The Racetrack Gangs

The Racetrack Gangs PDF Author: Dick Kirby
Publisher: Pen and Sword True Crime
ISBN: 1526778734
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
“So if you’re a fan of Peaky Blinders and want to read the true stories behind those characters and tales . . . this is the book for you.” —Britain’s Gangland Magazine Between the two World Wars, there was a dramatic upsurge of violence as rival criminal gangs vied for rich pickings from bookmakers at racetracks throughout England. With ready access to cash, “bookies” were a magnet for mobsters’ blackmailing demands. Refusal to pay resulted in severe punishment. Their justified fears spawned a ready “protection” market. Conflict between rival gangs were frequent and increasingly violent. Charles “Darby” Sabini with his brothers ran “The Italian Mob” who clashed with Billy Kimber and his Brummagen Hammers. Uneasy partnerships were formed but seldom lasted. The Sabinis were friendly with the Cortesi family until a rift resulted in one of the Cortesis shooting Harryboy Sabini. Other gangs such as The Titanics and The Nile Mob were ready to fill voids. As well as broken alliances, internal friction and members changing sides resulted in bloodshed on the streets, in pubs and clubs and on the courses. Public order was so threatened that the Flying Squad was tasked with the eradication of the problem and, in 1936, the celebrated Battle of Lewes Racecourse brought matters to a bloody conclusion. This well researched and gripping account describes the vicious dramas played out in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Racetrack Gangs

The Racetrack Gangs PDF Author: Dick Kirby
Publisher: Pen and Sword True Crime
ISBN: 1526778734
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
“So if you’re a fan of Peaky Blinders and want to read the true stories behind those characters and tales . . . this is the book for you.” —Britain’s Gangland Magazine Between the two World Wars, there was a dramatic upsurge of violence as rival criminal gangs vied for rich pickings from bookmakers at racetracks throughout England. With ready access to cash, “bookies” were a magnet for mobsters’ blackmailing demands. Refusal to pay resulted in severe punishment. Their justified fears spawned a ready “protection” market. Conflict between rival gangs were frequent and increasingly violent. Charles “Darby” Sabini with his brothers ran “The Italian Mob” who clashed with Billy Kimber and his Brummagen Hammers. Uneasy partnerships were formed but seldom lasted. The Sabinis were friendly with the Cortesi family until a rift resulted in one of the Cortesis shooting Harryboy Sabini. Other gangs such as The Titanics and The Nile Mob were ready to fill voids. As well as broken alliances, internal friction and members changing sides resulted in bloodshed on the streets, in pubs and clubs and on the courses. Public order was so threatened that the Flying Squad was tasked with the eradication of the problem and, in 1936, the celebrated Battle of Lewes Racecourse brought matters to a bloody conclusion. This well researched and gripping account describes the vicious dramas played out in the 1920s and 1930s.

Running the Numbers

Running the Numbers PDF Author: Matthew Vaz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022669044X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Get Book Here

Book Description
Every day in the United States, people test their luck in numerous lotteries, from state-run games to massive programs like Powerball and Mega Millions. Yet few are aware that the origins of today’s lotteries can be found in an African American gambling economy that flourished in urban communities in the mid-twentieth century. In Running the Numbers, Matthew Vaz reveals how the politics of gambling became enmeshed in disputes over racial justice and police legitimacy. As Vaz highlights, early urban gamblers favored low-stakes games built around combinations of winning numbers. When these games became one of the largest economic engines in nonwhite areas like Harlem and Chicago’s south side, police took notice of the illegal business—and took advantage of new opportunities to benefit from graft and other corrupt practices. Eventually, governments found an unusual solution to the problems of illicit gambling and abusive police tactics: coopting the market through legal state-run lotteries, which could offer larger jackpots than any underground game. By tracing this process and the tensions and conflicts that propelled it, Vaz brilliantly calls attention to the fact that, much like education and housing in twentieth-century America, the gambling economy has also been a form of disputed terrain upon which racial power has been expressed, resisted, and reworked.

The Real Peaky Blinders

The Real Peaky Blinders PDF Author: Carl Chinn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781858585307
Category : Birmingham (England)
Languages : en
Pages : 112

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stylish and dark, the BBC series the 'Peaky Blinders' is set in the backstreets of Birmingham after the First World War and tells of the rise to power of Thomas Shelby and his criminal gang. Yet the real stories behind these fictional characters are just as dramatic, bloody and compelling as the TV series. Thomas Shelby's arch enemy Billy Kimber was in real life a Brummie from Summer Lane. He was a feared fighter with an astute mind and magnetic personality which earned him the leadership of the Birmingham Gang that dominated the highly profitable protection rackets of the racecourses of England. The members of this gang had once been 'sloggers' or 'peaky blinders' and their rise to supremacy was attributable to their viciousness and to Kimber's shrewd alliances with other gangs. But they soon incurred the envy of the Sabini Gang of London who fought violently to oust Kimber and his men and take over their rackets. The Birmingham Gang battled back fiercely in the infamous and blood-stained racecourse wars of the 1920s. This Birmingham Gang led by Billy Kimber were the Real Peaky Blinders and this is their story.

The Gangs of New York

The Gangs of New York PDF Author: Herbert Asbury
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Get Book Here

Book Description


Blood Money

Blood Money PDF Author: Clive Small
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1742376061
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
A meticulously researched and revealing expose of the new players in organised crime.

Gangs of London

Gangs of London PDF Author: Brian Mcdonald
Publisher: Milo Books Ltd
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Get Book Here

Book Description
'Lifts the lid on London gangs of the last two centuries' THE WEEKLY NEWS 'Lays bare the truth behind the capital's underworld far before the Krays and the Richardsons became well known' THE WHARF 'Incredible real-life tales' SOUTHWARK NEWS Long before the Kray twins, London was plagued by gang warfare as vicious as anything that was to come. From the 19th century onwards, violent mobs fought pitched battles for territory and local pride. The Bethnal Green Boys hunted Hackney's Broadway Boys, Clerkenwell took on Somers Town, the Red Hands prowled Deptford and the Silver Hatchets terrorised Islington, while the police and judiciary seemed powerless to stop them. The first-ever history of these intriguing street mobs traces them from Jonathan Wild, the archetype for Dickens' Fagin, to sprawling super-gangs like the Titanic and the Elephant Boys. It tells the bloody story of the racecourse wars, when Darby Sabini and Billy Kimber slugged it out for control of gambling pitches, and of such big hitters as George Sage, the guv'nor of Camden Town, Dodger Mullins and the McDonald brothers. Eventually these local 'firms' spawned notorious gangsters such as Jack Spot, Billy Hill and Johnny Carter, who carved out organised crime rackets across the capital. Gangs of London is a riveting journey through the dark underbelly of one of the world's great cities.

Britain's Godfather

Britain's Godfather PDF Author: Edward T. Hart
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781874358039
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description


Killers, Kidnappers, Gangsters and Grasses

Killers, Kidnappers, Gangsters and Grasses PDF Author: Dick Kirby
Publisher: Pen and Sword True Crime
ISBN: 1399074350
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book Here

Book Description
In his latest thrilling book, much published crime author Dick Kirby draws on his fast moving policing service, much of which was with Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Squad and the Flying Squad. As if that was not enough he brings in accounts of fellow coppers during the final decades of the 20th century to add a fresh dimension. It quickly becomes clear to the reader that Kirby and his colleagues practiced their art in a markedly different style than that prevailing today. Corners were cut, regulations ignored and pettifogging rules trampled on in the wider public interest of bringing criminals to justice and preserving law and order. Above all the best senior detectives led fearlessly. Kirby describes front line policing where the public came first and the criminals a poor second. There are great stories of arrests, ambushes, fights and meeting informants in unlikely places. Eyebrows may be raised at the book’s contents but many will feel that there is no place in the fight against serious crime for ‘woke-ness’ and political correctness and regret the passing of no-nonsense law enforcement.

London's Criminal Underworlds, c. 1720 - c. 1930

London's Criminal Underworlds, c. 1720 - c. 1930 PDF Author: Heather Shore
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137313919
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers an original and exciting analysis of the concept of the criminal underworld. Print culture, policing and law enforcement, criminal networks, space and territory are explored here through a series of case studies taken from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Gangs

Gangs PDF Author: Tony Thompson
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1848940548
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 453

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the bestselling author of GANGLAND BRITAIN and REEFER MEN. Organised crime is one of Britain's biggest industries. The number of gangland murders, shootings and kidnappings, along with the levels of drug trafficking, people smuggling and money laundering, have all experienced phenomenal growth. Multi-million pound drug deals and vicious turf wars have spread out from the inner cities and now affect even the most rural communities. The day-to-day impact of organised crime on our lives has never been greater. In GANGS, award-winning author Tony Thompson takes us on a gripping journey into the criminal underworld. From Triad human traffickers in Dover and ecstasy factory owners in Liverpool, to Albanian vice barons in London and gun-toting teenage crack dealers in Birmingham, GANGS reveals the inside story of contemporary organised crime.