But the lure of crime cut short his American dream. At the time, he was 82. Foreman was involved in the disposal of the body of Jack "the Hat" McVitie (murdered by Reggie Kray). My godfather Buster Edwards, and the other Great Train Robbers would drop by, as would the Kray twins. I guess I did something right.. Its Gods waiting list, he says of his current home. His own teenage years involved different forms of violence to the knife-wielders and moped robbers of today. They were strong and dangerous people, but I cant condemn people Ive loved all my life. Mr. Foremans criminal career began in the 1940s at age 16 when he lived in Battersea, in South London, then a tough neighborhood. His father Bomi attended Freddie's funeral after his sad death from bronchial pneumonia, and the small family moved up to Nottingham away from London to be out of the spotlight. Two died there last week. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. In the trailer, we're told: "They used to say about him: don't mess with Fred or you're brown-bread - dead.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in, Godfather of British crime Freddie Foreman speaks to Dan Bilefsky about turning down the Hatton Garden heist, what the Krays were really like, and how hes the last one left, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. Old friends recently came by to celebrate his 87th birthday, but most former members of what he calls his firm are dead. When one of the guards, who was blindfolded and tied to a chair, hesitated to reveal the vaults combination, the gang put lighter fluid under his nostrils and threatened to light a match, one of the thieves, Freddie Foreman, recalled recently. Obviously I needed a bit of cash, so I went for it. Apparently eager for company, Foreman is instantly welcoming when I knock on his door, unannounced, at a residence for seniors in Maida Vale in west London. I was at the Old Bailey at 16 years of age for affray. He was charming, intelligent, loyal to his friends and as feared as he was respected., One of five sons of a taxi driver and a housewife, the violence and poverty of his childhood during the war helped form him. I guess I did something right.. Foreman, 86, who was convicted of helping the notorious twins dispose There is no greater dishonour than not being able to support your family, he says. Estrangement is voluntary. Foreman is married to Maureen Foreman. But ask him what he thinks of himself today and his reply is"caring and loving". You could call it a moral paradox. Fred is available on Digital 28th May and DVD on 4th June. is no greater dishonour than not being able to support your family, he says. Modern criminality leaves him baffled. Foreman has 3 grandchildren. I also doubt that Cuddy could have had that much influence. "She was there when times were good but the family had to suffer with me when they werent so good too. His real entry into the underbelly of London crime came in the 1960s when he was recruited by the Kray brothers, under whose tutelage he earned another of his nicknames: the Undertaker. "[It was] very emotional, very hard," Jer said of their last words together. Paul Van Carter, director of Fred, a chilling 2018 documentary about Foremans life, calls him the last living legend among the old school London heavy gangsters who came of age on the streets of the British capital after the Second World War. There. His father keeps showing up at tournaments. People often forget that.". Not guilty. Something went wrong, please try again later. "My wife was saying 'It's not too bad, Fred, you can do 10 years, youre not doing life.' Though Ronnie was the nutty one, I found him more genuine," Foreman says now. Hatton Garden suspect committed similar burglary five years earlier, I tell Foreman that Im hoping he can shed some light on what would possess a group of geriatric criminals to come out of retirement. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/, Freddie, now 86 had the nickname"Brown Bread" Cockney rhyming slang for dead, Freddie the enforcer - whose 1960s nickname was 'Brown Bread', Freddie used to be a ruthless criminal and is still feared and revered to this day, Ronnie, right, and Reggie Kray were pals of Foreman's and The Firm, as their gang was known, ruled the dark streets of East London, Freddie was born in poverty in Battersea, London, and insists he experienced hard labour before turning to a life of crime, The Great Train Robbery of 1963 saw the theft of 2.3million from a travelling post office train headed to London from Glasgow, Freddie's son Jamie Foreman played Derek Branning in EastEnders between 2011 and 2012, Freddie was proud to provide his family with all the trappings of a luxurious life, Freddie says that the Kray twins had sympathetic sides to them and could be very generous with money, The Kray brothers were charged with engineering the jail escape of Frank "Mad Axe" Mitchell before murdering him, something Freddie still finds difficult to talk about, Freddie Foreman with Barbara Windsor in 1996, "I can't stand what's happening with the younger generation now with the knives," says Freddie, who insists he doesn't want to glamorise crime, Freddie admitted to shooting fellow Kray henchman Frank Mitchell in his 1996 autobiography, Respect, Former East End criminals Tony Lambriano, left and Freddie Foreman attend the funeral of Charlie Kray in 2000, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). But the lure of crime cut short his American dream. Nowadays, it's all so open, isn't it?" I felt linked to something nefarious and secretive. If that sounds bad, so be it. We meet in a cafe overlooking the canal in Little Venice, west London, far from the Battersea of his war-time boyhood, the East End of his long association with the Krays and his involvement in at least three murders, and just around the corner from the sheltered accommodation where he now lives. Fred: The Godfather of British Crime is written and directed by Paul Van Carter (The Guv'nor) and is available to watch on Netflix. It was posh people came from all over London, he says. Foreman's dramatic kidnap and arrest for Britain's biggest cash robbery made headlines around the world, yet this daring raid was just the peak of the safe-blowing, bank-robbing career that spanned decades. He had been acquitted of these murders at an Old Bailey trial in the 1960s.[3]. So I looked for a scapegoat, someone else to blame. I am the last one left, he adds. Freddie Foreman was born 5th of March 1932 in Sheepcote Lane in Battersea, London. You dont prove youre a hard man by stabbing someone. I vividly remembered Ronnie and Reggie Kray babysitting me. When one of the guards, who was blindfolded and tied to a chair, hesitated to reveal the vaults combination, the gang put lighter fluid under his nostrils and threatened to light a match, one of the thieves, Freddie Foreman, now recalls. Whatever his misgivings, the trio became friends. It was something that caused a great deal of pain for Jer, who opened up about her sadness in a rare 2006 interview. I would still be there if I could, he added wistfully. It is explained that House hired Chase after his father "made a call". Then I had to break the news to her that they'd just charged me with Franks murder.". [5][6][3], In his autobiography, Respect, Foreman also admitted to the murders of Frank "Mad Axeman" Mitchell and Tommy "Ginger" Marks during the 1960s in revenge for the shooting of his brother who had been shot in the groin. And like many parents, I was ashamed and reluctant to talk about it (68% of those who are estranged from . Dad was charged with the murder of Frank the Mad Axeman Mitchell and with being an accessory in the murder of Jack the Hat McVitie. "We talked to her about the remastering of tracks, the appearance we made at the Bejart Ballet with Elton singing, which was also John's last live appearance with us, and later the work with did with Paul Rodgers, and latterly with Adam Lambert. A ruthless criminal still feared and revered to this day. Foreman has outlived all his criminal contemporaries: Ronnie Kray was 61 when he died of a heart attack at Broadmoor Hospital in 1995. I consider him a businessman who operated in the criminal world, Mr. Van Carter said. past this time round has proved more troublesome than he anticipated. He is also reticent about his undertaking skills in disposing of McVitie, for which he was jailed for 10 years in 1969. In those days, the double jeopardy rule meant that you could not be tried twice for the same crime, but the law changed with the 2003 Criminal Justice Act so that new and compelling evidence can lead to a retrial. He does it again when asked about it today. I dont think anyone who has turned to crime these days is going to live long enough to build up a reputation, are they? Much to his indignation, as there was then no extradition treaty between Spain and the UK, he was hoisted back to England still in his shorts and flip-flops. ", "They were the curse of my life," he says. When you send funeral flowers, you're letting the recipient know you're thinking of them. But nobody will help you in this business. Once everything was explained I can honestly say I had no conscience to wrestle with. Freddie Foreman didnt want his son to follow in his footsteps. My dad wasnt innocent. If you're not sure what to write in a sympathy card, just focus on kindness. In this special documentary, Foreman reveals the audacious details of the heists, double crossings . He still works out, using two purple dumbbells. Apart from the tagline of the film Im not the Godfather, not Marlon Brando! he protests there is the Undertaker, the High Executioner, Brown Bread Fred, the Guvnor, the Mean Machine and the tortuous Managing Director of British Crime, which was forced on him by his first publisher. Mum broke the news: Theyre accusing him of terrible things but its all lies. I knew my father was facing life and I might lose him. How Barbara Windsor set me on the road to stardom. And the thrill of once again being part of the game.. Fred: the Godfather of British Crime (Lionsgate UK) is available on DVD and digital. In the late 1970s, Mr. Foreman moved to the United States, where he ran a vending-machine business in Allentown, Pa. For years Ronnie and Reggie had run the East End and made a lot of money. These can either be sent to the grieving family directly or to the funeral home ahead of the service. So did I feel angry, ashamed, messed up? A heavyweight villain with an unbelievably bloody past, Freddie is one of the last living members of the Krays' seedy London underworld. Actors and actresses especially Barbara Windsor and the Carry On team mixed freely with High Court judges and politicians. If I had, my life couldve turned out differently.. I am estranged from my sister, because she is still close to my mother. Fred is the only gangster who lived through the turbulent history of the British underworld and survived to tell the tale.". He said it was a perilous but glamorous world; Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland visited the brothers nightclubs in the West End of the capital. Not much but Tom Hardy was amazing. Evening Standard/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images, the self-described Godfather of British crime,. Fresh-faced: Jamie Foreman as a young East End lad, Parents: Jamie's mum Maureen and dad Freddie in the sixties with his dad's great friend Ronnie Oliffe, Kray Twins: Ronald, left, and Reginald babysat Jamie, Real East Enders: Freddie Foreman with the late actor George Raft, Ronnie Kray and Mrs Foreman, Reflective mood: Jamie Foreman looks back on his life in his book. But they began to run amok, shooting people in broad daylight and they dragged my dads name down with them. His ability to mete out rough justice - and his shrewd business brain - brought him to the attention of the Krays. I was too old to fancy going to work, but it wouldve been one last roll of the dice, he said. Asked whether Freddie had ever told her the truth about his sexuality, his emotional mum whispered, "no". I was too old to fancy going to work, but it wouldve been one last roll of the dice, he says. When he finally met them at the family home in Bethnal Green he found them "punching and fighting" in the backyard. Maureen Foreman Origin Southwark Status Alive Frederick Gerald Foreman (born 5 March 1932) is a convicted English criminal involved in the disposal of the body of Jack "the Hat" McVitie (killed by Reggie Kray) and for which he was sentenced to ten years in prison. The Krays' reign - the subject of the 2015 Tom Hardy film Legend - saw the bloodthirsty pair involved in armed robbery, protection rackets and assaults. Nothing was my idea I was manipulated right, left and centre, he says cheerfully, adding that he is happy with the end result and then, diplomatically: I just hope it encourages kids to get a good education.. Part memoir, part documentary, it doesnt shy away from discussing his more callous exploits and explores his relationship with the Krays something he now describes as his "biggest regret. Rather than glamorizing Foremans life of crime, Fred is billed as a somber and intimate look at the notorious villain towards the end of his life. He lives off the proceeds of his books, including an autobiography called Respect.. With strained family relations and declining health, Freddie finally felt it was time to tell all and revisits his old London haunts. They liked me, they were nice birds, and I became their protector, he said, using a slang term for women. Theres only been one film (of that genre) I really liked and that was The Long Good Friday. Foreman relaxing in Marbella, the Costa del Crime. I am not a monster. He eventually separated from Maureen, who died several years ago. The defending Masters champion is estranged from his parents. And it would be fair to say that no one has acquired quite as many nicknames as Foreman. Or two someones the Kray twins. There was a facility to go out to sea, he says in the film. I am the last one left, he added. The biopic was written and directed by Paul Van Carter. I've got seven grandsons and two granddaughters, Ive got great-granddaughters and I hope they never fall foul of the law.". Mr. Foremans journey from Brown Bread Fred, (brown bread is Cockney rhyming slang for dead), to retired pensioner has been variously marked by hardship, opulence, menace and a canny instinct for survival. My father was free. I couldnt thank her enough. Freddie Foreman[1] (born 5 March 1932), better known as Brown Bread Fred, is an English publican, gangster, former associate of the Kray twins and convicted criminal. He was going to shoot six coppers; I should get a medal, Foreman says of Mitchell. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. 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