Fearless Freddie Mills.

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by choklab, Oct 15, 2017.



  1. choklab

    choklab cocoon of horror Full Member

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    What's not to like??


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  2. mark ant

    mark ant Canelo was never athletic Full Member

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    I read a month ago that Mills got the Krays to kill him because he didn`t want people to find out he was a the serial killer Jack the stripper he killed about three prostitutes in the 60`s!
     
  3. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    :lol: wow
     
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  4. choklab

    choklab cocoon of horror Full Member

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    Yes, I heard that too. But it was 8 prostitutes -some said to have had links with the Profumo affair. I'm not sure it's true.

    They say male serial killers usually kill women if they are heterosexual and men if they are homosexual. Mills was supposedly a closet homosexual. So why would he kill women? Seems to me if he really was gay then he was not a killer. Yet it was only ever underworld characters who started that rumour in the first place. Since the Mills' family insisted he was not gay.

    As for the Krays killing Freddie well, The krays worshiped Mills but then they were psychopaths too.

    All the sources for Mills being connected to the Jack The Stripper murders (Hammersmith nude murders) are said to have come from unreliable underworld characters. But That was a strange case. All the forensic evidence was destroyed. Supposedly the Police were content the murderer was dead although I don't think the name was ever released of the murderer. It probably was a policeman or something like that.

    I do know that Nipper Reid (also involved with the British Boxing Board of control) handled that case and the Mills suicide and the krays case.

    I do think there was a cover up over mills death. There was something unsatisfactory about it. The way he was found in his car. Something dodgy went on. He was suddenly shunned from show business circles. Also Mills had made some good investments that strangely turned to crap. Mills had owned a lot of houses and a restaurant. But ended up selling all the houses to redevelop the restrant into a nightclub that went under anyway. Perhaps he had committed suicide in his club and was moved into the car? Weird choice of weapon too. A fair ground rifle..
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2017
  5. mark ant

    mark ant Canelo was never athletic Full Member

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    When I read the article the policeman who said Mills confessed to someone said he had to keep quiet about at the time and the Krays were said to be psychotic, specifically Ronnie because he had a mind altering illness that can turn you violent but above all they were just gangsters ruled by money and power and Mills was said to have called them to arrange a hit on himself via a hitman who worked for the Krays. You are right about the policeman theory because the former policeman who spoke in the article said he himself was suspect but there is a theory by someone that the detective investigating the Jack the ripper case was he himself guilty of the Victorian era murders! So these things can be just guesswork, if he was the killer what a movie that would make! Sorry for being insensitive about the women that were killed but when a well known celebrity does something like that it is morbidly interesting.
     
  6. mcvey

    mcvey VIP Member Full Member

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    There is no proof whatsoever that Mills was in any way linked to the murders. Robert "Battles" Rossi was an associate of the Krays he stated that Ron Kray had been approached by Mills restaurant/club partner Andy Ho to get Mills out of the club,Rossi went round to see Mills at the club and broached the subject Mills was non -committal. Rossi went back to Ron Kray and said let him think about it for a few days, within a week Freddie was dead.Rossi concerned that he might be in the frame for the death asked Ron Kray if he had ordered Mills death, but he denied it and Rossi believed him.
    This is Nipper Read's reaction to being told Mills was the murderer."when I first heard this outrageous rumour I was lecturing at the Police Academy at Wakefield,and I was horrified.These roumours were outrageous for there is no justification for any suggestion that Freddie was in any way a suspect in the investigation.I said then as I do now with as much force as I can that Freddie Mills was never in any way involved in the investigation".
     
  7. choklab

    choklab cocoon of horror Full Member

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    Some years ago I read Freddie's autobiography, he seemed a cheerful kind of guy but there were a couple of unusual things that did not sit right that I can't put my finger on. He left a good home as a boy to travel with a fairground boxing booth.

    Even he admitted "you can't ever expect to be the same after a fight like that" after the first Lesnevich fight, and he talked of an even earlier two week period he had in the 1940s, something he was then over, that sounded like what we call a Depression today. He probably was bi-polar. I can't think why it was brought up because I think it was during a period where the war was on, he was not fighting, perhaps it was a clue of some kind.

    In another book Dennie Mancini a lifelong boxing figure said Freddie remained very popular in boxing circles after his boxing career but that in later years he went a bit "soppy" with all the show business people he was mixing with but nobody ever teased him out of respect.

    There is a very good BBC documentary on YouTube all about Freddie. It's hard to know what to believe. On one hand he was a larger than life popular showbiz kind of guy. Then there is the the dark stuff leading up to his death.

    One thing for sure, Londons West End night club scene of that period seems to hold an awful lot the of secrets. I would love to get to know the truth.
     
  8. The Morlocks

    The Morlocks Boxing Junkie Full Member

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    So odd. I just got a book about him this spring, "Freddie Mills" by Jack Birtley. It came out in 1977.
     
  9. choklab

    choklab cocoon of horror Full Member

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    Is that the book written by the guy from the BBC documentary who says he was attacked by Charlie Kray?


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  10. mark ant

    mark ant Canelo was never athletic Full Member

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    Thanks, If it isn`t true I hope he doesn`t have relatives that read that Sun article.
     
  11. mcvey

    mcvey VIP Member Full Member

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    If it's in the Sun ,you are pretty much guaranteed it is spurious!
     
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  12. mcvey

    mcvey VIP Member Full Member

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    There was some speculation,and there is no proof at all ,that the killer was the detective Tommy Butler who was involved in the Great Train Robbery case. James Morton wrote a decent book about both Freddie Mills and Randy Turpin he touches on this and other subjects. Morton was a solicitor, Chairman of the Southern Area Boxing Council and a Steward of the BBBOC.The book is called "Fighters",I recommend it.
     
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  13. choklab

    choklab cocoon of horror Full Member

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  14. fists of fury

    fists of fury Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Interesting. I've never heard of the connection before. As you say, the killer was never caught.
    Not that I buy into it that Mills had anything to do with it.
    Do you know how this connection came about?
     
  15. Fergy

    Fergy Walking Dead Full Member

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    Probably all myths built up over the years. It was more likely Jack the Stripper was a security guard that was found dead, after that the killing stopped. As for Freddie s death,, was it murder or suicide? We'll never know.