Here’s a list of some of Birmingham’s most disruptive and notorious criminals and criminal episodes, what they were known for, and what happened to them. It mixes historic figures and modern cases that have had a significant impact on the city’s crime history.
Peaky Blinders were a real Birmingham street gang long before the hit TV drama, emerging in the late Victorian era and gaining notoriety on the city’s streets. They were associated with violence, betting rackets and territorial control, often using razors hidden in their caps — though historians note their heyday had largely faded by the 1920s as other criminal groups took over. The gang’s name and image have become a lasting part of Birmingham’s cultural mythos.
The Birmingham Boys, also known as the Brummagem Boys, were an organised criminal gang whose influence stretched from Birmingham into London’s underworld in the early 20th century. They competed with other gangs such as the Sabini gang for control of rackets at racecourses and in urban crime, and their story overlaps with the historic backdrop that inspired the Peaky Blinders narrative.
Andrew Simon Aston was a convicted murderer responsible for a terrifying crime spree in 2001. Over several months he attacked elderly and disabled people in their homes across Birmingham and neighbouring Sandwell. Two victims died of their injuries, and dozens more were assaulted or robbed. Aston was found guilty of two murders and numerous assaults and robberies, resulting in 26 life sentences — one for each offence — making his case one of the most severe sentencing records in recent British criminal history.
In 1974, Birmingham was the scene of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in England since the Second World War, the Birmingham pub bombings. Two pubs in the city centre were bombed in a Provisional IRA attack that killed 21 people and injured many more. Six men were initially convicted and given life sentences, but after years of campaigning their convictions were ultimately quashed in 1991 amid concerns over wrongful confession and police conduct, marking a profound miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
The Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare case shook Birmingham in 2003, when two teenage girls were killed in a drive-by shooting in Aston as part of a feud between local gangs known as the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys. The victims were innocent bystanders caught up in gang violence. Four men were convicted at trial — three received minimum 35-year sentences and one received 27 years — and their appeals were dismissed. The case led to campaigns against gun crime and initiatives to support young people affected by violence.
Philip Smith carried out a brutal double murder in 2000 that horrified the city. Smith strangled Jodie Hyde and later murdered Rosemary Corcoran before attempting to conceal the crimes by burning and burying the bodies. He was convicted of the murders and given a life sentence for the horrific killings, cementing his notoriety in Birmingham criminal history.
In 2019 an American hitwoman, Aimee Betro, was convicted in connection with an assassination plot in Birmingham where she attempted to murder a shopkeeper from South Yardley as part of a violent family feud. The gun jammed during the first attempt, but she later fired shots at the target’s home. She fled the UK and was arrested abroad, extradited, and convicted of conspiracy to murder, firearm offences and related charges, facing a lengthy sentence.
Modern organised crime in Birmingham continues to make headlines. In 2023 Danyal Aziz, a gang leader from Stechford, was jailed for 33 years for heading a criminal group involved in large-scale class A drug supply, firearms possession and money laundering, alongside associates who received decades-long sentences themselves. This case highlights ongoing serious organised crime issues in the city in the 2020s.
In 2025, a group of men in Perry Barr were sentenced to more than 60 years in prison combined after being convicted of attempted murder for firing shots at a family home — a stark reminder that violent crime and firearms offences remain a major policing priority in Birmingham. Hubaish Khan, Aramaan Azam, Usmaan Rehman, Suheel Ellahi, and Farhaan Azam.
There are also historic murder cases that have left an imprint even without full legal closure, such as the 1961 killing of 15-year-old Jacqueline Thomas, whose body was found after she disappeared from Alum Rock. A suspect was later identified but the charge was stayed due to the passage of time, leaving the case unresolved in the public memory.
These examples span many decades and types of crime — from organised street gangs and gang-related shootings to terrorism, murder sprees and modern organised crime — and together they show just how varied and impactful serious crime has been in Birmingham’s history.
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