Read Online The Criminal Alphabet by Noel "Razor" Smith - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Noel "Razor" Smith
Ads: Link
the burglar to ‘peel’ the window out, again
without making much noise.
At one point in the 1970s the police,
ever eager for convictions, used ‘creative’ thinking when arresting people for going
equipped. I know of at least one person who was sent to borstal for
being in possession of a sock! The police claimed he was going to smash a shop
window in order to steal, then put the sock over his hand to avoid leavingfingerprints. He spent eighteen months in a closed borstal for
this. Being stopped by the police and having a pair of gloves was a sure-fire way of
getting arrested, especially at night, hence the substitution of socks, and hence
the police and the courts moving the goalposts and making it an offence to be caught
in possession of a sock.
Prisoners in British jails, and probably
in jails the world over, are expert at creating weapons out of mundane objects.
Knives can be made from the lids of tin cans, the handles of plastic toilet brushes
or toothbrushes – in fact, just about anything. Spears and arrows capable of
piercing human flesh can be made from tightly rolled paper, and coshes can be
fashioned from anything from batteries in a sock to bars of soap in a pillow case.
The tools of crime and violence are all around us in our everyday lives – but
particularly in prison. Boiling water has become a favourite weapon in prison.
Scalding a fellow prisoner is known as wetting up or jugging . The perpetrator will fill a plastic jug or bucket with
boiling water from the hot-water boiler (there is one on most prison wings so that
prisoners can make tea and coffee) and mix in a pound of sugar. They’ll stir the
sugar until it has partly melted, making the water more like a syrup, then throw the
liquid in the face of the victim. The part-melted sugar will cling to the flesh and
burn to the bone. This is a ‘punishment’ reserved mainly for sex offenders and
informers, but even a minor argument can lead to action of this sort when you live
in an environment of brutality, fear and paranoia like the British prison
system.
APRIL
----
An April is a weapon, as
in April fool = tool. If a villain tells you he is going to sort you out with his
April, don’t think, ‘Well, it’s only June now so I’ve got plenty of time’; it means
they are going to get a weapon and intend to inflict serious injury on you. An April
can be anything from a cosh to a machine gun. In prison, you should be aware of
Aprils in the showers that come your way!
See Chiv
, Cosh
, Tooled up
BOYS
----
Boys is slang for ‘keys’
but, in a common twist when it comes to criminal slang, it is slang for what is
already a slang word: keys were once known as twirls (from the
‘twirling’ action used when opening a lock) in the criminal fraternity (boys and
girls = twirls = keys). Some criminal and prison slang has become convoluted over
the years, either because it has fallen into common usage and been ‘translated’ by
the enemy and the general public, or because a more modern word has replaced it. As
a result, there can be several levels of slang before you get to the original words.
Sometimes, working out the etymology of slang is like being an archaeologist, as you
have to dig very deeply in order to uncover the word that is the basis for a couple
of hundred years’ worth of slang. Skeleton keys, which were once a mainstay of the
burglary kit, are known as ‘bones’, for obvious reasons.
HAPPY BAG
----
In serious armed robbery circles, the happy bag is an essential piece of kit. It is the bag, or bags,
used to keep and transport the weaponry needed to carry out the act.Guns, masks, tools and gloves will be stored in it before and after the robbery,
and the bag will also be used to carry the cash away, hence the ‘happy’ tag. When
they mount surveillance operations the Flying Squad are always pleased to see a
happy bag, as it means that a robbery
without making much noise.
At one point in the 1970s the police,
ever eager for convictions, used ‘creative’ thinking when arresting people for going
equipped. I know of at least one person who was sent to borstal for
being in possession of a sock! The police claimed he was going to smash a shop
window in order to steal, then put the sock over his hand to avoid leavingfingerprints. He spent eighteen months in a closed borstal for
this. Being stopped by the police and having a pair of gloves was a sure-fire way of
getting arrested, especially at night, hence the substitution of socks, and hence
the police and the courts moving the goalposts and making it an offence to be caught
in possession of a sock.
Prisoners in British jails, and probably
in jails the world over, are expert at creating weapons out of mundane objects.
Knives can be made from the lids of tin cans, the handles of plastic toilet brushes
or toothbrushes – in fact, just about anything. Spears and arrows capable of
piercing human flesh can be made from tightly rolled paper, and coshes can be
fashioned from anything from batteries in a sock to bars of soap in a pillow case.
The tools of crime and violence are all around us in our everyday lives – but
particularly in prison. Boiling water has become a favourite weapon in prison.
Scalding a fellow prisoner is known as wetting up or jugging . The perpetrator will fill a plastic jug or bucket with
boiling water from the hot-water boiler (there is one on most prison wings so that
prisoners can make tea and coffee) and mix in a pound of sugar. They’ll stir the
sugar until it has partly melted, making the water more like a syrup, then throw the
liquid in the face of the victim. The part-melted sugar will cling to the flesh and
burn to the bone. This is a ‘punishment’ reserved mainly for sex offenders and
informers, but even a minor argument can lead to action of this sort when you live
in an environment of brutality, fear and paranoia like the British prison
system.
APRIL
----
An April is a weapon, as
in April fool = tool. If a villain tells you he is going to sort you out with his
April, don’t think, ‘Well, it’s only June now so I’ve got plenty of time’; it means
they are going to get a weapon and intend to inflict serious injury on you. An April
can be anything from a cosh to a machine gun. In prison, you should be aware of
Aprils in the showers that come your way!
See Chiv
, Cosh
, Tooled up
BOYS
----
Boys is slang for ‘keys’
but, in a common twist when it comes to criminal slang, it is slang for what is
already a slang word: keys were once known as twirls (from the
‘twirling’ action used when opening a lock) in the criminal fraternity (boys and
girls = twirls = keys). Some criminal and prison slang has become convoluted over
the years, either because it has fallen into common usage and been ‘translated’ by
the enemy and the general public, or because a more modern word has replaced it. As
a result, there can be several levels of slang before you get to the original words.
Sometimes, working out the etymology of slang is like being an archaeologist, as you
have to dig very deeply in order to uncover the word that is the basis for a couple
of hundred years’ worth of slang. Skeleton keys, which were once a mainstay of the
burglary kit, are known as ‘bones’, for obvious reasons.
HAPPY BAG
----
In serious armed robbery circles, the happy bag is an essential piece of kit. It is the bag, or bags,
used to keep and transport the weaponry needed to carry out the act.Guns, masks, tools and gloves will be stored in it before and after the robbery,
and the bag will also be used to carry the cash away, hence the ‘happy’ tag. When
they mount surveillance operations the Flying Squad are always pleased to see a
happy bag, as it means that a robbery
Similar Books
