remember all these things that was our life was it was it's very picturesque you know and lower the sort of carnivals or atmosphere all the time but then we when then we moved to Wandsworth Road in got a council house and we was the first people in this block of flats the only people there in this big block of flats you know and watched everybody come in as of the removal Vans and then it was 1939 and the Bloody War started wasn't it and we just got ourselves a bath bathroom and I thought inside bathroom and toilet you know instead of the old Tim bath and the cook cooking stove and hot water and it was luxury for my mother and my parents and for us to have a bathroom it was it was a real luxury you know and of course for what we've been used to and five of us sleeping in one room you know and four in a bed and all that that was the sort of life we had and my oldest brother we had a bit over in a cotton over in the corner and uh for men life was really started to improve for all the family and they was finding jobs they they worked and but where two was in the territorial Army so that of course when 1939 started the divorce started they had to go straight into into the forces and my other two brothers they went into the army the king's World rifles and the Royal artillery and then then my two other brothers joined the Navy that so we're turning the Army into the Navy and uh costade left and I was evacuated you know for a few months only to woke in of all places only like our 20 minutes down the road you know in a train but I run away and all things like that I'd misbehaved as a little boy and I miss my family and I missed my brother and they got me back and my father come back and said well Fred he said if we all if we all die we all die together you know we'll die together that Bulldog spirit that Foreman's father instilled in his sons gave them the tenacity and strength to survive the horrors of the Blitz and the uncertainty and hardship that the second world war created we went back and we stayed there all right further through the war and the blitz you know and everything happened then it was down and blown out and out of your bed in the floor and the glass and all the windows coming in and went down the shelter and and that weekend the whole building got blown up the whole block of flats went down where we lived here we never had a thing my father came down the stairs he was out on nightwatch during the night watch Warden Stewie covered in blood and congealed dust and dried blood on his feet and he said we lost everything we had nothing you know all she had was this handbag little round bag with a few bits and pieces in it you know and that's how it was so indefined destruction was all around you you know neighbors and people were being killed and and the El teleboy was coming around with the telegram saying like missing in action sons and fathers and and it was it was a well a dramatic life for a child and that life was cheap you know and it was nothing but serious when the pub across the road where my father used to play dartsy he never went this night and they got Direct Hit and then everyone in the pub was killed you know it was that was that was going on in those days you know and of course my brothers were in in the water my brother got sunk in the Atlantic on on the mine sweet but it was the ship got Direct Hit it broke into he had to go straight into the war and we heard it on Lord [ __ ] Horse radio station when we were sitting there listening to the radio because everybody listened to him you know with his propaganda we used to say Germany called in Germany called it in an Oxford accent you know Cambridge Oaks were dedicated man he was and but he was the propagandaist for Hitler and the Nazis and he used to and everyone listened to him because you know fascinated with what he had to say and he said that this HMS fits for him was sunk in in the Atlantic North Sea he said and uh it sunk in four minutes all hands were lost you know so that was my brother it was on that ship across his town maybe not Tommy come home and leave you know there's no mistake in it and uh and naturally we was waiting for the telegraph boy to come you know with the telegram and uh all this I'm just staying outside on the balcony a figure come in the waved to me like with the sailors out on it was Georgie he was only he there's four of them survived out of the whole crew you know on a Carly float they called it this one like a coat raft they used to throw over board and hang on to you know and he got he got rescued in but after about three or four hours and then they'll say you know and they give him two weeks to confirmo you know compassionately beef and give him a give it after a week he got a telegram sent to him from from Chatham returned the Chatham right away to the neighborhood they thought he's going to go on his toes and do a runoff I suppose after going for all that you know so he went up on on with the castle it was a Trope [ __ ] but it was a line that they used as a troop ship they used it in the Falklands still it stood around and they and the next thing he wound up in Mombasa and that all the way in Africa and that's we joined up with the Mauritius Cruiser called the Mauritius and that that saw a lot of action that's been reported in in you know if you look through the wall records it was everywhere my brothers was in Arnhem at the Paris that was in the power of and they've served in all the European campaigns in in D-Day and even finished up with a Japanese out in in and Batavia taking the the surrender the Japanese you know I mean they saw everything and of course when they came out of the Army and the Navy the forces they was treated like that crap they was given like 60 quid gratuity money that's all they got you know for all the six years of fight and risk in their lives and and the actions they took and um what they went through the whole lot and and they got like a prince of Wales stripe suit or a principle check or or a pinstripe suit and that's although and I'm 60 quid you know what can you do obviously and nowhere to live no homes to know homes of their own and they was like my brother was down on nine Elms shoveling coal off a coal barge or a conveyor belt the war undoubtedly hardened Foreman death was his constant companion and scenes of Devastation his playground it also instilled into him a need to somehow repay or at least acknowledge his Elder brother's heroism too young for gainful employment that didn't prevent Foreman from acquiring household necessities and the occasional luxury he wanted to do his bit for his family regardless of what laws he broke in doing so they were treated so shabbily and they never had no employment digging trenches from two brothers who told older campaigns they'd fought in during the war that they are digging trenches for pre-fabricated houses you know and so I I was and then as though it was so old there I started the rationing and God knows what tea was like a commodity you could go Nick to have a jump up and nickel a van loaded tea would come to like 50 Quid a tea chest okay you know but it was money and it was that was sort of sort of star of it all you know and then there was that the people the men who used to come around and uh charge for women extraordinary external uh extortion at prices and went out to pay a [ __ ] in a week or something you know on the prepared no sheets and a bit of clothing for the kids so I used to Nick their fans when they went in and you know and then give them sell it to them a third the price you know I mean give it away now and um it was just like doing a service really I saw it as not as phoebeing as much as helping people and helping ourselves at the same time you know and that's it our sort of turned into crime but wasn't like I said oh I want to be a criminal despite the nature of his activities Foreman was Keen to be seen as a Robin Hood Type Rogue rather than a common self-serving Thief however the majority of villains throughout the UK appear to not share Foreman's Community spirit South London's Frankie Fraser claimed that the war was the most exciting and profitable time there had been the best period ever to be a rascal causing outrage amongst many Fraser went on to say that it broke his heart to think that Hitler had surrendered as the war was a criminal's paradise that a wank of Frankie Fraser talks about but bacon in people's houses and give up because they was having such a good time and I mean all these people getting killed and [ __ ] and families getting ruined Bloods goes wall to Norville also believe the chaos of war created a wealth of opportunities for criminals and they were quite right to exploit them when they walked in that was a cancer because it was a black hoot then let us saying the police knew who we were they used to chase us away for the corners and that but they actually knew who was behind that oh you know it was going to be more but starting a bit together and will the black who was when you could break her windy you know and people who never boil and heard the noise like that they were stealing tea and sugar I'm so rationed let me say Sally the bookmakers because they used to buy anything after you everything was rationed so we got tea and sugar and things like that that was the mean things after we're lucky if we could get eggs you'll need one egg a month of the Russians so we got a big case of eggs and when the book gave you a fortune for it everybody's house had the key on a string in the door you could walk in and out every ass in the street or on in a block of flats and if the kids latchkey and we were called latchkey children one way from school we come out and school and put your hand in a little box pulled a key out on a bit of string and and every ass was the same but nobody used to Rob anybody or they had nothing to steal there was nothing in their arms to Nick in it you know everybody was poised Church Mountain mice I mean there was a Unwritten lawyer you never you never stole off your own you never bought people's houses I've never been guilty of rubbing anyone's home or a house or personal you know there was a rule of Unwritten rule you know you helped each other and and and um you respected each other's uh property when the last bombs fell and the guns fell silent across Europe a huge rebuilding program began American Imports flooded the country and the villains were gifted with a new wealth of merchandise to steal and trade as they prospered small firms or gangs were formed our formula foreign all the way from the Argentina nice and Meaty these ones you know brand new tires and it's a spare tire but this is the sort of length that it was it was just cheap stuff and then all of a sudden all this all the uh the goods coming electrical goods were coming over because no one had that Hoover no one had a washing machine or a refrigerator or anything like that on radiograms televisions that they didn't exist after the war you know nobody I mean in New York I think when the war ended I think they had about 9 000 televisions in the whole of New York you know so even out there it wasn't technology hadn't moved on so there wasn't these the Commodities the things to buy in those days it was in when nothing in was in the shops like that and then order some stuff started to come over and of course the shops were full of all these electrical Goods electrical toasters and Kettles and things like that well you know that they had same things as Hoovers and things like that so of course they wanted them and the docs was doing all right before and saved when I'm in in South London so they was earning a few quid I've had a lot at the Docks you know the old crane driver dropped a parcel and they'd all have a little pill for and I was making a bit on the side you know it it decided on the crane had a lot of gear fall out and a few bottles of scotch and things like that so they they always stabbed their little Wireless in their own way so that's lifestyle increased so that was good customers and good then they would put in an order to me say like can you get us a a washing machine or okay so that a Hoover cleaner or get me this or that and my thoughts get married and want to say whatever but so I used to go to the shops with my brother the children go inside they need to chat up look the insistence that we would they'll keep them occupied and they used to leave outside the washing machine or a big spin dryer or something like that electrical goods and I used to just go around with a with a brown out over got a overall thing on and pick them up and March around the corner and get around the side street and sing them in the back of the van and that's right that's how we started off our outside off and and then send them to a third of the price because people couldn't afford the goods that was in the shops you know it was too much money for them and that's how I sort of what started off I felt like a rubbing and we know it really you know doing people favor getting them stuff that they couldn't afford hard young men like Foreman could sense a new era was Dawning and so they began fighting hard for pole position the criminal underworld as we know it today had been born I was nicked when I was 16 I was at the number one call at the Old Bailey in a central criminal court and that was uh for a street vows and fight you know get to sort of game fight you know and uh I went to Wormwood scrubs and I was too young they put me in Stanford house because I was too young to go to the scrubs and that was the sort of beginning of getting a criminal record you know but uh the uh I used to box for the Battersea Boxing Club and I used to belong to Jack Solomon's Nursery which on a Sunday morning in windmill Street it was a professional gym but they had it open on a Sunday morning for all the young young amateurs to see if there's any promise in young amateurs coming along to the term Pro you know there was a cunning move really from the promoter's point of view Jack Solomon's and uh I used to see all the top fighters coming over after the war you know when they when Freddie Mills was in Bruce Woodcock and all those type of Fighters you see and older all the fighters who come from America to fight here and uh and but we used to go to coffee stalls uh all over London at a coffee stall like say and they said and I worked in common I never used to work but I just go to Covent Garden a lot and they had a bit of a straightener there with a feather and we had a bit of a tear up in a cafe and it went down a little bit of history and the reputation started building up you know I was like I could ever fight on the streets the street fighter sort of thing and and at the coffee stores they would say there was one at Clapham common I know I'd have had a they used to sort of have people challenge you and say you know oh you fancy your chances or in fact we've got someone here who [ __ ] could beat you and all that used to go on you know it was a it was a sort of that meant it was all the match over and stuff you know uh excuse me swearing but it was that they are alpha male coming out in you you know and uh and that I I finished up every we used to go around to these coffee stools and I can tell you this now honestly that the elephant castle at a copy store uh the Campbell green had a copy stall Clapton common had a copy store one of the photos then Chelsea had a coffee store uh two in back at a carpet store and I had a fight and every one of every one of them yeah used to go down the side street and have a straight night you know but that and then you go back and have a meet a couple of tea and a meat pie and a sausage sandwich afterwards you know it was there was no animosity you know it was oh I only want potato coat sometimes to make a circle and you'd have to get at it you know but this is how we used to be and and that sort of reputation I suppose that's what you know made major who you were you know yeah Across the River Thames in London's East End the cray brothers were forming their own gang twins Ronnie and Reggie specialized in violence their older brother Charlie preferred to trade in stolen goods it wasn't long before Foreman the prolific Thief came into contact with Charlie the First Rate fence and about three lock-ups up at her now in the back of Brixton and I used to stock all the older gods in in these three three uh garages you know then I was put in touch with a fella from the East End who would come over and work for another buyer who used to lay out all the money on the Crooked gear and it who was it who came over to see me it was none other than Charlie Quay and this is the first time I came in touch with with the gray Brothers with Charlie Gray and we worked together and he used to come over and he'd look at all the garages to fill up with stuff and they say I'll take it all for it I'll take a lot and he used to come over his van and make several trips and take it and pay on cash so that saved me Hawking her around to to different people you know to sell a person in bits and pieces so he used to take the whole lot and then he used to talk to me about the Twins and these two brothers you know and I was young because they was like that much younger to me for I was years or so younger so and they used to tell me the trouble were in the problems I used to get into and where they was performing and you know there was a worry to their mother and all the rest of it and they was worried to him as well you know Charlie he I mean I'd give him a hard life and hard time and that that was their my first connection with the cray family but then afterwards I did a thing down in Southampton and it came on top down there and um I was down there with a bus that was in Tommy wisby who was Nick later on in the train Bobby and uh and we we'd left a bit of a as we cleared out a warehouse place there with a shop where's at the back and uh and that was early in the morning we stayed when they stayed overnight in 80 in the morning before it opened it up and of course uh when when we left there we got on the road back and then uh Tom Tom had left it with a bit of a radiogram and he left his Prince she thinks he handled it and he left his fingerprints on this bit of this radiogram so I said you carry on and I'll go back and get it and the me and Buster went back to get it but when we went back there was a guy cleaning the windows the window cleaner to shop and then it was a photo up with a paper stall opened up right on the outside the shop so the two of them looked at us as we walked in and had to knock the door open again and then pick up they can take it out walk around the corner and put in the boot of the car so it was on us you know we was recognized so we caught the van up on the way back and said we got it it's you're right you know we we got the article we left behind and uh drove home and but that that uh little event it I gave that Tommy took my van and got nicked with it and uh and uh that's how I came in in the frame and that they made me one morning and I went out and knock it on the front coming in the front door and I'm going out the back door over the back Gardens and it'd be pants and stuff you know of course heard me early in the morning and I had a Carver on the next street I used to park and I managed to get over to the East End on Christmas Day 1957 Ronnie craze beloved Aunt Rose died and he suffered a complete breakdown he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and sent to Long Grove Asylum near Epsom in Surrey Reggie immediately began planning to freeze identical twin what decided me to to get going away from Long Grove not Darius and Epson was some of the stories he told me about the place one day he was sitting there eating an apple and it's not to come along smacked him in the eye as you could tell you it just consumed it in the neck this is full of matters so I've been said I've had enough of this place so I decided to take him out there it was quite exciting man when Ronnie cray returned to London his twin brother Reggie moved him into a flat here in Adelina Grove where he was joined shortly afterwards by fellow fugitive Freddie foreman and they looked after me that gray Twins and I stayed in Bonnie Christ flat when it IT escaped from Epson and he was holed up in his flat and that they gave me his fracture to live in and I couldn't walk down the street in South London with about old bill would recognize me or it'd be I couldn't survive there but going across that bit of what it's like going across the pond you know going across the France or somewhere he was in a different world over there and I had to feed him to move around and do you know carry on and I've got my wife and kids over there they went to school over there and that's how I come to live in the East End and got to know the Quay family very well the only good memories I've got is going around to their house and uh with my kids and meeting their mother you know Violet and she would take the kids she was a love lovely woman and she'd take the kids in this I'll take a mellow 38th and Jamie and Gregory and they should take them in the kitchen and give him a sandwich or you know drop a lemonade and and she was very beautiful woman lovely typical uh Cockney mother you know the old man used to keep it out the back you never see much of him that the father but the Twins and it was always the house was always full of different people you know you know at the firms laying around and yeah in the facility there was never on their own really there's always someone about six seven and eight people except 10 15 people sometimes you know when I used to come over to my Pub when I had a pub uh the Prince of Wales and they never ever ventured anywhere on their own the two of them they always it was fermented you know I never trusted Reggie I thought we sat on the fence and he would go whatever way suited him whereas Ronnie was more if he give his word he would stick to his word Davis the nuttiest one wanted to and he was under this this tranquilizer and knock off over where he used to take you know but he needed that every day to keep himself because he was manic depressive you know and um if people looked at him too long he thinks they're they're going to attack him or something you know he was one of those very insecure people had form in an inkling of what misery his association with the Kray Brothers would bring it's unlikely he would have accepted their hospitality outwardly friendly The Craze provided genuine assistance and support for foreman and his family but like villains throughout time favors are given but a mental note of any debt is made for future reference gambling was still illegal in the 1950s and muscle like foreman and The Craze was needed by the likes of Gangland Godfather jack spot to protect The Bookies there's a number of gangs in London working the protection record and with the help that's been passed in Parliament with the betting laws and the gambling laws they've got it very easy you mean that the law now makes things makes it easier for the protectionists well of course there's big money involved you see in these betting shops and these gambling clubs if you turn the clock back to to the to to the 50s really it was when things was made up I was down on the race track with Jack spot and then with the twins you know when they was fighting with over the bookish joints and uh and Brighton races and different base means but I mean and then the illegal illegal gambling would when the gambling was was allowed you couldn't you had Street bookmakers and you had to prove to get a betting shop you had to prove that you had convictions for straight bet bookmaking and and showed that you had convictions before you get a license to open up a betting shop how about that you know that's one of the people don't know at the end of the 1950s several of the coffee bars where former had earned his ruthless reputation introduced afternoon dancing the most popular being the two eyes coffee bar in SoHo considered to be the birthplace of British rock and roll and the popular music industry two eyes bar and others soon transformed into what we now know as nightclubs foreman and The Craze realized that there was money to be made at the walking club with your brother George and Buster used to work behind a bar down and running King on the door and all nice people and we we went into the club business you know and the walking Club in Woodland befork you know and that's then we went on because we had a oh a dozen different clubs over in the South London all up up and down there two in the 211 Club Poorman was also instrumental in securing nightclubs for The Craze I I introduced them to Stephanie Faye who was the guy who had the uh the club in in Knightsbridge I was there on the meeting when they took it over but they took the East End to Knightsbridge and you know all their muggly looking bastards when it cuts down their faces and all that and flat noses and they should have left the club as it was and run it as without it and it just sat back and and got this collected the debts that was owned that's all I needed to do because they burned the place like they burned every [ __ ] thing you know anyway every Club they ate the business day at age they ruined it with the clientele they used to take down there and the people around them I'd see people laughing and having a good time five minutes before he walked through the door the minute he walked through the door that laughter stopped the conversation deemed people were terrified that he would say are you laughing at me and then he had that paranoid feeling that they were laughing at him and then there'd be a bloodbath Foreman realized that when it came to business The Craze were a liability rather than an acid who recruited men for his own firm which went on to carry out some of Britain's most audacious armed robberies not all was successful in December 1961 a relatively straightforward Heist turned into a bloodbath that became known as the Battle of Beau at approximately 10 AM the wages vehicle was due to arrive in at the gasworks has a big big strong armored van that went through London delivered to all the big Power stations taking their wages and it was in an ad on board about um 50 Grand 145 Grand I think there was a security van reached both Common Road coming down here to Turner's Road it was round in front by a lorry and simultaneously another Lorry that's brown covered one behind me drove up alongside then a 1500 weight van was driven up here and chains were attached to the door of the security van the doors were then dragged off and there was a two guards and a police officer from the sea with an Alsatian dog that was the security on board and two of the guards were armed with revolvers to which we was unaware of so when the back doors had been ripped off the rubbers were outside and the guards you know apart from the shock of the vehicle were still sort of in control of the situation pulled out their guns and began to open fire now inside the security van at the time what two guards and a police Constable with his dog flesh in the struggle that followed one of the bandits they were all dressed with skid lids and gas masks one of the bandits was shot at the same time the police Constable was injured and he is now in hospital and when it comes to climbing in the back and getting the money the most important thing there was two men there standing over it with revolvers firing away us which it to the two of the firm to Earth and where they lick our wounds and carry them away as far as we know no money was taken and the Gang made their getaway carrying with them the wounded man detectives investigating the robbery discovered that one of the men had left their fingerprints on a pepper gun which had been made to temporarily disable the Gods they soon established through the fingerprints belong to and a warrant was issued for one of Foreman's firm one of one of the firms got arrested for conspiracy to Rob which was unfortunate so that put it up on the firm so that I mean that became a quite a talking point in the Underworld I'd rather than give himself up this firm member spoke to foreman and asked if anything could be done he in turn turned to Ronnie cray who took the man to a North London Doctor and Ronnie Craig asked the doctor if he would help them and this doctor filled out a bogus appointment in his record book saying that on the day of the robbery at the time of the robbery this man had been in his surgery receiving treatment when the man gave himself up to the police he was charged with the robbery and went on trial at the Old Bailey the doctor was called to give evidence and he confirmed that the man had been in his surgery he'd been treating him and the appointments but was produced to prove this and the man was acquitted the mistakes made during the Battle of Beau changed Foreman's thinking about how he would carry out robberies in the future from then on people said how can you pull out now without guns you know if you're going to go and have a big payroll if you're not to know you're walking into a gunfire but it's been flying around so it made every firm take one with them after that shotgun because for instance if we were there was if we had a shotgun that day we'd we would have got the prize we've got the money you know if we let a couple go and then that might have got their Edge down and fought twice about shooting us you know you don't take it for show you know if you have to use it you've got to use it not deliberately to kill anyone but of course and when she's pulled the trigger you never know what's going to happen so you know but we were prepared to use them it seemed to change the whole scene that under the scene and it didn't deter people from going out but it was a turning point really but that that was one of the things sort of elevated your without even talking about our bragging about it that that elevated this the firm up a few steps on December the 17th 1964 Armed robber Jimmy Evans and his associate Tommy marks came to these flats and not the door of number 12. Freddie Foreman's brother George answered the door there was a loud explosion and a shotgun blast propelled him back down the hallway according to Jimmy Evans he'd been having sex with his wife if anyone was was messing around with my wife at the time I would have probably done the same thing as what happened George it was a he's a bit of lethargic you know where women were concerned and also that the fact that we had the The Walking club and not just on a Friday night you'd get six or seven girls coming all on their own you know and they're having a good time and a laugh and a joke and a drink and and this and they were sort of up for it if you know what I mean that'd be known to me he'd had really struck up this strong relationship with this girl and she was married to someone else it was at the West end but he didn't know just it George but he might know George or but he didn't know that the relationship between him and me I don't think or he couldn't have done at the time because if he hadn't known he would have uh he wouldn't have done what he did at the end of the ginger mask guy who took him over there he should have known better but the two of them were about thieves thieves and doing Petty though really they wouldn't do anything for a few fires and things like that and a few burglaries and it's supposed to have been a blowing safes and that but I don't know anyone who could blow [ __ ] safe there's a lot of an abused to throw the building down more than blow the saves that and uh there was burning them open that's that was different we used to do that and properly and do it proper but they uh they couldn't they for some reason or other they found out about it and I didn't know anything that that was going on all I knew was someone coming back to me and I got the message that George was in hospital in Saint Thomas's hospital and someone had shot him on his doorstep while he was he was having a meal with his wife and kids someone Ginger knocked at the door he went and answered the door and then there if asked for a moody address somebody he said I didn't know who it was and he'd shut the door and he went back to sit down outside the way and then there's another knock on the door he goes and answers to the door again and though the light had been taken out outside on a land end and it's all pitch black and then someone stepped out the Shadows with a shotgun and blasted him in in the lower area in the top and had caught him in the top of the leg and he had the passage at the end of the passage and next thing you know he's in hospital big hole in his leg and uh at Point Blank Range you see if it'd been back a bit further shot it would have spread out and it would have done more damage and it's supposed personal profile but he was lucky in that respect and uh of course I'll go I'll go to the hospital and the police there on the bed and they they went and had a cigarette announced it over there and they just whispered Ginger Tom and that's the only name I had it wasn't malts I was really wanted at the time it was the other fella uh who shot your brother but uh they were both as good as each other because you know they was conspirators and they both knocked on the door at the same time yeah and and the ginger Mouse they was the two people who did it yeah but they you see my brother never gave evidence against them though he knew it was them when he was laying in hospital he had three operations that just was going to cut his leg off at the top and hip down I mean it was it was it was touch and go it was just before Christmas as well so that they couldn't get an anesthetist to do the Deep amputation of the lake I was able to gonna do it this night and by the next day they managed to slowly just stem the blood flow you know and his archery and his leg so they never took his leg off otherwise I would have done but this was his day condition he was in you see so naturally I was a bit angry about that and I had to retaliate well that all London it knows if anything happened to my brother what I'm going to do you know I'm not going to just sit back and let it go so they was waiting for the response or everyone in London in the so-called London well I was waiting to see what was going to happen well well the twins knew everyone in the East End and so when I went to see the twins they told me who Ginger Tom was you know and I said it was Tommy Mouse and that's our company by then I found out through that who the other Federal was to assist Foreman in his hunt for the gunman The Craze arranged to meet Evans in an Eastern nightclub where a seemingly innocent photograph was taken this was then given to Foreman to help him identify his brothers would be assessing 17 days after George Foreman had been shot Jimmy Evans and three other men arrived here in Redmond's Road where Tommy marks lived it was around midnight when they knocked his door and his wife and answered the door she led him into a back room where they started talking to Marx and she went into the kitchen she was quite concerned because she was three months pregnant with Tommy's third child and she didn't want him getting in in any trouble when they came out the room she had she had a feeling that something wasn't right and Tommy said that he was going to go out for an hour she pleaded with him not to go but he was insistent that he had to go just before he left he said he loved her and closed the door she never saw her husband Tommy marks ever again it took a month or so to find a track it all down but they was going to sell their jewelry to a certain person when I was going on a robbery and that they told me that that they when they was going to work the night before to to uh and I was going to buy the jewelry what they got after rugby so that's how I come to know where they was going to be that particular night you see so I just plied up there and waited for him approximately an hour after he'd left his flat Evans and marks came walking along this road towards the Carpenter's arms God and two other members of their firm were coming in the opposite direction in the van they saw Ginger Marx and Evans pulled up next to him and it is alleged that they shed to Ginge some people say this referred to Ginger marks others say that they meant to call it um Jimmy for Jimmy Evans but um whichever version is right one of them leaned towards the van and forming in the other's open fire approximately five shots were fired marks fell to the floor and Jimmy Evans ran around the corner and hid underneath the vehicle whilst he's there making goodies Escape members of Foreman's firm got out of the vehicle and Marx was still alive they dragged him into the vehicle and he was never seen again this guy run rat straight round to the twins house which is the next turn and they didn't want to know anything if you've read about with Foreman you you can better [ __ ] you know we can't help you he's uh he's our power you better [ __ ] off you know it's your problem not ours and that they wouldn't help him though he did know them well you know and they know him and they know the ginger fellow because they had called dealings with him he used to sell cars for him and that you know even though he was part of their firm at one stage you know did the scene was Tommy marked his glasses and a pool of blood being a member of Foreman's firm disposed of the body he has never disclosed the whereabouts or the method is used although there have been of course many theories they used to have a pole we had two a couple of Breakers yard Chad went over the wall oh that's right he used to break lobbies up Ellie and he had a big aluminum smell and what is the E7 old chest freezer he used to put them in there I'll feed him up then they cut them up I put them in the smell yeah and if there's any bones left I really used to crush them all up and then come from in the river and that's uh where every disposed of the body when the craze heard about the incident they were extremely impressed because back in the 60s nobody meant no crime this was the craze believed an opportunity for Foreman to repay his debts to them and an opportunity for them to commit murder without fear of being caught the very thought of being free to murder at will course through schizophrenic Ronnie craze veins nobody was now safe and The Craze backed up with Foreman's muscle and body disposal facility believed that they could now not only control the East end but the whole of London the West End was a gold mine and seizing control of it became a priority for The Craze only two things stood in their way Brothers Charles and Eddie Richardson in the 60s it was great because when it was good it was very very good I mean at night Bentley car pulled up nightclubs and all this and that everything was going on it was great it was great you know and then that was the best probably the best period you know when all that was going on if you had the West End that's the jewel in the crown in London not the pubs not this not that the West End the West End is a money-making machine and they had their finger in every pie if the machine went into a club they're basically mined in the club without having putting anyone on the door or whatever but they were very honest and very good with everyone they weren't greedy they invited if anyone went to work with them they put them in on the cove and give them a fair share and that's what made my dad and Eddie so good well certain people was honorable yeah and other people wasn't so I've always been considered honorable that's why I got a lot of opportunities and often different uh things that other people wouldn't have ever had a sniff off and they said the Richardsons didn't want to know the twins do you remember a time when there was a meeting where the crazy saying to the Richardsons look we'll have a deal over this and Eddie told him to piss off a bit it was in their scrap yard at Doug Colonel Hill in camberwell and Richardson said we don't want to know about you twins I didn't want because I was getting too much business yourself There Were a Rich firm the riches and what was Ronnie saying to him let's cut the West end up in a sensible silver way because he thought he would watch a few American Gangster films and he too had Dutchy Schultz and Al Capone done it and he thought he could do it the same way that Richardson was there and he said no we don't want to know it was sort of underlying rivalry we were never actually clashed in any way you know there was an animosity that had a few little near near fallouts in the West End different clubs and things what happened was the the route uh I mean there was a fellow where I had six betting shops you know being offices and one of these young guys in 1920 Kenny Hampton he he was a lovely kid and the girls liked him because he's a good looking boy and he's in a club one night at the stock Club I think it was yeah and and uh he got bashed up down in the toilets for no reason why but I kicked the [ __ ] out of him I'll find out that idiot and Pfizer lemon done and the rest of the firm so they was my brother George had added the Red Cell Club up at Clapham common and they were all down there until Rome he said well they're all down downstairs and oh and so I went down and have a and I was very angry and I only worked with one person Ronnie Ronnie King and I was all in a group and I went up went over and I pulled him I pulled Eddie about it and uh and uh I stuck this 38 up his nostril you know up his nose and uh I was shaking because I could have easily let it go you know because when you're you're angry you shake your tremble a little bit you know we had a little argument fall out and I said but then that was if any blood I just said if that happens to anybody else who I said do you have the story you kicked the dog you kicked the master I said then that kid worked for me I said it needs to start going to hospital and that that made out it was nothing but it wasn't nothing it was a liberty and uh I and I saw it that way and uh and then I I said my piece and then I walked out and I left as Ginger marks discovered to his cost when Foreman thinks that a liberty has been taken it never does end well the battle lines had been drawn between the craze foreman and the Richardsons the war eventually broke 80 Mr Smith's a South London nightclub where the craze cousin Dicky Hart was murdered through billiel actually and he got in touch with Lillian and added they put us in touch to put cut the paper on the door in the club to you know so that's what we was going to do we went over there and was unaware that other things have been going on and people thought we was going over there to put it on and when we wouldn't at all just going over there to fill the ground out and things like that I walked up to take it I said what are you doing you've gone a little group it's a Luger he said Jim it's going to be water tonight he said I'll be I said dick I said don't be silly took the gun off him put it in the girl's bag that was with right then boom boom boom all everything else happened then Dicky r somewhere I've already got the gun anyway they had two guns we never had no guns so uh and in one of them want to rob a fight for me we had a fart on the on the Dance Floor our Dunn him on the Dance Floor set astride of him I want to really punch his head through the [ __ ] floorboard to be quite honest but I'm waiting to get shot in the back my mate had already been shot in the arm and remodeling blood come out spouting out everywhere now uh I'd like to get shot for beating him to be honest so I didn't go too strong he's crying out that I've had enough of bed now so I got up and left him then there was a bit of movement from outside someone tried to get outside get out the back door right so they run out the back door so everyone ran out the back door and that's ridicula lost his gun and he'd already shot fries at women and every morning is with it uh it's quite a big 45 you know and he finished up getting the gun and he got one from the gun but he didn't survive it and also the phone went I went hello it's Ted he went Jim dick your heart's dead got killed I said oh I'll see you in the morning but I'm I thought oh no that was that was it Eddie and uh Fraser and and uh and uh and all the rest of the firm had been down there and it kicked off about four people been shot you know shotguns and everything and and they'd been killed their little fellow Dicky hard and he was the casualty Ronnie Jeffries got shot I got shot Fraser got shot Harry Rollins got shot you know I mean it was a big a lot of publicity a lot of bad publicity of Broadway concerned about it face likes a banker he did it but he didn't do it at all his dad carry him out with his legs shed and of course that was like an open Warfare now it was sort of I and that kicked that was the beginning of all the trouble the night after Diggy Hearts murder Ronnie cray heard that George Cornell was drinking in the blind beggar Pub if someone is friendly and Barry and as they entered the premises Barry fired Two Shots into the ceiling Ronnie saw Cornell at the bar and as he approached him Cornell said look who's here but Ronnie didn't answer he pulled out a Luger and shot Cornell through the forehead Cornell slumped forward and eventually fell to the floor where he died moments later joji Cornell was from East London and he'd gone over to South London to to join up with the Richardson firm and he was so they felt that he'd he was he's not he's just changed changed his loyalties from east to South you know I told Ronnie gray afterwards I said that he should never done that I've gone in that Pub that's like their front room they lived above it they had their kids above it and they'd shot and and Ian Barry shop shots in the ceiling could have gone up and injured their family upstairs you know I mean and it should never go in a person's house she's away in front of a Georgie Cornell to come out if they wanted to chew him and the way he'd come out and got in his car so he's not in the pub we're in front of witnesses and other people and power mates and everybody else and I said it was a stupid thing to do and they used to help the guy if they were short of money they'd give him a few quid you know that was there and it was Liberty what they'd done and Georgie Cornell was away I know him and his family I live and and all their family from from South Davis from South London and there was nice people you know good people and George was oh well I like George he was okay on the 30th of July 1966 England celebrated defeating West Germany in the World Cup final at Wembley across the city in the East End The Craze and Foreman celebrated the arrest of the Richardson gang now that every credible threat to their dominance had been removed the craze embarked upon an orgy of mindless violence that was designed to demonstrate their power and cement control on the 12th of December 1966 Frank Mitchell was sprung from Dartmoor prison and brought to a flat on barking Road in East London Frank Mitchell was a product of the environment he stole a bike when he was a little kid and his father instead of going around to the person's house and saying look this my my son's just licked your boy's bike as his bike back he didn't do that he took him to the police station he got the kid in juvenile court and that this was the beginning of Frank Mitchell's career as a criminal really and it was his father instigated it really and it had no confidence or trust in his own father well you know what uh where do you go from there you know Mitchell started when he was a 16 year old kid he stole a push bike you've got a Nick for that and then he went through the system booster and but he was he was so volatile if the screw said something to him he chinned him and that was it and that followed him right through all the different he'd been the ranked and Broadmoor Whitefield all the top next and none of them could control him so why do trims thought I could control him I don't know Monica got friendly with him in ones with and he looked I used to the same visitors and give him money in and look after him and of course that's how their relationship he looked at he looked at Ronnie gray like as a a hero Mitchell looked at him and before he was a hero you know and because he wound up in in Brampton for the criminal insane and uh he was a handful to uh for the prison system and uh but with the attacking and screws and other prisoners and I know he he stabbed Bruce Reynolds in the wormer scrubs in the bathhouse which I never forgot I'll remember yeah Bruce was a good he was a great part of mine first and uh I was up when I heard about that I wasn't happy about that anyway but then he escaped from Brampton with another prisoner and they was on on the run and I was the and they got an ax and um I was the ax-men I was they were then and in the newspapers but they got captured and sent back and then he was sent to Baltimore for their criminal inside so he went up in Baltimore and then he escaped he escaped again from Baltimore and he got himself an ax again you know when he televised an old couple in that and nicked that car and their jewelry and they're watching and things like that so then he got captured again so now he went back to Baltimore and then he well he I don't know how many years 17 years or so later on he's in he he went to Dartmoor and of course by this time after all these years have gone by they've been in touch with him and writing to him and sending him money and stuff like that when he cried because he was he was a very generous person Ronnie Craig because Ronnie when he got out of absolutely he kept three for six months and then he got a date to go back from Epson um mental Place Asylum whatever it is there back to Wandsworth to finish his bird and get a release date but when you're in those asylums and places they never give you a date because they never know when they're going to let you free so this is what was happening with Frank Mitchell so Ronnie with all these connections and his his political connections with his different people both B and Co and drive Berg and all that activities that were going on equal it could pull a few strings and if he got if he got Mitchell out he would be able to give get him a release date and if he handed himself in after six months and and miss and behaved himself and never got in any trouble the initial plan was Mitchell would remain in the flat and various members of the cray firm would write letters to the media highlighting his plight in the hope that he could get a release date so this is how the it all engineered Ronnie's crazy idea to get him out you know one of his mad mad fingers he got him out and um coziest exchanged one prison for another because he was holed up in a roomy he thought he could go out and and Club it out and and put himself on the farm and go and do all sorts of villainy with the twins and be their white and man and you know in his mentality and and of course he couldn't do none of those things all he could do was exchange one place one prisoner for another really unfortunately Mitchell a huge man with an uncontrollable temper made a lot of Demands he wanted a woman The Craze brought him a woman he wanted food they brought him food but nothing could really make him happy so they did everything to keep him quiet got him a nose test and some sex and things like and tried their best to keep him sweet and then the idea was to smuggle him out our board you know to get him to Australia or Spain or somewhere and we could live the rest of his life not in a happy or game in the country and he would never be able to survive here in England you know but get him out of the country might have been away and I'd facilities to do that because I'd got people out the country for previous you know Train Robbers out the country I've managed to do that you know he got too much for me I mean they could handle him they was [ __ ] had binders around there looking after him 24 hours yeah yeah eventually Mitchell started saying I want to get out I want to go and walk around the streets he became an absolute headache for the twins so with Foreman's debt and facilities in mind they decided to murder him so I'd had mind us looking after him day and night and they was all terrified and she's scared of him and Dave was an uh I was complaining all the time and so they got me over asked me to come over and I went to see Reggie and Charlie and they said can you get us out of trouble here and help us and that brings under their eyes and he's threatened to go around and take their mother hostage and they only know what to blame if if they would take six coppers with him if if if if it was the police turned up he would shoot his way out and and take six coppers with him this was what he was saying the time had come for the craze to call in the favors that were owed to them foreman and his associates were asked to murder Mitchell and dispose of his body using their facility a man of his word Foreman agreed that the debt would be honored so now that now now and now they're really worried now so now they've got to get some help from somewhere then and they come to me again so I I'll go over and see him and it's so I've made arrangements to pick him up and take him out the country you know take him away down the country and this is what happened on the night of Christmas Eve 1966 Albert Donahue was in the flat with Frank some men came to the door and said you know we're going to take you to see the twins the girl will have to stay here but you come with us so Albert walked um out of the flat with Frankie said goodbye to the girl and they went out to that door into the street you go and he wouldn't trust anyone else I only made good I'll get him off the mall so he trusted me so my job was to get him out of the house away from the girl what we do we go and spend a few weeks with running and Christmas but you know what he's like you won't have a woman around you so I said look we'll let a photo on we'll go on ahead and let her follow on I said then if we get stopped it's going to be mentally certainly she won't be involved so he's like the idea after leaving the flat Albert Donahue and Frank Mitchell walked around the corner to Ladysmith Avenue we actually turned into the main road it's a young skinny young copper come walking towards his big car you know I thought he'd get so excuse me sir thank you Mr Mitchell even if you can slow with him our first intense that besides us to come Frank Turner we went around the corner and there was the ground parked on the curbside was an old Commerce style van the back doors were open and inside Freddy foreman and another man named Alfie Gerard they motion for Mitchell to get into the vehicle and he sat on the wheel casing so but now what happened you sit goes around the back and slams the door then he comes back and he gets you in the passenger you see and slammed that door and I didn't know too like it that was the signal the day bro they were all settled and the guns opened up right behind me Gerard was here next to me I thought I stay at night at the fellow called Donahue brought him out and walked him around and put him in the back climbed in the van with him and he should never climbed in the van but he did he had a revolver but for me was the episode with an automatic so I'm thinking maximum six rounds of automatically anything after 20. the people in the flat heard the gunshots going off you know they had to put the shots going off so it was carved back firing and all that and the girl panicked and they panicked and everybody panicked and put the guns opened up poor old friend he went down his knees doubled underneath his line back I never still popping them into I I I estimated there must have been at least 12 shots but the twins wanted him I didn't I and I got him out and look what I don't know him he pointed out of here bow ie that took off got your background and she dropped me here so they opened it back up okay because to me it was logical I'm kind of piggy in the middle I'm completely I'm surprised I'm thinking in the middle oh I should have gone logically yeah I'm walking away from the bed they're gonna get one now went back to the family or wiped it down and wet cup in the dry stuff wet and dry right through and every surface and they're losing we all depends what did you do to him I said the child care let me get his car back for us anyway the girl was getting bit excited and I found Gregory and said you don't I don't want she said I said the dog is dead but I never said the dog won that was to tell Reggie that makes you was off the plot you know the phone call went through and they and Reggie Craig said the dog is that dog uh Donahue said that dog is one you know which was the say that everyone was okay you know that was the the sort of cold message Foreman was now bonded by blood to the craze immersed in their psychotic homicidal world he knew that leaving unscathed was going to be increasingly difficult the longer he remained but events ensured that he could never be free of the craze and the debt he owed them would never be paid six months after Mitchell's murder Reggie Cray's young wife Francis committed suicide this tragic event resulted in Reggie turning to drink and drugs which sent him on a downward spiral into self-destruction Ronnie craze deteriorating Mental Health and Reggie's drug and alcohol drenched depressed state left the cry Empire teaching on the edge of the Abyss Foreman was trying to distance himself from them but his ability to make bodies disappear through the bloodthirsty craze ever closer four months after Francis committed suicide Reggie stabbed a man to death in a drunken rage after the funeral he was in the Regency having having a drink again rotten drunk and uh and Jack the Hat came around to to shoot any one of the gray Brothers Jack mcmurity and uh he I know he's on pilled up he was always on speed and stuff and it had too much dream but he went around to shoot Reggie Gray Bonnie gray Orchard any one of them and they had a bit of an argument on the door and the two doorman took the shotgun off him and the shotgun went off and blew a hole in the door but Reggie was just sitting inside there up at the bar on on drunk at the time so he had enough and a very narrow Escape then and uh he so for me um that the week later they found out what happened and that's that's the reason they they murdered uh Jack the hair well they give him money to go and shoot this guy Leslie Payne the federal pain who worked for them he turned out wrong and then he was the first one to make statements to the police because they sent Jack around to shoot him jack the Hat they give him money to go and shoot him and he never did it he took me money and drank it all and bought pills with it or whatever he did with it but he never did what he was supposed to do the Twins were clearly upset with mcvitty so on October the 29th 1967 they invited him to this house where there was a it was just a local park house party going on and prior to his arrival the twins turned up told the host to get rid of all the guests they waited down in the room in the basement and a couple of other members of their firmer on the stairs mcvitty arrived he was very drunk I mean popping pills all night so wasn't really you know with it the The lambiano Barbers took him to this party and when they got him down there and uh and uh there was a they just you know challenged him and uh and finished up stabbing him to death but when he was in the front room Ronnie Craig grabbed hold of him and Reggie cray was meant to shoot him but the gun he had was was Duff you know messed it up like most things they did and uh Ronnie got him in a bear I'm gonna be saying to Reggie do him do him I've done mine you do yours got enough from the kitchen Reggie stabbed him to death when he was holding him and this guy running heart a cousin their cousin was in involved in it all stabbing him and holding him and and it was a messy really messy job what they did of him anyway it took a long time to kill him apparently it was a bad scene following the Murder Jack mcvitty's body was loaded into Tony lambriano's vehicle it was brought here to the street in rutherhide and left outside some Mary's Church the following morning they contacted Freddie foreman and asked him to deal with it but I took him across and dumped him right on my [ __ ] doorstep around the corner from my Pub and left him down in the back of a car you know covered up in a bed in a [ __ ] a Candlewick bedspread on the back seat of the car I mean what a thing to do you know I mean and there's a way outside of church when there had been a wedding take place you know and this is what I did after that after that incident um there was no report in there and you know uh no everyone was missing he was missing Jack was missing he'd Mitchell was missing and and Marx was missing so you know there was all pointing the finger at me all the time you know and that of course there was you can imagine what was going on in a you know it's got a yard and places like that every single aspect of the craze lives are surrounded by conspiracy theories and myths in the late 1960s this flyover was being constructed and many believe that the bodies of jacked the Hat Frank Mitchell and ginger marks ended up being buried here beneath the foundations Freddie thorman has already admitted what he did remember I was very friendly with the lambriano brothers so I know the real story of what happened to Jack the Hat Tony lambriano did drive the body away with his brother behind him in another car all the way to South London parked outside um three four o'clock in the morning outside a little church Fred was told to pick it up there was a man that could melt down stuff the smelter I think he took care of another two bodies Ronnie and Reggie were out of control Freddie Foreman knew that he had to escape from the crane Madness before he ended up serving a life sentence the murder of Mitchell and disposing of mcvitty's body should have settled any debt that was owed but Foreman realized that the crows were going to continue merging people for little or no reason and continue using him to clear up their bloody mess I was asked to go over again to see and see them and I walked into this Bungalow and there's a focal Charlie Clark is an old cat burglar from years ago in it and when I walked in there there was a terrible atmosphere and there's Veronica passing up and down in his braces with a cigarette which is delighted one after the other like and puffing away March up like a cage tiger or a lot in a cage you know and everyone's sitting there with a big red faces on them like that and the charter class was in the kitchen making a cup of tea and cutting Savages shaking and look that she looked round at me and uh I see her look on her face and Charlie Clark looked at me and gave me a terrible I thought well what's going on here you know and all the best of the farmers sitting there and look and wear it out their life and everyone is pacing up and down I said what's up what you got me here for what's the problem you know so this he said it's that Billy generator said I'm gonna you know I'm getting them I've sent the firm out to pick him up and bring him back and he's going to do him yeah I said before what what what's Billy gently done you know well he's upset me he did this he did this I thought you can't forget to do these things I said what are you doing you do it I said oh what you got me here for I can't help you out you know I'm not going to help you out in this situation Billington it's a nice guy he's a good fella I've known him for [ __ ] years I've done loads of bird with him he's well every time I went in a Nikki he seem to be there you know Bill he's nice good anyway all the best of them all accommendations they sent out like four fellas to go and pick him up and bring him back so that Ronnie can [ __ ] show him you know I'll kill him wherever I was going to do it and I said no I'm so sorry I said I'm not calling everybody I said I'm talking him out of it I said I ain't got any facilities to do to handle this situation anyway I said I can't it can't be done and I forget about it one and and you know calm down and of course see I've got just got him around to that where he was he was he accepted the fact that he wasn't gonna you know go through with it and the [ __ ] doorbell rings doesn't it uh they're back and they they've come back uh so I said let me go I went down the passage to get to the door first open the door and if if Bill gender is down I'm going to push him and say now [ __ ] leg it you run you know just go but they they was there it was it was done again and another couple of people and they come back and they winked at me they give me a wink they went we couldn't find it we looked everywhere we could go into the run and then body did it go down the widows did you go down there did wait where did you look there and look there for him and that's just would say what's his [ __ ] man's a [ __ ] lunately it dawned on me you know I never did I actually saw him in that condition before you know he'd always been sort of sense of sensible when I spoke to him and uh met him in the in the previous times I said we got together and I thought we said what's his [ __ ] driving mad here you know and that was just sort of a very worrying situation then Ronnie Cray's attempt to maim or murder Billy Gentry was a turning point for Foreman he decided that his only way out was to murder The Craze and he was not the only one considering such a drastic measure when Ronnie Craig sat in the car he always wanted to sit in the passenger seat so we just just took him about we said it'd be so easy just sit behind him and when you find a nice corner pop him in the back of the head and Chuck him out and then roll down the bank it would have been so easy I thought they should be ironed out but to be honest you fought the crocheting shot the two of them yeah why did you think because they was too that was dangerous to everybody and that and uh if if it if that hadn't been aggressive when they were that's what would have happened what was that that was on the cards yeah uh that that was my uh thoughts and and uh several other people who was connected with me that was our thought you know because they were danger to everybody and everybody else and uh and they was out of control I mean with people like that that object that the Billy Gentry thing you know when they made that particular incident one of reported back to my my Powers what had happened that night you know I just it's only one thing for it that's in this Simpsons industry and that that took place you know discussion before the murderous plan could be executed Foreman The Craze in their firm were arrested Ron and reg cray were eventually sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that they serve at least 30 years Charlie cray and Freddie Foreman were both imprisoned for 10 years there being accessories in Jack mcvitty's murder many believe that it was the end for Foreman but many clearly did not know the man the whole objective was when you reached certain age you wouldn't want to hang your gloves up and retire I was 37 by the time I've got the first 10-year sentence the Judiciary now that that's your dangerous time from you know from your early teens twenties and those to 40s if they can lock you away for 10 stretching out it slows you right down unfortunately I was still at it when I was 54 years of age when Foreman was eventually released it predictably returned to the only business he knew crime at 10 30 in the morning on Easter Monday 1983 six Mass men broke into the security Express Depot in Curtin Road shortage they tied up and blindfolded the guards and days dwelling Petrol in order to force him to reveal the combination of the safe on to question Foreman in connection with Britain's biggest ever cash robbery at the city of London offices of security Express in 1983 when an armed gang tied up security guards and got away with six million pounds news of the audacious robbery stunned Britain however slowly but surely the gang was tracked down and arrested John Knight and Terence Perkins were convicted of robbery and sentenced to 22 years each James Knight John Horsley and William Hickson were sentenced to six to eight years for handling the proceeds of the crime four of the gang have already been convicted police looking for the other gang members have made frequent trips to Spain's Costa Del Sol Borman and his firm which included Ronnie Knight Clifford sacks Johnny Mason and Ronnie Everett had been living in what they believed was a relative safety of Spain pursued by the Spanish authorities and the British press they became known as the Famous Five after various attempts to extradite the men had failed Borman was unexpectedly arrested by Spanish police in 1989 and bundled onto a plane Bound for London well to come out my apartment and go into the cob and they got they kidnapped me took me down to the police station in in Marbella and then they'd put me bang out in a cell with all the all the drunks and smacketts and things and then and then they said my lawyer was there because I'd I'd been fighting the extradition there was no Expedition and I entered the country on my own passport legally and that I did nothing wrong in Spain there was no reason for them to to expedite me or the police to arrest me but they it was totally illegal what they did and they just forcibly took me out and they said uh there's my teeth marks on the door frame of my bare neck that's their joke that buster guard he had surveilled that's their joke not my joke I said to formers teeth mask is still on the door frame of the neck where they try to get me out I was hanging onto everything and then when they got me to the place on right out of marlin okay and 90 miles an hour down a Motorway I tried to crash this car and everything you know with the driver and I was hanging cuffs so I couldn't do much and then when I got to the airport I broke away from there when they got me out the plane Toby stay on the tarmac underneath the plane the plane's waiting to take off passenger on the plane and just a plain empty plane and I go out and I went over the barrier into the back into the airport they chase me and caught me brought me back again came me up the stairs I kicked him up could be put on the stairs we all went down the stairs from the top to the bottom and landed on the under the the tarmac again then those days got very angry with me the the Spanish police because they got injured and they was punching me in the privates and one thing in another yeah and Devin they got me face down on the plane on the floor they one's very considerate a steward male stood come up to me and said now Mr Fullman have a drink of this and he can be a big could I thought it was you know it was in August and I think it's giving me a drink of water and I drunk it down and then I tasted the bitterness in it and I realized the bastard That Dope me he drugged me he'd give me The Knockout dragon and I don't remember much after that I know they carried me down and the two Spanish cockers were sitting next to me all the way back to England and I was still anchor for my hands behind me back and then and that caused me I had to have an operation on my wrist as you see the scar there afterwards the museums were turning black you know with the uh been lying on and build it all the time and they woke me up there to wake me up at Heathrow and shake me and get me a wake me up and then I saw this uh Fred cats coming towards me he's a ex yard copper uh he's an ex now he's retired now but he was walking towards me with us a string of other coppers and uh they they took me off the plane in my shorts and me t-shirt and there was a bank of photographers all around the airport all taking photos of me and and the news that my my grandchildren was back over in Spain they were saying there's Papa fret there on on the news on the Spanish news you know Foreman was charged with the robbery and handling the stolen cash but to this day he professes his innocence on both counts I was just I was charged with it with the with the robbery but there was there's there was no evidence whatsoever and I was charged with handling money from the robbery which could have been money from another robbery it was stated in the charge sheet cash from the secure Express robbery right but there was no evidence that that cash what they found in my bank account some of it was distributed in a Irish Allied Irish bank they found 360 Grand that had been gone through the bank but other they never found out nothing else that was all the evidence there was at trial Foreman was found not guilty of the security Express robbery but guilty of handling the proceeds of the crime for which he was sentenced to nine years imprisonment I was found guilty of handling this cash from Navarre which wasn't the cash from the robbery anyway it was other money but I'd sold properties and things that so the money had never proved it so I went for a pill cost me a lot of money from my defense of what I had to pay for and there and then it was a uh on my appeal where I should have one year pill because there was no evidence to prove that that money came from the robbery and uh but they uh they deferred it not for judgment and they found some poor [ __ ] China men out in Hong Kong and looked through the uh the law books the uh uh at the arch Archbold book on Law and they they traced this China man in Hong Kong who had been charged with a robbery and receiving money from the robbery so that that's a president which covered my case so they don't let the day 10 10 years said in nine years they give me a nine-year sentence and it's still it's stuck so I had to serve out that Descendants the whole sentence involved or Not by the time Foreman was a free man again several of his friends had been murdered or imprisoned after dabbling in the drugs trade the underworld Foreman had once inhabited and controlled was no more drugs had poisoned the minds of villains and destroyed any traces of Honor loyalty and respect amongst them to form and respect was the oxygen of his world The Benchmark of every man in his absence these core values had ceased to exist however Foreman's reputation remained because they couldn't be the Undertaker and and the ex-hi Executioner and Valdez and the East End and all things like that you know I'll come to the conclusion that all I wanted were looking back over my life was respect you want to give your children a good education and which I did I gave my two sons of private education private buildings because an acting and drama schools and you know and they never had a job in their life they never had to work because they worked for me and they all and none of them went to prison or got any any time or anything like that I've got a criminal record so I I achieved what I want I set out to do now in his Twilight years many will applaud the fact that foreman and his ilk have retired many others will mourn the passing of what they see as the end of old school villaining Foreman has few regrets and despite his advancing years it is apparent to anyone that meets him that the Beast still resides Within regardless of opinion Frederick Gerald Foreman will never be forgotten his place in history is secured brown bread will always be one of Britain's most infamous gangsters [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 296,394

Keywords: Real Stories, Real Stories Full Documentary, Real Stories Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, full documentary, real world, informative, freddie foreman, frddie foreman, freddie foreman documentary, true crime documentary, fred foreman, gangster no 1 the freddie foreman story, british gangster film, gangster, the krays, mad frankie fraser, true crime, freddie foreman gangster, henchman, east end, london crime, the godfather, gangland murder

Id: C_MpbXJGeQg

Length: 90min 17sec (5417 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 20 2022