She would send her girls out in teams of three or four at least three days a week, to stores all over London and as far afield as Birmingham and Brighton.

TERRY VENABLES EXCLUSIVE: 'At Euro '96 I had captains everywhere, but the Champions League and Premier League have grown so much now it is hard to see if England still has the same importance' Had her first criminal conviction aged 14 and went on to become Diamond's accomplice. She was an alcoholic and once ran out of a jeweller with a tray of 34 diamond rings and bumped straight into a policeman. After three years in jail she took part in the Lambeth riot at Christmas 1925. In 1938, she was sentenced for stabbing a policeman in the eye with a hatpin. She is thought to have killed herself in the 1970s. Of true crime books, the most renowned of the genre are probably Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and the late Gordon Burn’s Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son, his account of the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. And putting everything in context is Judith Flanders’s wonderful book, The Invention of Murder, so I’ve omitted those from the list on the grounds that they need no introduction. Gang members worked in cohesion with one another. The shoplifters wouldn’t keep the stolen goods on them. Instead, they’d hand them over to other gang members who would then take the stolen goods far away, so in case any of them were ever caught by the police, the items would already be long gone. Eva knew the Krays well and they treated her with reverence, although she saw them as little more than naughty boys.Her story has been told in The Queen of Thieves, written by author Beezy Marsh, which sheds a light on the lives of the girl gang that gained the respect of male criminals because of their lucrative and violent methods. Alan Shearer, Gary Neville and Gary Lineker among tributes that are beginning to flood in after former England manager Terry Venables passes away My abiding memory of him is that he was a very tight little fellow and hated parting with any money in spite of the fact that he had millions,” was how the late Jason Coghlan, a former armed robber described him.

Five-car crash leaves two elderly women dead and three pensioners in hospital as 'drug driver', 51, is arrested In the last years of her life she began to dictate her reminiscences to Lorraine Gamman. These formed the basis for Gamman's biography of Pitts, titled Gone shopping: The story of Shirley Pitts, Queen of thieves, which was published in 1996 by Signet/Penguin (2nd, Bloomsbury, 2012). [9] See also [ edit ] I was de-banked by Barclays! Landlord is left ‘incandescent’ with rage after High Street bank shuts down his family business account without warning... leaving tenants unable to pay him rent Gamman, Lorraine (2012). Gone shopping: The story of Shirley Pitts, Queen of thieves (2nded.). London: Bloomsbury. p.116. ISBN 978-1-4482-0971-2. Members are asked to give the Membership Secretary their consent that their information may be used in this way.Another former detective summed up The Gold as “great TV drama but absolute travesty of initial investigation strategy and police culture”. Fraser himself was charged with pulling out people's teeth with pliers and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Reggie and Ronnie got out of the limo, hopped over the low wall outside the flat and went in to have a word with Chrissie, while Pitts put the tea on. They didn't lay a finger on him, but he never raised a fist to Pitts again, even when she started laying into him. Pitts always gave as good as she got.

Notorious burglar Zoe Progl broke into her first house at the age of 13 and went on to become the first ever prisoner to escape over the wall from Holloway Prison in north London. Their loot would be stuffed into these 'hoister's drawers', allowing the women to leave the stores undetected. Sometimes the hoisters' lives became entangled with those of underworld bosses through affairs, family ties or marriage. Yet they fiercely guarded their right to 'earn' their own money.

The Key Figures

Giving John Lewis a run for its money!' Viewers left in tears at heartwarming Christmas advert for a pub in Northern Ireland featuring a lonely elderly man who finally finds company Life got better after this. Pitts got cleverer - she never really got caught again - and she hit the sixties with a shoplifting technique which saw her turning over thousands a week. The notorious gangster 'Mad' Frankie Fraser's sister Eva had risen through the ranks of the gang after joining in the 1930s. 'Any girl worth her salt in South London in those days was a hoister because they could outearn us men two to one,' he said. 'And they were the best fun for a night out.' They were the women who combined a life of crime in 1950s London with marriage and even motherhood. You could have a field day with the psychology of it all, but she started stealing milk and bread in Lambeth at the age of seven to feed her family. Her father, possibly the most inept criminal in South London, had spent the war years of her childhood in and out of prison, her useless mother had burnt all the furniture and sold all her ration books and there were six children to feed.