Eddie Richardson

Eddie Richardson
Also known as	Charlie
Born	10 January 1936 Camberwell, London
Occupation	Scrap metal dealer, gangster
Allegiance	The Richardsons
Origin	Camberwell
Status	Alive

Edward "Eddie" Richardson was a South London gangland boss along with his brother Charlie Richardson in the 1960's. Eddie was sentenced in 1967 to 15 years of which he served 11 years. This was the sentence passed by Sir Frederick Lawton, QC in the infamous "Torture trial" which to this day Eddie insists was a fit up.

Eddie Richardson was for many years a dominant figure in Britain's criminal underworld. He was at the top of his game at a time when he who packed the biggest punch survived.

History

Early Life

in Camberwell, London to Eileen Elizabeth Mary (née Allen) and Charles Frederick Richardson, who had married the previous year in Camberwell, South London. Charlie Richardson had already been born, and followed by Eddie was their youngest sibling, Alan (born 1940). Charlie and Eddie turned to a life of crime after their father deserted the family.

The family lived first at Wren Road in Camberwell, then moved to a flat in Wyndham Road when the Second World War broke out. Later they moved to champion Hill and when Eddie got married he moved to Sidcup. When they were older Eddie and his elder brother (and partner in crime) Charlie would hang around boxing clubs like the Fitzroy club on the Walworth road or go to the Locarno, later named The Cat’s Whiskers (and now Caesar’s) in Streatham. From the Elephant & Castle to Eltham and Greenwich, where Eddie bought a scrap yard called KWP Metals when he was released after his first stretch in prison, there was nowhere in South London the Richardson's hadn’t been or that wasn’t their patch.

Criminal Life

The brothers started out in the scrap metal business. Their induction into crime proper came when they started running “long firms” on the side – a type of fraud that involves setting up a business, giving it a good name, paying for goods up front to earn the trust of suppliers and banks so that credit is easily available, and then stinging the bank and suppliers at the same time.

Later on the Richardson's ran a string of clubs from the Cavern in Lordship Lane, Dulwich, to the Orange Club in Walworth Road and The Shirley Anne in New Cross. At the peak of their empire they were a formidable force with henchmen like “mad” Frankie Fraser only too willing to do their bidding.“Today, I would not like to meet the likes of me as I was then” says Richardson in his recently published autobiography, The Last Word: My Life As A Gangland Boss.

Arrest and conviction

Eddie was sentenced in 1967 to 15 years of which he served 11 years. This was the sentence passed by Sir Frederick Lawton, QC in the infamous "Torture trial" which to this day Eddie insists was a fit up.

In 1989 he was sentenced to a further 25 years for conspiring to import drugs, this time he served 12 years.

Later Life

He lives an unassuming life in Beckenham, the place where his mother lived out her last years and the location he headed when he was finally let out of prison on parole in 2001 at the age of 65.

He was released in 2001. Eddie learnt to paint in prison and has become a critically acclaimed painter and now produces artwork both commissioned and of his own volition. Eddie also lectures about his former life and has become a popular after dinner speaker.