In the filthy streets of Victorian South London, a group of women from Elephant and Castle pulled off the largest and most sophisticated shoplifting operation in British history. Known as the Forty Elephants, these working-class women built a tightly run underground network—strategic, stealthy, and nearly untouchable. Targeting high-end department stores, they outsmarted police, intimidated male gangs and pulled off flawless heists again and again.
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Sources:
Dirty London: How Victorian Filth Formed the Urban Detective
The Lady Gangsters of the Victorian Age
Crime and the Victorians
The Sun– Glamour Gangsters
Meet The Forty Elephants, The All-Girl Gang From London
What was crime like in Victorian London?
https://www.walks.com/blog/crime-victorian-london/
The all women gang that robbed London blind
London’s Female Thieves, 1700-1710
Criminal Gangs of 19th Century Britain
Crime chronicles: Part 2
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