Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, was a notorious killer who allegedly slit the throats of his customers and turned their bodies into meat pies. While some consider the story to be a myth, crime writer Peter Haining claims to have found evidence of Todd’s existence. Todd was born in 1748 and grew up in poverty, eventually becoming a barber and setting up shop on Fleet Street. He allegedly killed his victims in a purpose-built chair and had an accomplice, Margery Lovett, who used the bodies to make pies. Todd was eventually caught, tried, and hanged in 1802.
The legend of Sweeney Todd has been well documented over the years. Along with the infamous case of Jack the Ripper, it is considered one of the darkest and most gruesome crimes in London. Many films and books and a famous musical have used Sweeney, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street as the subject, a barber who slit the throats of his customers and then passed the bodies to be turned into meat pies.
For many people, the story of Sweeney Todd is just that: myth and fairy tales. Critics say no reliable evidence of the demon barber has ever been found or recorded. British crime writer Peter Haining has undertaken extensive research which he says proves the existence of Sweeney Todd.
According to Haining, Sweeney Todd was born in 1748. At the time, London was brutally poor and violent. Todd’s parents were alcoholics, and when he was 13, his parents left the house one night in search of alcohol and would never return. The common thought is that they got drunk and froze to death on that cold winter night.
Todd was turned over to the local parish, where he was taught a trade as a cutler, a person responsible for sharpening knives and razors. At the age of 14, Todd was found guilty of theft and sentenced to five years in Newgate Prison. It was here that he learned his apprenticeship as a barber, shaving prisoners for hire.
When Sweeney Todd was released from prison, he took up residence in his barber shop on Fleet Street. His barber shop was next to a church, and beneath the two were tunnels and crypts used to bury some of the parish’s dead. Outside Todd’s new shop, he hung a sign that read: Easy shave for a dime, as good as you’ll find.
When Todd opened his shop, he had already killed one victim, but his killing would go from strength to strength. Her barber chair was located on the second floor of his shop. The chair was purpose-built to be able to swing underneath and deposit its victims in the empty first floor. Sweeney Todd would kill and strip his victims of their valuables, but that wasn’t the only thing he would strip his victims of.
Sweeney Todd’s accomplice was a woman named Margery Lovett. Lovett would become Todd’s mistress and her cakes soon became famous around London. After Todd slits his victim’s throat, she allegedly stripped the body of the flesh and delivered it to Lovett’s shop through the tunnels. The bodies were then allegedly dumped in tunnels under the parish church. It was the victim’s flesh that gave Lovett’s pies the delicious flavor London craved.
The smell from the parish crypts soon became unbearable and the police were called. Further investigations found decomposing bodies piled on top of each other, almost to the roof. In all, 160 people were thought to have been sent at the hands of Sweeney Todd.
Sweeney Todd was tried at the Old Bailey and hanged at Newgate in 1802. Margery Lovett tricked the hangman’s noose by confessing everything and poisoning herself while in prison. Whether fact or fiction, Sweeney Todd will continue to be on the mind of every person who gets a close shave for many years to come.
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