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GLAMOUR GANGSTERS
How the all-female 40 Elephants gang nicked gems and furs… but one thing was off limits for the glam London gangsters
The gang was also notorious for blackmailing politicians with claims of false sexual assaults
AS a lad, Brian Macdonald would sit wide-eyed as his Aunt Ada told him tales of London’s “Queen of Thieves” – famed for her unmatched looting skills, diamond ring knuckleduster and parties.
Ada knew all about Alice Diamond as she was a member of her ruthless all-female shoplifting gang The 40 Elephants, whose story is now being told in new Disney+ TV series A Thousand Blows.
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The drama, which stars Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and Malachi Kirby, was written by Steven Knight, who brings the fearsome and long- forgotten foes back to life.
It revolves around crime queen Mary Carr, played by Erin, and another historical figure, Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi), a Jamaican bare-knuckle fighter who came to London in the late 19th Century.
As we sit flicking through pictures of the real-life gang members, historical author Brian, 87, said of the six-part drama: “It’s about time — it will easily rival Peaky Blinders,”
He learned of their audacious antics first-hand from Ada, who peddled stolen goods for the gang, supplied them with “steal to order” lists and was a close confidante of Alice.
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Not only that, his uncle Bert briefly dated Alice, kept a photo of her in his wallet to his dying day and even gave the gang their legendary name.
Brian, from Bexleyheath, Kent, reveals the truth behind the 40 Elephants’ reign of terror — including their shoplifting secrets, how they threw boozy bashes with their earnings and how those who crossed them were sliced up and beaten.
Baggy bloomers
He told The Sun: “The 40 Elephants were certainly the most prolific shoplifters in the West End and in England. There was no other gang that had a reputation like them.
“Their exploits even made the newspapers in America, and Alice Diamond and her lieutenant Maggie Hill were once named ‘the cleverest thieves in the world’.”
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The 40 Elephants plagued London’s streets from the late 19th Century until the 1950s under a series of female leaders, always referred to as the “Queen” of the gang.
But they were most effective during the 1920s under Alice — played by Darci Shaw in A Thousand Blows — who was renowned for being “full of tricks”.
Who are Hezekiah Moscow and Alec Munroe- Real story behind Disney+ A Thousand Blows
The gang’s shoplifting sprees “caused absolute panic” in the West End and brought in a fortune.
Working in groups of five, they “dressed up to the nines” in fur coats and jewels and could ransack several shops within five minutes.
Described by Brian as a “slick organisation”, they would disperse once they entered high-end retailers such as Selfridges, pulling staff in different directions.
They’d go into changing rooms and pass fur coats
Brian
and bolts of silk through holes in their skirts. Then they’d waddle out of the shop with all this stuff hanging down inside their specially tailored clothes
Backed up by “heavies” from affiliate gang the Elephant And Castle mob, they had various ploys for stealing, including using slitted skirts with baggy bloomers underneath to catch the goods.
Brian says: “They would go into the changing rooms and pass fur coats and bolts of silk through these holes.
“Then they would waddle out of the shop with all this stuff hanging down inside their specially tailored clothes.
“The stores couldn’t do much to stop them.”
It was this oversized appearance as they left shops, having walked in looking “thin and sylph-like”, that led to their “Elephants” nickname, as well as the fact they came from London’s tough Elephant and Castle area.
Before the 1920s the group had been known as the 40 Thieves, after the Ali Baba folk tale, but Brian claims it was his uncle Bert who encouraged the group to embrace being called “elephants”.
Brian says the gang made a fortune from their crimes, wore the “highest fashion” and loved to party regularly.
Among their biggest hauls was a five-raid hit in 1920 that netted them £100,000 of goods.
In another, they stole a fur coat worth £40,000 alone.
After escaping in getaway cars — including one fitted with a periscope to watch for police — they would stash their gear in lock-ups.
The clothes were then “doctored” by East End tailors, who removed all labels and altered stitching so they could be flogged undetected through crooked retailers, with people like Brian’s Aunt Ada acting as “fences” to sell on the goods..
The 40 Elephants were bound by a two-page Hoisters Code of Loyalty, written by Brian’s uncle.
It included vows to never steal each other’s money or men, nor to aid police “in any way”, marry outside the group or wear stolen items.
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The night before a raid, which was dubbed “going shopping”, members were forbidden from drinking and instructed to get an early night.
Alongside shoplifting, the gang regularly visited posh London hotels where they would take expensive clothes from the cloakroom pegs.
One particularly brazen member, Gert Scully, snatched a fur coat from a woman’s shoulders in Leicester Square in broad daylight, before vanishing into the crowds.
Brian says: “There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t take or do. You can’t applaud it, but it takes a lot of nerve to do things like that.”
The gang was also notorious for pinching trays full of rings from jewellers, and Brian says they were so skilful they could nab items from “right under the shopkeepers’ noses”.
The money from their thefts was paid directly to the 40 Elephants’ Queen before being split among members. It also funded their lavish champagne parties.
Brian says scores of the gang’s associates attended these big, boozy bashes, with people “flowing out of the doors”.
Typically they took place on Mondays because it was the slackest shopping day of the week, so idle store staff with nothing else to do were especially vigilant.
Brian says: “The parties were big affairs, and the ladies were dressed to the nines. They were inspired by the wonderful film stars of the Twenties when cinema came to life.
Many a villain was held up by his shoplifting spouse. They relied on the girls to bring money in. Often they used it for boozing and gambling
Brian
“They marvelled at the long cigarette holders, fashionable clothes and big hats. They wanted to be like them, and the only way they could do that was by stealing.”
Most of the 40 Elephants were the wives, girlfriends or sisters of gangsters, and in a surprising twist, Brian says it was the girls who made the real money, not the men.
He says: “Many a villain was held up by his shoplifting spouse. They relied on the girls to bring money in. Often they used it for boozing and gambling.”
The women also matched their male counterparts for violence.
Most notable was Maggie Hill, who Brian says, “was a terror, a real nasty piece of work.”
She had multiple convictions, including for using a razor to slash the cheek of a woman who had spread rumours about her husband, and ramming a broken bottle into the face of another woman after an argument in a hotel.
Alice and her cronies regularly attacked rival shoplifting gangs too, forcing them to hand over their stolen goods or a big cut of their profits.
Brian says: “Alice was a big woman, 5ft 8¾in, at a time when men were 5ft 6in, and gave a hefty punch with fists studded with diamond rings.”
The gang’s most notorious attack was the Lambeth Riot of 1925, sparked by gang member Marie Britten’s choice of husband.
Brian says: “It’s believed she had taken the man one of the other girls was interested in, breaking the Hoisters’ Code.
“It led to a fight in a club, which ended with member Bertha Tappenden throwing a glass at Marie’s face and Alice’s brother being knocked down by Marie’s father Bill. The following night the gang got drunk and left the club, picking up bottles, bricks and anything they could carry, and marched over to Marie’s house.
'Cruel twist'
“They bombarded the place with bricks and witnesses reported gunfire too. Then they smashed their way inside, with some of the men from the gang. They cut up Bill Britten, smashing his face with a chair, which left him needing 25 stitches, and beat up Marie, her mother and brother.”
Alice normally managed to escape justice, but this was one of the few times she was jailed, for three years.
Brian says: “She was very clever and had such obedient women around her that they would sort of sacrifice themselves for her.”
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She had first been arrested at 16 for stealing a chocolate bar and it reportedly took three police officers to take her in because she was a big girl even then, and “quite fierce”, according to Brian.
Though she dated his uncle Bert for a short time, Alice never married, and died in 1952, supposedly from multiple sclerosis.
Brian says: “In a cruel twist, she lost the use of her arms, which is ironic for such a prolific shoplifter.”
Other notable gang figures include Alice’s predecessor as “Queen”, Mary Carr, who spent time as an artist’s model and was known as the “swan-necked beauty”. She died in 1924.
The gang was also notorious for blackmailing politicians with claims of false sexual assaults and tricking men into accompanying them before robbing them of their possessions.
Brian says: “In one case, they took a man’s frock coat, his top hat, watch and even his new boots. In Mary Carr’s era, they’d take anything they could off a person.”
There was also Lilian Goldstein, known as the “Bobbed-Haired Bandit”, who robbed shops around the country, often escaping police in even speedier cars.
But none measures up to the legacy of the ultimate Queen of Thieves, and Brian says: “There was nothing on the scale of Alice Diamond after that.
“By the Fifties, the gang died down because the shops all had gadgets and ways to deter thieves, so it was no longer as easy to get away with it.
“While we have shoplifters today, they are taking anything they can get, like bags of porridge oats.
“It’s nothing compared to the 40 Elephants, especially when they were headed by natural-born leader Alice.
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“At that time they were said to be the cleverest thieves in the world.”
- Alice Diamond And The Forty Elephants, by Brian McDonald, is out now (Milo Books, £8.99). It can be bought .
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