Prologue: Blonde Mickie -- Introduction: woman of the underworld -- Mary Frith: Jacobean pickpocket and fence -- Ann Duck: eighteenth-century street robber -- A conscious mistress of crime -- Ladies go a-thieving -- Emily Lawrence: Victorian jewel thief -- Mary Carr: Queen of the Forty Thieves -- Alice Diamond and Maggie Hughes: the Forty Elephants -- Lady Jack: shop breaker -- Queenie Day: the terror of Soho -- Rescued from the footnotes -- Lilian Goldstein: smash-and-grab raider -- The Forty Elephants bar -- Noreen Harbord: Queen of the Contraband Coast -- Zoe Progl: No 1. woman burglar -- The great escape -- Shirley Pitts: Queen of the Shoplifters -- The criminal masquerade -- Liberation of the female criminal -- Chris Tchaikovsky: queen of charisma -- Looking for trouble -- Joan Hannington: diamond thief -- Gangsters' molls -- Joyti De-Laurey: queen of cash -- Lady Justice.
Summary:
"The incredible story of Britain's female gangsters from the seventeenth century to the present day. Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Kray brothers... All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the women who led gangs of pickpockets, formed Victorian crime syndicates and launched nationwide shoplifting gangs? Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female gangsters from the 17th century to the present. From Moll Cutpurse who ruled the criminal underworld in Jacobean London, to Mary Carr who led the Forty Elephants Gang in Victorian England, and Shirley Pitts who formed Britain's most successful shoplifting gang of the 20th century, these were charismatic women at the top of their game. Female criminals have often been dismissed as either not 'real women' or not real criminals, and in the process their stories have been lost - this book tells the truth about their lives for the first time"--Publisher's description.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.