The Real ‘Peaky Blinders’ Murder Cases (1890-1905)

The smash tv hit Peaky Blinders which ran for six series between 2013 and 2022 was a fictional account of gangland in Birmingham after the First World War – however the name was – indeed – of a real gang that operated in the city from 1890 (First time name appears on the BNA) …. until just before the Great War …. Although the fictional gang were Irish Travellers and Romani Gypsies in real life the gang simply reflected the ethnic make-up of the city in those years …. They were so named as gang-members wore signature outfits – tailored jackets, lapelled overcoats, buttoned waistcoats, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, leather boots, and peaked flat caps. There is no definitive list of actual murder cases that they were involved in, but in 1901 three of their group faced the threat of the gallows for the death of a city policeman – they escaped the noose with manslaughter convictions as did a previous gang-killer of a Birmingham city policeman four years earlier and just a month after the 1901 case a young detective-constable was found dead in the Birmingham Canal …. Four years later a ‘Peaky Blinder’ shot dead a rival outside a pub in Summer Hill – yet again he escaped the noose …. and in another killer avoided the death-penalty – his victim a young woman of just eighteen …. in one two young men burgled and robbed an old lady during which she died …. in another a rival of the ‘Peakies’ sort revenge outside a musical-hall but the tables were turned …. and …. at the same venue the manager is killed in a punishment-beating ….

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