Charles Peace
Charles Peace was a notorious British criminal born in Sheffield, England, in the mid-19th century. Despite his early life being marred by limited education and severe injuries from industrial accidents, which left him with a permanent limp and the loss of three fingers, he initially pursued a career in music. However, he eventually turned to a life of crime, gaining notoriety as a burglar and cat burglar. Peace's criminal activities escalated over the years, culminating in a series of violent incidents, including the murder of a policeman during a robbery and the murder of his lover's husband.
Peace's complex personal life included relationships with several women and a transient lifestyle, complicating his criminal endeavors. After multiple arrests and escapes, he was ultimately convicted of murder and executed in 1879. Though his exploits established him as a prominent figure in criminal history, he was met with disdain rather than admiration during his lifetime. In later years, particularly in the late 20th century, interest in Peace's life was revived through "true crime" narratives and sensationalized accounts, reflecting a cultural fascination with infamous figures from the past.
Subject Terms
Charles Peace
English burglar and murderer
- Born: May 14, 1832
- Birthplace: Sheffield, England
- Died: February 25, 1879
- Place of death: Leeds, England
Major offenses: Numerous burglaries and two murders
Active: 1850-1878
Locale: England
Sentence: Death by hanging
Early Life
Charles Peace (pees) was born in Nursery Road, Sheffield, the son of a shoemaker. He had little schooling and was barely literate, but accounts of his early life given in the fictionalized biographies published immediately after his death claim that he had a remarkable talent for music, especially playing the violin. Whatever truth there may be in these claims, he was apprenticed at the local steel mill, where he suffered two serious accidents. One cost him three fingers (which must have severely inhibited his musical endeavors), and another left him with a permanent limp. In spite of these handicaps—or perhaps because of them—he began to cultivate a new career as a burglar.
Criminal Career
Like most famous cat burglars, Peace was small and slender and showed little initial aptitude for the business. He was imprisoned for the first time at age eighteen and was returned to jail frequently in the 1850’s. In 1859 he met Hannah Ward, a widow with a young child; she and Peace had a daughter of their own and a son who died in infancy. They lived a peripatetic existence, moving on from the scenes of Peace’s more successful crimes, but returned to Sheffield in 1872, where Peace set up shop as a picture framer and seller of musical instruments.
If Peace’s intention was to go straight, it was ruined when he began an affair with a young neighbor, Katherine Dyson. After he threatened her husband, Arthur, with a gun in the course of a violent quarrel, a warrant was issued for Peace’s arrest, and he fled the city in 1876. During a robbery in Whalley Range, Manchester, in August of that year he shot and killed a policeman, Nicholas Cock—a murder for which another man, William Habron, was subsequently convicted. In November Peace returned to Sheffield, where he shot and killed Arthur Dyson. He fled again, now wanted for murder.
In Nottingham, Peace acquired another mistress, Sarah Grey (whose name is given in the fictionalized biographies as Susan Thompson). Grey traveled with Peace—who was now calling himself John Ward—and Hannah Ward to London. There Peace and Sarah posed as man and wife, while Hannah played the part of their housekeeper. In October, 1878, however, he was ambushed by two policemen during a burglary in Blackheath. Although he contrived to shoot one of them, Edward Robinson, in the arm, he was overpowered.
Legal Action and Outcome
When John Ward was convicted of the attempted murder of Edward Robinson, Sarah Grey revealed his true identity, apparently in order that she might claim a one-hundred-pound reward. Peace was sent back to Yorkshire to stand trial for Arthur Dyson’s murder. He escaped by jumping off the train while being transferred but was later found unconscious, lying in the snow next to the line. After a short delay occasioned by his injuries, Peace was convicted of Dyson’s murder. He confessed to the Whalley Range murder before being hanged at Armley Prison in Leeds.
Impact
Charles Peace’s exploits established him as the most famous career criminal of his era, but the legendary tradition that had made romantic antiheroes out of such celebrated bandits as Dick Turpin and Jack Sheppard had fallen into some disrepute under the repressions of Victorianism. Although a sensational “penny dreadful” serialized work appeared, making as much melodramatic capital as possible out of his exploits, Peace excited more disdain than sympathy in his own era. The late twentieth century vogue for “true crime” stories renewed interest in him, however, and accounts of his career based on the fictionalized sources are prolifically distributed on the World Wide Web.
Bibliography
Charles Peace: Or, The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar. London: G. Purkess, 1880. A text originally issued as a serialized work in one hundred parts; an interesting example of a late “penny dreadful” attempting to revive the tradition of eighteenth century broadsides and sensationalist pamphlets in a typically Victorian format. Like earlier works in the tradition, it claims—falsely, one supposes—to be based on confessions made by Peace before his execution.
The Master Criminal: The Life Story of Charles Peace. London: Fredonia Books, 2003. A print-on-demand publication reprocessing a digest of the fictionalized biography for modern “true crime” aficionados.
Shore, W. Teignmouth, ed. Trials of Charles Frederick Peace. Edinburgh: William Hodge, 1926. A not-altogether-successful attempt to correct and counterbalance the fictionalized biography, which retains too much sensationalism to be reckoned historically scrupulous.
Ward, David. King of the Lags: The Story of Charles Peace. Foreword by Richard Whittington-Egan. 1964. Reprint. London: Souvenir, 1989. A journalistic account based on the fictionalized biography.