This time, there was no sign of him and it was at least forty minutes before the alarm was raised.
By this time, Frankie Mitchell was sitting in the back of a Humber car on the way back to London in the company of three of the Kray gang: Albert Donoghue, ‘Mad’ Tommy Smith and Billy Exley. He was taken to a flat belonging to another member of the gang, Lennie Dunn, in Canning Town, and stayed there for the next twelve days – the rest of his life.
When they realized that he had gone, the prison authorities began a massive search. More than a hundred police using tracker dogs joined thirty prison officers combing the area during one of the worst hailstorms in recent memory. The next day, a hundred Royal Marines had been divided into three search parties, backed up by two Royal Navy helicopters, but all without success. It seemed as if he had vanished off the face of the earth.
The following weekend, warders at the prison even made a plea via the pages of the
Daily Mirror,
believing that he might want to give himself up. “If you let us know where to meet you, we will be quite willing to pick you up,” they said, believing that Mitchell might be frightened of going to the police, but would be willing to surrender to people he trusted. “If he does this,” a statement from the warders noted, “he will not only gain reasonable consideration for himself but will also vindicate those who trusted him and were proved wrong – and prove wrong, indeed, those who have condemned him.” By this stage, though, police investigations had started to centre on the East End of London.
The Krays claimed that they assisted Mitchell to escape from Dartmoor to help publicise his case. If he could be kept on the outside without causing trouble, then hopefully the authorities would reconsider his lack of release date. He therefore – with a great deal of assistance – wrote letters to four separate newspapers, which were authenticated by his thumbprint on the bottom. They weren’t quite identical, but it was clear that they had been written from a template, with all of them highlighting the indeterminate nature of his sentence, and asking for a release date. The letters were printed in
The Times
and the
Daily Mirror.
However, the government response was clear: he had to return to prison before any consideration would be given to his case.
All the time, Mitchell was kept under lock and key, with at least one member of the Kray Firm guarding him. When he became insistent on some female company, Lisa Prescott, a hostess from the Winston club, was provided on 19 December. Mitchell very quickly became attached to her, telling his guards that they were going to get married, and refusing to contemplate moving out of the flat without her. Prescott herself was kept cowed by the Kray henchmen and only allowed to leave the flat in the company of one of them.
Mitchell was getting annoyed with his situation. He didn’t feel that he was being treated seriously by the Krays and was threatening to leave the flat to visit them. He probably didn’t understand that this was designed as a temporary escape, and that the intention was that he return to Dartmoor but with a clear end to his sentence in sight. When the henchmen suggested that he should go back on 23 December, he refused, saying he wanted to stay out at least over Christmas.
That refusal probably sealed his fate. According to the court case, and the evidence of Freddie Foreman, Mitchell was persuaded to leave the flat, perhaps on the pretext that he was being taken to spend Christmas in Kent with Ronnie Kray. He was assured that Lisa Prescott would be following within the hour. When he got into the back of a waiting van, two of the Krays’ gunmen were waiting for him. At close range, a fusillade of bullets was pumped into the Mad Axeman. Certainly sounds of muffled bangs were heard from within the vehicle, and then the two men who had walked out with Mitchell returned to the flat, and
By this time, Frankie Mitchell was sitting in the back of a Humber car on the way back to London in the company of three of the Kray gang: Albert Donoghue, ‘Mad’ Tommy Smith and Billy Exley. He was taken to a flat belonging to another member of the gang, Lennie Dunn, in Canning Town, and stayed there for the next twelve days – the rest of his life.
When they realized that he had gone, the prison authorities began a massive search. More than a hundred police using tracker dogs joined thirty prison officers combing the area during one of the worst hailstorms in recent memory. The next day, a hundred Royal Marines had been divided into three search parties, backed up by two Royal Navy helicopters, but all without success. It seemed as if he had vanished off the face of the earth.
The following weekend, warders at the prison even made a plea via the pages of the
Daily Mirror,
believing that he might want to give himself up. “If you let us know where to meet you, we will be quite willing to pick you up,” they said, believing that Mitchell might be frightened of going to the police, but would be willing to surrender to people he trusted. “If he does this,” a statement from the warders noted, “he will not only gain reasonable consideration for himself but will also vindicate those who trusted him and were proved wrong – and prove wrong, indeed, those who have condemned him.” By this stage, though, police investigations had started to centre on the East End of London.
The Krays claimed that they assisted Mitchell to escape from Dartmoor to help publicise his case. If he could be kept on the outside without causing trouble, then hopefully the authorities would reconsider his lack of release date. He therefore – with a great deal of assistance – wrote letters to four separate newspapers, which were authenticated by his thumbprint on the bottom. They weren’t quite identical, but it was clear that they had been written from a template, with all of them highlighting the indeterminate nature of his sentence, and asking for a release date. The letters were printed in
The Times
and the
Daily Mirror.
However, the government response was clear: he had to return to prison before any consideration would be given to his case.
All the time, Mitchell was kept under lock and key, with at least one member of the Kray Firm guarding him. When he became insistent on some female company, Lisa Prescott, a hostess from the Winston club, was provided on 19 December. Mitchell very quickly became attached to her, telling his guards that they were going to get married, and refusing to contemplate moving out of the flat without her. Prescott herself was kept cowed by the Kray henchmen and only allowed to leave the flat in the company of one of them.
Mitchell was getting annoyed with his situation. He didn’t feel that he was being treated seriously by the Krays and was threatening to leave the flat to visit them. He probably didn’t understand that this was designed as a temporary escape, and that the intention was that he return to Dartmoor but with a clear end to his sentence in sight. When the henchmen suggested that he should go back on 23 December, he refused, saying he wanted to stay out at least over Christmas.
That refusal probably sealed his fate. According to the court case, and the evidence of Freddie Foreman, Mitchell was persuaded to leave the flat, perhaps on the pretext that he was being taken to spend Christmas in Kent with Ronnie Kray. He was assured that Lisa Prescott would be following within the hour. When he got into the back of a waiting van, two of the Krays’ gunmen were waiting for him. At close range, a fusillade of bullets was pumped into the Mad Axeman. Certainly sounds of muffled bangs were heard from within the vehicle, and then the two men who had walked out with Mitchell returned to the flat, and
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