A portrait of London violence in the eighteenth century describes the economic, political, and religious conflicts that resulted in pervasive levels of crime and conflict, citing the role of everyday citizens in keeping the peace and meting out mob justice.

By 1700 London was the largest city in the world, with over 500,000 inhabitants. Very weakly policed, its streets saw regular outbreaks of rioting by a mob easily stirred by economic grievances, politics or religion. If the mob vented its anger more often on property than people, eighteenth-century Londoners frequently came to blows over personal disputes. In a society where men and women were quick to defend their honour, slanging matches easily turned to fisticuffs and slights on honour were avenged in duels. In this world, where the detection and prosecution of crime was the part of the business of the citizen, punishment, whether by the pillory, whipping at a cart's tail or hanging at Tyburn, was public and endorsed by crowds. The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in Eighteenth-Century England draws a fascinating portrait of the public life of the modern world's first great city.

A portrait of London violence in the eighteenth century describes the economic, political, and religious conflicts that resulted in pervasive levels of crime and conflict, citing the role of everyday citizens in keeping the peace and meting out mob justice.

'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.

A century before Jack the Ripper there was the London Monster, whose knife attacks on women caused unprecedented alarm, terror, and uproar. Through chance combined with vigilante effort, a young Welshman, Rhynwick Williams, was arrested as the Monster and committed to prison after a sensational trial at the Old Bailey. However, doubts about Williams' guilt persisted, and some writers asserted that there never was a Monster at all. Over 200 years later, Bondeson (author of A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities and The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History) unearthed new clues to this fascinating case, which lies somewhere between fact and urban legend. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR