Underground History
The South-London Crime Syndicate You Never Heard Of
How The Forty Elephants Reigned Supreme
I guess you've never heard of The Forty Elephants, and I don't blame you. There's not much out there about them, regardless of being one of London's most successful gangs… and comprised entirely of women.
Before we dive in, I need to ask my fellow history lovers for a favor.
When researching The Forty Elephants, I kept reading theories surrounding the significance of their name. After a while, I started to notice every single theory pertained to the word "elephants," Not a single source revealed the significance of the number forty. At least not explicitly.
Several frustrating and fruitless search efforts later, I'm stumped.
I have one potential clue in the article that might refer to the original number of members, but I'm not entirely sure since none of my sources outright claimed the correlation.
Alright, let's get into the epic story of "work smarter not harder," that you've heard.
The Catalyst
Legends of The Forty Elephants date back to the late 18th century, but the group didn't truly make a name for themselves until 1870, almost one hundred…
