Number 1911: Britain’s most wanted

Charley (or Charlie, or more properly Charles) Peace was a real-life criminal in Victorian England. The Daily Mail has this interesting short article with illustrations about Peace, who was a murderer and all around bounder, villain and miscreant in his day. He was also, as the article is headlined, “...the son of a one-legged lion tamer.” (The effect of his father on his later criminal career can only be guessed at.)

The description of Peace in the splash panel, “England’s worst murderer of the 19th century, and perhaps of all time . . . the acme of evil in all lands, in all times!” is pure hyperbole. When the story was published originally in 1948 there were a lot of war criminals of the late world war whose zeal for mass murder was much more the worst “in all lands, in all times.”

I give credit to Sid Greene, the artist, for doing a good job on the period atmospherics of this ripping yarn from Crime Must Pay the Penalty #3. My scans are from a reprint in issue #36 (1954).

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