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He was the stuff of children’s nightmares, the legendary cat burglar who was hanged for murder. Vivienne Smith tells the story of Charlie Peace.

Charlie Peace

Late one night, in May 1877, an intruder broke into a Derby outfitter’s not far from the Derwent Hotel, on London Road. He made off with 17 ladies’ jackets, some worth as much as five guineas each, plus £20 in cash.

Baffled police were left without a single clue to work on. This was hardly surprising, as the perpetrator was none other than the notorious cat burglar Charlie Peace.

Only when the villain faced the death sentence for murder was the crime finally solved.

In a confession made to a Derbyshire clergyman, he owned up to the Derby job and many other robberies around the country.

Charles Frederick Peace was born in Sheffield, on May 14, 1832, the youngest child of shoemaker John Peace and his wife.

His father was originally from Burton-on-Trent, where he began his working life down the pits.

Young Charlie received a rudimentary education before being apprenticed to the local steel mill at the age of 12.

Within two years he had been crippled for life. A piece of red-hot steel pierced right through his leg, just below the knee, and put him in hospital for 18 months.

As Charlie Peace himself admitted years later: “I never cared to work after that.”

Instead, the youth slipped into a life of crime by first becoming a pickpocket. His earliest conviction for burglary came at 19.

Found guilty of robbing a house in Sheffield, he was sent to the House of Correction for a month.

Over the next 20 years, he was to spend much of his time behind bars.

In 1858, Peace met Hannah Ward, a widow with a baby son, and took her for his wife. But the couple had little time together before he was back inside again, this time at Wakefield Jail.

While there, the young burglar met, for the first time, the Derbyshire cleric who would eventually be his confessor.

The Rev John Henry Littlewood was assistant chaplain at the prison. A farmer’s son from the village of Barlow, he had attended the grammar school in nearby Chesterfield.

Littlewood struck up a genuine friendship with the criminal, of whom he commented years later: “Peace was one of the most interesting men I have ever met.”

On leaving prison in 1864, Charlie Peace returned to his wife and family in Sheffield. Possibly thanks to the Derbyshire man’s influence, he now attempted to lead an honest life.

Having taken up picture framing for a living, he even invested in a shop. But then he fell seriously ill with rheumatic fever and the business collapsed.

By the summer of 1866, Peace was thieving once more. However, he had begun to learn from past mistakes.

In 1872, after yet another spell in prison, he was ready to prove himself as the most successful cat burglar of all time.

Peace made a habit of checking out targeted premises days, or even weeks, in advance.

While on the job, he always dressed like a gentleman and carried his burgling kit in a violin case or travelling bag.

During the robbery itself, the thief wore women’s boots with socks pulled over them. This not only deadened the sound but also disguised his footprints.

Although the accident in his youth had left him with a permanent limp, the man was extremely agile. His small, wiry frame enabled him to get through the smallest windows, even those fitted with bars set just six inches apart.

However, his success as a burglar was not simply down to skill and daring. Charlie Peace was a master of disguise.

He achieved this by wearing different outfits and the use of make-up.

As one police notice recorded, he also had “the power of pulling about and altering his features so as to make his face unrecognisable, even by his relations and intimates”.

Early in 1875, using the alias John Ward, Peace settled with his family in the village of Darnall, just east of Sheffield.

Who should he meet one day while out walking but Reverend Littlewood. It transpired he was the local vicar.

For the sake of his family, Peace begged the clergyman to say nothing of his wayward past, claiming those days were over.

The crook maintained this air of respectability by attending church on Sundays with his wife and children. He is even said to have helped out at Sunday school.

Yet, by night, he continued to burgle homes across the Midlands and the North.

Charlie Peace’s eventual downfall was not brought about by the thieving but through an infatuation with a neighbour’s wife.

The charismatic criminal usually had little trouble attracting women and Catherine Dyson was no exception.

The young woman enjoyed the attention at first, but as his advances became more persistent, she decided enough was enough.

Furious at this rejection, Peace began shouting insults at her and her husband, Arthur, in the street.

Once, in front of witnesses, he even threatened them by waving a gun.

The police were informed and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

The Dysons moved to Banner Cross, near Ecclesall, on the other side of Sheffield. Meanwhile, Peace carried on his housebreaking unabated.

Then, in August 1876, while robbing a property at Whalley Range, near Manchester, he was accosted by a policeman.

The burglar fired his gun, allegedly to frighten the man off, and fatally wounded him.

A youth called William Habron was arrested for the crime, having earlier fallen out with the constable.

The trial in Manchester that November was actually attended by Peace, who watched the proceedings from the public gallery in disguise.

Habron was found guilty.

But, because he was only 18, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The burglar found himself in the clear, but there still remained Dysons’ summons hanging over him.

The day after the trial, he turned up at the couple’s home.

When Catherine Dyson saw him standing outside, brandishing a revolver, she screamed. Her husband went running out, only to be shot dead by Peace.

Within days, there were wanted notices all over the country, offering a £100 reward for Charlie Peace. With a murder hunt underway, he now achieved his greatest notoriety.

Embarking on a grand burgling spree, he moved from town to town and made at least two visits to Derby.

The first of these was purely a reconnoitre.

Early in 1877, he lodged for a week opposite the Midland Station which was just a short walk from the county police headquarters.

Then, on May 4, the burglar returned to rob the outfitter’s on London Road which belonged to Mr John Arthur Wailer.

In the words of Peace himself: “I done a very big mantle place in Derby for a great number of women’s mantles and money. It was at the Burton Road end.”

While in the neighbourhood, he also made a trip to Nottingham.

There, he acquired a mistress, Susan Bailey, and they set up home together in the town as Mr and Mrs Thompson.

One night, the couple had a narrow escape, when the police turned up as they lay in bed.

Amazingly, Peace persuaded the officers to leave the room while he got dressed. He then made his escape out of the window.

It was following a move to London, with both wife and mistress, that the infamous crook was finally caught.

Early one morning in October 1878, as he left a house in Blackheath with his cache, Peace came face to face with officers of the Metropolitan Police Force.

Despite shooting one of the constables in the arm, he was quickly overpowered.

Yet, even then, the police did not realise that they had caught the celebrated “Gentleman Burglar”, for it was as John Ward that Peace was duly charged with the attempted murder of a policeman.

Then his mistress, Susan, confirmed he was indeed Charlie Peace.

Arthur Dyson’s murder now came back to haunt him and, while being taken to Sheffield for the hearing, the crook dramatically leapt from the speeding train.

Injured in the fall, he failed to make his getaway before being recaptured. The murder trial was held in Leeds on February 4, 1879.

Found guilty, Peace had just a week to go before his execution when he asked his old clergyman friend to visit him in Armley Jail.

Rev Littlewood arrived at the condemned man’s cell to find the criminal eagerly waiting.

The visitor was told: “I do want, as far as I can, to atone in some measure for the past by telling all I know to someone in whom I have confidence.”

As the Derbyshire man took notes, he then made a full confession.

This included admitting to the murder of the policeman at Whalley Range, thus securing the release of William Habron from prison.

The notorious Charlie Peace went to the scaffold on February 25, 1879.

Stories of his exploits had captured the public’s imagination and soon became the stuff of legend.

All over England, Victorian parents now threatened their naughty children with: “If you don’t behave, I’ll set Charlie Peace on you.”

A series of drawings depicting Peace shooting dead Dyson

Trying to flee justice by jumping from a speeding train

In his cell, awaiting his execution, with the Rev John Henry Littlewood

The moment of truth for Peace at the scaffold

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County:  Derbyshire
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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.