William Hague says the prospect of The Telegraph being owned by a UAE-based company is 'disturbing and should be prevented' The gangster Mad Frankie, who I interviewed before his death in 2014, told me: 'If Aggie said you were buying her a drink, you didn't argue. She had a look in her eye and nobody crossed her.' Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys.

The years just after World War II were a boom time for the gang, as clothing was rationed until 1949.

Mysterious 'witch bottles' appear along the Gulf of Mexico - and researchers are avoiding opening them Despite the so-called life of crime, I believe that morally there was no one who could touch my mother. Inside, she was as decent as anyone could be.'' She would send her girls out in teams of three or four at least three days a week, to stores all over London and as far afield as Birmingham and Brighton. As her reign came to an end, Forty Thieves queen Diamond passed on her 'wisdom' to a future queen, Shirley Pitts.

Thug, 41, who strangled his disabled partner, 50, with a dog lead and left her body to be found two days later by her son is jailed for life The cells did not have a reforming effect on her character — or on that of her gang leader Diamond, who was arrested on numerous ­occasions over the following decade. The violent thugs, the Kray twins, held Eva Fraser in high regard because of her role in the gang and during the 1940s and 1950s and the Soho gang boss Billy Hill - brother of the fiery Ms Hughes - was careful not to encroach too much on their territory because he respected their right to earn their own money, free from male interference.

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It was during the Second World War that he was branded 'Mad' Frankie, after he feigned a mental illness to avoid being called up to the front line.