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Elephant And Castle Mob
The Elephant and Castle Mob were one of the many independent street gangs active in London's underworld during the interwar years. A rival of mobster Charles "Darby" Sabini along with the Birmingham Boys and the Cortesi brothers of Saffron Hill, they were eventually forced out by Sabini with the added manpower of imported Sicilian mafiosi and had disappeared from the city by the end of the Second World War. They were allied to the Birmingham gang, often called the Brummagems, led by Billy Kimber; the Camden Town gang, led by George Sage and the Finsbury Boys, led by Freddie Gilbert. The gangs rivalled those from north and east London led by Darby Sabini, Alf White, Alf Solomon and Dodger Mullins. The gang achieved dominance on the race courses and in London's West End by conquering the West End Boys, led by the McCausland brothers, and the King's Cross/Titanic gang led by Alf White. From the 1910s to the 1930s, they were led by the McDonald brothers, Wag and Wal, and battled th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as '' Londinium'' and retains its medieval boundaries.See also: Independent city § National capitals The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which largely comprises Greater London, governed by the Greater London Authority.The Greater London Authority consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The London Mayor is distinguished fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoxton Gang
The Hoxton Gang (or Hoxton Mob) was an independent street gang based in London's Soho district during the interwar years. They were one of several gangs which fought against Charles "Darby" Sabini and the "Italian Mob", specifically over control of gambling clubs or "spielers". During the 1930s, the gang was among many who struggled for control of racetracks and protection rackets and, in June 1936, around 30 gang members attacked a bookmaker and his clerk with hammers and knuckle-dusters at the Lewes racetrack before police arrived, with at least 16 gang members being convicted at Lewes Assizes and sentenced to serve over 43 years. The leader of the Hoxton Mob was called Jimmy Spinks, he was then great uncle of Lenny McLean who was the Guv'nor and known as the hardest man in Britain. The play ''West'' by Steven Berkoff Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. As a theatre m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 title Q ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy. Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially — he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Dragna
Jack Ignatius Dragna (born Ignazio Dragna, ; April 18, 1891 – February 23, 1956) was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzone's mysterious disappearance and death. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956. Biography Early life Dragna was born to Francesco Paolo Dragna and Anna Dragna in Corleone, Sicily, on April 18, 1891. On November 18, 1898, Dragna came to the United States on the S.S. ''Alsatia'' with his parents, older sister Giuseppa, and older brother Gaetano. They stayed in East Harlem, in Manhattan, with his mother's cousin Antonio Rizzotto's family, also from Corleone. It is un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world's most populous megacities. Los Angeles is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With a population of roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits , Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, being the home of the Hollywood film industry, and its sprawling metropolitan area. The city of Los Angeles lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to it's east. It covers about , and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McDonald Brothers (gangsters)
Charles 'Wag' McDonald and Wal McDonald were brothers who led the Elephant and Castle Mob, a London street gang active in the early 20th century. Bert McDonald, their other brother, was the boyfriend of Forty Elephants leader Alice Diamond. Background Wag and Wal were close friends with Birmingham Boys leader Billy Kimber, their gangs allied and both warring with Charles Darby Sabini, who eventually removed their gang from London. In about 1927, Wag’s brother, Bert, and Billy Kimber also went to America after they had fired shots through the door of the ‘Griffin’, a drinking club used by the Sabinis. Wag McDonald fled to Canada to avoid arrest after the Epsom Road Battle in 1921. From there he moved to Los Angeles, where he became a bodyguard to Charlie Chaplin and later to Jack Dragna, the city’s Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Library
Crime Library was a website documenting major crimes, criminals, trials, forensics, and criminal profiling from books. It was founded in 1998 and was most recently owned by truTV, a cable TV network that is part of Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System. In August 2014, Crime Library was no longer being updated. In February 2015 the site was taken offline. Content Crime Library contained an extensive collection of crime related articles, which were separated into categories: Serial Killers, Notorious Murders, Criminal Mind, Terrorists & Spies and Gangsters & Outlaws. Each category was then broken down into further subcategories. For example, within Serial Killers were the subcategories Most Notorious, Sexual Predators, Truly Weird & Shocking, Unsolved Cases, Partners in Crime and Killers from History. Crime Library also featured photo galleries. These may have had anywhere from 10 to upwards of 100 slides. Some photo galleries were focused on a specific case, while others wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821) are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'', which do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1966. In general, the political position of ''The Times'' is considered to be centre-right. ''The Times'' is the first newspaper to have borne that name, lending it to numerous other papers around the world, such as ''The Times of India'', ''The New York Times'', and more recently, digital-first publications such as TheTimesBlog.com (Since 2017). In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as , or as , although the newspaper is of nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saffron Hill
Saffron Hill is a street and ward in the south eastern corner of the London Borough of Camden, between Farringdon Road and Hatton Garden. The name of the street derives from the fact that it was at one time part of an estate on which saffron grew. The ecclesiastical parish was St Peter, Saffron Hill, a daughter parish of Holborn, which is now combined with St Alban (the Martyr), Holborn. In 1850, it was described as a squalid neighbourhood, the home of paupers and thieves. In Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist'' (1837), the Artful Dodger leads Oliver to Fagin's den in Field Lane, the southern extension of Saffron Hill: "a dirty and more wretched place he liverhad never seen. The street was very narrow and muddy, and the air was impregnated with filthy odours". Little Italy Saffron Hill is mentioned in the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story ''The Adventure of the Six Napoleons'', as the Italian Quarter where the Venucci family can be found. The area still retains a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cortesi Brothers
The Cortesi Brothers were four siblings of Italian descent who became notorious crime figures in London during the first decades of the 20th century with their primary lieutenant Alexander Tomaso otherwise known as Sandy Rice. The brothers were Augustus ‘Gus’ Cortesi, Enrico ‘Frenchie’ Cortesi, Paolo ‘Paul’ Cortesi and George Cortesi. Early life Originating in Italy, the Cortesi family moved to Paris, France, where all four brothers were born. Their mother, Angele Cortesi, brought the family to England between 1891 and 1901, In 1901, the family is listed at Little Saffron Hill, Clerkenwell. Gang years As the Cortesi brothers reached adulthood, they became involve in protection racketeering of gamblers and bookmakers. They were close to criminals in the Italian Sabini family. However, the two families became rivals because the Cortesi brothers believed they were being denied a fair share of proceeds from West End of London gambling clubs and wrung from bookm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
