The operation

Paul Baron, ‘a tall, fair man of common German appearance’, operated with his wife, Jennie Baron, a barber shop at both 47 and 164 Strand in 1894. This was a time when there was a constant flow of visitors into the Strand, which also meant that there were more opportunities for fraudulent activity to occur. From the beginning of 1895 the London police began to receive complaints from colonial visitors about a barber forcibly making extortionate charges for cosmetic dental treatments. ‘It was alleged that he and several of his (Baron’s) assistants extorted money by threats, refusing customers egress unless they paid his fees.’[1]

The operation that Baron ran was always the same. Baron was aided by two assistants who appeared to be Germans, two adults and one boy. While shaving or cutting the customer’s hair, the assistant would comment on the poor condition of their teeth – one of the assistants would say ‘Your teeth are very bad, sir; I could put them right in a very short time.’[2] Baron and his assistants offered to whiten them with a precious fluid imported from California – in reality the substance was a cheaply procured spirit of salt. The substance was acquired from local chemists for half a quartern for a penny, which was enough to clean a thousand gentlemen’s teeth.[3] The process as described by one of their victims ‘he used a white liquid on a bit of wood’ to whiten his teeth.[4] Having undertaken very little and generally ineffective work, the assistant would ask for a large amount of money – usually between £3 and £4 for teeth whitening. If payment was refused, Baron and his assistants threatened legal action, or attempted to hold the customer captive until they settled their bill. When a customer declined to accede to these demands Baron and his assistants were in the habit of using threats to induce him to part with his money. Those who were carrying insufficient funds were escorted to local banks to make a withdrawal.[5]

Bernard Cline, who was employed at Baron’s premises at 164 Strand gave the following account of how events occurred:

‘When customers came into the shop Baron gave us the tip, otherwise we were instructed to ask a customer where he came from—the instructions were to charge him as much as possible—there was no friction when I went there, but Goldberg introduced it afterwards and an electric battery was bought for each shop—the charge for it was as much as I could get—people's teeth were stopped and acid was used; it was spirits of salt which is got at any chemists for a penny—pumice powder was also used—the most I got was 3 guineas for teeth cleaning, or £4 for teeth and friction—Mr or Mrs Baron were always there to take the money—if persons did not part with their money willingly they were invited into the next room, and if they had not got the money they took the name and address, or some person was instructed to go round with the customer.’[6]

Cline, who had been an experienced barber within London for six years went onto say:

‘I have been six years in London as a barber—I was at Wilton's and at Slipper's—I was in the habit of scaling teeth there—there was no fixed price—I do not know that Baron never scaled teeth till I went there, nor did I introduce it—cleaning teeth with pumice stone was Goldberg's invention—I was responsible for ammonia and oil—I did not tell Baron I had had no education in scaling teeth—I did not teach any other assistants to scale teeth—I still do it.’[7]

Further information

For further information please contact us ›