Ex-con shows audience what he's made of

HE is mad, bad and glad to be in Dublin. Certified as insane three times ("I was acting twice") and described by the former Home Secretary, Mr Willie Whitelaw, as "the most dangerous man in Britain", Frankie Fraser (73) arrived last night.

He is set for a 10-day run with his show Mad Frankie Fraser at Dublin's Andrew's Lane Theatre from tonight and an appearance on Friday's Late Late Show.

It was a coming home for this unpleasant and violent friend of the Krays and retired member of London's infamous Richardson gang who served 40 years in British prisons. His mother was from Cork.

Inventor of the (nylon) stocking mask ("I just pulled one of my sister's over my head. No one ever recognised me after that"), he blames TV for crime levels among today's young people.

Whether recalling hanging a prison governor from a tree, the shooting dead of a rival, cutting an enemy "to pieces" ("I stabbed him a good few times and slashed him right down the face"), or that time he hit a gang member over the head with an axe ("I bought it in Harrods. A pity it wasn't one from Woolworths"), it is with a polite matter-of-fact style which utterly belies the content.

He is as casual about clashes with prison officers he once had all his ribs and legs broken in an incident after which he received 60 stitches to his head.

Released after such an assault he kidnapped the prison governor, put a rope around his neck and tied him to the highest branch of a tree. It was not high enough. The governor's toes touched the ground and he survived, "but his head was inclined to one side ever afterwards".

Regrets? He has but two. That he didn't take part in bigger robberies and that he was caught. Robberies were his big thing - and running clubs. Violence only took place within or between gangs and with prison officers.

In the show his girlfriend, Ms Marilyn Wisbey, daughter of Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey, sings five songs. They met six years ago when she sang Crazy to him at a nightclub. He thought she was "having a go" but then discovered her pedigree. They have been together ever since.