Inside UK’s gangster football team with train robber & brutal enforcer who ripped out teeth…before gunfight stopped play

IF Leeds United’s Norman Hunter liked to “bite yer legs” and Chelsea’s Ron Harris chopped down players like firewood, spare a thought for the opponents of the infamous Soho Rangers. The team included first-division robbers and gangsters from the 1960s connected to the Richardson crime syndicate, who were notorious for their brutal torture techniques. The infamous Soho Rangers team included first-division robbers and gangsters from the 1960s connected to the Richardson crime syndicate Credit: Supplied Eddie Richardson who died last week aged 90 Credit: Doug Seeburg – The Sun Gang boss Eddie Richardson, who last week died aged 90, led the attack. And “Mad” Frankie Fraser played left-back, making Vinnie Jones’ grab of Paul Gascoigne’s crown jewels look positively tame compared to his prowess with a pair of pliers. In goal was Danny Pembroke, one of the Great Train robbers who was never caught for the 1963 heist. Pembroke was famed in the underworld for always wearing gloves — and kept a clean sheet of the ­criminal variety. Soho Rangers were managed by renowned gangland figure and Mr Fixit Albert Dimes, who had close connections to the US Mafia. Their number one fan and co-manager was hell-raising actor and Zulu star Stanley Baker, a mobster’s pal and close friend of most of the team. With the new football season now under way, and the Premier League opening at the weekend, The Sun today looks back at Britain’s hardest ever team. Not all Soho Rangers members were crooks and a few went on to lead successful and legitimate lives. One player, boxing manager Bert McCarthy, had Nigel Benn on his books as a young fighter, before going on to make a fortune in microchips. But many of the team were habitual criminals. Soho Rangers’ history was short-lived, ending abruptly following a notorious underworld fight at the bizarrely named Mr Smith’s And The Witch Doctor club in Catford, South London. The Richardson gang had been “invited” by the management to take over the club and install their fruit machines, which a rival South ­London gang took exception to. Two players, “Mad” Frankie and Ronnie Jeffreys, were shot in the March 1966 carnage, in which rival Kray gang associate Dickie Hart died. Their number one fan and co-manager was hell-raising actor and Zulu star Stanley Baker Credit: Alamy Danny Pembroke, who was the goalkeeper, was one of three Great Train robbers never caught for the 1963 heist Credit: Ferrari Press Agency The genesis of Soho Rangers was Westminster FC, a Sunday league team set up by Richardson and his South London boyhood friend Arthur Baron, in the early 1960s. They played at the Grassmeade home ground of non-league team Cray Wanderers, which Arthur went on to successfully manage. The team also played charity matches and Eddie told how they assembled the squad from workers in the scrap metal business he ran with his brother Charlie, “and a few real good players, including a one-time Queens Park Rangers forward . . .” He recalled in his autobiography: “After one season we were in the First Division. I got us fitted out in a full red strip and I used to race around in it as centre forward.” He said his brother Charlie never played, “but he’d turn out to watch the games.” “It was fun and relaxing and it brought the lads together at weekends,” he added. Eddie also set up a team called The Lonsdales, after the Soho-based sports equipment firm, to play against a side of prisoners at top-security Parkhurst jail on the Isle of Wight. Borrowing Lonsdale notepaper, Eddie wrote to the prison governor offering to play against the prison team and a match was arranged. Soho Rangers were managed by renowned gangland figure and Mr Fixit Albert Dimes, who had close connections to the US mafia Credit: Getty Defender ‘Mad Frankie’ was shot during the March 1966 carnage, in which rival Kray gang associate Dickie Hart died Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd As well as Eddie, Lonsdale also included boxer Terry Spinks, Richardson firm member Ronnie Jeffreys, ex-fighter Terry Murphy, whose actor son Glen later starred in London’s Burning, and Mad Frankie. Eddie’s description of the match in his book, No Handcuffs: The Final Word On My War With The Krays, mirrored the classic scene from TV comedy Porridge featuring a prison football game. He wrote: “Some of the lads inside knew we were coming, but nobody let on that they recognised us. “We got changed into our strip and went out on to the pitch. “All the prisoners were out on exercise so they all came to watch. We kept up the pretence until half time, when they all swarmed on to the pitch to shake hands and chat. “We had lots of tobacco and ­cigarettes in our bags to give them, and they were all stuffing letters in our hands to take out with us. “Of course, the screws knew then what was going on, but there was ­little they could do. “They let us play the second half, because they couldn’t really stop it. The prison team took it seriously — they beat us 3-1. The prison staff had laid on a tea for us afterwards. “But there was no way they were going to let us stay a minute longer than they could avoid. “We were hustled out as soon as we got changed after the match.” Eddie and his pal Leslie McCarthy formed the notorious Soho Rangers. The photo of the team was taken before a match against a squad of national newspaper and sports journalists at Cray Wanderers’ ground, believed to have taken place in 1965. On the far left of the back row, wearing a trilby hat, shirt and tie, was hard-living Welsh actor ­Stanley Baker. Danny Pembroke was arrested but never charged over the Great Train robbery Credit: Getty Stanley Baker centre, with Frankie Fraser and Eddie Richardson Credit: Fleet Street News Agency Richardson said: “Stanley was a mate. I’d met him a few times in Soho through Albert Dimes. “He was a man’s man and liked hanging around with hard men. “He knew but ‘there for the grace of God, go I.’ “He told me that if his acting career hadn’t taken off the way it did, he could easily have been a villain.” To his right was Billy Rawlings, brother of Richardson’s close friend Harry, who survived being shot in the Mr Smith’s club battle. Next to him was Reggie “The ­Milkman” Saunders, who delivered pints before going to work for the Richardsons at their scrapyard. With his hand down his shorts next to him was George Wisbey, brother of Great Train Robber Tommy Wisbey, who went on to run a successful greengrocery business in South London. Standing in the middle of the back row with arms folded was keeper Danny Pembroke, who was arrested but never charged over the Great Train robbery. As Richardson appropriately noted of his keeper: “Danny had worn gloves for every moment that mattered during and after the robbery.” Pembroke was apparently cheated out of much of his take from the ­famous robbery and later became a London cabbie. He died aged 79 in 2015 and a blown-up photo of the Soho Rangers was “given pride of place on the wall” at his wake. “It was quite a team,” said Richardson. To Pembroke’s right in the picture was Billy Staynton, a Richardson gang member, jail breaker and villain. Staynton stood trial twice with Richardson for affray over the club incident before being acquitted along with hitman Jimmy Moody and apparently going straight. Alongside Staynton in the photo was Tommy McCarthy, who ran the Log Cabin bar in Soho, the unofficial HQ of the Richardson gang. Standing behind him was Albert Dimes, a bookmaker and gambler nicknamed “Italian Albert”. Dimes was a close friend of Billy ‘The King of the Underworld’ Hill and famously had a Soho fight involving razors with Hill’s enemy Jack “Spot” Comer. Family man Dimes was connected to the Mafia and involved in the Richardson gang fruit machine business. Richardson said of him: “He was a big guy, over 6ft tall, and he had a presence. “He was like the League Of Nations in Soho — everyone took their problems to Albert to sort out.” The central character played by Stanley Baker in the 1960 crime film, The Criminal, was based on Soho gangster Dimes. But his soccer skills were lacking and the first time Dimes ever played he did not even know how to take a throw in. Last in the back row was “Mad” Frankie Fraser, who spent a total of 42 years in prison. Fraser’s speciality was ripping out teeth with pliers and electrocuting rivals’ testicles with a hand-operated generator. Arsenal fan Fraser was shot in the thigh during the Mr Smith’s club fight and received five years for affray over that. He later got ten years at the 1967 Richardson torture trial and went on to lead the Parkhurst jail riot — whose pitch he previously graced. Fraser was given an ASBO aged 89 in 2013 following a row at his care home and died the following year. Sitting on the far left of the front row was boxing manager Bert McCarthy, believed to be related to teammate Tommy and a friend of the Richardson family. The Essex businessman managed Nigel Benn during his younger career, as well as ring legends Errol Christie and Terry Marsh. McCarthy made a fortune from microchips and in 1982 took an ­associate to court over a contract wrangle around Frank Bruno. Next in line was Millwall fan Eddie Richardson, whose love of the beautiful game contrasted with the torture techniques employed by his brother Charlie and Fraser. Richardson was released on bail on July 26, 1966, over the Mr Smith’s club fight earlier that year. He had tickets to attend England’s World Cup Final four days later, but was arrested when Scotland Yard swooped on the Richardson gang that morning. Richardson was later convicted of affray and got five years, and was sentenced to another ten years for GBH following the torture trial. He was jailed again in 1989 for 25 years for conspiracy to import drugs and served 12 years before release. Sitting to his right in the photo is Peter Warner, a friend of Eddie Richardson’s boyhood friend Arthur Baron. There is no suggestion he was involved in any criminality. To his right was Ronnie Jeffreys, who was blasted in the groin and stomach during the battle at Mr Smith’s club. Jeffreys, credited with trying to stop the gunfight which continued out on to the street, was cleared of affray over the incident. Last in line to the right was Ronnie Oliver, looking down away from the camera. He is believed to have been a friend of the Richardsons and has never been linked to any criminality. The Soho Rangers left Scotland Yard bemused. Retired Met detective chief inspector Mick Neville said: “The team were working-class lads and naturally loved their football. “But I doubt whether there has been a line-up quite like it outside of a police ID parade. “Wimbledon FC used to be called the ‘Crazy Gang’, but with ‘Mad’ Frankie on the teamsheet, Soho ­Rangers was even more insane. “Some of this team didn’t just grab an opponent’s testicles, like Vinnie Jones did to Gazza — they electrocuted them.” Mr Neville added: “Had any crooks in the team shown any promise as footballers, there would have been only one club for them -— Aston Villain!”