Flapper who was a thief
QUESTION
What is the story of the female crime gang known as The Forty Elephants?
THIS network of female shoplifters operating in London until the 1950s was mentioned in newspapers in 1873, but may have formed as early as the 18th century.
The Forty Elephants were a wellorganised gang overseen by a powerful ‘Queen’. They were named after their links to the male Elephant and Castle gang of burglars, receivers and extortionists operating across South London.
The Forty Elephants wore tailored coats, muffs, skirts, bloomers and hats with hidden pockets. They plundered expensive West End stores, quickly moving stolen goods through a system of fences — gangland slang for those who receive and sell stolen goods.
They benefited from the social attitudes of the time by hiding behind the privacy afforded to women in large stores.
The gang ran various sidelines. A classic scam was the use of false references to secure domestic work before ransacking their employers’ homes.
They would also blackmail unsuspecting men after engaging in a sexual relationship.
The Forty Elephants’ heyday was in the interwar years where they were presided over by the infamous Alice Diamond.
Born in 1896 in Southwark, London, she became queen of the gang when she was just 20. She ruled with military precision, dividing the gang into cells to target a store or raid a series of shops simultaneously. She had a ‘punch to beware of’, thanks to her diamond-ringed fingers.
The gang became famous for their drink and drug-fuelled flapper parties that sometimes got out of hand.
In 1925, a party spilled out onto the street with women wielding concrete slabs and broken bottles. Newspapers at the time dubbed it The Battle Of Lambeth.
After Alice Diamond was jailed, the role of Queen passed to Lilian Rose Kendall, the Bobbed-haired Bandit, who had previously been a daring getaway driver.
The Forty Elephants expanded their activities to the seaside, rapidly transferring their loot via the railway network.
After World War II, their influence waned. There was little appetite for their behaviour, shop security was stepped up and many of the ringleaders were dead or in prison. Increased prosperity meant fewer young women were tempted to turn to a life of crime. Rachel Wardle, Harrogate, N. Yorks.
QUESTION
Why does halloumi cheese have a split down the middle?
HALLOUMI cheese is the semihard, unripened, brined cheese that is the most important dairy product of Cyprus. It’s delicious when cut into slices and fried.
Historically, halloumi was made only from ewe’s and goat’s milk.
It dates back thousands of years when it was made by Cypriot shepherds in the springtime. Today, it is a combination of ewe, goat and cow’s milk.
Halloumi gets its rounded rectangle shape and split from the fact that once it has formed and is still warm and pliable, it’s made into a thick circle and roughly folded in half, traditionally over dried mint leaves. These add flavour amd help with preservation.
Marina Michael, Salford.
QUESTION
After the Battle of the Alamo, what happened to Jim Bowie’s knife and Davy Crockett’s rifle?
JAMES ‘JIM’ BOWIE was a 19th century US pioneer, soldier and folk hero. Stories of his life, both fact and fiction, made him an American legend. The whereabouts of his personal knife is unknown, but there are several surviving examples of these weapons from the era.
The term Bowie knife is thought to have been coined following the Sandbar Fight of 1827, where an organised duel ended up in a fight between Bowie and several men on a sandbar in the Mississippi River. Bowie was stabbed, shot and beaten half to death, but wielding a large knife, he managed to kill all his assailants. This knife was reportedly designed by his brother Rezin in Louisiana and made by blacksmith Jesse Cleft from an old file.
The Bowie knife was improved over time. Arkansas blacksmith James Black gave the knife many of the features we know today: a 6in-plus steel blade; the S-guard, which bends forward at an angle and is intended to catch an opponent’s blade; and a strip of soft metal, such as brass or copper, inlaid at the back of the blade to catch an opponent’s blade or to act as a shock absorber.
The Alamo mission fort in San Antonio, Texas, was the scene of a siege during the Texas Revolution of 1836 against Mexico. A Mexican army of 3,000 besieged the fort held by fewer than 200 men under the joint command of William B. Travis and Jim Bowie. The siege lasted from February 24 to March 6. All of the men in the fort, including a team of sharpshooters led by Davy Crockett, were killed.
Bowie was in poor health and confined to his bed during the siege. When the Mexicans breached the walls, he was shot several times in the head.
Crockett’s most famous weapon was a rifle he called Old Betsy. He is often incorrectly depicted with
IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence. it at the Alamo, bravely fighting off the barrage of gunfire, but it’s not known what rifle he used in the siege.
Old Betsy was a .40-calibre flintlock crafted by James Graham. It had a black walnut stock with brass hardware and silver inlays and was named in honour of Crockett’s sister. A hunting weapon, it was used to kill 125 bears between 1825 and 1834. Crockett left it with his son, John Wesley, when he left for Texas.
In 1834, Crockett had been awarded another firearm, Pretty Betsy, by the Whig Society of Philadelphia. This flintlock with a .40calibre bore was covered with gold and silver ornamentation. It’s now owned by a private collector.
Peter Short, Chepstow, Monmouthshire.
QUESTION
Are there any narrow gauge railways in Ireland?
FURTHER to the previous answer, Listowel & Ballybunion Railway in Co. Kerry was unlike any other railway in Ireland.
It ran, not on narrow gauge, but on a monorail with the engine and carriages built so that they could balance on both sides of the monorail. It closed down in 1924 but thankfully in recent years has been partially restored.
In the North there are a couple of narrow gauge railways. The Giant’s Causeway to Bushmills railway, with a three-foot gauge, opened in 2002 and runs for two miles. It replicates part of the route of the old Giant’s Causeway electric tramway, which ran from 1883 until 1949, but its route was just over nine miles long.
The other narrow gauge railway in the North is at Peatlands Park in the Craigavon area. It is a threefoot gauge railway running through a scenic park, not far from Lough Neagh.