‘Mad Frankie Fraser was the son of a Native American woman and a Canadian fur trader who lived like the character of Leonardo di Caprio in movie The Revenant
One of Frank's relatives was killed by his own men in a gangland-style hit in the Canadian wilderness - in retribution for him beating a colleague to death
GANGSTER "Mad" Frankie Fraser had a secret Native American past which saw his father and grandparents living and working in brutal conditions as fur traders in the Canadian wilderness, a new book reveals.
Fraser, who spent 42 years in prison and pulled his victim's teeth out with pliers in his role as a gangland enforcer, was the son of a Native American woman and a Canadian fur trader who lived like the character of Leonardo di Caprio in the Oscar-winning movie, The Revenant.
Violence in the family goes back generations and reveals the secrets of one of Britain's most prolific crime families.
One of Frank's relatives was killed by his own men in a gangland-style hit in the Canadian wilderness - in retribution for him beating a colleague to death, it emerged.
Frank's grandmother, Cecelia, was an Indian from a tribe living near Fort Hope on the banks Fraser River in British Columbia in the 1880s, who married James Fraser, a fur trader - a half Scots, half Native American working for the Hudson Bay Company.
Punishment beatings, flogging and death from disease or starvation were a daily reality of life at the fort and traders also faced attacks from wild animals and even rival Native American Indian tribes.
Frank, who died in 2014, was notorious for his violence and worked with the feared South London Richardson gang, rivals to the Krays in the 1960s.
He once attacked a Kray henchman with an axe, putting him in hospital. He was known as "Razor Fraser" and beat up so many prison guards and Governors when he was inside that he lost every day of remission on a 20 year sentence.
The full amazing family history of the Frasers, which covers 100 years on the wrong side of the law, is revealed in the biography Mad Frank and Sons, published by Sidgwick and Jackson.
When Frank's father James was born in 1881 the couple sailed in their canoe down the Fraser River to the town of New Westminster - now Vancouver - to have him baptised a Catholic, church records have revealed.
But James's upbringing was so brutal that he ran away from the fort and his family at the tender age of TEN to join the Navy, lying about his real age to do so.
He also covered up the fact that he was mixed race, because children of such marriages suffered racism in 19th century Canada and were called "half-breeds" or "metis" and beaten for speaking their mother tongue.
The Frasers are descendants of a famous fur trapper, Paul Fraser, who worked as a chief trader for the Hudson Bay Company in the forts along the Fraser River and was murdered in the 1850s by his own men in a gangland-style hit.
Trappers felled a tree onto their leader Fraser's tent one night as he was reading, killing him outright.
The killing was believed to be in retaliation for Fraser handing out a punishment beating so severe on one of his workers, that the man died of his injuries - proving violence has run in the family for generations.
Speaking about his Native American past before his death in November 2014, Frank said: "My dad was very secretive about his past because I think he suffered racism for being partly Indian back in the old days.
"It was a brutal upbringing in the Canadian woods. They were fur traders and trappers and they travelled about a bit. I like to think he had a pioneering spirit about him for running away. I think I would have done the same.
"But the problem is, my old dad was too honest for me. He worked himself to the bone and for very little pay. I was sure of one thing - I wasn't going to end up an honest man like my father."
During the research for the book, Frank's bankrobber sons David and Patrick - who have served nearly 50 years between them for their crimes - made contact with other descendants still living near forts on the Fraser River in British Columbia and were amazed by how much family likeness there was.
David Fraser said: "When you look at pictures of some of the Indian chiefs from around that part of Canada, the likeness to my dad and my brother Patrick is incredible."
One of David's earliest memories is finding a sawn-off shotgun on top of the wardrobe in the family flat in Walworth - which his dad Frank had hidden there for an armed robbery - and playing cowboys and Indians with it.
"It nearly killed me and my older brother, Frank, but looking back we were just kids having fun and now knowing what we know about the family history, it might explain a lot.
"Looking at the way they lived at the fur trading forts in The Revenant really gives an insight into how brutal my grandad James's upbringing was and you can't help but wonder if some of that rubbed off on my dad, Frank.
"It was as if he had a sense of survival and he was so determined. He also had patience to wait to get his revenge."
Frank's Fraser family were astonished by the likeness between the image of legendary Canadian Native American Chief Mike Mountain Horse, of the Alberta Blood Tribe, and their gangster father.
Chief Mountain Horse was born in 1888 and was a veteran of the First World War before joining the Canadian mounties, keeping law and order along the Canadian Pacific Railway.
*MAD FRANK AND SONS is published by Sidgwick and Jackson, price £14.99
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