ENDNOTES
1Introduction
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Songwriters: Mick Harvey, Nick Cave and Thomas Wydler, from Let Love In, produced by Tony Cohen (Mute Records, 1994).
2Series 1, Episode 1, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2013).
3Lanre Bakare & Gwilym Mumford, ‘Peaky Blinders: Brummie Boardwalk or shop-soiled Sopranos?’, Guardian, 29 September 2014 (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/sep/29/peaky-blinders-cillian-murphy); and Alex Fletcher, ‘Peaky Blinders’ review: ‘Did the British “Boardwalk Empire” cut it?’, Digital Spy, 12 September 2013 (http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a514949/peaky-blinders-review-did-the-british-boardwalk-empire-cut-it/)
4Julian Ralph, ‘The best-governed city in the world’, Harper’s Magazine (June 1890); and see, for example, ‘Street Ruffianism in Birmingham’, Portsmouth Evening News (21 September 1883).
5‘Black Country Memories: Black Country Irish’, Express and Star (14, 21 and 28 May 2009).
6‘The Perils of the Police’, Birmingham Mail (hereafter BM) (12 June 1871).
7‘Balsall Heath Police Court’, BM (13 February 1891).
8‘Penn Street Industrial School, Birmingham, Warwickshire’, http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/BirminghamPennStreetIS/
9Edward Derrick, Calendar of Prisoners, General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, QS/B/20/65 (29 Oct 1906).
10William Chinn, Interview, BirminghamLives Archive hereafter BLA (1979).
11‘For the Sake of Beer’, BM (30 July 1906).
12Carl Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders (Studley, 2015) p.16.
13TNA, Divorce Court File: 4333. Appellant: Ada Derrick. Respondent: Edward Derrick. Type: Wife’s petition for divorce [wd], J 77/1744/4333 (1921)
14‘Woman’s Divorce’, Birmingham Daily Gazette [hereafter BDG](25 April 1923).
15‘Cleaned Up Black Spots’, BDG (24 August 1935).
Chapter One: Before the Peaky Blinders: The Slogging Gangs
16Michael Bradley, ‘Birmingham’s real Peaky Blinders’, BBC News, West Midlands (12 September 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-24047750).
17Charles Anthony Vince, History of the Corporation, vol. III (Birmingham, 1903) pp.226, 228-229 and 23; and Joseph Trevor Jones, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. V (1915–1935), part II (Birmingham, 1940), pp.354 and 373. The noticeable jump in population is explained by the extension of Birmingham in 1911 to bring in the local authorities of Aston, Erdington, Handsworth, Kings Norton and Yardley and their various districts.
18‘Year’s Crime in Birmingham’, BDG (1 September 1920).
19Jones, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. V, part II (Birmingham, 1940) p.371; ‘Glasgow Disorder’, The Scotsman (1 February 1919); ‘Riot Act read in Birkenhead’, Aberdeen Press and Journal (4 August 1919); ‘Mob Law’, Leicester Daily Post (23 July 1919); and ‘Serious Riots’, Leeds Mercury (2 June 1919) p.9.
20‘Mons Man Killed in Cardiff Riots’, Globe (13 June 1919); and ‘The Racial Riots’, Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail (12 June 1919).
21‘Hooliganism Redivivus’, BM (5 November 1901).
22‘Sparring’, Morning Advertiser (23 July 1824).
23‘Riot in Birmingham by the Slogging Gang’, Birmingham Daily Post [hereafter BDP] (8 April 1872).
24‘The Slogging Gang’, BDP (10 April 1872).
25‘The Slogging Gang’, BDP (11 April 1872).
26‘A Caution to Juvenile Stone Throwers’, BDP (3 June 1872).
27See, for example, ‘Burslem Stone Throwing Battle’, BDG (27 April 1870).
28‘Infringement of the Bye-Laws’, BDG (10 May 1872).
29Jerry White, The Worst Street in North London. Campbell Bunk, Islington, Between the Wars (London, 1986), p.69.
30Dyke Wilkinson, Rough Roads. Reminiscences of a Wasted Life (London, 1912), p.12.
31Donald Philips, From Biggles to Biggles: A Birmingham Childhood (unpublished MS, no date; thanks to David Phillips), p.2.
32George Wood, Interview, BLA (1985).
33Fred Franklin, Interview, BLA (1982).
34Buck Chinn, Interview, BLA (1989).
35Jones, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. V, part 2, p.373.
36Sydney Hetherington, From the Slums to Eastbourne’s Belgravia (unpublished MS, 1998), pp.16–17.
37‘Sunday Nuisances’, Birmingham Journal [hereafter BJ] (16 November 1839).
38Geoffrey Floy, Policing Birmingham: a study of a borough police force, 1839–1914 (University of Birmingham, M.Phil., 1997), pp.5–56 and p.92.
39See for example: ‘Bathing in the Canal’, BDP (26 August 1859); ‘A Pigeon Flyer Caught’ and ‘Obstructions’, BDP (12 April 1859); ‘The Black Your Boots Nuisance’, BDP (26 August 1859).
40‘Church Pastoral Society’, Aris’s Birmingham Gazette [hereafter ABG] (17 March 1856).
41‘Crusade against Street Gambling’, BJ (27 September 1857).
42‘Caution to Street Gamblers’, BJ (12 November 1853).
43‘Assault on the Police’, BJ (2 May 1857).
44‘Gambling in the Streets and Assaulting the Police’, BDP (28 April 1858).
45‘Police Crusade against Pitch and Toss in the Streets’, BJ (1 September 1860); and, for example, ‘New Vauxhall’, BDP (5 April 1860).
46‘Sabbath Breaking and the Police’, BDP (11 April 1861).
47Floy, Policing Birmingham, p.128.
48J. T. Bunce, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. II (Birmingham, 1885), pp.294 and 300.
49Barbara Weinberger, Law Breakers and Law Enforcers in the Late Victorian City: Birmingham 1867–1877 (University of Warwick Ph.D. Thesis, 1981) p.231.
50See for example, ‘Street Ruffianism in the Ascendant’, The Era (6 December 1863).
51‘‘Street Ruffians’, ABG (18 June 1864).
52‘Correspondence’, BDP (7 July 1866).
53‘The Street Gambling Nuisance’, ABG (23 May 1868).
54Pitch and Toss’, BDG (4 April 1871).
55Gooderson, The Gangs of Birmingham, p.77.
56‘Barford Street’, BDG (10 April 1871).
57‘Correspondence’, BDP (16 March 1868); ‘Capture of a Gang of Roughs’, BDP (8 June 1870).
58‘Street Ruffians’, BDG (28 September 1870); and ‘News of the Day’, BDP (8 November 1870).
59‘A Riot’, BDP (4 May 1871).
60Bunce, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. II, pp.294 and 300.
61‘Eleven Weeks Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BDP (11 April 1873).
62‘Rowdyism in Birmingham’, BDP (12 August 1873).
63‘Street Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BDP (1 April 1873).
64‘Eleven Weeks Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BDP (11 April 1873).
65‘The Slogging Gang’, BDP (29 March 1873).
66‘The Slogging Gang’, BDP (22 September 1873); ‘A Terror to the Neighbourhood’ BDP, (30 October 1873).
67Weinberger, Law Breakers and Law Enforcers in the Late Victorian City, pp.233–38.
68‘Ruffianism in Birmingham. Dastardly Assaults’, BDP (24 June 1873).
69‘News of the Day’, BDP (2 July 1873).
70‘News of the Day’ (2 July 1873) and ‘Warwickshire Assizes’, BDP (9 July 1874).
71‘A Caution to Rioters’, BDP (8 July 1874).
72‘The Barn Street ‘Sloggers’, BDP (12 September 1874).
73‘Incidents of the ‘Slogging Gang’’, BM (28 September 1874).
741871 Census, TNA, Class: RG10; Piece: 3086; Folio: 129; Page: 59; GSU roll: 838895.
751881 Census, TNA, Class: RG11; Piece: 2987; Folio: 23; Page: 39; GSU roll: 1341714.
76‘Incidents of the ‘Slogging Gang’, BM (28 September 1874).
77Weinberger, Law Breakers and Law Enforcers in the Late Victorian City, p.174.
78Gooderson, The Gangs of Birmingham, p.35.
79The ‘Murphy Riots’. Demolition of Park Street, Birmingham 17 and 18 June 1867 (Birmingham, 1867), p.9.
80Patsy Davis, ‘Birmingham’s Irish Community and the Murphy Riots of 1867’, Midland History 31 (2006), pp.50–51.
81‘Sunday Riots’, BDP (30 April 1872).
82Gooderson, Gangs of Birmingham, p.111.
83‘Violent Assault upon “A Copper”’, BDP (30 May 1872).
84‘Our Roughs’ and ‘A Warning to Street Rioters’, BM (14 July 1874).
85‘The Stone-Throwing Nuisance at Ashted’, BDP (23 March 1875).
86‘Navigation Street Riot. Death of Police-Constable Lines’, BDP (25 March 1875).
87‘The Riot in Navigation Street. The Sentences’, BDP (13 July 1875).
88‘Murder of PC Lines’, BWP (27 May 1955).
89‘The Suppression of Rowdyism in Birmingham’ and ‘News of the Day’ BDP (21 May 1875).
90‘More Persecution of Witnesses’ BDP (19 July 1875).
91‘News of the Day’ BDP (21 May 1875) and ‘The Suppression of Rowdyism in Birmingham’, BDP (21 May 1875).
92‘News of the Day’, BDP (15 February 1876).
93‘Birmingham Watch Committee’, BDP (28 February 1877).
94‘Street Crimes in Birmingham.-A warm dis-.’ The Times [London, England] 28 Nov. 1877: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 28 June 2018.
95Weinberger, Law Breakers and Law Enforcers in the Late Victorian City, pp.63–64.
96J. T. Bunce, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. II (Birmingham, 1885), p.300.
97See, for example, ‘A Street Waif’, BM (25 March 1881).
98‘Sunday Gambling at Aston’, BDP (28 April 1885).
99‘News of the Day’, BDP (8 May 1883).
100Lil Perry, ‘Old Days of Aston’, BLA (1978) and for London see White, The Worst Street in North London, pp.118–119.
101‘Slogging Gangs’ in Birmingham’, BM (5 June 1882).
102‘Street Ruffianism’, BM (13 September 1882); and ‘Revival of the Slogging Gangs’ BM (11 August 1882).
103‘‘Birmingham Watch Committee’, BM (10 October 1882).
104‘A Warning to Stone Throwers’, BDP (1 April 1884).
105‘A Warning to Street Ruffians’, BDP (21 July 1886).
106‘The Aston Slogging Gang’, BDP (18 August 1886).
107‘Street Rowdyism’, BDP (11 August 1886; ‘Stone-throwing’, BDP (13 April 1886). More Attacks on Policemen’, BDP (23 November 1886); and ‘The Aston Slogging Gang’ BDP (4 October 1888).
108‘Alleged Serious Wounding’, BDP (22 December 1888).
109‘News of the Day’, BDP (1 September 1888).
110‘Punishment for “Sloggers”‘, BDP (26 February 1889).
111‘A Violent Assault’, BDP (20 February 1889).
112‘Ruffianism at Aston’, BDP (31 July 1889).
113Malcolm Archibald, Liverpool Gangs, Vice and Packet Rats: 19 Century Crime and Punishment (Edinburgh, 2015), pp.171–182; Heather Shore, London’s Criminal Underworlds, c.1720–c.1930: A Social and Cultural History (Basingstoke, 2015), pp.141–166 and for London, see also Brian McDonald, Gangs of London: 100 Years of Mob Warfare (Wrea Green, 2010), pp.59–73; and Andrew Davies, The Gangs of Manchester: The Story of the Scuttlers Britain’s First Youth Cult (Preston, 2008) pp.38–141.
114Davies, Gangs of Manchester, pp.17–18.
115‘Members of the ‘Slogging Gang’’, BDP (6 April 1886); and ‘Street Rowdyism’, BDP (11 August 1886).
116‘Deeds of Violence’, Liverpool Mercury (4 August 1887); and ‘Assaulted by a Slogging Gang’, BDP (21 September 1888).
117‘A Slogging Gang’, BDP (24 July 1889); ‘The Outrage by Militia Men at Small Heath’, BDP (2 July 1889); ‘An Ornament to the Slogging Gang’, BDP (1 July 1889); ‘A Slogging Gang’, BDP (13 June 1889); ‘A ‘Slogging Gang’ Broken Up’, BDP (1 June 1889); and ‘Tackling ‘Slogging Gangs’’, BDP (27 February 1889).
118‘Notes and Comments’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph (10 June 1882).
Chapter Two: The City of Peaky Blinders
119Series 1, Episode 2, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2013). For a full discussion of tossing, see Chinn, Better Betting, pp.85–93.
120Louise Mellor, ‘Steven Knight on Peaky Blinders, Series 2’, Den Of Geek (11 September 2013) https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/peaky-blinders/27113/steven-knight-on-peaky-blinders-birmingham-accents-working-class-drama-sam-neill-cillian-murphy-more
121John Crace, ‘Peaky Blinders; The Guilty – TV review’, Guardian (13 September 2013) https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/sep/13/peaky-blinders-tv-review
122‘Incidents of Full Career. Campaign Against the ‘Peaky Blinders’’, Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser (2 November 1929).
123R. E. Corder, ‘The Seamy Side’ Daily Mail [London, England] 3 April 1929: 8. Daily Mail Historical Archive.
124‘Belt and Buckle Days. Saga of Birmingham’s Peaky Blinders’, BM (15 April 1939).
125‘Death of Norman Tiptaft. Vigilante Extraordinary’, BDP (14 October 1970).
126‘Mr Butler Urged to Punish or Resign’, BDP (20 July 1961).
127Norman Tiptaft, The Individualist (Birmingham, 1954).
128John Douglas, A Walk Down Summer Lane (1st published 1977, London, 1983 ed.), p.126.
129Pauline and Bernard Mannion, The Summer Lane and Newtown of the Years between the Wars 1918–1938 (Birmingham, 1985), pp.1, 31 and 81.
130‘Gang Warfare and the ‘Peaky Blinders’, Letter from George Morris, Birmingham Weekly Post [hereafter BWP] (6 May 1955).
131Arthur L. Matthison, Less Paint, More Vanity (London, 1937), pp.62–63.
132‘A Cowardly Rogue’, BDP (29 October 1891); ‘Table Talk’, BM (11 October 1890); and ‘Local News and Jottings’, BM (25 June 1891).
133‘The ‘Peaky Blinders’ Barber’, (BM 30 May 1914).
134‘Man Found Drowned’, BDP (19 May 1891).
135F. Atkins, Letter, (15 October 1936), cited in Gooderson, The Gangs of Birmingham, p.217.
136‘Letter from Norma K. Beattie’, BLA, (19 July 1987).
137Corinne Brazier, ‘Potentially the oldest police custody photo... in the world?- WM Peelers (19 March 2018) [https://www.wmpeelers.com/single-post/2018/03/19/Potentially-the-oldest-police-custody-photo-in-the-world accessed 24 June 2018).
138V. W. Garrett, A Man in the Street (London, 1939), pp.65–6.
139Fred Sutton, Interview, BLA (1989).
140‘Table Talk’, BM (30 May 1896); ‘Table Talk’, BM (14 May 1904); and ‘The ‘Peaky Blinders’ Barber’ (30 May 1914).
141The ‘Peaky Blinders’ Barber’, BM (30 May 1914).
142‘Local News and Jottings’, BM (13 August 1906).
143Geoffrey Pearson (2008) Disturbing continuities: ‘peaky blinders’ to ‘hoodies’, Criminal Justice Matters, 65:1, 6–7, DOI: 10.1080/09627250608553010.
144Davies, Gangs of Manchester, p.22. See also Charles E. B. Russell, Manchester Boys: Sketches of Manchester Boys at Work and Play (Manchester 1905), p.16, where it is stated that a scuttler wore ‘a peaked cap rather over one eye’.
145J. R. C. ‘Peaky Blinders’, Central Literary Magazine vol. XIV, no. 2, (April 1879) p.71.
146Andrew Davies, ‘Youth, violence, and courtship in late-Victorian Birmingham: The case of James Harper and Emily Pimm’, History of the Family, 11 (2006), p.111.
147Shore, London’s Criminal Underworlds, p.165.
148See, for example, ‘Sidelights on Low Life. Birmingham “Peaky” sent to Prison’, BM (26 May 1900); Davies, ‘Youth, Violence, and Courtship in Late-Victorian Birmingham’.
149See Alan Mayne, The Imagined Slum: Newspaper representation in three cities, 1870–1914 (Leicester, 1993) and Alan Mayne, ‘Representing the slum’, Urban History, Volume (17 May 1990), pp.66–84.
150Davies, ‘Youth, Violence, and Courtship in Late-Victorian Birmingham’, pp.108–09 and 118.
151‘The Peaky’s Courtship’, BDM (19 November 1898).
152‘Table Talk’, BM (14 May 1904).
153Benny Green, ‘Introduction’, to Clarence Rook, The Hooligan Nights (first published 1899, new edition Oxford 1979), p.viii.
1542–7 ‘My Bloke’s a Peaky’ (Roud 24185) Cecilia Costello, Old Fashioned Songs.
155Davies, Gangs of Manchester, pp.277–295.
156J. R. C. ‘Peaky Blinders’, p.71.
157‘Slogging Gang’, Lakes Herald (7 May 1897).
158‘Brummagem Beauties’, Sheffield Evening Telegraph (29 July 1897).
159The Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News (26 August 1899)
160‘A Man’s Skull Fractured’, BM (24 March 1890).
161‘The Birmingham “Slogging Gangs”’, St James’s Gazette (9 April 1890).
162“Slogging Gangs” of Birmingham’, Aberdeen Evening Express (10 April 1890); ‘Slogging Gangs’, Chichester Observer (16 April 1890).
163Gooderson, The Gangs of Birmingham, pp.219–219.
164‘Serious Charges of Assault’, BM (28 May 1890).
165‘A Brutal Assault’, BM (25 June 1890).
1661891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 2407; Folio: 10; Page: 16.
167‘The Crusade Against Ruffianism’, BD (16 April 1890).
168‘The Highgate Street Slogging Gang’, BM (11 April 1890); ‘Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BM (12 April 1890).
169‘A Slogging Gang at Perry Barr’, BM (11 April 1890); ‘The Sparkbrook Slogging Gang’, BDP (10 April 1890).
170‘The Chief Constable and the Sloggers’, BM (23 April 1890).
171‘News of the Day’, BDP (10 April 1890).
172‘Ruffianism at Sparkbrook’, BDP (24 March 1890).
173‘Heavy Sentences on Sloggers’, BDP (16 April 1890).
174‘Notes and News’, BM (15 April 1890).
175‘The Band of Friendship’, BDP (21 June 1890).
176William Chinn, Interview, BL (1979).
177‘One of a Gang’ BDP (24 March 1891)
178‘Assault by a ‘Ganger’, BDP (14 April 1891) and ‘Assaulted by Roughs’, BM, (28 April 1891).
179‘A Cowardly Ruffian’, BM (28 October 1891).
180‘The Stone-Throwing Nuisance’, BM 8 July 1891 and ‘Street Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BDP (24 June 1892).
181‘Cliveland Street v Weaman Street’, BDP (2 August 1893) and ‘A Nechells Slogging Gang’, BDP (18 October 1893).
182‘A Heavy List’, BDP (26 June 1894).
183‘Birmingham Slogging Gangs’, Manchester Evening News (27 June 1895).
184‘Assault on the Police’, BDP (29 October 1895) and ‘The Bromsgrove Street Disturbance’, BDP (30 October 1895).
185‘Slogging in Kenyon Street’, BDP (5 November 1895); ‘Unlawful Wounding at Aston’, BDP (10 December 1895).
186Archibald, Liverpool Gangs, pp.189–191.
187‘Heavy Sentence on Slogging Gang’ BDP (11 December 1895)
188‘A Violent Ruffian’ BDP (3 December 1895).
189‘Balsall Heath Police Court’, BDP (13 January 1877).
190‘Ruffianism at Balsall Heath’, BDP (20 November 1879).
191‘Riotous Proceedings in Balsall Heath Road’, BM (9 March 1883).
192‘Hardened Young Criminals’, BDP (2 November 1888).
193Henry Lightfoot, Calendar of Prisoners 1870–1935 [hereafter Calendar of Prisoners], Birmingham Quarter Sessions, 1839–1971 (QS/B/20/69). Library of Birmingham, (29 April 1907).
194Henry Lightfoot 3200, New Soldiers Records. Short Service Attestation, [hereafter Short Service Attestation], TNA, War Office: Soldiers’ Documents from Pension Claims, First World War, WO364; Piece: 2097 (1914).
195Henry Lightfoot 201128, Territorial Force Attestation, TNA, War Office: Soldiers’ Documents from Pension Claims, First World War, WO364; Piece: 2097 (1925).
196‘‘Tommy Giblin’ and the Roughs generally’, BM (8 January 1896).
197C. H. Lea, ‘The Fair – But Not the Onions’, BDG (26 September 1935).
198‘Seventy years a Showman’, BDP (4 November 1939).
199Terry Proctor Letter, BLA (8 March 1996).
200‘Peaky Blinders’, Coventry Evening Telegraph (30 December 1896).
201‘Topics of the Day’ Coventry Evening Telegraph (11 October 1895).
202‘Tommy Giblin and Roughs Generally’, BM (10 January 1896).
203See for example, ‘The Reign of the Rough in Birmingham’, Dundee Courier (22 July 1897) and ‘Birmingham Roughs on the Rampage’, Leeds Times (24 July 1897).
204‘Policeman Killed in Birmingham’, Manchester Evening News (19 July 1897).
205‘Assault on a Policeman’ BDP (29 September 1891); ‘Cowardly Assaults on the Police’, BDP (23 February 1892); ‘Assaults on the Police’, BDP (26 April 1892); ‘Assaulting Neighbours and Policeman’, BDP (23 August 1892); ‘Assaulting Policemen’ BDP (13 March 1894); ‘Assaults on Constables’, BDP (9 April 1895); and ‘Violent Assaults on Policemen’, BDP (12 November 1895).
206‘Funeral of Snipe’, Sports Argus (24 July 1897); ‘The Reign of Violence in Birmingham’, Lloyd’s Weekly Newspaper (25 July 1897).
207‘VIOLENCE IN BIRMINGHAM’, The Times [London, England] (14 October 1897) The Times Digital Archive. (accessed 28 June 2018).
Chapter Three: The Reign of the Peaky Blinders Ended
208Series 1, Episode 2, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2013).
209‘Chief Constable Rafter. A Character Sketch, Weekly Irish Times (28 October 1899); and ‘An Epidemic of Brutality’, Globe (30 July 1897).
210See Gooderson, The Gangs of Birmingham, pp.263–64.
211‘The Epidemic of Ruffianism in Birmingham’, Edinburgh Evening News, (12 August 1897).
212Vince, History of the Corporation, vol. III, p.218.
213Geoffrey Pearson, ‘Victorian Boys, We are Here!’ in Yvonne Jewkes and Gail Letherby (eds), Criminology. A Reader (London, 2002), p.8.
214Vince, History of the Corporation, vol. III, pp.218, 226–229 and 232, and Bunce, History of the Corporation, vol II (Birmingham, 1885), p.300.
215‘Cheltenham Man Injured’, Cheltenham Chronicle (30 April 1898).
216The Moseley and Kings Heath Journal, vol. 8 (August 1899). pp.1–14.
217‘Street Ruffianism’, Globe – Saturday, 21 January 1899
218‘Exit Mr Farndale’, The Birmingham Owl (20 June 1899), p.9; see also, Death of Mr Joseph Farndale’, BDG (9 August 1901).
219See, for example, ‘Playing Space Problem’, Sports Argus (29 June 1901).
220‘Cleaned Up Black Spots’, Birmingham Gazette [hereafter BG] (24 August 1935).
221‘Thousands See the Passing of Sir Charles Rafter in Birmingham’, BG (28 August 1935).
222‘Death of Sir C. Rafter’, Police Review (30 August 1935).
223‘Cleaned Up’ Black Spots’, BG (24 August 1935).
224‘The New Chief’, The Birmingham Owl (21 July 1899) p.9.
225‘Chief Constable Rafter. A Character Sketch’, Weekly Irish Times (28 October 1899).
226Percy Langridge, MEPO 6 Metropolitan Police: Habitual Criminals Register 1904, piece 15.
227‘Ruffianism in Birmingham’, BM (29 June 1900).
228Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol.IV, pp.226 and 246.
229Sentence on a “Peaky Blinder”’, Cheltenham Chronicle (12 January 1901). Constable Bennett rose to become a chief superintendent and was credited with playing a leading role in the suppression of the Garrison Lane Vendetta by bringing the ring leaders to justice; ‘B’ham Former Police Chief Dies’, newspaper cutting thanks Ruby Massa, Bennett’s granddaughter.
230‘A Ruffian Silenced for a Time’, Ross Gazette (10 January 1901); ‘Penal Servitude for a Hooligan’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph (10 January 1901).
231‘Rowdysim in Garrison Lane’ BM (10 July 1901).
232Walter G. Chinn, From Victoria’s Image (A Reminiscence in Reflection) (unpublished MS, Birmingham c. 1978), p.18.
233‘Ruffianism in Birmingham the Stipendiary’s Resolution’, BM (5 November 1901).
234J. Cuming Walters, Scenes in Slumland: Pen Pictures of the Black Spots in Birmingham (Birmingham, 1901), p.5.
235‘The Gunter Case’, BM (14 December 1901).
236‘Verdict of Wilful Murder’, BM (30 October 1901).
237‘Funeral of the Victim’, BM (31 October 1901).
238‘The Gunter Murder Trial. Verdict and Sentences’, BM (14 December 1901).
239T. J. Bass, Hope in Shadowland (Birmingham, 1903), p.31; ‘The Birmingham Peaky Blinders’, BDG (14 December 1901).
240For intimidation see ‘The Gunter case. Alleged intimidation of Witnesses’, BM (7 November 1901).
241‘Terrible Assault in Birmingham’, Coventry Herald (31 January 1902).
242‘The Murderous Attack on PC Blinko’, BDG (15 March 1902).
243‘Murderous Attack on a Police Constable’, London Daily News (29 January 1902).
244‘The Murderous Attack on PC Blinko’, BDG (15 March 1902).
245BDG (25 March 1903).
246Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham Vol. IV, pp.346.
247BDG (13 September 1905).
248‘Two Murder Trials’, BDG (16 December 1905).
249Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham,vol. IV, pp.346.
250‘Hooligan outrages’, BDG (11 January 1907).
251‘Night Adventure’, BDG (19 November 1912).
252Davies, Gangs of Manchester, pp.334–343.
253Gooderson, Gangs of Birmingham, p.255; also see ‘Birmingham’s Sporting Parson’, BDG (11 December 1934).
254‘The Rev. Arnold Pinchard’, Pall Mall Gazette (4 October 1907); and for Father Jay see Raphael Samuel, East End Underworld. Chapters in the life of Arthur Harding (London, 1981), pp.2, 19 and 286–288 and for the Old Nicholl, Sarah Wise The Blackest Streets: The life and death of a Victorian slum (London, 2009 edn).
255Sarah Wise, ‘Inside the Skin of a Slum’, Church Times (2 July 2008).
256J. R. C. ‘Peaky Blinders’, p.72.
257‘Table Talk’, BM (16 April 1881).
258‘Sparkbrook Boxing Club’, BDG (12 August 1908).
259‘Changed a Bad Parish’, BDG (11 December 1934).
260‘Women’s Election Preparations’, BDG (23 January 1929).
261‘Birmingham Kyrle Society in the Seven Dials’, BDP (8 July 1889); ‘The Birmingham Kyrle Society. A Proposed “Kyrle Hall”’, BDP (27 November 1891).
262‘The Birmingham Kyrle Society’, BDP (27 September 1893).
263‘Birmingham Street Boys Union’, BM (27 September 1906).
264Arnold Freeman, Boy Life and Labour: The Manufacture of Inefficiency (London 1914) p.130.
265Davies, Gangs of Manchester, pp.343–44 and 353.
266See, for example, ‘Aston Board School Football Association’, BDP (12 May 1886); ‘Junior League’, Sports Argus (21 October 1905).
267Freeman, Boy Labour, pp.110–115.
268Davies, Gangs of Manchester, pp.353–54.
269Freeman, Boy Labour, p.133 and pp.88–89.
270‘Ruffianism in Birmingham the Stipendiary’s Resolution’, BM (5 November 1901).
271‘Hooliganism Redivivus’, BM (5 November 1901).
272‘The Navigation Street Riot’, BDP (25 March 1875).
273T. J. Bass, Everyday Life in Blackest Birmingham: Facts Not Fiction (Birmingham 1898), p9.
274‘Hooliganism in Birmingham’, BM (13 May 1901).
275‘Police Attacked at Key Hill. Civilians to the Rescue’, BM (27 March 1905).
276Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham vol. IV, pp.326–7.
277‘Local News and Jottings’, BM (14 December 1901).
278‘Birmingham Watch Committee’, BM (13 November 1901).
279‘Wanted’, Cheltenham Chronicle (30 July 1910).
280‘Cowardly Constable’, Worcestershire Chronicle (19 September 1903).
281‘Memories of Peaky Blinder Gangs’, Evening Despatch (29 January 1930).
282‘Murder of PC Lines’, BWP (27 May 1955).
283‘News of the Day’, BDP (2 July 1900).
284‘Police Orders 17 Dec. 1901 To 8 Oct. 1903’.
285‘Testing the Police Staves’, BDP (22 November 1890).
286‘Notes and News’, BM (9 December 1890).
287Walter Chinn, Interview, BLA (number 2 1979).
288See ‘The History of Police Uniform in Manchester Up Until WW2’, http://www.gmpmuseum.co.uk/collection-item/the-history-of-policeuniform-in-manchester-up-until-ww2/ [accessed 15 July 2018).
289‘Connaught Man’, Weekly Irish Times (19 October 1907).
290‘Reservists and the Birmingham City Police’, BM (11 February 1901).
291‘Table Talk’, BM (24 August 1901).
292‘The Birmingham Police Force. Where The Recruits Come From’, BM (26 October 1901).
293‘Chief Superintendent C. W. Lloyd, Letter, BLA (18 June 1987).
294‘Ex-Police Chief’, BDG (13 February 1928).
295‘Half-Century of Police Service’, BDG (6 March 1918).
296‘Juvenile Slogging Gangs’, BM (21 September 1918).
297‘The Resignation of Superintendent Walker’, BM (6 February 1900).
298‘The Disappearance of Tramps’ BM (4 December 1915).
299‘Murder of PC Lines’, BWP (27 May 1955).
300‘The Ten Arches Gang’, BM (10 January 1883); ‘Aston Police Cricket Club’, BDP (18 January 1895).
301‘Rowdyism at Ten Arches’, BDP (22 May 1900).
302George Hickling 145403, Short Service Attestation, TNA, Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ (1915).
303C. R. S., ‘Forward. How Birmingham is Changing’, BDG (30 December 1925).
304‘Less Crimes. Birmingham Returns’, BDG (9 May 1929).
305‘Bricks and Bottles Thrown by a Hostile Crowd’, BDG (21 June 1910).
306‘Street Terrorists. Six Months’ Hard Labour for Young Hooligans’, BDG (15 June 1920).
307Dundee Evening Telegraph (21 March 1927).
308‘Terrorising Gang Sent to Prison. Expert Crooks’ Crimes’, BDG (8 May 1930).
309There is also no mention of peaky blinders in the 1920s in Deritend and Bordesley, where they had been rife until a few years before the First World War. See, for example, Mary Elizabeth Shott, Brum and Candlelight: A Walk Down Memory Lanes (1995), and also Tom Golding, 96 Years a Brummie, 1889–1896 (1986).
310Beattie Hamill, née Carson, Interview, BLA (1987).
311Victor J. Andrews, Patched Parts [originally serialised in the Sunday Mercury as ‘I Remember Garrison Lane’] (Birmingham, 1999), p.37–40.
Chapter Four: Illegal Bookmakers and a Vendetta
312Series 1, Episode 1, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2013).
313‘Behind the scenes on the set of BBC drama Peaky Blinders’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-23795850/behind-the-scenes-on-the-set-of-bbc-drama-peaky-blinders.
314Chinn, Better Betting, p.102; and Geoffrey Floy, Policing Birmingham, p.226 and p.203.
315See David Dixon, ‘‘Class Law’: The Street Betting Act of 1906’, International Journal of the Sociology of Law, vol. 8 (1980), p.109.
316Charles Vince, History of the Corporation of Birmingham, vol. IV (1900–1915) (Birmingham, 1923) pp.348–49.
317Floy, Policing in Birmingham, p.228.
318Chinn, Better Betting, pp.136–40.
319‘Year’s Crime in Birmingham’, BDG (1 September 1920).
320Chinn, Better Betting, pp.136–40.
321Harry Vokes, Letter, BLA (1988).
322Hetty Bradbury, Letter, Carl Chinn Bookmaking Archive [hereafter BA], Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.
323See ‘Law on Betting’, BDG (9 May 1913).
324Chinn, Better Betting, pp.109 and pp.142–4.
325Clements, ‘Historia Interviews: Steven Knight’.
326Albert Judd, Interview, BA (1988).
327Mr A. T. Richardson, Letter, BLA (23.3.88).
328George W. Langham, Letter, BLA (1988).
329Vokes, Letter, BLA (1988).
330Chinn, Better Betting, p.125.
331Richardson, Letter, BLA (1988).
332Carl Chinn, The Anatomy of a Working-Class Neighbourhood: West Sparkbrook 1871 to 1914 (University of Birmingham Ph.D. thesis, 1986), p.151.
333‘Successful Novel Police Ruse’, BDG (17 November 1928).
334Chinn, Better Betting, p.208.
335William Chinn, Interview, BLA (1987).
336Mrs V. G. Pullin (née Foster), Letter, BLA (2007).
337Olga Packer, nee Pickering, Interview (1988); and for women betting see Chinn, Better Betting, pp.144–47.
338Richard Pickering, Interview, BA (1993).
339Chinn, Better Betting, pp.130–31.
340Katherine Clements, ‘Historia Interviews: Steven Knight’, Historia (2 May 2016), http://www.historiamag.com/historia-interviews-steven-knight/
341Jonathan Wright, ‘Peaky Blinders: behind the scenes with creator Steven Knight’, HistoryExtra, (2018), https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/peaky-blinders-behind-the-scenes-with-creator-steven-knight/
342For the Burger Boys and Johnson Crew see Caroline Gall, ‘Birmingham gangs: How two rivals poisoned a city’s streets’, (23 August 2017 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-41024825).
3431871 Census, TNA, Class: RG10; Piece: 3015; Folio: 17; Page: 27; GSU roll: 838861.
3441881 Census, TNA, Class: RG11; Piece: 3013; Folio: 108; Page: 51; GSU roll: 1341720.
345See G. C. Allen, The Industrial Development of Birmingham and the Black Country 1860–1927 (firstpublished 1929, New York edn 1866), pp.233–43).
3461891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 2413; Folio: 76; Page: 4.
3471911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 18165.
3481901 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 2855; Folio: 44; Page: 38; and Census 1911, Class: RG14; Piece: 18357.
349‘Birmingham Police Court’, BM (23 April 1881).
350‘Riding without a Ticket’, BM (10 January 1884).
351‘Unprovoked Attack’, BDP (6 November 1895).
352‘Alleged Counterfeiters at Warwick’, Leamington Spa Courier (4 July 1896); ‘Counterfeiters get their Deserts’, Leamington Spa Courier (11 July 1896).
353‘Samuel Sheldon, 147’, Convicts on License 9 (Birmingham City Police, 1911–1912), West Midlands Police Museum; ‘Samuel Sheldon 2546, Prisoners’ Photographs (29 October 1907), West Midlands Police Museum.
354‘An Intolerable Nuisance’, BDP (29 June 1886).
355‘Assaulting the Police’, BM (14 May 1887).
356‘Another Rough Severely Punished’, BDP (15 November 1888).
357‘The Assault in Allison Street’, BDP (3 August 1889).
358‘Disgraceful Assault on a Girl’, BDP (5 November 1889).
359‘Street Ruffianism’, BDP (9 July 1890).
360‘Committed for Trial’, BDP (20 March 1895) and Samuel Sheldon, Calendar of Prisoners (28 Oct 1907), QS/B/20/72.
361Banns, St Laurence, Samuel Sheldon (22 September 1890), Reference Number: EP 69/2/3/1; Archive Roll: 12.
3621891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 2403; Folio: 55; Page: 12.
363‘The Most Lawless Part of Birmingham’, BDP (28 February 1900).
3641901 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 2855; Folio: 37; Page: 23.
3651911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 18264.
366Banns, St James the Less Ashted, Ella Maria Small (6 August 1917) Reference Number: DRO 10; Archive Roll: 643.
367‘Daring Robbery in Leicester’, Leicester Chronicle (28 July 1900).
368Samuel Sheldon, Calendar of Prisoners (28 Oct 1907), QS/B/20/72.
369See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo4/5/83/section/4.
370‘The Stratford Road Riot’, BM (5 June 1905).
371‘Quarter Sessions’, BDG (31 October 1907).
372Samuel Sheldon, 147, Convicts on License 9.
373Joseph Sheldon, Calendar of Prisoners (19 November), QS/B/20/94.
374John Sheldon, MEPO 6, The Metropolitan Police Criminal Record Office containing the Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers (1914).
375‘Charge of Uttering Base Coin’, Worcestershire Chronicle (27 June 1903).
376‘House Ransacked’, BDG (20 May 1905).
3771901 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 2855; Folio: 32; Page: 13; and ‘John Sheldon’, Calendar of Prisoners (17 March 1906), QS/B/20/112.
378‘Racecourse Pests’, Nottingham Evening Post (3 September 1919).
379‘John Sheldon’, MEPO 6, The Metropolitan Police Criminal Record Office containing the Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers (1903).
380‘Policeman and a Commission Agent’ (21 March 1906).
3811901 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 2403; Folio: 62; Page: 25
382Janice Jackson Email (21 November 2014); ‘William Beach’, Militia Attestation (22 September 1898); ‘William Beach 24109,’ Canada, WWI CEF Personnel Files, 1914–1918, Bea – Bel Box 0530 (Beach, Oliver – Beech, William James).
383Margaret Beale, Email (1 October 2014).
384Mr Beasley, Interview, BA (1989).
385Ray Lewis, Interview, BA (1989); Terry Lines, Email (24 February 2014).
386‘Garrison Lane Vendetta’, Birmingham Gazette and Express [hereafter BGE] (14 October 1912).
387‘Shooting Affray’, BDG (9 January 1909).
388‘Shots in a City Street’, BDG (22 June 1908).
389‘Charles Jones’, Calendar of Prisoners (19 November 1910), QS/B/20/112.
390Acting Superintendent, ‘Re Unlawful Assemblies in Watery Lane and district’ (Handwritten MS 1909) [West Midlands Police Museum], p.1.
391Beasley, Interview, BA (1989).
392‘Shooting Affray’, BDG (9 January 1909).
393‘Birmingham Vendetta’, BM (30 January 1909).
394‘Theft of Cheese’, BDP (1 May 1900); ‘A Question of Time’ BDP (29 September 1900); ‘Peace and Goodwill’, BDG (29 December 1903).
395‘The Dartmouth Street Vendetta’, BDG (3 May 1909); ‘Garrison Street Vendetta’ BGE (20 September 1920).
396Acting Superintendent, ‘Re Unlawful Assemblies in Watery Lane and District’, pp.1–2.
397‘Arthur Morris’, Calendar of Prisoners (26 February 1913), QS/B/20/110.
398‘Dartmouth Street Vendetta’, BED (5 May 1909).
399‘William Beach’, Calendar of Prisoners, (26 March, 1909), QS/B/20/83.
400‘Lewis, Interview, BA (1989)
401‘Garrison Street Vendetta’, BDG (20 September 1910).
402‘Garrison Street Vendetta Case’, BDG (29 November 1910).
403‘Garrison Street Vendetta. Heavy Sentences’, BDG (1 December 1910).
404‘Birmingham Stabbing Case’, BM (25 January 1911).
405‘Women Stabbed’, BDG (22 March 1911).
406‘Garrison Lane Vendetta’, BM (27 March 1912).
407Beasley, Interview, BA (1989).
408Anonymous, 1912, Oct 15. A BIRMINGHAM VENDETTA: MAN SHOT IN THE HEAD IN A PUBLIC HOUSE. The Manchester Guardian (1901–1959), 11.
409Garrison Lane Vendetta’, BGE (30 October 1912).
410‘A Vendetta in Garrison Lane’, BDP (7 December 1912).
411‘Rival Gangs’, BDP (5 November 2912).
412‘Garrison Lane Vendetta’, BGE (30 October 1912).
413‘Birmingham Vendetta’, News of the World (8 December 1912).
414‘Garrison Lane Feud’, BDP (14 October 1912).
415‘Garrison Lane Vendetta’, BGE (30 October 1912).
416‘Reign of Terror’, newspaper cutting (West Midlands Police Museum).
417‘Garrison Lane Vendetta’, BM (7 December 1912) and ‘Sentence Reduced’, BDG (21 January 1913).
418‘Watery Lane Shooting Affray’, BM (20 March 1906).
419‘The End of the Peaky Blinders’, Sheffield Independent (28 June 1923).
420‘Racecourse Pests’, Nottingham Evening Post (3 September 1919).
421Janice Jackson, Email, (21 November 2014).
422‘William Beach 24109,’ Canada, WWI CEF Personnel Files, 1914–1918, Bea – Bel Box 0530 (Beach, Oliver – Beech, William James). I thank Janice Jackson for alerting me to this material. For the battle in which Beach was wounded, see R.C. Fetherstonhaugh (edited and compiled) 13th Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada 1914–1919 (Canada, 1925).
423‘William Beach’, Midlands, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1955, 33 Homes Buildings, Palmer Street, Deritend (1920).
424Midlands, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1955, Deritend, 1925, Charles Henry Street; and TNA, 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/5538I.
425England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007, Samuel Sheldon, December 1943, Birmingham, Volume 6d, Page 638.
426TNA, 1939 Register; Reference: RG 101/5541B.
427England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2000, John Sheldon, December 1941, Birmingham, Volume 6d, p.208.
Chapter Five: The Real Gangsters of the 1920s
428Series 1, Episode 2, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2013).
429William Kimber, W168959, Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth, General Register Office (3 February 2005).
4301891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 2387; Folio: 125; Page: 37. For a full discussion of Kimber’s background see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.44–6.
431William Kimber, TNA, HO140, Calendar of Prisoners, piece 239 (27 October 1904).
432‘Chase among the Chimney Pots’, Leominster News and North West Herefordshire & Radnorshire Advertiser (5 October 1900); Census 1901, Class: RG13; Piece: 2853; Folio: 155; Page: 7.
433William Kimber, TNA, MEPO 6, The Metropolitan Police Criminal Record Office containing the Habitual Criminals Registers and Miscellaneous Papers, (1913).
434William Kimber, Calendar of Prisoners, (27 October 1904).
435William Kimber, Banns, Reference Number: DRO 9; Archive Roll: 608 (1 November 1902).
436Juliet Banyard, Email (7 September 2013).
437William Kimber, Calendar of Prisoners (27 October 1904); ‘A Question of Identity’, BM (29 October 1904).
438‘Trip Tickets’, BM (29 January 1906).
439‘After the Races. Sequel to the Birmingham Derby. Loiterers Sentenced’, BDG (24 May 1907).
4401911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 24018.
441Justin Jones, Email (27 August 2013).
442Maude Kimber, Midlands, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1955, West Birmingham, 5 Charlotte Street (1920 and 1925).
443Banyard email (7 September 2013).
4441911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 17989.
445‘Roughs of the Turf’, The Daily Telegraph (13 August 1898). For a discussion of the Brummagem Boys see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.20–30.
446‘Cup Tie Prosecution’, Derby Daily Telegraph (16 January 1913).
447Joseph Kimber, Calendar of Prisoner, QS/B/20/64 (27 July 1906); ‘Doncaster Police Court. After the St Leger’, Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer (13 September 1912); and ‘Scene at the Maze Races’, Northern Whig (4 August 1913).
448‘Crowd Looks on While Constable is Attacked’, BDG (17 February 1922).
449Thomas McDonagh, 154 and 83, Convicts on License 9 (Birmingham City Police, 1911–1912; West Midlands Police Museum); ‘Slashed with a Razor’, BDG (17 June 1925).
450McDonald, Gangs of London, p.218 and p.123.
451Brian McDonald, Elephant Boys Tales of London and Los Angeles Underworlds (Edinburgh and London, 2000), p.62
452Brian McDonald, Email (28 August 2013).
453McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.125–28.
454‘A Charge of Stabbing’, Illustrated Police News (20 February 1913).
455‘Alleged Wounding’, East London Observer (15 March 1913).
456Illustrated Police News (20 February 1913). Tamplin was named as Templar in this account.
457‘After the Races’, Bedfordshire Advertiser and Luton Times (17 April 1914).
458See Wray Vamplew, A Social and Economic History of Horse Racing (London, 1976) pp.62–75.
459Denny Green, Interview, BA (2005).
460Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.92–3.
461‘Englishmen Charged in Dublin’, Dublin Daily Express (11 May 1917). For Cope, see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.92–3.
462W. Kimber, ADM 194: Courts Martial Registers, WO 86: Judge Advocate General’s Office: District Courts Martial Registers, Home and Abroad, Piece 078: Register of Charges: Home and Abroad (1917), Page 203 (11 October 1917).
463‘How Fortunes Have Been Lost and Won’, Hull Daily Mail (14 November 1931); Thomas Henry Dey, Leaves from a Bookmaker’s Book (London, 1931).
464Mike Huggins, Horseracing and the British 1919–1939 (Manchester, 2003), p.21.
465Tom Divall, Scoundrels and Scallywags (And Some Honest Men) (London, 1929) p.199.
466Centenary Supplement of the ‘Sporting Chronicle’ (29 May, 1971).
467‘Charge of Molesting Bookmakers’, The Times (24 June 1919).
468Sam Dell, Interview, BA (1987)
469Dave Langham, Interview, BA (1988).
470Dell, Interview and Simmy Lewis (Simeon Solomon), Interview (1988).
471Dell, Interview.
472Chinn, Better Betting, pp.177–8.
473Divall, Scoundrels and Scallywags, pp.207–8.
474McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.140–1.
475‘Desperate Thieves.’ Daily Mail (18 October 1919) : 5. Daily Mail Historical Archive. Web. 2 Sept. 2018.
476‘Rogues of the Racecourse’, The Times (17 July 1920): 13. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 2 Sept. 2018.
477McDonald, Gangs of London, p.140 and pp.103–128.
478W. Bebbington, Rogues Go Racing (London, c. 1947) p.95.
479Ali Harris, Interview, BA (1987) and Dell 1987).
480Tommy Garnham, Interview, BA (2013).
481Divall, Scoundrels and Scallywags, p.199 and McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.153–4.
4821901 Census 1, Class: RG13; Piece: 240; Folio: 103; Page: 42 and Census 1911, Class: RG14; Piece: 1191.
483‘Alfred Solomon 83939, Short Service Attestation’.
484‘Betting in City Road’, Hackney and Kingsland Gazette (30 August 1907).
485‘Alfred Solomon, 83939, Short Service Attestation’.
486Simmy Lewis (Simeon Solomon), Interview, BA (1989
487Edward Greeno, War on the Underworld (London, c. 1960), p.17.
488Moss Deyong, Everybody Boo (London, 1951), p.55.
489For a full account of the attack by Armstrong, see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.68–9.
490McDonald, Gangs of London, p.160 and pp.146 and 155–59.
491Garnham, Interview, BA (2013).
492ALFRED SOLOMON charged with the wilful murder of BARNET BLITZ, TNA, MEPO 3/374, Image 3.
493For Emanuel’s family see 1871 Census, TNA, Class: RG10; Piece: 413; Folio: 38; Page: 1; GSU roll: 824629; 1841 Census, TNA, Class: HO107; Piece: 725; Book: 5; Civil Parish: St Botolph Aldersgate; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 16; Folio: 33; Page: 2; Line: 8; GSU roll: 438830; and England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837–1915 for Barnet Emanuel, (1873) Q3-Jul-Aug-Sep E.
4941871 Census, TNA, Class: RG10; Piece: 413; Folio: 38; Page: 1; GSU roll: 824629; 1881 Census, TNA, Class: RG11; Piece: 567; Folio: 75; Page: 25; GSU roll: 1341129; and 1891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 376; Folio: 82; Page: 17. For Emanuel’s family see 1871 Census, TNA, Class: RG10; Piece: 413; Folio: 38; Page: 1; GSU roll: 824629; 1841 Census, TNA, Class: HO107; Piece: 725; Book: 5; Civil Parish: St Botolph Aldersgate; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 16; Folio: 33; Page: 2; Line: 8; GSU roll: 438830; and England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837–1915 for Barnet Emanuel, (1873) Q3-Jul-Aug-Sep E.
4951891 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 262; Folio: 56; Page: 22.
496Edward Emanuel, Calendar of Prisoners (25 April 1902).
497‘North London’, London Evening Standard (24 December 1904).
498Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 24 August 2018), September 1908, trial of JOHN McCARTHY, (27, contractor) (t19080908–48).
4991911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 1410
500Prince, Interview, BA (1987); Samuel, East Underworld, p.131.
501‘A Whitechapel Case’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph (22 January 1912) and ‘The East End Gambling Raid’, East London Observer (10 February 1912).
502‘Recruiting Scandal’, Lincolnshire Echo (17 September 1917’, ‘London Gambling Den. Patronised Mostly by Jews’; Nottingham Evening Post (17 September 1917); BDP (18 September 1917); ‘Aliens Crowd Police Court’, The People (23 September 1917).
503‘Aliens Crowd Police Court’, The People (23 September 1917); £300 fine for Gaming, Daily Mirror (18 September 1917).
504Prince, Interview, BA (1987) and see also McDonald, pp.145–6.
505Raphael Samuel, East Underworld: Chapters in the Life of Arthur Harding (London, 1981), p.131.
506Prince, Interview, BA (1987).
507£300 Fine for Gaming, Daily Mirror (18 September 1917).
5081891 Census, TNA, Class: RG12; Piece: 201; Folio: 96; Page: 104.
5091901 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 1616; Folio: 7; Page: 5.
510‘The Savoy Club Raid’, Globe (12 May 1922); ‘The Raid on a Strand Club’; and ‘The Police Raid on a Club’, Sunderland Daily Echo (22 May 1902). Always First to Start Betting’, Daily Herald (7 September 1931).
511‘Always First to Start Betting’, Daily Herald (7 September 1931).
512Netley Lucas, London and Its Criminals (London, 1926) p.76.
513http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3rgnlRdfWMFsMMwDXN14yW5/darby-sabini
514Norman Lucas, Britain’s Gangland (London 1969), p.23; and ‘Ugly violent criminals of the past’ (22 April 2005) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1488384/Ugly-violent-criminals-of-the-past.html
515Catharine Arnold, Underworld London: Crime and Punishment in the Capital City (London, 2012) pp.284–6.
516Edward T. Hart, Britain’s Godfather (London, 1993) pp.3, 6–7, 13, 15, and 56–71. This discussion on the representation of Sabini as Italian benefitted from discussions with Sam Bernard, an undergraduate student at the University of Birmingham who graduated in 2017 and whose final-year dissertation on the Sabini gang I supervised.
5171911 Census, TNA, Class: RG14; Piece: 902.
518Ottavio Sabini, London Metropolitan Archives; Reference Number: p76/phi/016 (21 December 1913); Doris Annie Amelia Sabini, London Metropolitan Archives, Church of England Parish Registers, 1754–1906; Reference Number: p90/jud/005 (25 January 1916).
519TNA: HO45/23691, ‘Octavius Sabini, alias Darby Sabini Internment’.
520Lucio Sponza, Italian immigrants in Nineteenth Century Britain Realities and Images (Leicester 1988) pp.32–6; and https://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/ancestors/thread/1163482 (16 July 2009).
521David R. Green, ‘Little Italy in Victorian London. Holborn’s Italian Community’, Camden History Review, vol. 15 (1988) pp.5–6.
522‘Serious Assault Cases’, Morning Post (28 December 1883).
523London Metropolitan Archives, School Admission and Discharge Registers; Reference: LCC/EO/DIV03/ LAS/AD/002; England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915, London, Holborn, Volume: 1b, Page: 683 (Jul-Aug-Sep 1888). In this latter he is registered as Q?tavia hHndley.
524General Register Office, England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915, London, Holborn, Volume: 1b, Page: 76881 (Jan-Feb-Mar 1881); General Register Office, England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837–1915, London, Holborn, Volume: 1b, Page: 775 (Jan-Feb-Mar 1883); and Census 1871, TNA, Class: RG11; Piece: 351; Folio: 12; Page: 17; GSU roll: 1341076.
525‘Denies He Is King of Sabini Gang’, Sunday Post (4 July 1926); TNA: CRIM1/209; Charles Sabini statement, (5 December 1922); TNA: HO45/23691, ‘Octavius Sabini, alias Darby Sabini Internment’.
5261891 Census, TNA, Class: RG13; Piece: 253; Folio: 170; Page: 1
527London Metropolitan Archives, School Admission and Discharge Registers; Reference: LCC/EO/DIV03/LAS/AD/002.
528http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/DruryLaneID/.
529Shore, Organised Crime, p.183.
530Ottavio Sabini, London Metropolitan Archives; Reference Number: p76/phi/016 (21 December 1913); and Doris Annie Amelia Sabini, London Metropolitan Archives, Church of England Parish Registers, 1754–1906; Reference Number: p90/jud/005 (25 January 1916).
531‘Denied he was the King of the Sabini Gang’, Sunday Post (4 July 1926).
532Shore, Organised Crime, pp.186–7
533Globe (20 May 1898).
534‘Serious Assault Cases’, Morning Post (28 December 1883); ‘Stabbing in Clerkenwell’, Islington Gazette (30 August 1888).
535‘Italians in Trouble’, Islington Gazette (27 June 1895) and ‘Italian Stabbing case’, Henley Advertiser (10 March 1894).
536‘Not Willing to be Killed for 5s 6d’, Islington Gazette (24 June 1909). Darby is often confused with Charles. However the latter was born in 1883, as indicated by his age in this court case and censuses.
537Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 27 August 2018), January 1910, trial of CORTESI, George (20, wireworker) SABINI, Vincent (24, carman) (t19100111–46).
538‘Italian Affray’, Daily Telegraph & Courier (28 December 1909).
5391891 Census, Class: RG12; Piece: 223; Folio: 58; Page: 8.
540Calendar of Prisoners, HO140, Piece 226 (3 May 1903); and TNA, Central Criminal Court: After Trial Calendars Of Prisoners, CRIM9, Piece 59, Folio 5 (22 April 1913).
541See Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, p.70.
542Shore, Organised Crime, p.178.
543Prince, Interview, BA (1987).
544Dival, Scoundrels and Scallywags, p.199.
545For Alf White see McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.101–2, 139–40 and James Morton, Gangland (London, 1993) pp.29–31, 33–4 and 42–4.
546‘Crowd Shot at on Trotting Ground’, Nottingham Evening Post (31 March 1921).
547Greeno, War on the Underworld, p.21.
548Ugly Scene at Race Meeting’, The Courier (Dundee) (25 March 1921).
549‘Crowd Shot at on Trotting Ground’, Nottingham Evening Post (31 March 1921).
550McDonald, Gangs of London, p.156; Samuel, East End Underworld, pp.204–5.
551‘Shot after Orgy’, BDG (6 April 1921).
552‘King’s Cross Mystery’, Nottingham Journal (29 March 1921).
553‘Hit First Then Shot’, BDG (20 April 1921).
554‘A Gang of Terrors’, Nottingham Journal (28 April 1921).
555‘Epsom Road Battle’, The Times (4 June 1921).
556For a full discussion of these events, see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.72–6.
557‘Racing Gang’s Vendetta’, The Gloucester Citizen (18 August 1921).
558‘Rival Bookies’ Vendetta’, The Sunday Post (21 August 1921).
559‘Racecourse Feud. Is it a Settlement?’, Western Daily Press (5 October 1921).
560The Bookmakers and Backers Racecourse Protection Association. What It Has Done and What It Can Do, with YOUR Help, National Association of Bookmakers File, ‘History’ (1921)
561‘General Committee Minutes, Bookmakers and Backers Racecourse Protection Association’ (12 September 1921).
562‘The B.P.A.’, The Sportsman (10 December 1921).
563For a full discussion of these events see Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.82–91.
564McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.167–185.
565General Committee Minutes, Bookmakers and Backers Racecourse Protection Association (15 May, 12 June and 4 September)
566‘Sentence in Sabini Case’, Derby Daily Telegraph (18 January 1923).
567‘Wild West in London Club’, Nottingham Journal (16 January 1923).
568Langham, Interview, BA (1988).
569‘Racing Feud Sentences’, Pall Mall Gazette (3 November 1922).
570‘Attempt to Bribe Warders’, The Scotsman (2 July 1923).
571‘Club Tragedy Trial’, Hull Daily Mail (18 November 1924).
572McDonald, Gangs of London, p.182.
573‘A Terrific Hit’, Nottingham Journal (18 November 1924).
574‘A Silent Quarrel’, Sheffield Daily Telegraph (10 October 1924).
575‘Club Tragedy Trial’, Hull Daily Mail (18 November 1924).
576‘Street Stabbing Affray’, Dundee Evening Telegraph (24 September 1924).
577Alfred Solomon, MEPO6, Habitual Criminals Register 1927, piece 39 (21 February 1927).
578For attacks on bookmakers see ‘Assault on bookmakers’, Western Daily Press (14 October 1924); for the knuckle duster case see ‘It was a Fight among the Jews’, Evening Telegraph (Dundee) (8 June 1923) and ‘Alleged use of a Knuckleduster’, The Scotsman (19 June 1923).
579‘How We Outwitted a Rival Gang’, Topical Times (19 March 1924).
580‘A Libel Action Discontinued’, Hull Daily Mail (15 December 1925).
581‘Sabini Bankruptcy’, Daily Herald (11 June 1926).
582‘Sabini’s Admissions in Bankruptcy Court’, Dundee Evening Telegraph (29 June 1926).
583For the Sabini Gang and nightclubs see Morton, Gangland, pp.27–8.; ‘Dispute Over a Bet’, The Citizen (Gloucester) (30 October 1929).
584TNA, MEPO 3/374 – ALFRED SOLOMON charged with the wilful murder of BARNET BLITZ (Image 2)
585Bebbington, Rogues Go Racing, pp.102–3.
586‘Racecourse Scene Sequel’, Coventry Evening Telegraph (27 July 1936).
587For a full discussion see Chinn, Better Betting, p.182.
588Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, vol. 1, 1904–1939 (London, 1989), pp.634–5.
589See, for example, Morton, Gangland, p.32.
590Graham Greene, Letter, BA (9 May 1988).
591TNA HO 45/23691, WAR: Octavius Sabini, alias Darby Sabini, alias Frederick Handley, notorious race-course gangster and racketeer: internment (1940–1941).
592‘Heavy Sentence on Receivers’, Kent & Sussex Courier (25 June 1943).
593£50 Produced from Sock, Mid Sussex Times (16 May 1945); Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007, Volume: 5h, p.351, Hove, Sussex, Ollavio Sabini (December 1950).
594Morton, Gangland, pp.31–2.
5951939 Register; TNA, Reference: RG 101/2511A.
596Annie Emma Sabini, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966, 1973–1995 (30 October 1978).
597McDonald, Gangs of London, p.188; ‘Nottingham Bookmaker Fined’, Nottingham Evening Post (23 March 1925).
598General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, Holborn, (August–September 1926) vol. 1b, p.1341 (19 July 1926).
599General Register Office. Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007 for Maud B Kimber, Volume: 6d, Page:11 (1926 Q3-Jul-Aug-Sep K).
600McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.344–5.
601Federal Bureau of Investigation, ‘Subject: Murray Humphreys’, https://archive.org/details/MurrayHumphreys
602McDonald, Elephant Boys, pp.102–31.
603Stuart McGurk, ‘Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight on last night’s cliffhanger and the all-out war to come’, GQ (16 November 2017), (https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/peaky-blinders-creator-steven-knight-on-last-nights-cliffhanger-and-the-all-out-war-to-come).
604‘Birmingham’s Gunman’, BDG (4 March 1933).
605McDonald, Gangs of London, pp.262–4.
606Ibid., and James Spenser, Limey. An Englishman Joins the Gangs (London 1934).
607The Western Morning News (18 April 1938); and ‘Late Mr Bradshaw Smith’, Devon and Exeter Gazette (25 October 1940).
608William Kimber, England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966, 1973–1995 (20 Oct 1945).
609See Chinn, The Real Peaky Blinders, pp.100–1.
610London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832–1965, Hackney, Portsea Works; and see Pam Fox, The Jewish Community of Golders Green: A Social History (Stroud, 2016).
611General Register Office, England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916–2007, Volume: 3a; Page: 948, Edmonton, Essex, Edward Emanuel (March 1943).
612Elizabeth Mary Emanuel, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966, 19731995 (3 February 1951).
613Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer (10 October 1924).
Afterword
614Episode 2, Series 3, Peaky Blinders (BBC2, 2016).
615Carl Chinn, ‘We All Come from Round Sora: Italians in Birmingham’, in Owen Ashton, Robert Fyson and Stephen Roberts (eds), The Duty of Discontent. Essays in Honour of Dorothy Thompson (London, 1995), pp.255–7.
616Doreen Hopwood and Margaret Dilloway, Bella Brum: A History of Birmingham’s Italian Community (Birmingham, 1996), p.2.
617Chinn, ‘We All Come from Round Sora’, pp.258–9; ‘Serious Affray in Bartholomew Street’, BDP (24 April 1886).
618‘Importing Organ grinders’, BDP (3 February 1891).
6191901 Census, Class: RG13; Piece: 2868; Folio: 95; Page: 32; and 1939 Register; TNA, Reference: Class: RG 78 Piece: 18142, Chinn, ‘We All Come from Round Sora’, p.260.
620‘Unemployed and the War Memorial’, BDM (17 July 1922).
621‘Angry Italians’, BDP (4 February 1893).
622Victoria Hooper (née Jennings), ‘Gran and Granddad Ciangretta’s Family’, Carl Chinn’s Brummagem Magazine, Issue 194 (May 2017), p.6.
623Pam Overthrow, Letter (14 May 2018).
624‘Unemployed and the War Memorial’, BDM (17 July 1922).
625Charles Alberici, unpublished MS, BLA, (ND), pp.14–15.
626Hooper nee Jennings, ‘Gran and Granddad Ciangretta’s Family’,
627‘Deaths on Active Service’, BM (30 September 1944).
628For an informed and thoughtful discussion of these issues see Maria Konnikova, ‘Why Do We Admire Mobsters?’ The New Yorker (16 September 2015), https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/why-do-we-admire-mobsters