CHARLIE AND EDDIE RICHARDSON GANG

CHARLIE ON THE LEFT 
AND EDDIE ON THE RIGHT 

UPDATE: 3 January 2013 -- According to a report Charlie Richardson left only £21,000 in his will. This is astonishing after the millions they must made. 

Charlie Richardson died this week and went into history as the most sadistic gangster in England. He was even feared by the Krays brothers, a rival gang. Charlie and his brother Eddie operated a ruthless gang of blackmail, contortion, gambling and everything else.

Some stories about the Richardsons might a bit exaggerate but many gruesome tales of gangland torture put Charlie in jail for 17 years. According to the records he certainly deserved the name marking as the most terrifying gangster of the Sixties.

Charlie died at the age of 78 and was the leader of the gang named the Torture Gang. It was a vicious criminal syndicate and he and his brother Eddie were more feared than the rival gang headed by the twin brothers Krays.

The Richardson gang included another notorious gangster called “Mad” Frankie Fraser. He killed and dismembered a fellow gangster with the axe. Their “manor” meaning their patch stretched form a scarp yard in South London to the West End clubs to mining interests in South Africa. Their empire included fraud, gambling and protection rackets.

There is a catalogue of gruesome tortures that spread quicker and further than the underworld. When Charlie Richardson was arrested on July, 1966 it was also the day of the World Cup Final. His trial became known as the torture trial because of the many tales of horrific punishment given by the gang to anyone who crossed them. The chief informer was Johnny Bradbury who was sentenced to death because he killed one of Richardson’s associates. He claimed he done it on Richardson’s order.

Eddie once stated that it gives him pleasure to inflict pains on people. He denied loving to hurt people it was just to prove to be powerful. When he looked back he said that he was full of aggression and very quick to get into a fight but he calmed down just as quickly while his brother Charlie took longer to calm down.

In the last year he would hire himself out as a £300 lunch date and gave talks about the bad old times. He also admitted that he wouldn’t want to meet myself now as he was then.

Born in the Thirties in South London, Charlie and Eddie‘s father was a prize fighter and an owner of a sweetshop. The brothers turn to crime when their father walked out on them. They managed to avoid National service. Charlie cutting up his uniform and pretended to be mad. After that they build their empire. On one hand it was legal when they were dealing with scrap metal and foreign investments. On the other hand there was the illegal side of frauds, protection rackets and clubs. Their area was South London and the Krays brothers operated in the East End of London. 

THE KRAYS' TWINS

On and off, there were clashes between the two rival gangs. One particular brawl at the Astor club in London in December 1965 where gangster George Cornell, a Richardson gang member, called Ronnie Kray a “fat poof”. Soon after that Ronnie’s revenged it by shooting Cornell in the head at close range at the Blind Beggar pub. Cornell’s last words were: “Well, look what the dog’s brought in”. This was counteracted at the Mr Smith’s club in Catford South London with killing ‘Dickie’ Hart.

The law clamped down on them eventually on the Richardsons. Charlie escaped form the open prison in 1980 and was caught again after one year living in France. He was released in 1984 and changed into a campaigner for young offenders.

CHARLIE RICHARDSON 
IN 2007

At Charlie Richardson’s funeral it was a surprise to see a floral display at the side of his coffin spelling ‘240 DC’. It is thought it refers to the current put through his victims during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Such a strange reminder. Was it for his enemies to remember it well?  Or was it Charlie’s last sick joke? Ex-gangster and enforcer “Mad” Frankie Fraser attended the funeral as well.