Forty Elephants
Intro
The Forty Elephants or Forty Thieves were a 19th to 20th century all-female London crime syndicate who specialized in shoplifting, also called hoisting at the time. This gang was notable for its longevity and skill in avoiding police detection. The gang was led by successive "Queens," with Mary Carr being one of the earliest known leaders in the 1880s–1910s, who established the group’s structure and reputation. She was succeeded by Alice Diamond, also known as "Diamond Annie", who rose to prominence in the 1910s and led the gang through its peak in the 1920s and 1930s.
History
The Forty Thieves operated from the Elephant and Castle area of London. They were allied with the Elephant and Castle Mob led by the McDonald brothers. They raided quality stores in the West End of London and ranged all over the country. The gang was also known to masquerade as housemaids for wealthy families before ransacking their homes, often using false references. They were in existence from at least 1873 to the 1950s with some indications that they may have existed since the late 18th century.
There are mentions of young women and girls connected with or acting as accomplices to a male gang named "The Forty Thieves" as early as 1828. The members of this gang were between the ages ten and twenty. Both the male and female members of this gang carried tattooed marks on their hand in the form of dots made with "indian ink" by which the gang recognized each other. It is not known for certain if this was a predecessor to the later "Forty Elephants".
It's dubious whether the gang had a continuous existence under the name "The Forty Thieves", it being more likely that it existed merely as a subdivision under other gangs and under different leaders at different times and only emerging towards the end of the 19th century as a distinctive and separate organization. The name referring to an all-female gang is certainly attested in contemporary publications and documents from that period, with the earliest date being 1876.
Leadership
The first identifiable leader of the gang was Mary Carr, born in Holborn in 1862. It is thought that Carr became involved with the gang some time in the 1870s, and that she steadily advanced through the hierarchy to become a prominent member of the gang and eventually earning her the leadership position and the nickname "Queen of the Forty Thieves".
Carr married a fellow criminal named Thomas Crane in 1888. The gang is said to have used Carr's home at 118 Stamford Street as their headquarters. The street had such a bad reputation that it was called "one of the ugliest and sordid streets in London".
Carr would take on aliases such as Polly Carr, Eva Jackson, Anne Leslie and Jenny Lesley.
Carr was later romantically involved with the leader of the Elephant and Castle gang, Alf Gorman. Carr was particularly known as a jewel thief in West End hotels towards the end of her career. Carr's charismatic leadership style made her so famous during her life that she was claimed to be the model for a number of famous paintings such as "The Maid With the Yellow Hair" (1895) by Frederick Leighton and Dorothy Tennant. It has also been suggested that Carr was inspiration for The Worst Woman in London, a play by Walter Melville.
Contemporary headlines reported that, after Carr's trial and prison sentence for child abduction, fellow Forty Thieves member Minnie Duggan succeeded her. But as Carr would be released three years later, it is entirely possibly that Duggan was just temporarily filling the leadership role until Carr was released.
Both Duggan and Carr would be incarcerated in 1905. Helen Sheen, nicknamed "Fair Helen", then had a brief stint as leader of the gang in the years 1905-1906. Sheen was arrested and sentenced to two years after drugging and stealing from a man.
Carr, having being released from her last prison sentence, afterwards moved to Manchester, where she died in 1924.
Key members
- Lillian Rose Kendall -- known as the “Bobbed-Haired Bandit,” who took over leadership after Diamond’s imprisonment in 1925 and led the gang during its decline.
- Maggie Hill -- also known as "Baby Face" Maggie, who served as Diamond’s deputy and was infamous for her violent tactics, including blinding a police officer with a hatpin.
- Shirley Pitts -- who became the acknowledged queen in the 1960s and led a smaller-scale operation during the gang’s final years.
The gang operated with a strict "Hoister’s Code", emphasizing loyalty, sobriety during jobs, and equal profit-sharing. Members used elaborate disguises, custom clothing with hidden pockets, and even crossdressing to steal from high-end department stores. They also worked as housemaids under false pretenses to rob wealthy homes.
The gang’s notoriety peaked in the 1920s but declined due to increased store security, changing fashion, and the violent Lambeth Riot of 1925, which led to Alice Diamond’s 18-month prison sentence. After her release, the gang never regained its former power, and by the 1950s, it had effectively disbanded.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Elephants