Latest news with #MaryCarr
CBC
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
How A Thousand Blows reimagines Victorian England's underground boxing world
A Thousand Blows is a new TV show that takes viewers inside London's underground boxing world — and one of its most notorious crime syndicates. Set in England in the 1880s, the crime drama follows characters based on real-life historical figures Mary Carr, leader of the female gang of thieves called the Forty Elephants, and Hezekiah Moscow, a Jamaican British bare-knuckle boxer. While there's no evidence that Carr and Moscow ever met in real life, the show imagines what would happen if they did cross paths. Today on Commotion, culture critics Hanna Flint and Jovanté Anderson join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to share their thoughts on the show, and how well it brings this little-known history to light.
Express Tribune
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
"A Thousand Blows" and the Real-Life Forty Elephants: The Female Gang That Ravaged 1920s London
As Christmas 1927 approached, London's luxury department stores braced themselves for a surge in shoplifting. Female criminals, notorious for their light-fingered antics, were often reported in newspapers, and store detectives were on high alert. However, even they weren't prepared for the sheer scale of the organized crime wave that was about to hit. On December 23, a fleet of at least 14 cars departed from Elephant and Castle, ferrying a notorious gang of female criminals across the city to raid some of London's most prestigious stores. The targets included Gamages in Holborn, Harrods in Knightsbridge, Selfridges on Oxford Street, and Debenham & Freebody on Wigmore Street, among others. This coordinated spree was the work of a criminal syndicate known as the Forty Elephants. While the Forty Elephants are a central focus in the Disney+ historical crime series A Thousand Blows, which takes place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the gang's real-life roots stretch back further. Operating since the late 1800s, the Forty Elephants were a female-led crime syndicate originating from the Elephant and Castle area in south London. By the time of the 1927 raid, the gang had already been active for decades, making headlines with their audacious and often violent robberies. In A Thousand Blows, Steven Knight's series, set during the 1880s, delves into the rise of the Forty Elephants, featuring the gang's original 'Queen' Mary Carr, played by Erin Doherty. While the show fictionalizes many aspects, including the introduction of supporting characters like Alice Diamond (played by Darci Shaw), the story is grounded in historical fact. In reality, Carr was succeeded by Alice Diamond, whose leadership elevated the gang's operations to new heights in the 1920s. Known for their innovative and often audacious methods, the Forty Elephants were masters of disguise and deception. They would use large dresses with hidden pockets or netting to stash stolen goods, and in some raids, they even charged into stores, scaring both staff and customers to snatch high-end items. As detailed in the book Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald, their raids spanned across the country, with one store estimating a loss of £7,000 in stolen goods over a year—equivalent to over half a million pounds today. The Forty Elephants were an offshoot of the male Elephant Gang, which had formed in the 1780s. The women were often related to male gang members, but by the 1890s, they were operating independently. Their methods were varied: some posed as maids to infiltrate wealthy households, while others would lure unsuspecting men into compromising situations and blackmail them. One infamous scam involved Mary Carr using a lost purse to lure men to her home, only for her gang to falsely accuse them of assault and extort money. Mary Carr, born in 1862, was a significant figure in the gang's early days. She had a reputation for being a beautiful woman with a knack for high society and high fashion. Carr even posed as a socialite, 'Lady Mary Carr,' to gain access to the wealthier circles she targeted. However, she was eventually arrested, and after spending years in and out of prison, she was succeeded by Alice Diamond. Under Alice Diamond's leadership, the Forty Elephants thrived. Known for her towering height and love of sparkling rings, Alice Diamond led the gang to further prominence. She divided the women into smaller cells of five, allowing them to hit multiple stores simultaneously. The gang also took their operations beyond London, raiding stores in Bristol, Bath, Birmingham, Manchester, and Newcastle. Despite their ruthlessness, they were disciplined, with Alice Diamond enforcing strict rules within the gang, including no drinking before a raid and no stealing from one another. Diamond's reign, however, came to an end in 1952, with her death marking the decline of the Forty Elephants. The gang's downfall was accelerated by the increasing sophistication of store security and the changing social landscape. By 1939, their activities had mostly ceased, though there were occasional flare-ups until the 1950s. 'Raids were all over the country, some on a huge scale,' McDonald notes. He emphasizes the gang's terrorizing presence, with some shops losing significant amounts of money to their operations. The Forty Elephants' organized crime, led by women, is an extraordinary story—one that is now being dramatized in A Thousand Blows, which airs on Disney+. The series, inspired by real events, portrays Mary Carr's leadership and explores the world of bare-knuckle boxing and criminal gangs in Victorian London. The show features Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), two friends drawn into the criminal underworld, and Mary Carr, who brings the Forty Elephants into the fold. The historical fiction mixes fact with creative storytelling, introducing viewers to the mysterious and brutal world of the gang. 'You don't become an Elephant. Elephants are born,' Mary Carr tells Alice in the series, hinting at the deep-rooted nature of the gang and its traditions. While some aspects of the show have been fictionalized, such as the inclusion of Alice Diamond (who became active after the show's 1880s setting), the portrayal of the Forty Elephants as a formidable force in London's criminal landscape is grounded in historical reality. As A Thousand Blows makes its debut on Disney+ on February 21, the fascinating true story of the Forty Elephants will captivate viewers, shining a light on one of the most formidable criminal gangs in London's history.
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
A Thousand Blows: How a historic women-only gang menaced London for decades
The all-female Forty Elephants lived by their own shoplifting and pickpocketing code. Now a new series from the creator of Peaky Blinders tells the wild true story of the gang and its "queen", Mary Carr. An organised crime gang operating in a capital city is hardly unusual. The Mafia, the yakuza and the triads, to name but a few, have all found rich pickings in cities across the world. What makes the Forty Elephants different, apart from their strange name, is the fact that they were a women-only syndicate. And they were led by a queen. The story of the first of their leaders is dramatised in a lavish new six-episode Disney+ series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. A Thousand Blows revolves around Mary Carr, played by Erin Doherty, hitherto best known for her role as Princess Anne in The Crown, and another real historical figure, the gloriously named Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), a Jamaican man who came to London in the late 19th Century. Knight was initially approached by the production company set up by husband-and-wife team Stephen Graham and Hannah Walters (who both appear in the series) with the idea of writing a drama about Moscow. "A story about a real person who came from Jamaica with an ambition to become a lion tamer and became a really famous boxer? That's pretty much irresistible," Knight tells the BBC. "And when I dug into it and found out about this person and his experiences, it was very compelling. Before then, for a long time, I'd wanted to tell the story of the Forty Elephants. Both of those true stories are amazing, and the fact is they were both happening at the same time and in the same place. I thought it would be interesting to imagine what would have happened if Mary and Hezekiah had met – and that's what this show is about." A Thousand Blows opens with Moscow and his friend, newly arrived in the British capital, witnessing Carr and her Elephants operating a pickpocketing scam near the docks. We soon learn that Carr has far grander ambitions and is planning an audacious heist. "Anyone can steal from the bottom," she tells her lieutenants. "It's time we stole from the top." She crosses paths with Moscow at the Blue Coat Boy, a pub owned by Henry 'Sugar' Goodson (Graham) – a fighter and another real historical figure – and she introduces herself as "the Queen of the Forty Elephants, the biggest, fastest, most independent gang of female thieves in the whole of London". Reliable information about the real Mary Carr is scarce. We know that she was born in 1862 in Holborn, London, and that by 1881 she was an inmate at a female penitentiary in Kent, a strict facility for "fallen women" run by the Church of England. The precise reason for Carr's admission is unclear, but she had been convicted of shoplifting at the age of 14. Her mother was dead by then, and her father, a thief and fraudster, could have been in prison or abroad. According to Brian McDonald's book Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants, Carr had striking looks and worked as a flower seller in London's Covent Garden. She was also an artist's model for Dorothy Tennant, who published an illustrated book called London Street Arabs, and for Frederic Leighton, whose best-known work is Flaming June. Sometime around 1890, she was elected as "Queen" of the Forty Elephants, an organisation of around 40 women whose origin is shrouded in mystery. The code of the Elephants The historian and author Hallie Rubenhold, who has written a number of books about women and crime, is a historical consultant on A Thousand Blows. "I had heard of the Forty Elephants, but until [joining the series], I hadn't done any real research on them," she says. "They are fascinating but very enigmatic characters. Some people have suggested they were around as early as the 18th Century, but I don't believe there has been rigorous scholarship which would confirm any of this. Of course, there were many women who were thieves and pickpockets in that period, as trial records show, but that doesn't necessarily mean there was a connection to the Forty Elephants. We only first hear about them in the 1870s." Carr's gang was based around the Elephant and Castle area of south London, and many of its members were the girlfriends or relatives of men in a gang of thieves called the Elephant Boys. The area itself was named after a rough pub in the district. The Forty Elephants' main criminal activities were pickpocketing and shoplifting, frequently targeting London's high-end shops. Carr and associates crop up again and again in police records and trial transcripts and, occasionally, newspaper stories, typically being charged with theft and handling stolen goods. In his book London Labour and the London Poor, published in 1851, the journalist and campaigner Henry Mayhew identified the Elephant and Castle as a crime hotspot and also described the sort of shoplifting methods often employed by Carr and the Elephants. Two or three women would go into a store when it was busy and ask to look at some of its wares: "They will likely ask to see some other goods, and keep looking at the different articles until they get a quantity on the counter. When the shopman is engaged getting some fresh goods from the window, or from the shelves, one of them generally contrives to slip something under her cloak or shawl, while the other manages to keep his attention abstracted." They wore clothes specially adapted to facilitate theft. "We frequently find the skirt of their dress lined from the pocket downward, forming a large repository all around the dress, with an opening in front, where they can insert a small article, which is not observed in the ample crinoline," Mayhew wrote. "People often expected women to be more honest and law-abiding, which would have given the Elephants an advantage when they went on one of their raids," says Rubenhold. "Their operation seems to have been more sophisticated and organised than simply opportunist theft." More like this:• Is Peaky Blinders the most violent show on TV?• The Instagram wellness guru who faked cancer• TV's obsession with con artists The Elephants also became expert in a form of blackmail. Mary or one of her gang would lure an elderly gentleman into an alley and then accuse him of attacking her and threaten to go to the police. Other gang members would appear and claim to have witnessed the "attack". The victim would usually part company with his valuables in order to avoid embarrassment. Another element which set the Elephants apart from other criminals was the fact that they apparently had a set of rules, known as the "hoister's code" – "hoist" being their term for shoplifting. All members of the Elephants were expected to adhere to these rules. According to McDonald, they were written down by a male associate of a family connected with the Elephants with the intention of selling them to the press, but they were never published. The rules included: "No drinking before a raid, and early hours to bed." "Proceeds from a job are equally shared by the group members involved, no matter what their role." "Members must not steal from each other (their money or boyfriends)." "The Forties was a kind of co-op," wrote McDonald. "The Queen may have been the unequivocal leader, but the equal share of booty and the communal funds available to those arrested helped to foster a sense of equality and to knit the syndicate together. The stricture not to steal each other's boyfriends – not always observed – was similarly designed to maintain group harmony." Diamond rings and Alice Diamond Carr's grip on the gang seems to have been lessened after a case in 1896 in which she was charged with and convicted of the kidnapping of a six-year-old boy, Michael Magee, from Epsom races. According to McDonald, Carr appeared in court "in a splendid black velvet cloak, trimmed with fur, over a black silk dress, her head adorned by a broad-brimmed Rembrandt hat boasting five ostrich feathers. On her fingers glittered seven diamond rings, valued by one journalist at more than £300, at a time when a working man's wage was less than £2 a week." McDonald surmises that the child was sold by his mother to a gangster who placed him in Carr's care with the intention of selling him on to a childless couple. The youngster was found at Carr's home 10 months after his disappearance, following an anonymous tip-off to the police. Carr was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. Michael's mother apparently did not want the boy back and he was taken into care. After Mary's release, she was arrested again in 1900 for receiving stolen goods and was sentenced to two years. Thereafter, it was a downward spiral. McDonald reports that she was implicated in the 1909 robbery of a jeweller's shop in Ludgate Circus, London, but not convicted. Later, she is believed to have been "working" in the Manchester area, where, posing as socialite Lady Mary Carr, she was invited to the sort of functions where an accomplished thief and con artist might spend a profitable couple of hours. She is thought to have died in 1924 – but the Forty Elephants did not die with her. One of Carr's successors as queen of the gang was Alice Diamond, who also features as a character in The Thousand Blows, Knight having used a bit of artistic licence with the timelines. Diamond was born in 1886 to criminal parents in Lambeth Workhouse. At the age of 17 she was convicted of stealing from a hat shop in Oxford Street, and by the age of 20 she was wearing a set of diamond rings that doubled as a knuckle duster. The Elephants had a greater propensity for violence under her rule, so there is plenty of scope for A Thousand Blows to be a returning drama, much like Peaky Blinders. "Season two is already shot, and I'm very keen to continue telling the story because there's a lot more story to tell," says Knight. "There were still people who identified themselves as Forty Elephants in the 1950s. The truth and reality are much more interesting than anything you can invent." A Thousand Blows launches on Disney+ in the UK and Hulu in the US on 21 February. -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Telegraph
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
A Thousand Blows, review: Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight's brutal new drama may be his best yet
It used to be thought that viewers tuned into period drama just to look at it. Wasn't life wonderful in the 19th century? What better way to spend a Sunday night than revelling in the vistas and the dances and the Palladian facades? Steven Knight 's period dramas, however, have proved that viewers don't care so much about the look of a time and place as they do about the energy. Shows like Peaky Blinders and SAS Rogue Heroes may take place in the past but they are alive now, pummelling you with personalities and plot. At their best they are roller coaster-ride unstoppable: just as you start to ask whether this kind of thing really happened in this place all those years ago, you're swept away in a whirlwind of character and capers. At a time when a superfluity of choice means the worst thing television can be is dull, Knight's dramas never are (which is probably why he is asked to write so many of them.) A Thousand Blows, his new series for Disney+ 'inspired by true life stories', may be his best yet. It brings to life a late 19th-century East London that positively crackles with nefarious possibility. Into this maelstrom it hurls Mary Carr (Erin Doherty) and her 40 Elephants gang, a group of female pickpockets with eyes on bigger things. It then adds Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), best friends from Jamaica who are fresh off the boat. They soon find themselves thrust into the criminal underbelly of London's thriving bare-knuckle boxing scene. Put Hezekiah in cahoots with 'Queen'' Mary, and set them both up against Stephen Graham 's Sugar Goodson, the self-styled alpha of the East End fight game, and you have precisely the kind of period tinderbox into which Knight loves to throw a match. What follows is brutal, and while A Thousand Blows deserves its five stars, viewers should be aware that it hails from the Raging Bull school of blood and sputum. It is a telling tale from the streaming age that this amount of stark violence should have found a home on a channel with Walt Disney's name on the masthead, but that's for another time... But if you can get past the sickening blows in their thousands (and we can't say we weren't warned) then this is blockbuster television. Knight is not normally one for subtlety, but here even the plot about the Jamaican immigrants fuelled by loathing of their red-coated colonial oppressors is deftly handled. The historian David Olusoga is listed as an executive producer and anyone who has read his excellent Black and British – A Forgotten History will sense his guiding hand. History and issues, however, are grace notes compared to the chorus of wonderful characters, and it's with its roster of ne'er do wells that A Thousand Blows hits the jackpot. Peaky Blinders propelled Cillian Murphy to the Hollywood A-List and a Best Actor Oscar. A Thousand Blows might just do the same for Erin Doherty. Her Mary Carr is a cockney Boudicca with a killer stare, an instant feminist icon (who would probably laugh hard and then shoot you if you told her that). She steals whatever she wants, including the show and probably next year's Bafta statuette. It is a sensational performance in a captivating, lawless stampede of a TV show.
