The real story of Billy Kimber vs the Peaky Blinders
How did the real-life rivalry between street gangs the Peaky Blinders and the Birmingham Boys take shape? Sky HISTORY investigates in a new series.
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Many fans of crime drama have rejoiced in watching the hit TV series Peaky Blinders since it was first unleashed onto small screens in 2013. Undoubtedly key to the show’s appeal have been the constant conflicts between lead character Thomas Shelby (played by Cillian Murphy) and competing gangsters.
In the first series, Shelby — leader of Brummie street gang the Peaky Blinders — has a score to settle with Billy Kimber (portrayed by Charlie Creed-Miles). Kimber was a real-life crime boss who, like his fictionalised counterpart in the show, headed up the Birmingham Boys.
However, was there such a strong rivalry between the actual Peaky Blinders and Birmingham Boys? What does the show get right and wrong about the relations between the two gangs? Here’s a primer on the whole subject as Sky HISTORY’s Original Gangsters With Sean Bean goes into even greater detail.
So, did the Peaky Blinders actually exist?
Yes, they did. Nonetheless, the real-life Peaky Blinders’ heyday was much earlier than depicted in the series. While that show’s narrative begins in 1919, shortly after the end of World War I, the actual Peaky Blinders had largely disbanded by this point.
The first printed reference to the Peaky Blinders comes in a March 1890 edition of the Birmingham Mail. So, the term ‘Peaky Blinders’ was likely widely used on the streets in the 1880s.
The Peaky Blinders became notorious for their robberies, violent acts and other criminal behaviour. Despite all this, the perpetrators operated at a much lower scale than Shelby and his ilk.
Who was Billy Kimber?
If watching the show Peaky Blinders is what introduced you to Billy Kimber, you will doubtless see him as a fearsome, formidable figure. In the series, he controls many horseracing venues down south. This is much to the chagrin of Tommy Shelby, who is eager to extend the Peaky Blinders’ reach far into London.
The real Billy Kimber did live up to this image. Despite establishing the Birmingham Boys only around the end of the Edwardian era, Kimber subsequently became one of the UK’s most powerful organised crime bosses. However, while Kimber was given a Cockney accent in the series, he was actually born in Aston, today a suburb of inner Birmingham.
An inter-gang rivalry begins to form
The Gambling Act 1845 banned all gambling in England except at racetracks. These tracks became popular, as special excursion trains made them easy even for members of the lower classes to reach.
Bookmakers were soon making big money, but also targeted by criminals as a result. ‘Protection gangs’ found ways to extort money from these bookies. Soon, the Birmingham Boys, under Kimber’s stewardship, were exerting effective control over racecourses up and down the country.
So, when the Peaky Blinders turned their own attention to racecourses, there was naturally a clash with the Birmingham Boys. The backlash was so severe that Peaky Blinder families withdrew from central Birmingham, leaving Billy Kimber’s crew to seize it for themselves.
The fall of the Peaky Blinders
In the first series of Peaky Blinders, Shelby comes into conflict with Kimber after attempting to encroach on the latter’s London turf. In reality, the Peaky Blinders never set their sights anywhere near as far as the UK capital. Instead, their exploits were very much limited to Birmingham.
It was more a case of the Birmingham Boys taking up Peaky Blinders territory than vice-versa. The Peaky Blinders didn’t exactly put up much of a fight, either.
That’s because, when Kimber’s lads were in the ascendancy in the 1910s, the Peaky Blinders were already in decline due to tougher policing and sentencing. These ‘sloggers’ ultimately failed to adapt to the times, unlike Kimber (himself a former Peaky Blinder), who remained adept at outsmarting the law.
How did Billy Kimber meet his end?
The first series of Peaky Blinders ends with — SPOILER ALERT — Shelby pumping lead into Kimber’s head. The actual end of Kimber’s life wasn’t nearly as dramatic. He lived to the age of 63, dying at Mount Stuart Nursing Home in Torquay in 1945.
By then, the gang he once led had long been defunct. It had lost its hegemony over Birmingham’s criminal underworld to the Sabini gang in the 1930s. That’s another name that could easily ring a bell, as the Sabini group itself features heavily (in fictionalised form) in Peaky Blinders.
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