I personally do not mind directors taking creative liberties if they make the conflicts more engrossing and the narrative more captivating. A Thousand Blows, the six-part series, is answered by real-life people who lived in London’s east end around the 1800s. That said, a chunk of the events shown in Steven Knight’s historical sports drama are entirely fictional just like his previous drama Rogue Heroes, which too was based on a true-ish story. And maybe the main reason behind such an approach is that there is negligible information available about these characters. With that said, the creators have used whatever information they could get and then weaved fictional narrative around it for entertainment purposes. So, let’s take a look at the factual accuracy and inconsistencies in A Thousand Blows TV show and how the creators have twisted a few timelines to dramatize the events.
Spoiler Alert
Is the Forty Elephants Gang Real?
The Forty Elephants, an all-women gang, actually existed in the 1880s in London. Around 1873, one of the first news articles about the gang was published, and there were many things about the gang that fascinated the people of the country. Firstly, it was an organized crime syndicate, and secondly, in a patriarchal society where gender roles were so strictly followed, there was a group of women who caused a furor in all the rich neighborhoods of London. A Thousand Blows focuses on the life of Mary Carr and how she led the group, but if reports are to be believed, then the syndicate gained prominence under the leadership of a woman named Alice Diamond, who makes an appearance in the middle of season 1.
As stated before, the makers have taken a lot of creative liberties, as Alice Diamond and Mary Carr probably never crossed paths in real-life. Diamond came to the forefront in the early 1900s, though the series shows her to be a part of the group in the 1800s. There’s hardly any evidence to prove if Mary Carr and Hezekiah Moscow fell in love with each other or not. Maybe they did cross paths with each other, as one was a celebrity boxer whereas the other was the queen of the London underbelly, but one cannot be sure as to what the nature of their conversation might have been and if they were ever on more than cordial terms with each other. It is true that the Forty Elephants targeted the posh stores in the West London area, and they were considered to be a menace back then. What made the gang grab people’s attention was their innovative ways and means. At times, they carried fake weapons, and they were pretty good at breaking into wealthy households pretending to be maids. Though it is shown in the series that Mary Carr laid down some strict rules, like the members not using the stolen products, etc., if the historians are to be believed, those rules were first implemented properly during the era of Alice Diamond.
Was Alec Munroe Murdered?
Alec’s murder was one of those events that actually happened in real life. The writers have made use of his death to create a compelling conflict that drives the narrative ahead and, moreover, creates a wedge between the queen bee Mary Carr and Hezekiah Moscow. In reality, though, Alec lost his life in a brawl, and it had nothing to do with a larger conspiracy, as shown in the series. We saw that Indigo Jeremy, who was the leader of the Elephant Boys gang, wanted Mary to fall in line and follow his commands. But Mary had made it very clear that she was running an independent gang that had nothing to do with Jeremy or anyone else. Jeremy, just to teach her a lesson, decided to go after the people she loved. The plan was to kill Hezekiah Moscow, but the assassin killed Alex Munroe by mistake. According to the researchers and historians, this was not how Alec lost his life. It is true that Alec and Hezekiah were best of friends, and that they arrived in London at the same time.
Alec, as shown in A Thousand Blows, was Hezekiah’s trainer/sparring partner. Alec once went into a bar, and he started hurling abuses at the Englishmen, probably because he was sick and tired of being racially abused in the country. One of the men present there, who happened to know Alec from before, just got into a fit of rage and stabbed him. According to the published reports, Alec was in an inebriated state, and he didn’t know what to do. He just went and laid down in his bed, because of which he lost a lot of blood. Later, Alec was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries after 2 days. A lot of people attended Alec’s funeral, and it is true that the incident had a huge impact on Hezekiah.
What happened between Hezekiah and Sugar Goodson?
Hezekiah Moscow was a real-life boxer who, as shown in A Thousand Blows, came to London to work as a lion tamer. Hezekiah worked as a lion tamer and performer with a group in East London, though this fact has been altered in the series. Steven Knight’s drama shows us that the owner of the circus wanted to present Hezekiah as a spectacle, a savage from Africa, which is why he barged out of the place in a fit of rage. This fact is probably not true, as he stopped working as a performer after a case of animal brutality was filed against him. Hezekiah was accused of torturing bears for the purpose of training them, but then eventually, he was acquitted after his lawyer presented a very strong case against the prosecution. Hezekiah, in the boxing circuit, was also known as Ching Hook or Ching Ghook, probably because of his Chinese lineage as he mentioned in the first episode that his grandmother was Hakka Chinese, though there’s no evidence to support such claims.
Now, even Sugar Goodson’s character is based on a real-life person. It is true that the man used to look after the boxing arenas at the Blue Coat Boy, where even Hezekiah and other boxers came to practice. Sugar had five siblings, unlike what was shown in the series, and I couldn’t find any reports that could suggest that he assaulted his brother. There is no evidence that proves that Sugar Goodson and Hezekiah Moscow had a long-standing rivalry, as shown in the series, though living in the same vicinity and being in the same profession, I have no doubt that they would have probably known each other quite well. Nobody knows what happened to Hezekiah in the end, and in the late 1890s, he just vanished from the scene. Some said he left for New York, and some said that he changed professions due to a humiliating defeat in the boxing ring, but all those claims are unsubstantiated.
