Artful Pickpockets

Fresh off the Press

Curtis and the Covent Garden Lift

A genteel dust-up at the opera where a rather elegant hand and a trouser-folded wallet made magistrates marvellously flummoxed.Read More

Patsy Conroy's Smooth Hands

He ran a waterfront crew that could lift a man's watch while he thought he was counting freight, and oh did I love the audacity.Read More

Ikey Solomon Bought London's Goods

He ran the receiving end of a whole city kleptomania and made a polite fortune while the constables played catch up.Read More

George Appo: The Bowery's Smooth Thief

He had a laugh like a bribe and hands that understood pockets better than most people understood manners.Read More

Alice Diamond's Ladies Who Lifted

They ran rings round shopkeepers, dressed like roses, and moved like a private army of charmers - and I loved every scandalous minute.Read More

The Great Exhibition That Picked London Clean

Six million visitors, iron and glass, and a thousand nimble fingers that treated pockets like confetti.Read More
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