A Thousand Blows has arrived and while the period drama was brought to life by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the Disney+ series is also loosely based on real-life events and people. Since A Thousand Blows was first announced in 2023, Disney+ subscribers have grown eager to delve into the latest creation from Knight away from the world of Tommy Shelby and the Peaky Blinders.
Set in 1880s London, the six-part drama takes a deep dive into the world of illicit boxing, meeting veteran fighter Henry “Sugar” Goodson (played by Stephen Graham) and his new rival Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) who left Jamaica initially to start a new life as a lion tamer.
Watching on from the sidelines though is the ruthless Mary Carr (Erin Doherty) leader of the Forty Elephants, an all-female gang of thieves. So as fans continue to make their way through the first season of A Thousand Blows with a second outing already promised, here’s everything there is to know about the real-life Forty Elephants.
Born in 1862 in Holborn, Mary Carr had a difficult start in life as her mum had died by the time she was 14 and her thief and fraudster dad was believed to be either in prison or abroad. And by 1881 she had already been an inmate at a female penitentiary in Kent, a facility for “fallen women” by the Church of England, although it isn’t known she was in there.
Carr had worked as a flower seller in Covent Garden and was also an artist’s model for Dorothy Tennant who published the illustrated book Street Arabs. It was then around 1890 that she was elected as “Queen” of the Forty Elephants, an all-female criminal gang.
The organisation was given this name as they operated from Elephant and Castle. Although in A Thousand Blows, it is said they were also named this as they would leave places with coats filled with stolen goods, causing them to waddle out like elephants.
According to Harper’s Bazaar, gang members would often pose as housemaids to wealthy families, stealing their jewels and antiques whenever they got the chance. As well as stealing from homes, the gang pickpocketed and targeted busy shops, with some members keeping employees busy while others took goods and hid them under their coats.
Historian and author Hallie Rubenhold stated: "People often expected women to be more honest and law-abiding, which would have given the Elephants an advantage when they went on one of their raids. "Their operation seems to have been more sophisticated and organised than simply opportunist theft.".
The elephants were also known for living by a strict set of rules known as the “hoister’s code. Some of these rules included: “no drinking before a raid”, “proceeds from a job are equally shared” and “members must not steal from each other (their money or boyfriends”.
Carr wasn’t to last as the Queen of the Forty Elephants, however, as she spent more time in prison. The BBC reported that in 1896, she had been charged and convicted of the kidnapping of a six-year-old boy from the Epsom races. It was believed that the child was sold by his mum to a gangster who put him in Carr’s care who was going to sell him to a childless couple but was sentenced to three years in prison after he was found at her home 10 months after his disappearance.
The mum allegedly didn’t want her son back and so was taken into care. Carr was then arrested again in 1900 for receiving stolen goods and sentenced to another two years. Her successor was Alice Diamond, better known as Diamond Annie, who is played by Darcie Shaw in A Thousand Blows.
Knight has clearly been creative with the real-life timelines however as Diamond was born in 1886 when the show itself is set in the 1880s. Nevertheless, Diamond, who wore a set of diamond rings as a knuckle duster, did go on to take over the Forty Elephants who thrived with larger-scale operations.
Her downfall came years later in 1925 when gang member Marie Britten became pregnant with a man who wasn’t from their borough. Diamond organised for members to murder the man with the attack being so brutal that it was dubbed the Lambeth Riot. She and other members of the Forty Elephants were arrested with Diamond imprisoned for 18 months, with the gang’s operations far smaller after her release.
Diamond went on to run a brothel and died in 1952, reportedly linked to complications related to Multiple Sclerosis, aged 55. A Thousand Blows is available to watch on Disney+. Get the biggest TV headlines, recaps and insider knowledge straight to your inbox.
