London, 1890. A crowd jostled on Oxford Street amidst the cries of market traders, the smell of roasting chestnuts rising into the yellow fog. Two well-dressed women lingered at the corner, watching and waiting. Not long now. A tall gentleman walked past, top hat shining on his dark curls. His hand gripped an ebony cane, which he extended to ward off two urchins lounging against a nearby lamp post. The women exchanged glances. With a nod at her accomplice, Mary stepped forwards and hurried after him, her fingers snaking towards the pocket of his greatcoat.
Mary Carr, the Queen of the Forty Elephants crime gang
On the other side of the river Thames, in another part of the city, an inn called The Elephant and Castle stood at a crossroads which, in the 1890s, attracted what might be called a mixed clientele. Pickpockets, thieves and burglars frequented the area. This was the kingdom of the Queen of an unusual and highly successful gang of women.
I found it hard to discover why the gang got their name, but it was possibly because they lived around the Elephant and Castle area. The number forty might have been the number of women involved. Criminal gangs often had unusual names. Remember Peaky Blinders who were active in Birmingham from the 1880s until the 1920s? There was also a male gang in London called The Elephants, so there could have been a connection with that.
Mary Carr was attractive and engaging, two important attributes for a life in crime. She was also intelligent and adept at planning. She recruited her female accomplices from amongst friends and relations of male criminals and, back in her home in Stamford Street, she changed them from petty thieves into a formidable force.
Female criminals in the late Victorian era had several advantages over men
For starters, the fair sex were considered innocent and law-abiding, and this gang certainly knew how to play those cards. Their operations were more sophisticated than those of mere opportunistic thieves, involving finely tuned strategies and careful coordination. The fashion of the time also helped. The female crime gang of The Forty Elephants wore layers of specially adapted clothing, with hidden pockets where the women stashed their loot. Even their hats concealed secret compartments.
Mary’s Elephants set off to work each morning in the same way as I imagine Fagan’s lads heading off in the Charles Dickens novel ‘Oliver Twist’, but they were more worldly-wise. The women excelled at stealing and shoplifting, often visiting high-end shops in wealthier London, and coming home with valuable items. The crowded streets of the 19th century city offered up numerous opportunities to slip their hands into rich folks’ pockets.
A well-organised gang of Victorian women
The gang got away with raids on famous department stores like Harrod’s and Liberty, even posing as guests at high society gatherings where they pickpocketed jewellery and wallets, while eavesdropping on conversations to gain more information about potential heists in the future.
Another of Mary’s accomplishments was her ability to fence the stolen goods in a professional manner. The baubles and inexpensive items nicked from pockets were handed on to street traders, she hastened with jewellery stolen from shops to pawnbrokers, and purloined clothes were traded on by less reputable shopkeepers.
Blackmail and extortion
The women didn’t baulk at blackmail and extortion. A beguiling young woman would lure an unsuspecting gentleman down an alleyway and then accuse him of trying to molest her. She demanded that he hand over his valuables in return for her staying quiet. If he refused to pay up, she threatened to tell the police. Many gentlemen of that era were too embarrassed to resist.
A fair code of conduct
The gang had a set of rules that helped enforce loyalty. The code of the Forty Elephants kept them both united and organised. It went something like this:
“ 1. No drinking before a raid. (Remaining sober helped their success rate)
2. Sharing of valuables. (Stolen goods were shared among those who took part. This encouraged fairness and prevented fighting)
3. No stealing from one another. (This rule covered both loot and boyfriends, helping to maintain harmony within the gang) ”
The queen of crime Mary Carr’s downfall
Unfortunately for Mary, and similar to Icarus, her ambition got the better of her and brought about her downfall. At Epsom races, she kidnapped a boy named Michael Magee in an attempt to spite his mother. She managed to conceal him for ten months after his disappearance but in 1896, after a tip-off, he was discovered at her home and she was arrested. Mary assumed a respectable appearance in court, dressed in furs and jewellery, but the judge wasn’t so easily fooled and she was sentenced to three years in prison. This incarceration meant she lost control of the Elephants’ gang.
The viscous reign of Queen Alice Diamond
Later, the aptly named Alice Diamond emerged as one of the most formidable queens of the Forty Elephants. Born in 1886 to criminal parents in Lambeth Workhouse, Diamond sounds to me like a terrifying character. By the age of 20, she was known for wearing a set of diamond rings that doubled as a knuckle duster, a symbol of her ruthless choice to use brute force. Under her leadership, the gang became more violent, expanding their criminal repertoire.
But crime, as they say, doesn’t pay and during the early days of World War One, Alice was arrested for using fake ID to gain admittance to an ammunition factory. It’s believed she was trying to steal explosives to blow up a safe.
What happened to The Forty Elephants?
The police managed to bust up the gang after Alice Diamond’s arrest but it lingered on for several decades, eventually disappearing during World War Two.
More information from the BBC website about The Forty Elephants and the movie on Disney here.
Suzanne Winterly is the author of mystery and dual timeline historical mystery novels set in the late 19th century and in the present. More details below:
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