Julie Bindel Julie Bindel

It’s time female fraudsters received their due

Women’s skills as pickpockets, bank robbers and jewel smugglers have been overlooked for too long, says Caitlin Davies

Zoe Progl once stole £250,000-worth of furs in a single heist. She escaped from Holloway in 1960 by climbing a wall with a rope ladder. [Alamy]
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  • Queens of the Underworld: A Journey into the Lives of Female Crooks

    Caitlin Davies

    The History Press, pp. 320, £20

If you’re after jewel thieves, bank robbers and gold smugglers, look no further than Caitlin Davies’s Queens of the Underworld. It opens in 1960 and tells the tale of Zoe Progl, a professional crook who once stole £250,000-worth of furs in a single heist. Eventually sent to Holloway Prison for 20 years, Progl subsequently pulled off the most successful jailbreak in 75 years when she scaled the 25ft wall to freedom.

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