The Real Life Story of Sweeney Todd

Rowan C. Shaw-Jones

Kelan J. Nee

November 21, 2010

Advanced Drama C Block 

The Real Life Story of Sweeney Todd

    The cobblestone streets of London ran with blood 1748. A new police force erupted to reality from the mind of Henry Fielding, a writer turned political figure, called the Bow Street Runners. At the time, violence and crime were uproarious as was cruel and unjust punishment. The “runners” did not practice much fair law, and petty crimes, like shoplifting, could be punishable by death. While this was happening, a new factor came into play, which simply enhanced rise of crime, and unfair punishment, the creation and distribution of gin. The drink created a world unsafe to those who were unsuspecting and young, and this is what Sweeney Todd was born in to.
    Todd did not have a very good childhood, but this was not uncommon to the times. With a loving mother, who he resented incredibly, and an abusive father, who he grew to hate, Todd was not a happy boy. Additionally, he seemed a little too interested in the torture and death that came from the London Tower, turned zoo. All of his childhood unhappiness was topped off by the eventual abandonment of his parents, who left one night and never came back when Sweeney was only 12 or 13. This unfortunate event led to an apprenticeship at a Blacksmiths shop where young Sweeney was a student of the Cutler John Crook. Apprentices in the 18th century were little more than slaves to their masters, and under master Crooks orders Sweeney was to fashion and sharpen knives and razors. As well as work in the shop, Sweeney was told to steel for his master. Two years after he joined Crook's shop he was arrested and convicted of petty larceny. 14 year old Sweeney was sentenced to five years in Newgate Prison.
    Prisoners in Newgate Prison, were treated very badly and almost used as zoo animals, as tourists could pay to walk through the prison and look at the poor souls trapped in their cells. This prison, actually inspired the story Oliver Twist, when Charles Dickens wandered the halls observing the prisoners as a tourist. It was in this prison that Todd learned to be a barber. He started out working for and with the Prison barber, where he learned to shave and cut hair. When he finally got out of prison his career of crime began.
    At age 19 Todd was released and started shaving and cutting as a “Flying Barber”, and he took his first life in this position. At the time he was living with a woman who was known to be promiscuous, and when a man came to him describing a woman who he had fornicated with, Todd slit his throat, as he realized it was the woman with whom he lived. Though the crime was reported, Todd was never arrested and managed to escape the law. Several years later, Todd managed to buy a shop on fleet street, where he set up his business, becoming the site of several deaths.
    Here he created a contraption that made his murders simple. The chair he created was a trap door that when activated, sent the person sitting in it flying into the basement as another chair swung up. This made it possible for Todd to hide bodies and kill people easy and inconspicuous.

Works Cited

Gribben, Mark. "The Real Sweeney Todd - Full Story — The Real Sweeney Todd." TruTV.com: Not Reality. Actuality. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. <http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/todd/bogeyman_1.html>.