What is the Peaky Blinders gang, and how real were the razor blades in the caps?
Before Cillian Murphy ever put on a flat cap, the Peaky Blinders were a genuine criminal outfit terrorising the backstreets of Birmingham. The real story is grittier, scrappier, and — sorry — considerably less well-tailored than the BBC version. And as for the razors: prepare to be disappointed.
The real gang
The Peaky Blinders were a violent street gang active in Birmingham from the 1890s into the early 1900s — decades before the show's 1920s setting. They were mostly young, working-class men from slum districts like Small Heath and Cheapside, involved in robbery, protection rackets, illegal betting, and brutal street fights with rival gangs like the Sloggers.
They were known for a distinctive look: peaked flat caps, silk scarves, bell-bottom trousers, and steel-capped boots. Dressing sharply was part of the identity — that much the series got right.
The razor blades were a myth
The famous image — razor blades sewn into cap peaks, used to slash and blind opponents — almost certainly never happened. Birmingham historian Carl Chinn, author of The Real Peaky Blinders (2019), has spent years debunking it. His argument comes down to three things:
- Cost — disposable razor blades were a new luxury item in the 1890s. As Chinn told the BBC in 2019, they were "much too expensive for the peaky blinders to have used".
- Practicality — a flimsy blade in a soft cap peak makes a poor weapon. The real gang preferred fists, boots, belt buckles, and knives.
- The source — the razor story appears to come from A Walk Down Summer Lane, a 1977 novel by John Douglas, not from any court record or newspaper of the era.
Was Tommy Shelby real?
No — Thomas Shelby is fiction. But Billy Kimber, the gang boss Tommy goes to war with in season 1, was a real Birmingham gangster who ran the racecourse rackets in the 1920s with his Birmingham Boys. Ironically, it was Kimber's outfit that helped push the actual Peaky Blinders off the streets — the original gang had largely faded by the 1910s.
So what did the show get right?
The place, the poverty, the violence, the caps, and the swagger. The rest — the 1920s timeline, the family empire, the immaculate three-piece suits — is Steven Knight's invention, loosely inspired by stories his Birmingham parents told him.
For the record: the real gang's victims included a police constable, George Snipe, killed by a thrown brick in 1897. No razors involved.