The Forty Elephants Gang - An all female street gang
The Forty Elephants gang was an all-women street gang based in London that ran worldwide shoplifting rings from the early 1850s up until as late as the 1950s. This gang was originally created in the Elephant and Castle district in London. They quickly allied themselves with the Elephant and Castle mob who had recently solidified their dominance within the underground racetrack bookkeeping business. While it would be easy to think of the Forty Elephants as an offshoot of other male dominated street gangs, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Forty Elephants were both given total freedom over their own affairs and, by 1873, had become feared among other rival gangs. This was for a few reasons that all worked in tandem with one another to allow the Forty Elephants to thrive until the late 1950s when organized crime was largely dismantled in the US. During their heyday, the Forty Elephants would steal from wealthy districts in London in several ways. They would dress up as maids or servants before sneaking into a wealthy person’s home and stealing anything of value inside. Sometimes they would seduce men before robbing them when they were vulnerable. Their preferred method, however, was shop lifting. It’s important to understand that Victorian shops were very different from what we would see today in a wealthy shopping district. Most high-end Victorian wares such as clothes and jewelry were still made by hand by craftsmen (and women) who had spent years honing their craft, increasing the value of the items they created. This also meant that shopkeepers often had extremely valuable items, in bulk no less, on them at all times. Silks used for ribbons and robes skyrocketed in value as rationing from two world wars made such resources even more rare. Rare diamonds and jewels were kept in safes in the same workshops where many shopkeepers slept. In these shops, Alice Diamond (yes, that really is her name) and Maggie Hill saw an incredible opportunity. Alice Diamond had been shoplifting from an early. She was caught stealing candy from a nearby store when she was twelve and would continue to do so until her reputation landed her as the new leader of the emerging street gang, The Forty Elephants. Alice Diamond began shop lifting with groups of other women, wearing special dresses that had pockets sewn inside of them to allow them to steal as much stuff as possible. Some of the women would distract a shop keeper while the rest when about their business.
If Alice Diamond was the central nervous system of their operation, Maggie Hill was the muscle. Maggie Hill, like her brother the notorious gangster Billy Hill, had a loud and violent temper that she used to keep order inside and outside of the gang. This, in addition to Alice’s connections that she had accumulated through London’s underground, meant they operated with a degree of protection that most other gangs rarely received. This protection meant that no one could touch a member of the Forty Elephants gang without someone in the neighborhood hearing about it. For example, when it came to light that a prominent member of the gang was being beaten by her on again-off again boyfriend, the gang made sure that two young psychopathic twins showed up to her house to “make sure everything was okay”. Those twins were none other than the notoriously violent Kray twins who would go on to terrorize London until the early 1950s. This respect wasn’t solely linked to personal connections, however. The Forty Elephants garnered a reputation as being an especially ruthless gang if you crossed them and were extremely protective over their territory. They would often kidnap and torture those that made the gang angry until they either promised to never return or they paid up. This reputation combined with their connections ensured that, by the start of the 1900s, the Forty Elephants grew exponentially. While the early years had consisted of small-time operations that involved robbery, Diamond still felt the need to expand their horizons. By the 1880s, the police were aware of street gangs going into high end shops and stealing goods. In response, Diamond simply went to other major cities. The Forty Elephants would take ‘vacations’ to places like Venice and Paris to see the sights and continue their shoplifting operations, ensuring that they made off with even more valuable goods and disappearing back behind the safety of English law.
To say that the Forty Elephants lived large would be an understatement. While it isn’t known exactly how much money was made, we do know that the gang would throw extravagant parties complete with the finest foods and the nicest clothing (that was sometimes purchased, sometimes stolen from the shops nearby). The work was also considered low risk as English penal laws meant someone would only spend upwards of three years behind bars in the most extreme cases. In the rare cases that gang member would get caught and unable to get away, they would simply wait out their six-month sentence before going right back to shop lifting. Diamond and Maggie themselves would be arrested several times during their career only to get out within a few months or years and go right back to stealing.
If Alice Diamond was the central nervous system of their operation, Maggie Hill was the muscle. Maggie Hill, like her brother the notorious gangster Billy Hill, had a loud and violent temper that she used to keep order inside and outside of the gang. This, in addition to Alice’s connections that she had accumulated through London’s underground, meant they operated with a degree of protection that most other gangs rarely received. This protection meant that no one could touch a member of the Forty Elephants gang without someone in the neighborhood hearing about it. For example, when it came to light that a prominent member of the gang was being beaten by her on again-off again boyfriend, the gang made sure that two young psychopathic twins showed up to her house to “make sure everything was okay”. Those twins were none other than the notoriously violent Kray twins who would go on to terrorize London until the early 1950s. This respect wasn’t solely linked to personal connections, however. The Forty Elephants garnered a reputation as being an especially ruthless gang if you crossed them and were extremely protective over their territory. They would often kidnap and torture those that made the gang angry until they either promised to never return or they paid up. This reputation combined with their connections ensured that, by the start of the 1900s, the Forty Elephants grew exponentially. While the early years had consisted of small-time operations that involved robbery, Diamond still felt the need to expand their horizons. By the 1880s, the police were aware of street gangs going into high end shops and stealing goods. In response, Diamond simply went to other major cities. The Forty Elephants would take ‘vacations’ to places like Venice and Paris to see the sights and continue their shoplifting operations, ensuring that they made off with even more valuable goods and disappearing back behind the safety of English law.
To say that the Forty Elephants lived large would be an understatement. While it isn’t known exactly how much money was made, we do know that the gang would throw extravagant parties complete with the finest foods and the nicest clothing (that was sometimes purchased, sometimes stolen from the shops nearby). The work was also considered low risk as English penal laws meant someone would only spend upwards of three years behind bars in the most extreme cases. In the rare cases that gang member would get caught and unable to get away, they would simply wait out their six-month sentence before going right back to shop lifting. Diamond and Maggie themselves would be arrested several times during their career only to get out within a few months or years and go right back to stealing.
Comments
Post a Comment