Who is Sweeney Todd?
Caution! The following content contains gruesome stories of death and murder–this is not for the faint of heart! The legend of Sweeney Todd has been well documented over the years. Along with the infamous case of Jack the Ripper, it ranks as one of London’s darkest and most gruesome crimes. Many films and books and a famous musical have used Sweeney, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, as their subject, a barber who slit his client’s throats and then passed on the bodies to be made into meat pies. For many people, the story of Sweeney Todd is just that: myth and tall tales. Critics claim that there has never been any reliable evidence found or recorded of the demon barber. British crime story writer Peter Haining has undertaken exhaustive research that he claims proves the existence of Sweeney Todd. According to Haining, Sweeney Todd was born in 1748. At the time, London was brutally poor and violent. Todd’s parents were alcoholics, and when he was 13 years old, his parents left the hou
