valuable horse is offered for sale at a reduced price in some market,
which excites suspicion. At other times the appearance of the person
selling the horse is not consistent with the possession of such an
animal. On some occasions these robberies are detected by the police
from descriptions forwarded from station to station, and are stopped on
the highway.
Horse-stealers generally take the horses through backroads, and never
pass through tollbars, if they can avoid it, as they could be traced.
The keeper of the toll might give information to the police, and give a
clue to the way they had gone.
London thieves have been known to go considerable distances into the
country to steal horses--after having learned that horses could easily
be taken away. These robberies are generally committed in the spring
and summer, when horses are turned out to grass.
Number of cases of horse-stealing in the
metropolitan districts for 1860 23
Ditto ditto in the City 0
--
23
Value of property thereby abstracted in
the metropolitan districts £649
_Dog-stealing._--These robberies are generally committed by
dog-fanciers and others who confine their attention to this class of
felonies. They are persons of a low class, dressed variously, and are
frequently followed by women. They steal fancy dogs ladies are fond
of--spaniels, poodles, and terriers, sporting dogs, such as setters and
retrievers, and also Newfoundland dogs. These robberies are generally
committed by men of various ages, but seldom by boys. Their mode of
operation is this:--In prowling over the metropolis, when they see a
handsome dog with a lady or gentleman they follow it and see where the
person resides. So soon as they have ascertained this they loiter about
the house for days with a piece of liver prepared by a certain process,
and soaked in some ingredient which dogs are uncommonly fond of. They
are so partial to it they will follow the stranger some distance in
preference to following their master. The thieves generally carry small
pieces of this to entice the dog away with them, when they seize hold
of it in a convenient place, and put it into a bag they carry with them.
Another method of decoying dogs is by having a bitch in heat. When
any valuable dog follows it is picked up and taken home, when they
wait for the reward offered by the owner to return it, generally from
1_l._ to 5_l._ The loss of the dog may be advertized in the Times or
other newspapers, or by handbills circulated over the district, when
some confederate of the thief will negociate with the owner for the
restoration of the dog. Information is sent if he will give a certain
sum of money, such as 1_l._, 2_l._, or 5_l._ the dog will be restored,
if not it will be killed. This is done to excite sympathy.
Some dogs have been known to be stolen three or four times, and taken
back to their owner by rewards. Sometimes when they steal dogs they
fancy, they keep them and do not return them to the owner.
There is a class termed dog-receivers, or dog-fanciers, who undertake
to return stolen dogs for a consideration. These parties are connected
with the thieves, and are what is termed “in the ring,” that is, in
the ring of thieves. Dogs are frequently restored by agencies of this
description. These parties receive dogs and let the owners have them
back for a certain sum of money, while they receive part of the price
shared with the thief.
Dog-stealing is very prevalent, particularly in the West-end of the
metropolis, and is rather a profitable class of felony. These thieves
reside at the Seven Dials, in the neighbourhood of Belgravia, Chelsea,
Knightsbridge, and low neighbourhoods, some of them men of mature years.
They frequently pick up dogs in the street when their owners are not
near. But their general mode is to loiter about the houses and entice
them away in the manner described. Sometimes they belong to the felon
class, sometimes not. They are often connected with bird-fanciers,
keepers of fighting-dogs, and persons who get up rat matches.
Some of those stolen are sent to Germany, where English dogs are sold
at a high price.
Number of cases of dog-stealing in the
metropolitan districts for 1860 15
Ditto ditto in the City 1
--
16
Value of property thereby abstracted in
the metropolitan districts £134
HIGHWAY ROBBERS.
The highway robbers of the present day are a very different set from
the bold reckless brigands who infested the metropolis and the highways
in its vicinity in former times. There was a bold dash in the old
highwaymen, the Dick Turpins and Claud Du Vals of that day, not to be
found in the thieves of our time, whether they lived in the rookeries
of St. Giles’s, Westminster, and the Borough, nestling securely amid
dingy lanes and alleys, densely-clustered together, where it was unsafe
for even a constable to enter; or whether they roamed at large on
Blackheath and Hounslow Heath, or on Wimbledon Common, and Finchley
Common, accosting the passing traveller pistol in hand, with the stern
command, ‘Stand and deliver.’
The highwaymen of our day are either the sneaking thieves we have
described, who adroitly slip their hands into your pockets, or low
coarse ruffians who follow in the wake of prostitutes, or garotte
drunken men in the midnight street, or strike them down by brutal
violence with a life-preserver or bludgeon.
These felonies are generally committed in secluded spots and
by-streets, or in the suburbs of the metropolis. Many robberies
are committed on the highway by _snatching with violence from the
person_. These are generally done in the dusk, and rarely during the
day. When committed early in the evening, they are done in secluded
places, intersected with lanes and alleys, where the thieves have a
good opportunity to escape, such as in the Borough, Spitalfields,
Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Drury-lane, West-minster, and similar
localities. These are often done by one person, at other times by two
or more in company, and generally by young men from nineteen years
and upwards. The mode of effecting it is this. They see a person
respectably dressed walking along the street, with a silver or gold
chain, who appears to be off his guard. One of them as he passes by
makes a snatch at it, and runs down one of the alleys or along one of
the by-streets.
Sometimes the thief breaks the chain with a violent wrench. At other
times the swivel, or ring of the watch may give way; or a piece of the
guard breaks off. The thief occasionally fails to get the watch. In
these cases he can seldom be identified, because the party may not have
had his eye on him, and may lose his presence of mind; and the thief
may have vanished swiftly out of his sight.
Should the person to whom the watch belongs run after him, his
companions often try to intercept him, and with this view throw
themselves in his way. The thief is seldom caught at the time, unless
he is pursued by some person passing by, who has seen him commit the
robbery, or who may have heard the cry, “Stop thief.”
These felonies are committed by men living in low neighbourhoods, who
are generally known thieves; and are in most cases done during some
disturbance in the street, or in a crowd, or upon a person the worse of
liquor.
In September, 1859, Thomas Dalton, alias Thomas Davis, a stout-made
man of about thirty years of age, and 5 ft. 6 inches high, in company
with another man, went to the regatta at Putney, near London, when
Dalton snatched the watch of Mr. Friar, formerly the ballet-master
at Vauxhall-gardens. Mr. Friar, being aware of the robbery, suddenly
seized hold of both the men, when they wrestled with him. The other man
got away, but he retained his hold of Dalton. On a policeman coming
up Dalton dropped the watch. He was committed to the Surrey Sessions,
tried on 15th September, 1859, and sentenced to ten years’ penal
servitude.
Dalton was one of five prisoners tried at the Central Criminal Court
in December, 1847, for the murder of Mr. Bellchambers, at Westminster,
having beaten in his brains with an iron bar in Tothill-street,
Westminster during the night. Dalton was then acquitted. Sales, one of
the parties charged, was found guilty and hanged at Newgate.
They were seen in the company of the deceased in a public-house in
Orchard-street, Westminster on the night of the murder, and had
followed him out and robbed him of his money, watch, and seals. Dalton
had been several times in custody, for being concerned with other
persons in plate robberies; sneaking down into areas and opening the
doors by means of skeleton keys, and carrying off the plate. One of the
thieves went, dressed as a butcher, with an ox’s tail, pretending the
lady of the house had ordered it. While the servant went upstairs he
put the plate into a basket he carried with him, and carried it away.
On the 23rd of March, 1850, he was in custody with other three
notorious housebreakers for attempting to steal plate in Woburn-square
by skeleton keys along with other four thieves, when he was found
guilty and got three months’ imprisonment. One of them opened an area
gate about 10 o’clock in the morning, carrying a green-baize cloth
containing three French rolls. Finding the servant in the kitchen,
cleaning the plate, he told her he had brought the French rolls from
the baker. The servant, who was an intelligent shrewd person, refused
to go upstairs to her mistress. Meantime two detective officers, who
had been on the look-out, arrested the four thieves and prevented the
robbery.
On the 6th February, 1854, he was tried at Westminster, for snatching
a watch from a gentleman in Parliament-street, while her Majesty was
proceeding to open the Houses of Parliament. The gentleman feeling the
snatch at his watch laid hold of Dalton, when he threw it down an area
in front of the Treasury buildings.
As we have already said, Dalton was afterwards sentenced to
transportation.
Another remarkable case of highway robbery took place several years
ago by a man of the name of George Morris. He was above five feet
nine inches high, stout made, with dark whiskers, and of gentlemanly
appearance. He snatched a watch from a man near the Surrey Theatre.
Immediately on seizing hold of the watch he ran round St. George’s
Circus into the Waterloo-road, with the cry of stop thief ringing
in his ears. In running down Waterloo-road he threw himself down
intentionally into a heap of dirt in the street, when several people
who were chasing him, and also a policeman, stumbled over him. He
then got up as they lay on the ground and run down a turning called
Webber-row, down Spiller’s-court, and got over a closet, then mounted
the roof of some low cottages, and jumped off this into the garden at
the other side belonging to lofty houses there under repair. Finding a
crowd of people and the police close at his heels in the garden below,
and being exceedingly nimble, he ran up the ladder like lightning,
to the roof of the house. As the policemen were about to follow him
he took hold of the ladder and threw it back, preventing all further
chase. He disappeared from the top of this house and got to the roof
of the Magdalen Institution, and would have made his escape but for
the prompt exertions of the police. Some of them ran into a builder’s
yard and got several ladders and climbed up at different parts of the
building and pursued him on the roof of the house--between the chapel
and the governor’s house. He stood at bay, and threatened to kill the
first policeman who approached him, and kept them at defiance for
half-an-hour.
Meantime several other policemen had mounted the back part of the
chapel by means of a ladder, unperceived by Morris, while the others
were keeping him in conversation. On seeing them approach he found all
hope of escape was vain, and surrendered himself into the hands of the
officers. He was tried at the Central Criminal Court, and sentenced to
transportation for ten years.
Not long before he had assaulted a woman in the Westminster-road.
There was a cry for the police, and he ran down Duke-street,
Westminster-road. On turning the corner of the street he popped into a
doorway. This was in the dusk of the evening. His pursuers ran past,
thinking he had gone into one of the adjoining streets. As soon as
they had passed by he was seen to come out and coolly walk back, as if
nothing had occurred. A neighbour who had seen this gave him into the
custody of the police about half-an-hour afterwards, and he was fined
40_s._ for assaulting the woman.
About this time a woman complained to a policeman at the Surrey Theatre
that a tall, gentlemanly man had picked her pocket. The constable told
her he had seen a well-known thief go into a neighbouring coffee-shop
dressed in black. He took the woman over, and she immediately said
that was not the man. She was not able to identify him, as he had
turned his coat inside out. The coat he had on was black in the inside,
and white on the exterior, and could be put on upon either side. He had
in the meantime changed the coat, and the woman was thereby unable to
recognize him. This enabled him on this occasion to escape the ends of
justice.
Highway robberies are also effected by garotting. These are done in
similar localities at dusk, frequently in foggy nights at certain
seasons of the year, and seldom in the summer time. They are generally
done in the by-streets, and in the winter time. A ruffian walks up and
throws his arm round the neck of a person who has a watch, or whom he
has noticed carrying money on his person. One man holds him tightly
by the neck, and generally attacks from behind, or from the side. The
garotter tries to get his arm under his chin, and presses it back,
while with the other hand he holds his neck firmly behind. He does it
so violently the man is almost strangled, and is unable to cry out.
He holds him in this position perhaps for a minute or two, while his
companions, one or more, rifle his pockets of his watch and money.
Should the person struggle and resist he is pressed so severely by the
neck that he may be driven insensible. When the robbery is effected
they run off. In general they seize a man when off his guard, and
it may be some time before he recovers his presence of mind. These
are generally a different class of men from the persons who snatch
the watch-chain. They have more of the bull-dog about them, and are
generally strong men, and brutal in disposition. Many of them are
inveterate thieves, returned convicts, ruffians hardened in crime.
Their average age is from twenty-five and upwards, and they reside in
low infamous neighbourhoods. Most of these depredations are committed
in the East-end of the metropolis, such as Whitechapel and its
neighbourhood, or the dark slums in the Borough.
A remarkable case of garotting occurred in the metropolis in July,
1856. Two men went to a jeweller’s shop in Mark Lane during the day,
when the street was thronged with people. One of them was stout-made,
about five feet six inches high, of dark complexion, and about
forty-five years of age. The other, named James Hunter, alias Connell,
was about five feet ten inches high, of robust frame, with dark
whiskers, dressed in the first of fashion. One of the thieves kept
watch outside while the other slipped in and laid hold, in the absence
of the jeweller, of a lot of valuable jewellery. The shopman, who
happened to be in the back parlour, ran into the shop and seized him.
On seeing this his companion came in from the street to assist him,
knocked the shopman down and gave him a severe wound on the head, when
both hastily made their escape. One of them was taken when he had got
a small distance off with some of the jewellery on his person, such as
watches, rings, brooches, &c., but the other got away. This robbery was
daringly done in the very middle of the day, near to the Corn Exchange,
while in the heat of business. One of the robbers was taken and tried
at the Central Criminal Court in July, 1856, and sentenced to ten
years’ transportation, having been previously convicted for felony.
From information received by the police, James Hunter alias Clifford
alias Connell, the other person concerned in this robbery, was taken
afterwards. A good-looking young applewoman swore distinctly he was
one of those parties. In running away he had thrown down her stand of
apples, and also threw her down when she for a short time had seized
hold of him.
He was tried at the Central Criminal Court in August 1856, the
following sessions, when the prisoner’s counsel proved an alibi by
calling his convicted confederate as a witness. His two sisters also
swore he was in their house at Lambeth Walk on the day the robbery
occurred, and had dinner and tea with his mother, who was an honest and
respectable woman.
Other robberies are perpetrated _by brutal violence with a
life-preserver or bludgeon_. It is usually done by one or more brutal
men following a woman. The men are generally from thirty to forty
years of age--some older--carrying a life-preserver or bludgeon. This
is termed “swinging the stick,” or the “bludgeon business.” The woman
walks forward, or loiters about, followed by the men, who are hanging
in the rear. She walks as if she was a common prostitute, and is often
about twenty-six or thirty years of age. She picks up a man in the
street, possibly the worse of liquor; she enters into conversation,
and decoys him to some quiet, secluded place, and may there allow him
to take liberties with her person, but not to have carnal connection.
Meantime she robs him of his watch, money, or other property, and at
once makes off.
In some instances she is pursued by the person, who may have discovered
his loss; when he is met by one of the men, who runs up, stops him,
and inquires the direction to some part of London, or to some street,
or will ask what he has been doing with his wife, and threaten to
punish him for indecent conduct to her. During this delay the woman may
get clear away. In some cases a quarrel arises, and the victim is not
only plundered of his money, but severely injured by a life-preserver
or bludgeon.
Cases of this kind occasionally occur in the East-end and the suburbs
of London. These women and men are generally old thieves, and, when
convicted, are often sentenced to transportation, being in most cases
well known to the police.
Sometimes these robberies are committed by men without the connivance
of women, as in a case which occurred in Drury Lane in August last,
when a man was decoyed by several men from sympathy to accompany a
drunken man to a public-house, and was violently robbed.
In the month of July 1855 a woman stopt a man in the London-road,
Southwark, one evening about twelve o’clock at night, and stole his
watch. The party immediately detected the robbery, and laid hold of
her. Upon this two men came up to her rescue, struck him in the face,
and cut his cheek. They then gave him another severe blow on the head,
and knocked him down senseless, while calling out for the police.
A policeman came up at this juncture, and laid hold of Taylor, one of
the men, and took him into custody with a life-preserver in his hand.
Taylor was tried on 20th August, 1855, at the Central Criminal Court,
and was sentenced to fourteen years’ penal servitude.
Highway robberies by the pistol are seldom committed, though
occasionally such instances do occur. These are seldom committed by
professional thieves, as they generally manage to effect their object
by picking pockets, and in the modes we have just described.
The old rookeries of thieves are no longer enveloped in mystery as
formerly. They are now visited by our police inspectors and constables,
and kept under strict surveillance. Our daily press brings the
details of our modern highway-men and other thieves clearly to the
light of day; and their deeds are no longer exaggerated by fictitious
embellishments and exaggerations. Our railways and telegraphs, postal
communications and currency arrangements, have put an end to mounted
highwaymen, such as Dick Turpin and Tom King. Were such to appear
now, they would furnish a rare piece of sport to our bold and adroit
detectives, and would speedily be arrested.
Number of felonies by highway robbery in
the metropolitan districts for 1860 21
Ditto ditto in the City 1
--
22
Value of property thereby abstracted in
the metropolitan districts £98 0
Ditto ditto in the City 2 10
--------
£100 10
A RAMBLE AMONG THE THIEVES’ DENS IN THE BOROUGH.
Leaving the police-office at Stones-end, along with a
detective-officer, we went one afternoon to Gunn Street, a narrow
by-street off the Borough Road, inhabited by costermongers, burglars,
and pickpockets.
Here one of the most daring gangs of burglars and pickpockets in London
met our eye, most of them in the dress of costermongers. A professional
pickpocket, a well-attired young man, was seated on a costermonger’s
barrow. He was clothed in a black cloth coat, vest, and trousers, and
shining silk hat, and was smoking a pipe, with two or three “pals”
by his side. It was then about seven o’clock, P. M., and as clear as
mid-day. About forty young men, ranging from seventeen to thirty-five
years of age, were engaged around a game of “pitch and toss,” while
others were lounging idle in the street.
We went forward through the crowd, and stood for some time alongside.
At first they may have fancied we were come to arrest one or more of
them, and were evidently prepared to give us a warm reception. On
seeing us standing by smiling, they recovered their good-humour, and
most of them continued to cluster together, but numbers sneaked off to
their houses out of sight.
Here we saw a tall, robust man, with a dissipated and ruffian look,
smoking a long pipe, who had been an accomplice in an atrocious
midnight murder.
He had narrowly escaped the gallows by turning Queen’s evidence on
his companions. He is a determined burglar. We could observe from the
brutal, resolute, bull-dog look of the man that he was fit for any
deed of heartless villany when inflamed with strong drink.
Three burglars stood in the middle of the crowd, who soon after left
it and entered a beershop in the street. One of them was dressed like
a respectable mechanic. He was rather beneath the middle height,
stout-made, with his nose injured and flattened, possibly done in some
broil. Another was more brutal in appearance, and more degraded. The
third burglar was not so resolute in character, and appeared to be an
associate of the band.
Ten of the persons present had been previously convicted of robberies.
The greater part, if not the whole of them, were thieves, or associates
of thieves.
We next directed our way to the Mint, a well-known harbour of
low characters, passing knots of thieves at the corners of the
different streets as we proceeded along. Some were sneaks, and others
pickpockets. In the neighbourhood of the Mint we found a number of
children gamboling in the streets. One in particular arrested our
attention, an interesting little girl of about five years of age,
with a sallow complexion, but most engaging countenance, radiant with
innocence and hope. Other sweet little girls were playing by her side,
possibly the children of some of the abandoned men and women of the
locality. How sad to think of these young innocents exposed to the
contamination of bad companionships around them, and to the pernicious
influence of the bad example of their parents!