#feministfriday episode 515 | Waddle
Good evening everyone,
It's South London! It's elephants! It's flappers (sort of, don't @ me)! Presenting The Forty Elephants:
The Forty Elephants were master shoplifters. Emerging from the poverty-stricken underbelly of London’s slums, these glamourous women plundered fashion stores and jewelry shops and used blackmail and extortion to build an underworld business enterprise. Named after the district in which they operated, Elephant and Castle, the gang was known for its distinctive “elephant-like waddle” when leaving a crime scene.
https://thecrimewire.com/institutional/The-Most-Notorious-All-Women-Criminal-Gang-in-History
Here's their second leader, or "queen" - it's Alice Diamond (possibly not her real name). There are photos in which she looks considerably less glamourous than this so there might have been a bit of early twentieth century photoshopping in play here:
Have a super weekend, everyone.
Alex xx.