Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

Genre:
Crime, Musical, Thriller

Directed by:
Tim Burton

Actors:
Johnny Depp
Alan Rickman
Helena Bonham Carter

Now more than ever people are talking about whether this frightening and disturbing character was in fact a real person, or just a myth.

If you knew a little bit about the story on which the movie is based, you would be both puzzled and fascinated.

Before the infamous Jack the Ripper, a myth about a dark, twisted serial killer who committed dozens of gruesome killings had already been lurking and spreading among people.

Despite the circulation of information or "facts" about his life, Sweeney Todd remains a fictional character. However, there have been bits and pieces of alleged "proof" of Todd's existence in real life. This information is under scrutiny by criminal historians, the public, and skeptics in general.

On the other hand, the "facts" compel others to investigate and eventually convince themselves of the character's true existence. Such information is best exemplified in Peter Haining's work about Sweeney Todd as a man and not myth.

Sweeney Todd has supposedly committed the greatest mass murder in London's history, butchering and robbing more then a hundred victims in his barbershop.

He was apparently well known as The Demon Barber who used a razor to cut the throat of his victims after using a revolving chair to bring them to their deadly fate. What's even more twisted is that he would then take the remains to his lover/accomplice Margery Lovett, who would use them in the meat pies she was selling at her famous bakery.

It is possible that legends are nothing but legends... but it's also possible that they have some truth to them. And it seems that this is one of those half truth ones!

There are quite a lot of stories that are eerily similar to the story of Sweeney Todd.

For instance, he is considered as the character portrayed in a British penny dreadful in The People's Periodical dating back to November of 1846. Although this was just a story, its author was well known for both writing about grisly criminals and incorporating some truth into his work (based on real crime reports from The Times).

There was another story that was about a hairdresser and baker from Paris who worked together to accomplish the gruesome fate of one gentleman who visited the barbershop for a shave.

This story was supposedly based on an edition of The Terrific Register in 1825 in London.

Most historians seem to simply ignore any story of the "real" Sweeney Todd.

However there are several investigations into Todd's life that leave quite a horrid and realistic aftertaste. Peter Haining is a British journalist and author who has written about the life of a real Sweeney Todd based on the killer's connection to the true living conditions of London over 100 years ago, and generally on his own research. Haining had said the reports he found about Todd's real existence were based on The Newgate Calendar. He even pointed out that this document was more factual compared to the penny dreadfuls during Todd's time. Haining ended up publishing 3 books on the basic facts (mainly biographical ones) of Sweeney Todd.

Haining's report on Sweeney Todd starts with how the character was born in 1756 into a poor family that worked in the silk industry. Haining would go on to explain Todd's inner rage about those who had it better than him as well as about his filthy and impoverished surroundings. When Todd was a child, it was said he'd visit the Tower of London and this was mainly because the instruments of torture there amused him.

When Todd's parents suddenly abandoned him during the dead winter of 1768, he was forced into apprenticeship as a cutler. Having had this experience as a cutler, Todd then had extensive knowledge about sharp instruments. He eventually ended up in prison for petty theft and when he came out, he became a mobile barber and then owner of his own barbershop at Fleet Street by 1785.

It was then that Todd shifted from stealing as a boy to murdering his clients. Reports were said to have described valuable items of alleged victims that were peculiarly found at Todd's residence (which was on top of his own shop). It is described that Todd's main method was to murder his victims, strip them of their valuables and send their chopped body parts to his lover/accomplice so she could use them in her pies which she sold to the public through her pie shop. This was a stomach twisting method but nevertheless an effective one for Todd in covering up evidence.

Haining goes on to talk of an overwhelming stench rising in a church that held underground catacombs, where Todd had supposedly kept his victim's bones. He was eventually arrested by the Bow Street Runners when they discovered more than a hundred corpses piled to the ceiling in those catacombs in 1802...