Read Online The Criminal Alphabet by Noel "Razor" Smith - Free Book Online
Authors: Noel "Razor" Smith
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and travel up and down the country and abroad to do it. Front is everything
in the walk-in game.
See Creeper
WHIZZER/WHIZ MOB
----
Whizzer as slang for a
pickpocket has largely fallen out of vogue since its heyday in the 1940s and ’50s. Whiz mobs used to work the crowds at racecourses, picking
pockets then blending into the throng of race-goers. The origin of the word ‘whiz’
is uncertain, but some people say it’s to do with the speed with which these
criminals could dip a crowd – they would whiz right through.
See Dip , Stiks/Stiks
man
2. Going Equipped for
Crime
Section 25 of the Theft Act 1968 states
that ‘a person shall be guilty of an offence if, when not at his place of abode, he
has with him any article for use in the course of or in connection with any
burglary, theft or cheat. A person guilty of an offence under this section shall on
conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three
years.’ This is the crime of going equipped.
In order to commit most crimes, you will
need certain tools of the trade. For example, without a weapon, or something that
resembles a weapon, you’d be very hard pressed to carry out an armed robbery. That
said, I have robbed two banks with nothing more than my pointed fingers inside a
paper bag. But I digress. It stands to reason that if you set out to do a job or bit of work , you’ll need the kit to carry it out. Some crimes,
obviously, don’t require any tools. I mean, take the crime of Actual Bodily Harm
(ABH): in order to commit ABH all you need is your fists, feet, head, elbows or
knees, because ABH is causing someone harm with blows or kicks. It’s very rare,
though, that the law will class any part of the human body as a tool for the
purposes of going equipped for crime. There have been cases of certain boxers and
martial arts experts registering their hands or feet as deadly weapons, but this is
more hype than anything else, and it would create serious problems were the courts
to order the confiscation of these ‘weapons’ after they had been used in crime.
There are many tools used by the
criminal and prison fraternity and some of them have no uses other than criminality.
The sawn-off shotgun, or nostrils , is specific to armed crime, as a
shotgun is only ever shortened in order to make it easy to conceal. There is
actually a criminalcharge of shortening the barrels of a firearm,
which carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. I was charged with just that
in 1993 and received the maximum sentence. I wonder if people are aware that you can
be put into prison for years for wielding a junior hacksaw.
Other tools used specifically by
criminals and prisoners include the chiv – a home-made stabbing and
slashing weapon for inflicting injuries on rivals (used only in prisons), the strip , a flattened piece of flexible metal used in car theft,
and the cosh , a hand-held, weighted implement used for hitting
people. However, if you are in possession of any of the weapons mentioned above, it
will inevitably lead to the more serious charge of possession of offensive weapons.
There are many more, and you’ll come across them sooner or later in this book. But
even the most common household implement can be used in crime. Scissors are great
for opening car locks and, in prison, a scissor blade is a common stabbing tool; you
can use a fishing rod to poke through letter boxes and hook house and car keys; and
common spark plugs can be used to break glass, as can a centre punch. Some
professional burglars even use newspaper and jam or marmalade to gain entry to a
building. They smear a window with the preserve and slap a few sheets of newspaper
over it before giving it a whack with a hammer. This deadens the sound, which is
especially useful if you’re working at night, and an added advantage is that the
glass sticks to the newspaper, enabling
in the walk-in game.
See Creeper
WHIZZER/WHIZ MOB
----
Whizzer as slang for a
pickpocket has largely fallen out of vogue since its heyday in the 1940s and ’50s. Whiz mobs used to work the crowds at racecourses, picking
pockets then blending into the throng of race-goers. The origin of the word ‘whiz’
is uncertain, but some people say it’s to do with the speed with which these
criminals could dip a crowd – they would whiz right through.
See Dip , Stiks/Stiks
man
2. Going Equipped for
Crime
Section 25 of the Theft Act 1968 states
that ‘a person shall be guilty of an offence if, when not at his place of abode, he
has with him any article for use in the course of or in connection with any
burglary, theft or cheat. A person guilty of an offence under this section shall on
conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three
years.’ This is the crime of going equipped.
In order to commit most crimes, you will
need certain tools of the trade. For example, without a weapon, or something that
resembles a weapon, you’d be very hard pressed to carry out an armed robbery. That
said, I have robbed two banks with nothing more than my pointed fingers inside a
paper bag. But I digress. It stands to reason that if you set out to do a job or bit of work , you’ll need the kit to carry it out. Some crimes,
obviously, don’t require any tools. I mean, take the crime of Actual Bodily Harm
(ABH): in order to commit ABH all you need is your fists, feet, head, elbows or
knees, because ABH is causing someone harm with blows or kicks. It’s very rare,
though, that the law will class any part of the human body as a tool for the
purposes of going equipped for crime. There have been cases of certain boxers and
martial arts experts registering their hands or feet as deadly weapons, but this is
more hype than anything else, and it would create serious problems were the courts
to order the confiscation of these ‘weapons’ after they had been used in crime.
There are many tools used by the
criminal and prison fraternity and some of them have no uses other than criminality.
The sawn-off shotgun, or nostrils , is specific to armed crime, as a
shotgun is only ever shortened in order to make it easy to conceal. There is
actually a criminalcharge of shortening the barrels of a firearm,
which carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. I was charged with just that
in 1993 and received the maximum sentence. I wonder if people are aware that you can
be put into prison for years for wielding a junior hacksaw.
Other tools used specifically by
criminals and prisoners include the chiv – a home-made stabbing and
slashing weapon for inflicting injuries on rivals (used only in prisons), the strip , a flattened piece of flexible metal used in car theft,
and the cosh , a hand-held, weighted implement used for hitting
people. However, if you are in possession of any of the weapons mentioned above, it
will inevitably lead to the more serious charge of possession of offensive weapons.
There are many more, and you’ll come across them sooner or later in this book. But
even the most common household implement can be used in crime. Scissors are great
for opening car locks and, in prison, a scissor blade is a common stabbing tool; you
can use a fishing rod to poke through letter boxes and hook house and car keys; and
common spark plugs can be used to break glass, as can a centre punch. Some
professional burglars even use newspaper and jam or marmalade to gain entry to a
building. They smear a window with the preserve and slap a few sheets of newspaper
over it before giving it a whack with a hammer. This deadens the sound, which is
especially useful if you’re working at night, and an added advantage is that the
glass sticks to the newspaper, enabling
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