18. The 40 Elephants flaunted their criminal activities through Britain
Under Alice Diamond, known to the press as Diamond Annie, the all-female 40 Elephants criminals exhibited the success of their activities with unabashed fervor. They concentrated on two main areas of crime, burglaries and shoplifting. To accomplish the former, they recruited domestic servants to infiltrate the homes and businesses of their victims. The information they acquired allowed burglars to enter and rob homes at the most opportune times, ensuring success. Often the domestics were recruited with an eye to their physical attractiveness. Affairs with their employers afforded the opportunity for blackmail, particularly if said employer enjoyed social prominence. Though Victoria was dead, the moral strictures of her reign were not. Scandal easily destroyed social standing and careers, making blackmail a lucrative pursuit.
But the true bread and butter for the 40 Elephants was, as it had been for decades, shoplifting. Gang members arrived in upscale shopping districts, often in expensive motorcars provided by allied gangs. Women swarmed the shops, wearing expensive clothes, jewelry, and furs. Merchants resorted to closing their shops and calling for police at the mere sight of the gangs. By the 1920s gang members followed their fellow British citizens to seaside resorts and vacation sites to continued their raids. As of the early 21st century, criminologists continued to scour police records in Britain and Wales, identifying gang members a century after their crimes were committed. Nearly all of the items they stole were sold to fences, and often the latter ended up selling the items through the black market back to their original owners. With even the victims willingly participating in criminal activity, the police were stymied.
