The Victorian Criminal
A great companion to Victorian and Edwardian Prisons, and The Victorian Policeman :
Can be purchased here - http://crimsonbooksinc.storesecured.com/items/book-publishers/shire/victorian/the-victorian-criminal-neil-r-storey-shisli615-detail.htm
The Victorian Criminal - Neil R. Storey
“In the absence of anything more convincing…anthropometry, based on the measurements of the physiognomy of convicted criminals, was adopted by British and American police forces and prisons in an attempt to establish a formula to identify the typical criminal type.”
There were distinct differences in the Victorian era between city and rural crime and punishment. Because there were no national or even regional police forces, rural areas were patrolled by a few constables, mostly dealing with drunken behavior, brawling, and pouching. So behind the times was enforcement in the country, both lock-ups (essentially enforced buildings about the size of an outhouse), and even the stocks, were still used to hold these mostly minor offenders.
The only common, truly major crimes in these quiet areas were poaching and highway robbery. Highway robbery was usually a gang action, involving solitary riders being ripped from their horses or carts and badly beaten, and not the romanticized crime of poetry and song.
Poaching, which was a capitol crime for most of the century, was usually policed by private landowners, who would hire gamekeepers to set traps and run patrols. Because of the harshness of the punishments of the time, poachers would usually fight or exchange fire. Since these poachers were often the only suppliers of cheap meat to the very poor and usually underemployed people in rural districts, they were generally treated as minor heroes by the common people, who would usually shelter them from the forces of the law.
Burglary has always existed, but it was at this time it became a common crime. Unemployed craftsmen (i.e., carpenters, metalworkers, builders), learned to use their skills to gain entry into houses that they may have helped build.
Some of the criminal types of the time included ‘coiners’, forgers who had formerly worked as jewelers; ‘snide pitchers’ who bought from coiners for distribution; ‘fishers’ who robbed post boxes, looking for both money and blackmail materials; ‘sharpers’, the ancestors of three-card monte dealers; ‘swellmobsmen’ would dress well to con business owners; ‘dippers’ who picked pockets.
Women made some of the most sophisticated and successful dippers. The voluminous clothing and strict social mores of the day gave them both ample space to hide goods, and an easy escape from any man they may have chosen as a mark. Social customs also meant women were the great experts as garroting, another common crime of the time. A female thief would pretend to be a prostitute, and after bringing her victim to a secluded area would get close, and then slip a garrote around his neck, choking him to unconsciousness so she and her companions could ransack his body.
Of actual prostitutes there was certainly no shortage. In 1857 it was estimated that in London one in every sixteen woman were engaged in prostitution of one form or another. Storey does a good, concise job of breaking down the different groups of ladies of the night, and where they would have worked.
“The 19th century brought unprecedented developments…and with these dramatic changes came new crimes.”
The expansion of the railways opened new avenues to criminals as well as regular citizens. Crimes committed on a train would allow the criminal to disembark and quickly place distance between themselves and their victims. These crimes tended to be violent and daring. The first robbery/murder on public transportation too place in 1864, and hasn’t stopped since.
Because this was an era of great wealth and of the new middle class, another particular type of crime has its origins in this time. White-collar crimes, embezzlement, and insurance fraud were all crimes perpetrated by people of ‘quality’ upon others of their own class.
Reformers of the time were amongst the first to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated, and that the environment was a deciding factor in the lives of most. The first and most important reform efforts were directed towards child criminals. While they were effective at ending child gangs (gangs of starving street kids formed by an adult criminal to commit crimes at his direction), extreme poverty made it impossible to wipe out all child performed crimes - most of which were petty and pitiful.
With the spread of both literacy and the press the Victorians developed a relish for bloody, exotic crimes, a tendency we share with them. The murder of Isaac Jermy by James Rush became the first celebrated killing of an era that would become infamous for them, with one broadside about it selling 2.5 million copies.
Poisoning made it big comeback in this time, mostly used by doctors and other medical personnel who had easy access to it. Dr. Thomas Cream killed both friends and prostitutes from fun and profit, and tried to claim on the scaffold that he was Jack the Ripper, and a Dr. Lamson was a drug addict who killed his nephew for an inheritance. Hundreds attended their trials.
Storey ends by summing up many of the more sensational murders that took place, giving pride of place to Bloody Jack himself.
Men dismembered their mistresses. Women killed, and cooked, their employers. Wives slit the throats of their husband’s illegitimate children. Actors killed other actors at the stage door.
It was a beautiful time, but it wasn’t pretty.
Can be purchased here - http://crimsonbooksinc.storesecured.com/items/book-publishers/shire/victorian/the-victorian-criminal-neil-r-storey-shisli615-detail.htm
The Victorian Criminal - Neil R. Storey
“In the absence of anything more convincing…anthropometry, based on the measurements of the physiognomy of convicted criminals, was adopted by British and American police forces and prisons in an attempt to establish a formula to identify the typical criminal type.”
There were distinct differences in the Victorian era between city and rural crime and punishment. Because there were no national or even regional police forces, rural areas were patrolled by a few constables, mostly dealing with drunken behavior, brawling, and pouching. So behind the times was enforcement in the country, both lock-ups (essentially enforced buildings about the size of an outhouse), and even the stocks, were still used to hold these mostly minor offenders.
The only common, truly major crimes in these quiet areas were poaching and highway robbery. Highway robbery was usually a gang action, involving solitary riders being ripped from their horses or carts and badly beaten, and not the romanticized crime of poetry and song.
Poaching, which was a capitol crime for most of the century, was usually policed by private landowners, who would hire gamekeepers to set traps and run patrols. Because of the harshness of the punishments of the time, poachers would usually fight or exchange fire. Since these poachers were often the only suppliers of cheap meat to the very poor and usually underemployed people in rural districts, they were generally treated as minor heroes by the common people, who would usually shelter them from the forces of the law.
Burglary has always existed, but it was at this time it became a common crime. Unemployed craftsmen (i.e., carpenters, metalworkers, builders), learned to use their skills to gain entry into houses that they may have helped build.
Some of the criminal types of the time included ‘coiners’, forgers who had formerly worked as jewelers; ‘snide pitchers’ who bought from coiners for distribution; ‘fishers’ who robbed post boxes, looking for both money and blackmail materials; ‘sharpers’, the ancestors of three-card monte dealers; ‘swellmobsmen’ would dress well to con business owners; ‘dippers’ who picked pockets.
Women made some of the most sophisticated and successful dippers. The voluminous clothing and strict social mores of the day gave them both ample space to hide goods, and an easy escape from any man they may have chosen as a mark. Social customs also meant women were the great experts as garroting, another common crime of the time. A female thief would pretend to be a prostitute, and after bringing her victim to a secluded area would get close, and then slip a garrote around his neck, choking him to unconsciousness so she and her companions could ransack his body.
Of actual prostitutes there was certainly no shortage. In 1857 it was estimated that in London one in every sixteen woman were engaged in prostitution of one form or another. Storey does a good, concise job of breaking down the different groups of ladies of the night, and where they would have worked.
“The 19th century brought unprecedented developments…and with these dramatic changes came new crimes.”
The expansion of the railways opened new avenues to criminals as well as regular citizens. Crimes committed on a train would allow the criminal to disembark and quickly place distance between themselves and their victims. These crimes tended to be violent and daring. The first robbery/murder on public transportation too place in 1864, and hasn’t stopped since.
Because this was an era of great wealth and of the new middle class, another particular type of crime has its origins in this time. White-collar crimes, embezzlement, and insurance fraud were all crimes perpetrated by people of ‘quality’ upon others of their own class.
Reformers of the time were amongst the first to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated, and that the environment was a deciding factor in the lives of most. The first and most important reform efforts were directed towards child criminals. While they were effective at ending child gangs (gangs of starving street kids formed by an adult criminal to commit crimes at his direction), extreme poverty made it impossible to wipe out all child performed crimes - most of which were petty and pitiful.
With the spread of both literacy and the press the Victorians developed a relish for bloody, exotic crimes, a tendency we share with them. The murder of Isaac Jermy by James Rush became the first celebrated killing of an era that would become infamous for them, with one broadside about it selling 2.5 million copies.
Poisoning made it big comeback in this time, mostly used by doctors and other medical personnel who had easy access to it. Dr. Thomas Cream killed both friends and prostitutes from fun and profit, and tried to claim on the scaffold that he was Jack the Ripper, and a Dr. Lamson was a drug addict who killed his nephew for an inheritance. Hundreds attended their trials.
Storey ends by summing up many of the more sensational murders that took place, giving pride of place to Bloody Jack himself.
Men dismembered their mistresses. Women killed, and cooked, their employers. Wives slit the throats of their husband’s illegitimate children. Actors killed other actors at the stage door.
It was a beautiful time, but it wasn’t pretty.