Three Very Specific Types of Thieves- Cat Stealers

One of the greatest source books for the Victorian world is Henry Mayhew’s four volume report “London Labour and the London Poor”. Having interviewed workman, police and criminals all over London in the 1840’s, his work is detailed and descriptive.
In the fourth volume “Those That Will Not Work” Mayhew (with a stereotypical Victorian need to categorize) gives a fascinating list thieves followed by quick definitions of their methods and targets. All of the descriptions are flavorful, and could be used for set dressing, plot hooks, or NPCs for your Victoriana games. For the next three weeks, I’m focusing on three thieves from the list.

(This week’s post is somewhat gruesome for cat fanciers. If you are a cat lover, you can mentally insert the word “dog” whenever you want. That happened in Victorian times too.)

“Cat Stealers, or those who make away with cats for the sake of their skins and bones”
A cat carcass has a number of uses. Although discouraged in polite society, cat fur was used widely in clothing or as a cheap substitute (or filler) for rabbit or beaver fur by less scrupulous furriers; Entire coats of cat fur labeled and priced as a more enticing animal, were sold with and without the seller’s knowledge. Cat pelts of one color (especially white) sold easily.
Cat bones could also be ground up for fertilizer. A man with a sack full of cats earned a respectable amount for a day’s work. A really good cat pelt (no stains or holes, all one color) could be worth a whole shilling, a lesser pelt a few pence.
However, cats are quick and agile, and a big city has many hiding places for a panicked feline. Anyone collecting cat carcasses had a hard time of it, unless the animal was already dead or used to people and staying in one place. Cat stealers desperate for another carcass knew a house pet, though missed, would be an easy shilling.
A cat stealer, when caught, could be fined 20d for his crime, (plus restitution of the animal’s value to the owner) or imprisoned for a few months.

Jasper Avery (Scruffy weaslefolk cat stealer)
Initiative: 7
Physical: 7
Mental: 2
Social: 3
Health: 8 AV: 2 (thick coat)
Traits: Cruel and crafty +2,
Combat: Punch (4), knife (7)
Avery’s trade is recognizable by the scratches and bites up and down his arms, and the stray fur on his clothes. He carries a suspiciously stained sack and a wickedly sharp knife.

Witch bones 
In folklore, someone wanting to become a witch boils a cat (in some stories the cat is alive) until the flesh falls off the bones. Using various rituals (whichever bone floats to the top, which ever bone makes them invisible when they stick it in their mouth) the witch discovers the one bone imbued with magic. That bone is the witch bone and will give them power.

If each cat carcass yields one magic bone, any witch bone seller needs a regular supply. Or is this an outlawed necromantic ritual? Accusing a cat stealer of making witch bones could be enough to make them talk in an interrogation.

Adventure ideas
If the chance arises, an opportunistic cat stealer may try and ransom a family pet back to its family, or they may take the ransom money and keep the animal to make another shilling.

A cat stealer steals twelve cats from homes all over the city. The cats all have very distinct pelts with strikingly similar markings. No furs matching the markings have been found. If the cats aren’t being skinned, why is the thief targeting similar looking cats?