Female Gangs in London Not a New Phenomenon

Girl gang's grip on London underworld revealed

Girl gangs might sound like a modern British problem, but new research has revealed an all-female crime syndicate had a firm and pitiless grip on London as far back as the 18th century.

Forgotten stashes of photographs, records and letters have revealed that although the capital was carved into different fiefdoms by various male villains, one all-female gang ruled part of the gangland underworld for almost two centuries.

"Many a husband lounged at home while his missus was out at work, and many an old lag was propped up by a tireless shoplifting spouse. Some of these terrors were as tough as the men they worked for and protected," said Brian McDonald, who uncovered details of the criminals when researching for his new book, Gangs of London.

The all-female Forty Elephants – or Forty Thieves – worked alongside the notorious Elephant and Castle gang, a sprawling, powerful army of all-male smash-and-grab artists, burglars, receivers, hard men and crafty villains operating across south London. The Forty Elephants, in contrast, was a tightly run, neatly organised collection of cells, whose operations extended across London and into other cities.

Presided over by a formidable "queen", the Forty Elephants were responsible for the largest shoplifting operation ever seen in Britain between the 1870s and 1950s. The gang was first mentioned in newspapers in 1873, but police records suggest it had existed since the late 1700s.

Dressed in specially tailored coats, cummerbunds, muffs, skirts, bloomers and hats sewn with hidden pockets, they mounted raids on London's West End shops, where they plundered goods worth thousands of pounds.

"The girls benefited from prudish attitudes of the time by taking shelter behind the privacy afforded to women in large stores," said McDonald.

They became so well known in London that panic erupted when they were seen near high-class shops. The gang's response was to branch out, expanding their enterprise to country and seaside towns.

In the 20th century, they used high-powered cars to outrun the police. If they were stopped, they were found to be clean: the goods were spirited away to cars driven by male members of the team. When working other towns, they would use trains, depositing empty suitcases at railway stations which they filled with booty for the return trip.

Some of the gang's crimes, however, were opportunistic: Maggie Hughes, a shoplifter with convictions going back to the age of 14, was jailed for three years in 1923 after running out of a jeweller's shop with a tray of 34 diamond rings – straight into the arms of a policeman.

The women had many sidelines, including using false references to obtain work as housemaids, before ransacking employers' homes. Blackmail was another favourite tactic: many men were forced to pay substantial sums after being seduced.

"On the plus side, they threw the liveliest of parties and spent lavishly at pubs, clubs and restaurants," said McDonald. "Their lifestyles were in pursuit of those of glamorous movie stars, combined with the decadent living of 1920s aristocratic flapper society. They read of the outrageous behaviour of rich, bright young things and wanted to emulate them.

The women's stories were discovered by McDonald scoured official birth and death records, trawled through marriage indexes, local newspaper reports and out-of-print books in the British Library archives to uncover their stories.

"Hidden in Britain's underworld are characters and little known gangsters who have received only fleeting comments on their careers," he said. "Far from being side men and women, some of these villains – especially the women – deserved starring roles."

Born in 1896 in Southwark, Annie Diamond became queen of the gang when she was 20. She ruled with military precision, dividing the gang into cells to ransack a single shop or raid a series of shops across the city simultaneously. To the police, she was "the cleverest of thieves" and called Diamond Annie, because she had a "punch to beware of", said McDonald, thanks to fists studded with diamond rings.

The women guarded their territory jealously, demanding a percentage of takings from others caught stealing from shops they considered to be on their turf. Pitiless to those who tried to resist them, they arranged beatings and even kidnappings until money was paid.

The women were playing a risky game. If caught, they could be sentenced to between three and 12 months' hard labour, or three years in prison. But despite that, the gang members were long-timers: Ada Wellman, convicted of shoplifting from the Army and Navy stores in Victoria in 1921, was still an active member of the gang 18 years later, when she was jailed for four months for another crime.

The women rarely wore what they stole, McDonald said; they preferred to dress in legitimate high fashion. Stolen goods were disposed of through a chain of fences in south and north London. Small-value items went to street market traders, jewellery to pawnbrokers, and clothes to shops that were willing to replace labels and remodel designs.

They were clever: when the police raided the house of Ada McDonald in Stead Street, Walworth in 1910, they were foxed by McDonald, a suspected fence for five notorious gangs, who produced ledgers to prove rooms full of stock had been legitimately purchased.Police were also defeated by Jane Durrell, also suspected of being a receiver of stolen goodsanother fence. After numerous failed police investigations, Durrell and her common-law husband, Jim Bullock, were taken to court in 1911 charged with receiving shoplifted goods from a slew of Wwest London shops.

Although three female members of the gang pleaded guilty to their crime and were given prison sentences, the couple lived to fight another day after a jury decided it couldn'tcould not be proved that Durrell and Bullock knew the goods, valued at hundreds of pounds, had been stolen.

Woman Strangles Newborn Baby, Dumps it in Bin

Mother gives birth in airport toilet, strangles the baby, dumps its corpse in a bin... then catches flight out

Keep in mind that women are the kinder, gentler sex and it's men who harm children and if you disagree then you're just a woman-hating misogynist.

A woman gave birth in an airport toilet before strangling the newborn baby and dumping its tiny corpse in a rubbish bin.

The mother - believed to be Ethiopian and in her thirties - caught a flight before the infant's body was discovered by a cleaner at Dubai International Airport.

She was identified using security camera footage and is being hunted by police.

The woman allegedly severed the baby boy's umbilical cord with her bare hands and strangled him with a cloth before dumping him.

The infant was discovered when a woman passenger informed one of the airport's cleaners about a pool of blood in the bathroom.

Traces of blood led to the bin where the baby was found, soaked in blood, tied up with his umbilical cord in a tightly wrapped plastic bag.

The boy was still gasping for breath but a rescue team and volunteers could not revive him.

'At around 3.35am I went to the toilet to clean up the blood around a toilet bowl,' the cleaner told the Khaleej Times newspaper.

'After that I decided to empty the waste bin which was covered with paper rolls.

'When I lifted it I found it to be a little heavier, so I got curious and started removing the tissue papers.

'I was stunned to see a baby all blue on the face and gasping for breath.'

Nothin' Makes a Gina Tingle Like a Child Killa

Girlfriend of Soham murderer Ian Huntley is stabbed at her home on Boxing Day

The only thing I find of interest in this story is that Ian Huntley - notorious child killer from the United Kingdom - actually has a girlfriend that he has 'met' since being imprisoned.

Joanne Rutledge, who has been exchanging letters and phone calls with the double child killer for more than a year ...

Joanne, 27, is alleged to have an obsession with sex killers and posted a picture of herself online beside one of U.S. rapist and serial killer Ted Bundy.

She apparently treasures a carrier bag full of letters from 36-year-old Huntley, and claims to receive regular phone calls from him ...

She said earlier this year: ‘Ian’s lovely. I sent him some photographs of myself and he said I looked really good. He fancies me.

‘Things have progressed with him – we’ve spoken on the phone and there’s a visit on the way.’

Teacher Rapes Boy

Mother of two, 26, is jailed after being caught naked in bed with 14-year-old schoolboy lover

This article does not mention the word 'rape,' of course; the victim of statutory rape, in this instance, is male, and the perpetrator is female, so he is referred to as her 'lover' rather than her 'victim.'

Of course, when the sexes are reversed, anybody suggesting that the 14-year-old female victim of a male teacher was his 'lover' is liable to be lynched by the pedohysterical mob.

A mother-of-two caught naked in bed with a 14-year-old schoolboy who bragged about the affair on Facebook has been jailed.

Susanne Divers, 26, befriended the boy after meeting him at a party and later began an affair that lasted more than a month.

He was so smitten he boasted on the website: ‘I’ve got the best girl in the world.’

Divers was warned off by police but continued to see him. She was discovered in bed with him by her fiance, who had returned home from work early.

She pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual activity with a child between December 28, 2009, and February 2 this year. Sentencing her to three years in jail, Judge John Milmo QC told her she cheated on her fiance in a ‘flagrant manner’.

He said: ‘If ever there was a time to stop it was when the police warned you to stay away.

‘Your partner came home and found you both naked. You betrayed your partner in a quite flagrant manner. He’s written to the court and appears to have forgiven you.’

Divers was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and banned from working with children.

Earlier, Leicester Crown Court heard that Divers was dared to kiss the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, during the party where they met.

Paul Prior, prosecuting, said: ‘The defendant described this incident as “more than a peck on the cheek”.’

They soon began swapping saucy text messages and naked pictures of each other.

The boy would play truant from school to meet Divers at her home in Melton, Leicestershire. She tried to end the affair at one point but he was so heartbroken he tried to hang himself and they started seeing each other again.

Mr Prior said: ‘On January 22, the boy visited the defendant’s partner and showed him incriminating texts and told him they’d had sex on seven occasions.

‘She said it was lies and that she never wanted to see the boy again. He then went home and attempted to take his own life.’

It was after the suicide attempt that the police warned Divers about the relationship, but they were unable to act as the boy refused to make a formal complaint.

The pair continued to see each other and arranged meetings around her partner’s shifts, Mr Prior said.

He added: ‘On February 2 Divers’ partner was unwell and came home early.

‘He heard noises upstairs and found the bedroom door locked. He barged the door open... both parties were naked.

‘The boy got up and ran away and was seen leaving the house naked. He rang 999.

‘The defendant was assaulted [slapped] by her partner, for which he was cautioned by police.’

The boy then made a formal complaint to police. Divers, who was engaged to her partner of three years, was bailed but sent the boy a love letter on February 27 saying she was ‘engaged’ to him instead.

Barbara McDonnell, mitigating, said Divers had lost the care of her two sons, aged six and eight, from a former relationship.

She said: ‘It’s very unusual to find a female defendant facing charges of sexual activity.

‘She takes full responsibility for her actions and makes no attempt to place the blame on him.’

Divers sobbed as she was jailed. A sex offences prevention order states she cannot have unsupervised contact with any male under 16.

Gold-Digger Sent to the Big House

Young geezer-fleecer sentenced for 'inconveniencing' sick old men

Quite right, too!

Here I was, thinking that only women can get people charged for inconveniencing them.

A confessed gold-digger was sentenced in Manhattan to 3 1/2 to seven years today -- after apologizing for "inconveniencing" her two sick, elderly victims.

The inconvenience? Cher Thompson, 29, admittedly seduced a seriously disabled 64-year-old Bronx nursing home resident to marry her, cheated on him with an ailing 90-year-old West Village widower, then looted their accounts out of a total $200,000.

"I am sorry I was such an inconvenience to them," she said during her brief sentencing on charges of scheme to defraud, grand larceny and identity theft, for an unrelated credit card swiping.

Mother Kills Children

I still love him, 'child killer' tells trial of boyfriend on paedophile charges

She was calm at first, almost matter of fact.

In a soft, clear voice, Lianne Smith insisted she still loved her long-time partner, even though he is in court on paedophile charges.

She faltered only occasionally and if she had any tears, she didn’t let them spill.
Occasionally she would smile; once she even laughed.

It was when she started to talk about her children that her remarkable composure broke.

The 44-year-old explained to a jury yesterday that she had moved to Spain with her partner Martin Smith three years ago to keep their two-year-old daughter from the clutches of social services.

She did it to ‘protect’ her, she said, using the word completely without irony.

What she failed to explain was that shortly after Smith was arrested on child sex charges last May, she was in a Costa Brava hotel room with the little girl and her baby brother lying dead on the bed beside her.

Soon she will face her own trial in Spain, accused not of protecting them, but of murdering them.

Yesterday she never once mentioned their deaths.

... Her long dark hair was in much the same style as it was last May, when she took a series of heartbreaking snapshots of the ‘wonderful holiday’ she had organised for her children Rebecca, then five, and Daniel, 11 months.

They didn’t know it then, but it would be their final hours together.

They were found suffocated soon afterwards in a Lloret de Mar hotel.

Nothin' Makes a Gina Tingle Like a Kriminal

'Infatuated' female prison officer had sex with drug addict inmate in his cell

A female prison officer who had sex with with an inmate in his cell brought shame on herself and her profession, a judge ruled today.

Donna Stanton, 28, began a sexual relationship with heroin addict Eric Fitzgerald while he was serving the last few months of a seven-year sentence at Bedford prison.

She was jailed for two years.

... She lavished gifts and money on him and even gave him a car to use on his release.

But when the relationship turned sour she made a statement to police saying Mr Fitzgerald was blackmailing her and he was arrested. In turn, this led to her own arrest.

Judge Feels "Great Sympathy" for Child-Killing Mother

Australia water polo player guilty of murdering infant daughter

At the end of a long-running case, Keli Lane, 35, was convicted of killing Tegan Lane just two days after the infant was born in 1996.

Mark Tedeschi, QC, the senior crown prosecutor, claimed Lane had killed the child because she feared the baby would dent her "golden girl" reputation and "undoubtedly put a dent in her overriding sporting ambitions." Ms Lane also had "a very active social and sex life" that she wanted to preserve, he said.

Could somebody explain to me how this is different to getting an abortion?

Seriously, I'm all ears - what exactly is the difference?

Justice Whealy said he had "great sympathy" for Lane. She will be sentenced on Feb 25.

Would these words ever be uttered by a judge in the case that a man killed his newborn child?

It is simply unimaginable.

But, in some way, somehow, the true victim in all this is the mother.

At least, that is what the feminists tell me.

Woman Blackmails Billionaire

Woman 'blackmailed billionaire for £3m by threatening to tell his wife he made her pregnant'

One of the world’s wealthiest property tycoons was blackmailed by a woman who falsely claimed she was pregnant by him and threatened to tell his wife unless he paid her £3million, a court heard.

Fuk Wu, 39, told the billionaire, who owns several acres of prime real estate in London’s West End, that she would go to the press if he did not pay up, it is claimed.

She also told him that she would ask his wife what she should name the baby unless he either paid her in cash or bought her a luxury flat, jurors were told.

Giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, the alleged victim said that he had never had sexual relations with her.

Note that the man is referred to as 'the alleged victim' throughout.

Female Gang Rob Blind Man of £4,000

According to feminists, the following incident simply did not happen.

Female gang rob blind man of £4,000

A 61-year-old blind man was robbed of £4,000 by a group of women in a "sick and heartless" crime, police have said.

Woman is Petty Vandal

Vandal who waged campaign for years finally caught by CCTV throwing flour and eggs at cars... and it's the leader of the local Neighbourhood Watch

Fed up after suffering years of petty vandalism, the homeowners of Nursery Road decided to take action.

Secretly they clubbed together to buy a CCTV system and waited to gather evidence of crimes committed by what they thought were local yobs.

And when someone hurled flour and eggs over two cars in their street, they knew they had their culprit.

But that was when the mystery of Nursery Road took a bizarre twist: the culprit was Jennifer Bibby, not only a fellow resident of their street but also someone who the neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, regular churchgoer and police officer’s widow.

... 'When we checked the CCTV we were expecting the culprit to be some hooded yob so we were surprised when we saw her face.’

Ah, yes ... some hooded male yob, I suppose.

Because it is men who do this kind of thing.

Except for when it isn't.

Mrs Bibby, whose husband Kenneth, a sergeant with Hertfordshire Police, died six years ago, today repeated her apology but claimed she had been ‘persecuted’ and ‘provoked’.

Run, hamster, run!

Nothin' Makes a Gina Tingle Like a Killa

Married woman prison officer who had sex with teenage 'honey trap killer' in his cell is jailed for 12 months

There's been a spate of this lately.

A married woman prison officer who had sex with a teenage murderer in his cell has been jailed for a year.

Emma Beard, 31, also gave intimate photographs to Danny McLean, then aged 18, at Feltham Young Offenders Institution.

The married mother-of-four even wrote love letters to McLean, Isleworth Crown Court was told.

The court heard that Beard performed sex acts on McLean in his cell on two occasions.

I guess raising children with a dependable husband just wasn't enough. Emma Beard needed a killa thug to get her rocks off.

Above: Emma Beard, whose gina tingled for a killa

Mother of Three's Con Job

Mother 'claimed she was terminally ill with brain tumour, bone cancer AND leukaemia to con well-wishers out of cash'

A young mother-of-three is set to appear in court accused of lying about being terminally ill in order to con well-wishers out of cash.

Terri Edkins claimed to have been diagnosed with a brain tumour, bone cancer and leukaemia and said she had been given just six months to live.

A campaign to raise £25,000 was launched to fly the 23-year-old to the US for revolutionary treatment so she could spend extra time with her husband and children before she died.

The article suggests that her husband may not have been aware that she was making it all up.