81 – Forty Elephants Gang

To kick off the new year, Sam tells the fascinating and rebellious story of the Forty Elephants Gang—a notorious, all-female London crime syndicate that operated from the 1870s through the 1950s.

Based out of the Elephant & Castle area, the Forty Elephants were famous for their daring shoplifting operations targeting luxury goods. Led by powerful “Queens” like Alice Diamond (aka Diamond Annie) and later Lilian Rose Kendall (the Bobbed-Haired Bandit), the gang included key members such as Maggie Hill and the Partridge sisters.

They were known not just for crime, but for style, organization, and resilience—using custom pocket-lined clothing, strict hierarchy, and bold confidence to outsmart shopkeepers and police alike. This is a story of women who carved out power in a world designed to deny it to them.

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Sources

• Ridiculous History Podcast – Classic Episode: The Forty Elephants: London’s All-Female Jewel Thieves
• The Poisoners’ Cabinet Podcast – Episode 188: The Many Crimes of The Forty Elephants
• “A Thousand Blows: How a Women-Only Gang Menaced Victorian London” – BBC Culture
  https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250219-a-thousand-blows-how-a-women-only-gang-menaced-victorian-london
• Forty Elephants – Wikipedia
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forty_Elephants
• Forty Elephants: South London’s Supreme Shoplifters – London Museum
  https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/forty-elephants-south-londons-supreme-shoplifters/