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Maggie Hill
Margaret Lily Hill (1898 – 1949) was an English career criminal, linked to organised shoplifting. Born in Marylebone, London, she was the sister of notorious gangster Billy Hill who rose to prominence in the London underworld during the interwar years. Forty Elephants During the interwar years she received notoriety as one of the leaders of an all female gang of criminals known as the Forty Elephants who specialised in shoplifting. This gang was notable for its longevity and skill in avoiding police detection. Personal life Hill's parents were Septimus James Hill and Amelia Sparling, who had married in 1895. Her mother was born in Dublin, Ireland. Hill was a close friend of Eddie Guerin, famous for being the lover of Chicago May. Her sister was Dorothy 'Dolly' Mays, another of the Forty Elephants. According to Brian McDonald, Maggie Hill married career criminal Alfred Hughes in 1915, and they were sometimes convicted together.Brian McDonald: Alice Diamond and the F ...
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Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs of Westminster and Paddington to form the new City of Westminster in 1965. Marylebone station lies two miles north-west of Charing Cross. The area is also served by numerous tube stations: Baker Street, Bond Street, Edgware Road (Bakerloo line), Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines), Great Portland Street, Marble Arch, Marylebone, Oxford Circus, and Regent's Park. History Marylebone was an Ancient Parish formed to serve the manors (landholdings) of Lileston (in the west, which gives its name to modern Lisson Grove) and Tyburn in the east. The parish is likely to have been in place since at least the twelfth century and will have used the boundaries of the pre- ...
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Gangster
A gangster (informally gangsta) is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''Organized crime, mob'' and the suffix ''wikt:-ster, -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more organized crime, complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series, and video games. Usage In modern usage, the term "gang" is generally used for a criminal organization and the term "gangster" invariably describes a criminal. Much has been written on the subject of gangs, although there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a gang or what situations lead to gang formation and evolution. There is agreement that the members of a gang have a sense of common identity and belonging and ...
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Billy Hill (gangster)
William Charles Hill (13 December 1911 – 1 January 1984) was an English criminal, linked to smuggling, protection rackets and extreme violence. He was one of the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London from the 1920s through to the 1960s. His gang managed cash robberies and, in a scam, defrauded London's high society of millions at the card tables of John Aspinall's Clermont Club. Early life Hill was born in St Pancras, London, on 13 December 1911, one of Amelia Jane (née Sparling) and Septimus James Hill's sixteen children. Growing up in an established criminal family, Hill committed his first stabbing at age fourteen.Hiscock, John. ''Gangsters in a class of their own ...'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', 21 February 2009; accessed 9 December 2014. He began as a house burglar in the late 1920s and then specialised in smash and grab raids targeting furriers and jewellers in the 1930s. In 1934, he married Agnes Kirkwood. Criminal career During the Second World War, H ...
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London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a tidal estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Roman Empire, Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of Government of the United Kingdom, the national government and Parliament of the United Kingdom, parliament. London grew rapidly 19th-century London, in the 19th century, becoming the world's List of largest cities throughout history, largest city at the time. Since the 19th cen ...
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Forty Elephants
The Forty Elephants or Forty Thieves were a 19th to 20th century all-female London crime syndicate who specialized in shoplifting, also called ''hoisting'' at the time. This gang was notable for its longevity and skill in avoiding police detection. History The Forty Thieves operated from the Elephant and Castle area of London. They were allied with the Elephant and Castle Mob led by the McDonald brothers. They raided quality stores in the West End of London and ranged all over the country. The gang was also known to masquerade as housemaids for wealthy families before ransacking their homes, often using false references. They were in existence from at least 1873 to the 1950s with some indications that they may have existed since the late 18th century. There are mentions of young women and girls connected with or acting as accomplices to a male gang named "The Forty Thieves" as early as 1828. The members of this gang were between the ages ten and twenty. Both the male and f ...
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Eddie Guerin
Eddie may refer to: *Eddie (text editor), a text editor originally for BeOS and now ported to Linux and Mac OS X *Eddie (crater), a crater on Mars *Eddie (given name) *The Eddie, a surfing tournament Arts and entertainment * ''Eddie'' (film), a 1996 film about basketball starring Whoopi Goldberg ** ''Eddie'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the film * "Eddie" (Louie), a 2011 episode of the show ''Louie'' *Eddie (shipboard computer), in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' *Eddie (Iron Maiden), the mascot for the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden *Eddie, an American Cinema Editors award for best editing *Eddie (book series), a book series by Viveca Lärn *Half of the musical duo Flo & Eddie *"Eddie", a song from the ''Rocky Horror Picture Show ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is a 1975 independent film, independent Musical film, musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White (producer), Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th ...
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Chicago May
Chicago May (1871–1929) was the nickname of Mary Anne Duignan, an Ireland, Irish-born criminal who became notorious in the United States, U.S., United Kingdom and France. Her principle crimes were prostitution and blackmail. She referred to herself as the "queen of crooks" and sometimes used the name May Churchill. Early life She was born in Edenmore, Ballinamuck, County Longford, Ireland. In 1890, at the age of 19, she stole her parents' savings of £60 and travelled to Britain. From there, she sailed to New York. She moved to Chicago to take advantage of the large influx of visitors at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. She teamed up with another prostitute. One robbed customers while the other was having sex with them. She returned to New York City, where she worked as a dancer, but was soon arrested for stealing a wallet, earning her first jail sentence. She briefly married friend Jim Sharpe but the couple soon separated. After this, she called herself May Churchill S ...
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Alice Diamond
Alice Diamond (22 June 1896 – 1 April 1952) was an English career criminal, linked to organised shoplifting. Early life Diamond was born Alice Elizabeth Black in Lambeth Workhouse Hospital to Thomas Diamond and Mary Ann Alice Black. Her parents had applied for a maternity birth under the name of Black before they married to avoid the stigma of an illegitimate birth. However, as they married shortly before Alice was born, this also avoided the problem. Her father, Thomas Diamond, had at least three criminal convictions, including one for assaulting the son of the Lord Mayor of London at a political meeting by punching his head through a pane of glass in a door, severely injuring him. Alice's mother was born Mary Geary and took the name Black when her parents married. She added Ann and Alice to her name at random times. Alice was the eldest of seven children; a younger sister, Louisa, also joined the Forty Thieves gang of which Alice Diamond had become leader and given the titl ...
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1898 Births
Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island. * January 13 – Novelist Émile Zola's open letter to the President of the French Republic on the Dreyfus affair, , is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper , accusing the government of wrongfully imprisoning Alfred Dreyfus and of antisemitism. February * February 12 – The automobile belonging to Henry Lindfield of Brighton rolls out of control down a hill in Purley, London, England, and hits a tree; thus he becomes the world's first fatality from an automobile accident on a public highway. * February 15 – Spanish–American War: The explodes and sinks in Havana Harbor, Cuba, for reasons never fully established, killing 266 men. The event precipitates the United States' ...
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1949 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. * January 11 – The first "networked" television broadcasts take place, as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, goes on the air, connecting east coast and mid-west programming in the United States. * January 16 – Şemsettin Günaltay forms the new government of Turkey. It is the 18th government, last One-party state, single party government of the Republican People's Party. * January 17 – The first Volkswagen Beetle, VW Type 1 to arrive in the United States, a 1948 model, is brought to New York City, New York by Dutch businessman Ben Pon Sr., Ben Pon. Unable to interest dealers or importers in the Volkswagen, Pon sells the sample car to pay his ...
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British Female Gangsters
British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture * British English, the English language as spoken and written in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, more broadly, throughout the British Isles * Celtic Britons, an ancient ethno-linguistic group * Brittonic languages, a branch of the Insular Celtic language family (formerly called British) ** Common Brittonic, an ancient language Other uses *People or things associated with: ** Great Britain, an island ** British Isles, an island group ** United Kingdom, a sovereign state ** British Empire, a historical global colonial empire ** Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) ** United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) * British Raj, colonial India under the British Empire * British Hong Kong, colonial Ho ...
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