Sweeney todd born

In the annals of Victorian pulp fiction, the character of Sweeney Todd, otherwise known as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, occupies a prominent position. From his first appearance in print in some serialized Penny Dreadfuls in the 1840s, he appeared in numerous different stories. 

The tale, in brief, is about a barber who kills people in his barber’s shop on Fleet Street in central London before having his victims made into mince pies sold to unsuspecting Londoners. 

Within a few years of Todd’s tale appearing in print, a version had been adapted for the stage and was featured at the Britannia Theatre in Hoxton in east London in the late 1840s. 

A version of Todd’s story was then published in the United States in the early 1850s, and by the 1860s, continental writers such as the Frenchman, Paul Féval, were adapting Sweeney into a French character. 

There is no doubt that Sweeney Todd’s tale was popular, but what many people don’