coat-pocket on the streets, but in the event of a crowd on any
occasion, they are so bold as to steal watches from the vest-pocket.
This is done in a different style, and generally in the company of two
or three in this manner: One of them folds his arms across his breast
in such a way that his right hand is covered with his left arm. This
enables him to use his hand in an unobserved way, so that he is thereby
able to abstract the watch from the vest-pocket of the gentleman
standing by his side.
A police-officer informed us, that when at Cremorne about a
fortnight ago, a large concourse of people was assembled to see the
female acrobat, termed the “Female Blondin,” cross the Thames on a
rope suspended over the river, he observed two young men of about
twenty-four years of age, and about the middle height, respectably
dressed, whom he suspected to be pickpockets. They went up to a smart
gentlemanly man standing at the riverside looking eagerly at the Female
Blondin, then walking the rope over the middle of the river. As his
attention was thus absorbed, the detective saw these two men go up to
him. One of them placed himself close on the right hand side of him,
and putting his right arm under his left, thus covered his right hand,
and took the watch gently from the pocket of the gentleman’s vest. The
thief made two attempts to break the ring attached to the watch, termed
the “bowl” or swivel, with his finger and thumb.
After two ineffective endeavours he bent it completely round, and yet
it would not break. He then left the watch hanging down in front of the
vest, the gentleman meanwhile being unaware of the attempted felony.
The detective officer took both the thieves into custody. They were
brought before the Westminster police-court and sentenced each to three
months’ imprisonment for an attempt to steal from the person.
The same officer informed us that about a month or six weeks ago, in
the same place, on a similar occasion, he observed three persons, a
man, a boy, and a woman, whom he suspected to be picking pockets.
The man was about twenty-eight years of age, rather under the middle
size. The woman hovered by his side. She was very good-looking, about
twenty-four years of age, dressed in a green coloured gown, Paisley
shawl, and straw bonnet trimmed with red velvet and red flowers. The
man was dressed in a black frock-coat, brown trousers, and black hat.
The boy, who happened to be his brother, was about fourteen years old,
dressed in a brown shooting-coat, corduroy trousers, and black cap
with peak. The boy had an engaging countenance, with sharp features
and smart manner. The officer observed the man touch the boy on the
shoulder and point him towards an old lady. The boy placed himself on
her right side, and the man and woman kept behind. The former put his
left hand into the pocket of the lady’s gown and drew nothing from
it, then left her and went about two yards farther; there he placed
himself by other two ladies, tried both their pockets and left them
again. He followed another lady and succeeded in picking her pocket of
a small sum of money and a handkerchief. The officer took them all to
the police station with the assistance of another detective officer,
when they were committed for trial at Clerkenwell sessions. The man
was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude, the boy to two months’
hard labour, and three months in a reformatory, and the woman was
sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, with hard labour, in the House of
Correction at Westminster.
It appeared, in the course of the evidence at the trial, that this
man had previously been four years in penal servitude, and since his
return had decoyed his little brother from a situation he held, for the
purpose of training him to pick pockets, having induced him to rob his
employer before leaving service.
The _scarf pin_ is generally taken from the breast in this way. The
thief generally has a handkerchief in his hand, pretending to wipe
his nose, as he walks along the street. He then places his right
hand across the breast of the person he intends to rob, bringing his
left hand stealthily under his arm. This conceals his movements from
the eyes of the person. With the latter hand he snatches out the pin
from the scarf. It is sometimes done with the right hand, at other
times with the left, according to the position of the person, and
is generally done in the company of one or more. The person robbed
is rarely aware of the theft. Should he be aware, or should any one
passing by have observed the movement, the pin got from the scarf is
suddenly passed into the hands of the other parties, when all of them
suddenly make off in different directions soon to meet again in some
neighbouring locality.
At other times the thief drives the person with a push, in the street,
bringing his hands to his breast as if he had stumbled against him, at
the same time adroitly laying hold of the pin. This is done in such a
way that the person is seldom aware of the robbery until he afterwards
finds out the loss of the article.
The _trousers pocket_ is seldom picked on the public street, as this
is an operation of considerable difficulty and danger. It is not easy
to slip the hand into the trousers pocket without being felt by the
person attempted to be robbed. This is generally done in crowds where
people are squeezed together, when they contrive to do it in this way:
They cut up the trousers with a knife or other sharp instrument, lay
open the pocket, and adroitly rifle the money from it; or they insert
the fingers or hand into it in a push, often without being observed,
while the person’s attention is distracted, possibly by some of the
accomplices or stalls. They often occasion a disturbance in crowds, and
create a quarrel with people near them, or have sham fights with each
other, or set violently on the person they intend to rob. Many rough
expedients are occasionally had recourse to, to effect this object.
Sometimes the pocket is picked in a crowd by means of laying hold
of the party by the middle as if they had jostled against him, or
by pressing on his back from behind, while the fingers or hand are
inserted into the pocket of his trousers to snatch any valuables, money
or otherwise, contained therein.
This mode of stealing is sometimes done by one person, at other times
by the aid of accomplices. It is most commonly done in the manner now
described.
By dint of long experience and natural skill, some attain great
perfection in this difficult job, and accomplish their object in the
most clever and effective manner. They are so nimble and accomplished
that they will accost a gentleman in the street, and while speaking to
him, and looking him in the face, will quietly insert their hand into
his vest pocket and steal his watch.
In a crowd, the pin is sometimes stolen with dexterity by a person
from behind inserting his hand over the shoulder. Sometimes the watch
is stolen by a sudden snatch at the guard, when the thief runs off
with his booty. This is not so often done in the thoroughfares, as
it is attended with great danger of arrest. It is oftener done in
quiet by-streets, or by-places, where there are many adjacent courts
and alleys intersecting each other, through which the thief has an
opportunity of escaping.
These are the various modes by which gentlemen’s pockets are generally
picked.
A lady’s pocket is commonly picked by persons walking by her side, who
insert their hand gently into the pocket of her gown. This is often
effected by walking alongside of the lady, or by stopping her in the
street, asking the way to a particular place, or inquiring if she is
acquainted with such and such a person. When the thief is accomplished,
he can abstract the purse from her pocket in a very short space of
time: but if he is not so adroit, he will detain her some time longer,
asking further questions till he has completed his object. This is
often done by a man and a woman in company.
A lady generally carries her gold or silver watch in a small pocket
in front of her dress, possibly under one of the large flounces. It
is often stolen from her by one or two, or even three persons, one of
the thieves accosting her in the street in the manner described. They
seldom steal the guard, but in most cases contrive to break the ring or
swivel by which it is attached. Let us suppose that two pickpockets, a
man and a woman, were to see a lady with a watch in the public street;
they are possibly walking arm-in-arm; they make up to her, inquire the
way to a particular place, and stand in front of her. One of them would
ask the way while the other would meantime be busy picking her pocket.
If they succeed, they walk off arm-in-arm as they came.
Sometimes two or three men will go up to a lady and deliberately snatch
a parcel or reticule-bag from her hand or arm, and run off with it.
At other times a very accomplished pickpocket may pick ladies’ pockets
without any accomplices, or with none to cover his movements.
Walking along Cheapside one day, toward the afternoon, we observed a
well-dressed, good-looking man of about thirty years of age, having
the appearance of a smart man of business, standing by the side of
an elderly looking, respectably dressed lady at a jeweller’s window.
The lady appeared to belong to the country, from her dress and
manner, and was absorbed looking into the window at the gold watches,
gold chains, lockets, pins, and other trinkets glittering within.
Meantime the gentleman also appeared to be engrossed looking at these
articles beside her, while crowds of people were passing to and fro
in the street, and the carts, cabs, omnibuses, and other vehicles
were rumbling by, deadening the footsteps of the passers by. Our eye
accidentally caught sight of his left hand drooping by his side in the
direction of the lady’s pocket. We observed it glide softly in the
direction of her pocket beneath the edge of her shawl with all the
fascination of a serpent’s movement. While the hand lay drooping, the
fingers sought their way to the pocket. From the movement we observed
that the fingers had found the pocket, and were seeking their way
farther into the interior. The person was about to plunge his hand to
abstract the contents, when we instinctively hooked his wrist with
the curve of our walking-stick and prevented the robbery. With great
address and tact he withdrew his hand from the lady’s pocket, and his
wrist from our grasp, and walked quietly away. Meantime a group of
people had gathered round about us, and a gentleman asked if we had
observed a pocket picked. We said nothing, but whispered to the lady,
who stood at the window unaware of the attempted felony, that we had
prevented her pocket being picked, and had just scared a thief with his
hand in her pocket, then walked over to the other side of the street
and passed on.
The more accomplished pickpockets are very adroit in their movements.
A young lady may be standing by a window in Cheapside, Fleet Street,
Oxford Street, or the Strand, admiring some beautiful engraving.
Meantime a handsomely dressed young man, with gold chain and moustache,
also takes his station at the window beside her, apparently admiring
the same engraving. The young lady stands gazing on the beautiful
picture, with her countenance glowing with sentiment, which may be
enhanced by the sympathetic presence of the nice looking young man by
her side, and while her bosom is thus throbbing with romantic emotion,
her purse, meanwhile, is being quietly transferred to the pocket of
this elegantly attired young man, whom she might find in the evening
dressed as a rough costermonger, mingling among the low ruffians at the
Seven Dials or Whitechapel, or possibly lounging in some low beershop
in the Borough.
There are various ranks of pickpockets, from the little ragged boy,
stealing the handkerchief from a gentleman’s coat pocket, to the
fashionable thief, promenading around the Bank, or strolling, arm in
arm, with his gentlemanly looking companion along Cheapside.
The swell-mob are to be seen all over London, in crowded thoroughfares,
at railway stations, in omnibuses and steamboats. You find them
pursuing their base traffic in the Strand, Fleet Street, Holborn,
Parliament Street, and at Whitehall, over the whole of the metropolis,
and they are to be seen on all public occasions looking out for plunder.
Some commence their work at 8 and 9 in the morning, others do
not rise till 11 or 12. They are generally seen about 11 or 12
o’clock--sometimes till dusk. Some work in the evening, and not
during the day, while others are out during the day, and do nothing
in the evening. In times of great public excitement, when crowds are
assembled, such as at the late fire at London Bridge, when those great
warehouses were burnt down--they are in motion from the lowest to the
highest. They are generally as busy in summer time as in the winter.
When the gentry and nobility have retired to their country-seats in
the provinces, crowds of strangers and tourists are pouring into the
metropolis every day.
They often travel into the country to attend races such as Ascot,
the Derby at Epsom, and others in the surrounding towns. They go to
the Crystal Palace, where the cleverest of them may be frequently
seen, also to Cremorne, the Zoological Gardens Regent’s Park, the
theatres, operas, ball-rooms, casinos, and other fashionable places of
amusement--sometimes to the great crowds that usually assemble at Mr.
Spurgeon’s new Tabernacle.
They also occasionally make tours in different parts of the United
Kingdom and to Paris, and along the railways in all directions.
The most accomplished pickpockets reside at Islington, Hoxton,
Kingsland Road, St. Luke’s, the Borough, Camberwell, and Lambeth, in
quiet, respectable streets, and occasionally change their lodging if
watched by the police.
They have in most cases been thieves from their cradle; others are
tradesmen’s sons and young men from the provinces, who have gone into
dissipated life and adopted this infamous course. These fast men are
sometimes useful as stalls, though they rarely acquire the dexterity of
the native-born, trained London pickpocket.
There are a few foreign pickpockets, French and others. Some of
them are bullies about the Haymarket. There are also some German
pickpockets, but the foreigners are principally French. As a general
rule, more of the latter are engaged in swindling, than in picking
pockets. Some of the French are considered in adroitness equal to the
best of the English. There are also a few Scotch, but the great mass
are Irish cockneys, which a penetrating eye could trace by their look
and manner. Many of them have a restless look, as if always in dread of
being taken, and generally keep a sharp look-out with the side of their
eye as they walk along.
They differ a good deal in appearance. The better class dress very
fashionably; others in the lower class do not dress so well. The more
dexterous they are, they generally dress in higher style, to get among
the more respectable and fashionable people. Some of the female
pickpockets also dress splendidly, and have been heard to boast of
frequently stealing from 20_l._ to 30_l._ a-day in working on ladies’
pockets. They are sometimes as adroit as the men in stealing ladies’
purses, and are less noticed lingering beside them on the streets, by
the shop-windows, and in places of public resort.
Yet, though well dressed, there is a peculiarity about the look of most
of the male and female pickpockets. The countenance of many of them is
suspicious to a penetrating eye. Many of them have considerable mental
ability, and appear to be highly intelligent.
The most dexterous pickpockets generally average from twenty to
thirty-five years of age, when many of them become depressed in spirit,
and “have the steel taken out of them” with the anxiety of the life
and the punishments inflicted on them in the course of their criminal
career. The restlessness and suspense of their life have the effect
of dissipation upon a good many of them, so that, though generally
comparatively temperate in the use of intoxicating liquors, they may be
said to lead a fast life.
Some of them take a keen bold look, full into your countenance; others
have a sneaking, suspicious, downcast appearance, showing that all is
not right within.
They dress in various styles; sometimes in the finest of superfine
black cloth; at other times in fashionable suits, like the first
gentlemen in the land, spangled with jewellery. Some of them would pass
for gentlemen--they are so polite in their address. Others appear like
a mock-swell, vulgar in their manner--which is transparent through
their fine dress, and are debased in their conversation, which is at
once observed when they begin to speak.
The female pickpockets dress in fashionable attire; sometimes in black
satin dresses and jewellery. Some of them are very lady-like, though
they have sprung originally from the lowest class. You may see very
beautiful women among them, though vulgar in their conversation. The
females are often superior in intellect to the men, and more orderly in
their habits. They are seldom married, but cohabit with pickpockets,
burglars, resetters, and other infamous characters. Their paramour is
frequently taken from them, and they readily go with another man in the
same illicit manner.
They are passionately fond of their fancy man in most cases; yet very
capricious--so much so that they not unfrequently leave the man
they cohabit with for another sweetheart, and afterwards go back to
their old lover again, who is so easy in his principles that he often
welcomes her, especially if she is a good worker--that is, an expert
pickpocket.
The greater part of these women have sprung from the class of Irish
cockneys; others have been domestic servants and the daughters of
labourers, low tradesmen, and others. This gives us a key to many of
these house robberies, done with the collusion of servants--a kind
of felony very common over the metropolis. These are not the more
respectable genteel class of servants, but the humbler order, such as
nursery girls and females in tradesmen’s families. Many of them have
come from the country, or from labouring people’s families over the
working neighbourhoods of the metropolis. They are soon taught to steal
by the men they cohabit with, but seldom acquire the dexterity of the
thief who has been younger trained. They seldom have the acuteness,
tact, and dexterity of the latter.
They live very expensively on the best of poultry, butcher-meat,
pastry, and wines, and some of them keep their pony and trap; most
of them are very improvident, and spend their money foolishly on
eating and drinking--though few of them drink to excess,--on dress,
amusements, and gambling.
They do not go out every day to steal, but probably remain in the house
till their money is nearly spent, when they commence anew their system
of robbery to fill their purse.
The female pickpockets often live with the burglars. They have their
different professions which they pursue. When the one is not successful
in the one mode of plunder, they often get it in the other, or the
women will resort to shoplifting. They must have money in either of
these ways. The women do not resort to prostitution, though they may be
of easy virtue with those they fancy. Some of them live with cracksmen
in high style, and have generally an abundance of cash.
Female pickpockets are often the companions of skittlesharps, and
pursue their mode of livelihood as in the case of cohabiting with
burglars. Their age averages from sixteen to forty-five.
The generality of the pickpockets confine themselves to their own
class of robberies. Others betake themselves to card-sharping and
skittle-sharping, while a few of the more daring eventually become
dexterous burglars.
In their leisure hours they frequently call at certain beershops and
public-houses, kept possibly by some old “pals” or connexions of the
felon class, at King’s Cross, near Shoreditch Church, Whitechapel, the
Elephant and Castle, and Westminster, and are to be seen dangling about
these localities.
Some of the swell-mobsmen have been well-educated men, and at one time
held good situations; some have been clerks; others are connected with
respectable families, led away by bad companions, until they have
become the dregs of society, and after having been turned out of their
own social circle, have become thieves. They are not generally so
adroit as the young trained thief, though they may be useful to their
gangs in acting as stalls.
Many of them are intelligent men, and have a fund of general
information which enables them to act their part tolerably well when in
society.
OMNIBUS PICKPOCKETS.
The most of this class of thieves are well-dressed women, and go out
one or two together, sometimes three. They generally manage to get to
the farthest seats in the interior of the omnibus, on opposite sides of
the vehicle, next to the horses. As the lady passengers come in, they
eye them carefully, and one of them seats herself on the right side of
the lady they intend to plunder. She generally manages to throw the
bottom of her cape or shawl over the lap of the lady, and works with
her hand under it, so as to cover her movement.
Her confederate is generally sitting opposite to see that no one is
noticing. In abstracting from a lady’s pocket, the female thief has
often to cut through the dress and pocket, which she does with a
pocket-knife, pair of scissors, or other sharp instrument. So soon
as she has secured the purse, or other booty, she and her companion
leave the omnibus on the earliest opportunity, often in their hurry
giving the conductor more than his fare, which creates suspicion, and
frequently leads to their detection. Experienced conductors often
inquire of the passengers on such occasions if they have lost anything,
and if they find they have, they give chase to the parties to apprehend
them.
It often happens the thief follows a lady into an omnibus from seeing
the lady take out her purse perhaps in some shop. If she could not pick
her pocket in the street, she contrives to go into an omnibus, and do
it there. These robberies are committed in all parts of London. They
generally work at some distance from where they live, so that they are
not easily traced if detected at the time.
They invariably give false names and false addresses, when taken
into custody. The same women who pick ladies’ pockets in the street,
perpetrate these felonies in omnibuses, and often travel by railway,
pursuing this occupation--sometimes two women together, sometimes one
along with a man.
Sometimes gentlemen’s pockets are picked in omnibuses by male
pickpockets, who also steal from the lady passengers when they find a
suitable opportunity, especially at dusk.
RAILWAY PICKPOCKETS.
This is the same class of persons who pick pockets on the public street
as already described. They often visit the various railway stations,
and are generally smartly dressed as they linger there--some of them
better than others. Some of the females are dressed like shopkeepers’
wives, others like milliners, varying from nineteen to forty years
of age, mostly from nineteen to twenty-five; some of them attired in
cotton gowns, others in silks and satins.
At the railway stations they are generally seen moving restlessly about
from one place to another, as if they did not intend to go by any
particular railway train. There is an unrest about the most of them
which to a discerning eye would attract attention.
They seldom take the train, but dangle among the throng around the
ticket office, or on the platform beside the railway carriages on the
eve of the train starting off, as well as when the train arrives. When
they see ladies engaged in conversation, they go up to them and plant
themselves by their side, while the others cover their movements. There
generally are two, sometimes three of them in a party. They place
themselves on the right hand side of the ladies, next to their pocket,
and work with the left hand. When the ladies move, the thieves walk
along with them.
The female pickpockets generally carry a reticule on their right arm
so as to take off suspicion, and walk up to the persons at the railway
station, and inquire what time the train starts to such a place, to
detain them in conversation, and to keep them in their company.