Zoe Progl
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
28 March 1928
Zoe Progl | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Zoie Tyldesley 28 March 1928 Lambeth Hospital, South London, UK |
| Died | Before 2021 |
Zoe Progl (28 March 1928 – before 2021) was a British criminal. Born into a poor family and with a father who was often drunk and in trouble with the police, Progl began stealing to feed herself from the age of six. She later progressed to shoplifting and worked in nightclubs where she fraternised with criminals. Progl married an American soldier at the age of 18, but soon left him and began carrying out burglaries with a new partner. Whilst three months pregnant, she was sentenced to three years detention at Aylesbury Borstal. After her release, she had an affair with Tommy "Scarface" Smithson, a London gangster whose gang included the Kray twins. She had a second child with Smithson before he left her.
Progl specialised in burglaries, shoplifting, and "jump ups", thefts of loaded lorries from the dockside. On one occasion, she stole £250,000 of fur clothing. She received a 3-month prison sentence for the robbery of an American soldier, and a 15-month sentence for the theft of a safe from a solicitor. In the mid 1950s, she became involved with drugs, and on one occasion attempted suicide. In Clapham, Progl operated a shop selling stolen goods from a garage and acted as getaway driver in a prison break from Wormwood Scrubs.
Progl received another prison sentence for burglary, and was sent to HM Prison Holloway in 1960. Before entering she had planned her escape and, on 24 July, became the first person to escape over the wall from the prison. She was recaptured 40 days later, and sentenced to an additional 18 months inside. During this period of imprisonment, she determined to reform and wrote an autobiography Woman of the Underworld. After her release, she married again, but left her husband after suffering domestic abuse. She later returned to crime, and received a further prison sentence.
Progl was born Zoie Tyldesley in Lambeth Hospital, South London, on 28 March 1928. She was the third child of Majorie Gainey and Arthur Tyldesley, a lorry driver. She had two older brothers, one of whom, a merchant seaman, was lost at sea in 1939 after his vessel was torpedoed by a German submarine. As a child, Progl lived with her family in a run-down basement flat in a Limehouse slum. Her father was often drunk, and the flat was frequently visited by the police.[1]: ch.14
Progl began stealing from the age of six. Her first thefts were of foodstuffs from barges moored on the Thames as a means of feeding herself.[1]: ch.14 [2] In September 1940 Progl was evacuated to the countryside. She was hosted by a rich family who fed and clothed her well. Upon her return to London she determined to become rich by any means possible.[1]: ch.14
Progl carried out her first burglary at the age of 13, using the proceeds to have studio photographs taken of herself. She left school at the age of 14 to work in a Woolworth's shop, from which she stole cosmetics, concealed in her stockings. As a child, Progl was sexually abused by a cinema projectionist.[1]: ch.14 In her teenage years, she found work in London nightclubs where she met the burglar Billy the Cat who taught her burglary techniques.[2]
