"The Forty Elephants were unique in the annals of British crime. Emerging from the slums like fallen angels, these glamorous, lawless young women plundered fashion stores and jewel shops, picked their lovers from among London's toughest gangsters and terrorised their rivals. Soon they were renowned, and feared, as the country's first all-female crime syndicate. They first rose to notoriety under Mary Carr, a beautiful artists' model known as 'Queen Thief.' But it was her successor, Alice Diamond, who led the Forties to their greatest infamy. Born the oldest of eight children in a workhouse hospital, she became the cleverest shoplifter in Britian. Newspapers described her gang as 'notorious for their good looks, fine stature, and smart clothing' as they travelled the country, stealing the finest silks, gems and furs, hiding their plunder in specially-made skirts and knickers and spending their ill-gotten gains in a whirlwind of mad excess"--Back cover.