Girl gang's grip on London underworld revealed - Guardian
Maggie Hughes, jailed in 1923 for stealing diamond rings, was a member of the Forty Elephants gang.
Girl gangs might sound like a modern British problem, but new research has revealed an all-female crime syndicate had a firm and pitiless grip on London as far back as the 18th century.
Forgotten stashes of photographs, records and letters have revealed that although the capital was carved into different fiefdoms by various male villains, one all-female gang ruled part of the gangland underworld for almost two centuries.
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Presided over by a formidable "queen", the Forty Elephants were responsible for the largest shoplifting operation ever seen in Britain between the 1870s and 1950s. The gang was first mentioned in newspapers in 1873, but police records suggest it had existed since the late 1700s.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/dec/27/girl-gang-london-underworld
