Benjamin Barker: The True Story That Inspired Tim Burton
“Is there anyone who fancies a free shave?” This is one of the lines spoken by Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s musical/horror film: Sweeney Todd.
Not everyone knows that the film is inspired by a true story.
Known as the legendary “demonic barber,” he killed his victims with a razor, later serving and selling them to customers in the form of meat pies.
There are no portraits of this serial killer, only vague descriptions of his physical characteristics to give an idea.
Young, pale-faced, thick eyebrows, red hair, a tempestuous character, an immoral and decidedly greedy man with a devilish gaze.
Biography
Benjamin Barker was born on October 16, 1756, at 85 Brick Lane, in London’s East End, the only child of two poor, chronically alcoholic workers.
Benjamin’s childhood was drastically interrupted the day he was forced by his father to leave school and work in the same factory as his parents, due to the need to increase the family’s income.
Even at that time, Benjamin Barker exhibited clear signs of imbalance.
He was so fascinated by violence that he began experimenting with torture and mistreatment on various animals.
His obsession was the museum and the Royal Zoo in the Tower of London, where various torture instruments were displayed.
Benjamin Barker was captivated by the instruments of pain and spent many hours in that tower fantasizing about those machines.
At the age of 13, the boy’s already fragile psyche was severely tested by a tragedy: he lost both of his parents, who went out during a freezing winter in search of some gin and never returned.
Left alone, Benjamin was sent to an orphanage.
The Beginnings of the Serial Killer
Shortly thereafter, he managed to get hired as an apprentice in a knife shop, where he silently endured the almost daily abuse from his employer.
Perhaps it was from this moment on that he began to grow indifferent towards others.
In 1770, at the age of 14, Benjamin was sentenced to 5 years in Negate Juvenile Prison for stealing a pocket watch on his master’s orders.
It was in this place of extreme violence that the future serial killer met Plummer, the reform school’s barber, and became his assistant.
Plummer, imprisoned for embezzlement, not only taught his apprentice how to cut hair and shave beards but also how to rummage through pockets to rob clients.
After serving his entire sentence, Benjamin was now 19 years old. His dream was to open a shop, but with the little money he had, he had to settle for working on the streets, like many of his “colleagues” of the time.
The Shop of Horrors
The young man managed to save up enough money to fulfill his dream, which he achieved in the spring of 1785 by opening his “famous” shop at 186 Fleet Street, next to St. Dunstan’s Church.
In the meantime, however, he had already begun his “career” as a murderer: near Hyde Park, in fact, he killed a man he suspected of having an affair with his wife.
Having abandoned his wife, the barber opened his shop in a very notorious part of the city, frequented only by prostitutes, drunks, and unsavory characters.
Benjamin was more than happy with the location, as his intentions were far from philanthropic. He set up the shop to welcome customers, only to rob them later.
On his first day of business, the future serial killer placed a sign outside the shop to attract his first unlucky customers: “Simple shave for a penny, only here will you find this rate.”
The shop was adjacent to a church and, in its basement, had a dense network of tunnels—perfect for hiding the clients he would kill.
The shop had very basic furnishings.
In the room, there was a wooden counter with the necessary tools, a few candles to light the environment, and a barber’s chair positioned over a hole previously dug in the center of the shop, covered by a movable panel.
The mechanism worked perfectly.
Once the client sat down, the weight of their body leaning against the backrest triggered the panel to rotate, hurling the unfortunate person into the underlying tunnel, where Benjamin could “operate” without risk.
The barber didn’t kill just for money but often out of anger after various disputes.
And he didn’t do it alone but with an equally deranged partner: Margery Lovett, a widow far from beautiful, who nevertheless managed to win his heart and become Benjamin’s secret lover.
The Bakery of Horrors
Margery also opened a bakery, highly renowned in London at the time.
Every day, around noon, people flocked there to buy the famous “veal” pies, unaware that instead of “veal,” they were bringing tender human flesh to their tables, carefully selected from Benjamin’s victims.
The bones, organs, skin, and all other remains were hidden among the bones in the catacombs under the church next to the shop.
Benjamin and Margery, the diabolical couple, seemed destined to create an empire, but fortunately, everything has its limits.
The Investigations
The stench of rot began to overwhelm the churchgoers, who, alarmed, called the London Department of Health, triggering an investigation.
Inspections began throughout the neighborhood, far and wide, but as soon as Inspector Blunt and his colleagues started exploring the tunnels under the church, they were confronted with a horrifying scene:
“There were decomposed human remains, piled up almost to the ceiling.
Next to them lay parts of skeletons with flesh still attached. Heads in the same condition were scattered all around.”
Following the bloody footprints, Inspector Richard Blunt managed to identify the barber as the perpetrator of the massacre and also linked him to the bakery.
By now, the story was clear. To gather indisputable evidence, Sir Blunt searched Todd’s house and found jewelry and clothes with the initials of the victims’ names.
In 1801, the trial began.
After a few months, Margery Lovett, certain of a death sentence, poisoned herself in her cell after confessing all her crimes.
On January 25, 1802, in front of thousands of people, Benjamin Barker was hanged. Thus ended the story of London’s demonic barber.
His legend, however, had just begun.
Watch our tribute videos to Johnny Depp and Tim Burton
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
