| Sweeney Todd became known as the Demon Barber | | | | Sweeney Todd would unfurl his razor and slash the |
| of Fleet Street and his story has been the subject of | | | | throat of his victim. He would use what we now refer |
| the original Penny Dreadful, books and more latterly, | | | | to as a cut throat razor. |
| both a blockbuster movie and show stopping musical. | | | | Initially disposal of the bodies was not a problem for |
| Thought to have had over 150 victims, Sweeney Todd | | | | Todd as he simply left the bodies in the burial crypt of |
| truly does qualify as a serial killer. So heinous were his | | | | St Dunstan's Church hidden among the numerous |
| deeds that they even gave rise to the term 'cut throat | | | | family crypts. This was not to last as it was soon to |
| razor' an expression that still makes most of us shiver | | | | become impracticable to hide any more bodies there. |
| today. | | | | The problem was solved by the creation of a |
| Sweeney Todd was born in the East End of London | | | | removable wall between the crypt and the basement |
| on October 16, 1756 at number 85 Brick Lane. In those | | | | bakery of his pie maker lover Margery Lovett |
| day's London was still developing and spreading out | | | | (although in some instances it is believed she was |
| and Brick Lane itself was in parts little more than a | | | | Sarah Lovett). With this established as the route for |
| country lane that led out to Bethnal Green and the | | | | disposal, the sordid business of filling pies was begun. |
| brickfields. Both his parents were associated with the | | | | The pair's undoing was the smell of rotting flesh which |
| silk trade which was centred in the area of Spitalfields. | | | | drifted through the church. For months no one |
| Wrongly accused of theft at the age of fourteen, | | | | investigated, despite the fact that no one had been |
| Todd was sentenced to a five year stretch in the | | | | buried in the crypt for years, until the stench of rotting |
| notorious Newgate Prison. Whilst incarcerated behind | | | | flesh grew too great and the Bow Street Runners |
| the walls of Newgate, Todd was befriended by Elmer | | | | were brought in to investigate. From this point it was |
| Plummer an old barber who was serving time for | | | | not long before both Sweeney Todd and Margery |
| fraud. This friendship extended to Plummer teaching | | | | Lovett were both arrested. |
| the young Sweeney how to cut hair and shave | | | | Margery Lovett almost immediately confessed all to |
| customers - and how to relieve them of their valuables | | | | the police and Sweeney Todd ended his life at the end |
| by picking their pockets. By the time he left prison, | | | | of the hangman's rope outside Newgate Prison early in |
| Sweeney Todd had served his apprenticeship and on | | | | January 1802. Lovett however was to cheat the |
| his release in 1775 he set up his own barber shop at | | | | hangman's noose by poisoning herself in her cell. |
| 186 Fleet Street. | | | | Gruesome; absolutely. Fascinating; surely. Unbelievable; |
| Todd's first murder is considered to have been in the | | | | almost. What a story and what a fantastic Halloween |
| spring of 1785, when a newspaper report describes a | | | | costume party theme. This has got everything. Blood |
| murder of a countryman in Fleet Street where the | | | | and gore, a love interest and scope for the most |
| assailant, once the victim's throat had been slashed, | | | | outrageous gore fest. Most good Halloween costume |
| ran off and disappeared into a typical London fog. | | | | stores and internet suppliers have Sweeney Todd and |
| Within the infamous barber shop customers sat in a | | | | Margery Lovett costumes along with loads of gory |
| barber's chair that was fixed to a revolving trapdoor. | | | | props for you to complete your themed party |
| When activated, the chair revolved depositing the poor | | | | decorations. And what about serving pies as your |
| unsuspecting customer, at that point still alive, into the | | | | buffet table - bet you don't need many! And as a |
| cellar. As one chair swung over, a matching empty | | | | couples theme party costumes this also works. |
| chair would swing through to take its place. It is not | | | | Not a party of the little ones, and maybe one that will |
| believed that Sweeney Todd murdered in his shop, | | | | shock at first BUT that's part of the Halloween spirit. If |
| rather this was done in the cellar where the fallen | | | | it's your party and you are Sweeney and Margery, |
| body would be lying unconscious on the cellar floor. | | | | you could ask all your guests to dress as the victims |
| Having left his shop immediately for the cellar, | | | | with slashed throats. Ghoulish but great. |