Sitdowns with Female Gangsters: Real conversations with the world’s most dangerous women

by Shaun Attwood

Featuring an introduction from one of the UK's bestselling true crime authors, Kerry Daynes.

Shaun Attwood, former ecstasy kingpin in Arizona turned author and podcast-host, has gained a reputation for earning the trust of some of the world's most dangerous people, including gangsters, serial killers, and mafia enforcers.

Drawing on his many hours of interview material, along with new content exclusive to the book, Shaun collates a collection of hard-hitting conversations with ten of the most dangerous female gangsters he's met. With fascinating insights and gripping narratives, it includes interviews with Black Widow, a female gangster who previously worked for the Krays, a gang member turned prison rights activist, and the criminal mastermind at the heart of one of the UK's most sprawling county lines operations.

For readers of Talking with Female Serial Killers by Christopher Berry Dee, Gangs by Tony Thompson and The Dark Side of the Mind by Kerry Daynes, Sitdowns with Female Gangsters is a pulsating, edge-of-your-seat read that exposes the most fearsome women working in the criminal underworld today.

Genres: True Crime

264 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 6, 2025

About the author

In prison, I read over 1000 books in just under six years, including many literary classics. Books were the lifeblood of my rehabilitation.

As told on National Geographic Channel's Locked-Up/Banged-Up Abroad episode "Raving Arizona," I used a tiny pencil sharpened on a cell door to write the first prison blog, Jon’s Jail Journal. My writing, smuggled out of the jail with the highest rate of death in America, run by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, turned the international media spotlight on the human rights violations, including guards murdering mentally ill inmates, dead rats in the food, lack of medical care...

Raised in a small chemical-manufacturing town in northern England, I was the first from my family to go to university. As a penniless graduate, I took my business degree to Phoenix, and worked my way up to become a stock-market millionaire.

But I also led a double life. An early fan of the Manchester rave scene, I headed an organisation that threw raves and distributed Ecstasy. On May 16th 2002, a SWAT team knocked my door down.

Facing a life sentence, I entered a lengthy legal battle. After two years of being held unsentenced, I was convicted of drug offences. Sentenced to 9½ years, I served almost 6.

I had only read finance books prior to my arrest. While incarcerated, I submerged myself in literature. By studying original texts in psychology and philosophy, I sought to better understand myself and my past behaviour.

Released in December 2007, I continue to campaign against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I keep my blog, Jon’s Jail Journal, going by posting stories mailed to me by my prison friends.

In July 2008, I won a Koestler award for a short story, which I read to an audience at the Royal Festival Hall.

I presently live near London, and talk to schools across the UK about my jail experience and the consequences of getting involved in drugs and crime.

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting read overall

[Lee]

in a sense very interesting since female criminals arent often covered to the extent that male ones are

but also (and this is 100% on me), this was at times a bit too graphic, covered a little too much drugs than i would like and (this is not on me) at certain times felt like we were talking more about the womans male partner than the actual woman

[Petri Volanen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tämäpä oli teos. Olisin antanut enemmän tähtiä JOS heti kannessa ei olisi mainostettu että "kasvokkain maailman vaarallisimpien naisrikollisten kanssa." Olen nimittäin sitä mieltä että aika harvat näistä niihin vaarallisimpiin kuuluvat. Toisekseen tässä ärsyttää se perinteinen typeryys: eli seurustellaan jonkun arvaamattoman ja väkivaltaisen idiootin kanssa, tehdään lapsia, tehdään rikoksia, joudutaan vankilaan ja itketään lasten puolesta, jotka kuitenkin ovat se "maailman tärkein asia." Ja kun vapaudutaan vankilasta jatketaan samaa rataa. Ja kun joudutaan taas vankilaan, syytetään virkakoneistoa sekä oman että lasten elämien pilaamisesta. ARGH SAATANA! Tuollainen totaalinen vastuuttomuus omista teoista käy oikeasti hermoille.

Mutta että ihan mielenkiintoisia tarinoita nämä ovat. Eivät vaan sitä kannessa hehkutettua tavaraa.

[Amanda Ruddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read really enjoyed reading it .